• Bath Removal

    Bath Removal Stage Two – Heritage baths safely in storage

    Wednesday, 12 August 2020

    One lone bather remained in the Bath House building after Rotorua Museum closed in 2016 for earthquake strengthening and redevelopment. This slightly shocked gentleman, together with heritage baths and several other original bathing features, has recently been moved into storage from the Mudbath Basement to prepare for the foundation works…

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  • Nostalgic Toys and Games

    Monday, 13 July 2020

    In the spirit of getting some of our collection “out there”, we thought it may be a bit of fun to discover a little bite size portion at a time by looking for slightly curated items by location within our storage facility. A touch of reminiscing for a certain age…

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  • One woman’s legacy – the amazing Norma Evans Clothing Collection

    Monday, 8 June 2020

    The Norma and Bob Evans Family Clothing Collection spans a period from about 1910 to the 1980s and consists of about 2000 items. It is a rich resource for researchers into the social history and technology behind clothes and clothing in the 20th century. The collection includes clothes that had…

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  • Somerset Playne

    Somerset Playne, adventurer and author

    Tuesday, 12 May 2020

    Going through the archives researching the early years of the Rotorua Museum, I came across an offer of a number of “stuffed and mounted heads” for the collection. It was 1942 and the offer came from Somerset Playne; the offer was turned down due to space. The list of animals…

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  • The Jaycee Movement

    Thursday, 9 April 2020

    Henry Giessenbier founded the Jaycees in 1920, with 3,000 members, in St. Louis, Missouri. It was Henry’s vision to provide young people with opportunities which they had little or no access to otherwise attain. He believed that young people could change the world. https://www.bemidjijaycees.com/jaycees-history.html The Jaycee movement was introduced to…

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  • Along the lines of……..

    Wednesday, 8 April 2020

    Since we are all in lockdown and may have a bit of time on our hands we thought you might like to participate in a fun little challenge. Create your own still life out of items lying around the house and send in your image. Here are some samples for…

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  • The Season’s Greetings – Christmas Cards, Postcards and Archie & Ruby

    Monday, 9 December 2019

    Do you still send Christmas cards in the post? Or do you send a mass Christmas greeting to all of your friends on social media? I have to admit that I don’t do either. I used to send cards and letters to one or two pen pals when I was…

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  • Norma Evans’ bottom drawer

    Monday, 4 November 2019

    Bottom drawer – a young woman’s collection of clothes, linen, cutlery, etc, in anticipation of marriage [1] Through 21st century eyes this seems like a quaint and old fashioned practice but in the mid-20th century, life was different and this type of collecting made very practical sense. Gathering items for…

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  • Stewart Brown provides an update on the Rotorua Museum Project

    Monday, 21 October 2019

    Rotorua Lakes Council Arts & Culture Manager, Stewart Brown, give his monthly update on the Rotorua Museum strengthening and redevelopment project. He talks about the current contractor tender, recruiting for a Museum Director and the upcoming Rotorua Museum Art Awards 2019.

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  • Space-Saving Art Racks for Rotorua Museum Art Collection

    Monday, 14 October 2019

    Rotorua Museum cares for more than 2700 pieces of fine art, 420 of which need to be safely stored in specialist art racks. Following the closure of Rotorua Museum for earthquake strengthening (November 2016) the already full fine arts section of the offsite storage building was stretched to capacity as…

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