The Drawings, Paintings and Prints collection includes the New Zealand Cartoon Archive and forms part of the Alexander Turnbull Library collections.
More than 100,000 watercolours, drawings, sketchbooks, oil paintings and prints are in the collection. Most feature New Zealand scenes, people and events.
Many pictures relate to early Māori or their way of life, and the earliest days of European contact and settlement. Images also cover the development of early towns and cities, exploration, natural history and science, shipping, and wars.
Highlights include the work of:
- English artists who came to New Zealand and the Pacific with Captain Cook between 1769 and 1779
- French artists visiting between 1824 and 1840
- artists associated with the early colonisation of New Zealand from 1839 to about 1850
- artists who painted incidents in the New Zealand wars
- painters recording changes made by humans to the landscape from the 1840s to about 1900
- natural history artists
- New Zealand cartoonists from the 1880s to the present
- portrait artists.
The collection also features:
- early Australian drawings, prints and images of Antarctica
- some European prints from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries
- prints relating to the work of John Milton
- portraits of well-known New Zealanders from the early 19th century onwards, including some sculptures
- architectural drawings and plan prints for buildings, mostly in the greater Wellington area
- art ephemera like New Zealand exhibition catalogues or clippings of reviews
- three-dimensional objects, such as personal items belonging to Katherine Mansfield, Sumerian clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions, and writing on papyrus.
More about the New Zealand Cartoon Archive
The Library’s building redevelopment
The Library building in Wellington is closed for redevelopment, and due to reopen in August 2012. During the relocation period, some collections are available in two temporary locations: Archives New Zealand and a reading room at 77 Thorndon Quay, Wellington.
More about collection access through the Wellington building redevelopment period
Access to the Drawings, Paintings and Prints collection during the building redevelopment
- The original items in this collection are now unavailable until August 2012.
- Some copies are available through Turnbull Library Pictures at the Library’s reading room at Thorndon Quay.
- Digitised images are available, and copies can be ordered.
For more information email atl@natlib.govt.nz
Search for descriptions of items in the Drawings, Paintings and Prints collection using TAPUHI. Not all items are described online. If you can’t find what you’re looking for ask a librarian. Note that the you will be unable to access the original items, even if they are on TAPUHI, until August 2012.
Digital copies of selected items are on Timeframes, our online database of heritage images.
More about Turnbull Library Pictures
Get copies from items in this collection
You can order colour or black and white copies of already digitised pictures in the collection if copying doesn’t breach copyright. Formats available include digital copies on CD-ROM, inkjet prints, and photocopies.
More about copyright and usage
Get help
We can answer your enquiries in person, by letter, phone or email. The Drawings, Paintings and Prints curator is on hand to help you on weekdays. An appointment is necessary.
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