Whanganui Regional Museum facts for kids
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| Former name | Wanganui Public Museum, Alexander Museum |
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| Established | 1895 |
| Location | Whanganui, New Zealand |
| Collections | Natural history, taonga Māori, history |
| Collection size | 300,000 |
| Founder | Samuel Henry Drew |
The Whanganui Regional Museum in Whanganui, New Zealand, is a super cool place! It has a huge collection of items about nature and human history. Most of the things come from the Manawatu-Whanganui area. But the museum also has important items from all over the world. These include Pacific tapa (a special kind of fabric), pottery from Asia and Cyprus, and even moa bones from a nearby swamp.
Contents
Discover the Museum's History
A local expert in nature and a jeweller named Samuel Henry Drew helped start the museum. He sold his own private collection to the town. Then, he became the first honorary curator when the museum opened on March 24, 1895. Back then, it was called the Wanganui Public Museum. The first building was where the Savage Club Hall is today.
The Alexander Museum Building
A new museum building was built in 1928. It was located on Watt Street, close to Queen's Park. The building had two floors and a basement. It was designed by an architect named Robert Talboys. The museum was renamed the 'Alexander Museum'. This new name honored Henry Alexander, whose money helped pay for the new building.
Moving to the new museum meant new things could be shown. Collections that were stored away could now be seen. For example, the McLachlan coin collection was put on display. A newspaper at the time said this collection of British coins was the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere! It included coins from Roman times all the way up to the 1920s. Three generations of the McLachlan family had collected these coins over 150 years. Some older exhibits, like a three-meter-tall moa skeleton, were moved into storage.
In 1932, something exciting happened! Two escaped prisoners hid in the museum. They pretended to be regular visitors. But they looked messy and didn't seem interested in the displays. This made the museum director, J. Burnet, suspicious. He then recognized one of the men from a newspaper photo!
Museum Updates and Changes
In 1968, the museum got a new addition at the back. This was paid for by money from the Davis Trust. The new part included a special Māori Court, a lecture theatre, a classroom, and a large multi-story car park. Later, in 1997, the car park was changed into storage areas. These areas were used by the museum and the Wanganui District Council's archive department.
In September 2016, the museum had to close to the public. This was so it could be made stronger against earthquakes. It also got a big makeover and new displays. While the main building was closed, exhibitions continued at the old Post Office building. This big project cost $2.6 million. It was supposed to take 18 months. But the reopening date was moved a few times. Finally, the museum reopened its doors in March 2019.
Amazing Museum Collections
Moa: Giant Birds of the Past
The museum has a very important collection of moa bones. Moa were huge, flightless birds that used to live in New Zealand. Many moa bones were found right in the local area. This is special because in other places, moa bones were often traded or spread out.
In the late 1890s, J. Burnet found a moa skeleton without a head in Wanganui East. The museum bought it, and R. Murdoch put it together. Twenty years later, a moa skull was found that fit the skeleton perfectly! In 1933, a huge number of bones were found at Makirikiri. Five years later, the museum started a big dig. They used a crane, a bucket, and a sluice (a channel for washing earth). They found about two thousand moa bones by hand-sorting through tons of mud! The curator, George Shepherd, put together ten full moa skeletons from these bones. These were then put on display.
The moa collection in Whanganui is one of the most important in the world. This is because it has stayed almost completely together. This allows scientists to study a whole group of moa that got stuck in the swamp over thousands of years. They can learn about their age, how fast they grew, their size, and how many males and females there were.
The museum also has a complete and unbroken moa egg! It was found in 1931 by workers digging at a cliff in Waitotara. It is one of the very few complete moa eggs known in the world.
Māori Taonga: Special Treasures
Part of the museum's Māori collection was given by Dr and Mrs Wall in 1933. They donated it to remember their son, John Barnicoat Wall. John had died in a mountain climbing accident. To honor his interest in the museum, the Walls bought a collection of Māori artifacts from Dr. A.K. Newman and gave them to the museum.
Museum Directors
Here are some of the people who have led the museum:
- Samuel H. Drew (1892–1901)
- J.H. Burnet (1930–1938)
- Max Smart (1951–1960)
- Donald Cimino (1973–1982)
- Brian Henderson (1982–1994)
- Sharon Dell (1995–2008)
- Wallis Barnicoat (2009–2010)
- Eric Dorfman (2011–2015)
- Frank Stark (2016–2019)
- Bronwyn Labrum (2021–)
