Gisborne Herald archives need new home to preserve local history and heritage

Former Gisborne Herald managing director Michael Muir is pictured in the main Herald archives, which stores copies of the Gisborne Herald and Poverty Bay Herald dating back to the 19th century. New storage facilities are required somewhere out in the community if the treasure trove of historical records is to be retained after the Gisborne Herald was bought out by NZME. Photo / Wynsley Wrigley

The future of a taonga carrying a record of the last 150 years of Tairāwhiti is uncertain as its keeper looks for a new permanent home where the public can benefit from it.

The thousands of “hard copies” in the Gisborne Herald/Poverty Herald archives, dating back to 1874, represent a treasure trove telling the story of locals living through colonisation, land wars, economic depression, economic reforms, two world wars, two pandemics, severe weather events, visits from royals, politicians, celebrities, sports teams, and the advent of motor vehicles, aviation, radio, “moving pictures”, television, the nuclear age, the space age, computers, rock music, women’s rights, Treaty issues, and changing social and moral attitudes.

Hundreds of journalists, backed by even more colleagues on the press or in advertising, circulation, administration and delivery, have produced a daily record of local, national and international events for 150 years.

The archives, which include several other now-defunct local papers, have been safely secured at the Herald, owned by the Muir family from the 1880s until the paper was bought out by NZME in March.

The former Herald premises in Gladstone Rd will go on to the market at some stage, and former company director Michael Muir is keen to preserve the invaluable resource at a new location.

“They need a home,” he said.

The archives have been a godsend for local researchers, Herald reporters and historians/researchers from outside the district.

The oldest newspapers held at the former Gisborne Herald premises are copies of the Poverty Bay Herald dating back to as far as when the paper began in 1874. Former Herald managing director Michael Muir says the archives need a new home where they can be accessed by the public. Photo / Wynsley Wrigley

Much of the material can be found on the archival website Papers Past, but researchers always prefer the original source.

“Many of the researchers have been local people working on family histories or researching local organisations,” said Muir.

“From time to time, researchers from outside of Gisborne have turned up.”

Some of the archives have previously been stored at the museum when it was known as the Museum and Arts Centre.

But Tairāwhiti Museum does not have enough room for it.

Curator of photography Dudley Meadows has agreed to take thousands of photography negatives which date from 1960 until 2001, when digital technology took over.

Muir is looking for a building where the archives could be occasionally accessed by the public.

“It would be preferable to have the archives in a building and permanent home.”

The archives include:

• The Poverty Bay Herald from 1874. The name was changed to the Gisborne Herald in 1939.
• The Gisborne Times, 1901 to 1937.
• East Coast Watch and Waiapu County Advocate, 1922.
• Gisborne Courier, 1935, 1936.
• Gisborne Standard & Cook County Gazette, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890.
• Poverty Bay Independent, 1886, 1888.
• Standard & People’s Advocate, 1876.
• Te Rau Weekly Press, 1925, 1926, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1938.
• Waiapu Advocate, 1902.
• Weekly Press, 1902.
• Telephone, 1884, 1896, 1898, 1900.