Hear from Charlotte Macdonald as she embarks on a journey of what she terms the ‘garrison world’ — soldiers, sailors, and their families stationed across the British empire in the 19th century.
The 2025 ‘Letters Out Loud’ highlighted letters from a range of fascinating people, including devoted prison reformer and writer Blanche Baughan, famous guide and academic Maggie Papakura, American writer Mary Redmer, and English dancer and actress, Diana Gould Menuhin. Three of these women were writing to a man and one to a woman. In this lunchtime talk, Professor Emerita Barbara Brookes will discuss their backgrounds and how their letters survived to be placed in the Alexander Turnbull Library.
Join Jamie Jacobs from Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga as he shares the story of Turnbull House and what’s ahead for this historic building.
Join Charles Ferrall as he talks about his most recent book, ‘South by South: New Zealand and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration’, which draws on the Library’s Joseph Kinsey collection.
In the 2026 Founder Lecture Catherine Hammond will discuss the role and impact of photographic archives as complex repositories of memory and research, drawing on her career working with artists archives in major cultural institutions in Aotearoa over the past two decades.