From the Bay of Biscay to Town Acre 445: Unlocking our Heritage

A brief history of the Nelson Provincial Museum Pupuri Taonga o Te Tai Ao.

From the 13th - 19th June 2022, Museum Week is celebrated globally. As part of these celebrations, we thought that we would take this opportunity to share our own Museum’s history with you, as we have been part of the Nelson Tasman community for quite sometime! Starting from an idea in the Bay of Biscay, to where we are now - situated on the same town acre block that we occupied in 1842 - we are proud to be New Zealand’s oldest Museum.

RICHARDSON, F.E., AFTER CHARLES HEAPHY (1820-1881). VIEW OF NELSON HAVEN, TASMAN'S GULF, NEW ZEALAND. C1930. WATERCOLOUR. NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM, BETT LOAN COLLECTION: AC809.

The Literary and Scientific Institution of Nelson was founded in May 1841 in the Bay of Biscay by the officers of the Preliminary Expedition of the Second Colony, on board the New Zealand Company’s ships Whitby and Will-Watch.

Before the expedition reached Tenerife, a sum of money was subscribed amongst the officers. It was transmitted back to England with directions for the selection of a number of books “of a useful character”, which would form the bases of the library of the Institution.

While a large number of books were collected by friends and associates of the Colony and the Colonists, the Committee noted that “they would be glad to receive maps, charts, manuscripts, drawings, paintings, engravings, sculptures, casts, models of inventions and objects of natural history generally. These will be placed in the Museum of the Institution, and a record will be kept of the names of the donors.”

In late 1842, The Literary and Scientific Institution of Nelson (the Institute) opened on part of Town Acre 445 on Trafalgar Street, firstly as a Library (with attached Museum storehouse) and subsequently incorporating the Museum, with a public membership of sixty by 1844.

MISS COOPER, DRESSMAKER, TRAFALGAR STREET. NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM, MAGUIRE COLLECTION: 46829
In 1842 the Institute Opening in this building on Town Acre 445 on land gifted by Alfred Jenkins. Today the same site is occupied by Harry’s Bar and the Nelson Women’s Club. In 1892 the building, as depicted, was occupied by Miss Cooper, Dress and Mantle Maker.

THE SECOND NELSON INSTITUTE BUILDING. NELSON PROVINICAL MUSEUM COLLECTION: C1505
*In 1861 the Institute relocated to a purpose-built building on Hardy Street, with Museum attached. Only the Museum wing of the building still remains; the front was destroyed in a fire in 1906.*

In 1861 the Institute, which had outgrown its Trafalgar Street premises, relocated to a purpose-built wooden building in Hardy Street.

For the next forty-five years, until a fire in 1906, the building served as the repository for many of the region’s treasures. The Museum’s collection was rescued from the fire that destroyed the library and in 1912 the Hon. Francis Dillon Bell opened the third home of the Nelson Institute.

NELSON INSTITUTE LIBRARY & MUSEUM OPENING, 27 NOVEMBER 1912. F N JONES, NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM COLLECTION: C1827
The Museum remained in this location (the building at 309 Hardy Street still stands), until transferred to Isel Park in the mid-1960’s.

By the mid-1960’s the two facilities of the Institute were separated – the library coming under direct control of the Nelson City Council and the Museum under the administrative control of the newly formed Nelson Provincial Museum Trust Board. The Museum relocated from Hardy Street to the relative isolation of Isel Park, Stoke, a site that our current Research Facility now occupies.

NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM, ISEL PARK RESEARCH FACILITY, 2022

During 2001 Tasman Bays Heritage Trust, through the support and commitment of the Nelson City Council and Tasman District Council, purchased the former Hotel Nelson site on the corner of Hardy and Trafalgar Street, Nelson. This historic site was part of the original Town Acre 445. And in 2005, after significant local and national support, the redeveloped Museum was opened on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and is where we proudly stand today.