Wyndham museum collection goes digital, building still closed

Thursday, 20 August 2020

Wyndham and District Historical Society president George Taylor at the society's museum which has digitised all of its collection.

A major project to digitise collections in Southland museums is progressing and unearthing some southern treasures.

Project Ark finished a two-year programme in June, which means 12 of Southland’s smaller public museums now have key collection items on a website called ehive.

The Wyndham and Districts Historical Society now has 3806 items of its collection online.

Society president George Taylor said it had been a long but worthwhile 18 month process.

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Wyndham and District Historical Society president George Taylor at the Wyndham Museum.

The society is also looking for a new museum, after the Southland District Council building was deemed earthquake prone in 2015 and closed in 2017.

A sculpture made of hair, part of the Wyndham and District Historical Museum collection. It is believed to have been made by Elizabeth Dickie, of Tuturau, Southland, in 1896 and contains the hair of 40 people.

The society has $132,000 to put towards a new building but a decision on a new site has not yet been made.

Wyndham and District Historical Society president George Taylor at the societyâs museum, pictured with an American adding machine in front the towns old jail doors.

The society is deliberating whether to rebuild in flood-prone Wyndham.

“One day there will be a doozy and the flood banks won’t be enough,” he said.

The Wyndham and Districts Historical Society museum was closed after being deemed earthquake prone.

Amongst items now digitally catalogued, is a 124-year-old floral-looking arrangement made of hair, by Elizabeth Dickie, of Tuturau.

Other notable items include a bright red penny-farthing with a photo of it being ridden in the 1956 Southland Centennial celebrations, and the Wyndham jail doors which were likely made in the 1880s.

The Wyndham Society’s collection was the second biggest in Southland, behind the Southland Museum, and digitising it made the society members more aware of what they had, Taylor said.

Project Ark programme coordinator David Luoni said it opened Southland’s heritage to the world and enhanced the ability to share their communities unique stories.

“Collectively the collections share key parts of Southland’s story and feed into the wider national story,” Luoni said.

The project was only possible because of the Invercargill City Council, Southland District Council and the Gore District Council establishing the combined Regional Heritage Committee, he said.

The programme was “much more than museum housekeeping; most importantly it researches, captures and share the stories that give objects their cultural significance.”

The project team will finalise the Wyndham cataloguing in October and start work in 2021 on the Riverton Heritage Society’s rich collection at Te Hikoi.