Auckland War Memorial Museum

Auckland War Memorial Museum, also called Auckland Museum, is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its Māori name is Tāmaki Paenga Hira. The neoclassical building stands on Observatory Hill, the remains of a dormant volcano, in the Auckland Domain near the city centre.

The present building opened in 1929, and the card describes a temple-like front with a Parthenon-inspired Doric portico. Parts were added in the 1920s and 1950s. The museum's collections focus on New Zealand and especially Auckland history, natural history and military history. It also holds major Māori and Pacific collections. As a war memorial, it honours people from the region who served in wars.

From a cottage to a hilltop museum

The museum's collections began in 1852 in a small cottage on Grafton Road, and the public were first admitted on Sunday 24 October that year. The cottage was known as the Old Government Farm House. It was meant to collect specimens of New Zealand's geology, minerals, insects and birds, as well as weapons, clothing and tools of New Zealanders and Pacific peoples, plus any memento of Captain Cook.

Names and growth

In 1867 Aucklanders formed a learned society, the Auckland Philosophical Society, soon renamed Auckland Institute, which took over the museum. Until 1996 the institution was called Auckland Institute and Museum. The new building opened in 1929 as the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and since 1996 that name is more commonly used for the whole institution. Its Māori name was Te Papa Whakahiku from 1991 to 2003.

On the globe

The model shows the Neoclassical museum on its hilltop with a columned portico.