My Space: Inside the University's archives

If you once scored a bad University of Auckland grade that you hope had somehow slipped into the ether, you’re out of luck. 

The University’s archives team has them all – stretching back more than 140 years. 

Student records have been diligently captured digitally as far back as the 1980s.

In a work and research space on the City Campus, managed by Sean Connelly and his team, however, there’s also a sturdy bank of filing cabinets filled with neatly typed student record cards dating back to 1927 (including, pictured below, the records of former vice-chancellor Sir Colin Maiden).

In an adjacent, temperature-controlled room you’ll also find the original, handwritten University registry book, capturing students’ academic progression, from enrolment to graduation, from the University’s beginnings in 1883. Among its pages is the record of Kate Edger, the first woman in the British Empire to graduate with a BA, and Hamiora Hei, one of the earliest Māori law students. Other treasures in the space include Sir Colin Maiden’s academic robes, the former Fine Arts Library sign and calendars that once listed every graduate of the institution.

Sean is the University’s archivist and records manager and, along with three team members, records and preserves University life and history. Maintaining the University’s historic record – its archives – still largely involves dealing with paper-based records retained for their historic importance, although many of these have and are being digitised. Managing records today, of everything from Council and Senate meetings to individual academic records, is all done digitally.

“One thing about our team that people find surprising is that we’re real techies,” says Sean. “That means the archive of the future will look very different to what it looks like today.”

A couple of times a year, Sean conducts a two-hour workshop, held in the ClockTower, telling a hands-on history of the University through its archives.

The star of the popular talks, he says, is the University’s mace – an impressive sceptre-like object that plays a ceremonial role on occasions such as graduation ceremonies – which “always steals the show”.

While Sean loves the mace, he thinks his favourite aspect of the University’s archives is the Auckland College of Education Collection, which was brought into his team’s care when the Epsom Campus closed.

“It’s a really rich collection. While it’s administrative, like the traditional University of Auckland archives, it also contains a lot of social history,” he says.

Sean and archivist Jane Ferguson worked closely with communications lecturer Dr Margaret Henley as she accessed records in that collection while working on a Marsden-funded project exploring the history of netball in New Zealand. One of the outcomes of the project was an Auckland Museum exhibition, which Sean and Jane received a special invitation to attend.

“It was really nice to see that we played a small part in that exhibition,” says Sean, “and in a project that you wouldn’t normally associate as being part of a University role like this.”

For information about taking a tour of the University’s archives, contact: records_management@auckland.ac.nz

Caitlin Sykes