On Thursday 12 November two of our trustees, David Simcock and Linda Bryder, hosted an alumni function at the Central City Library to celebrate eight years of the Auckland History Initiative (AHI) programme of summer scholarships in conjunction with the University of Auckland. As well as being trustees of the Auckland Library Heritage Trust, Linda and David are active in the AHI.
After Linda welcomed everyone and recounted the history of the summer scholarship programme, she acknowledged donors including the important contributions from the Auckland Library Heritage Trust and support from another ALHT trustee, Jonathan Mason, and his wife Mary. She also recognised the important role which Dr Jess Parr has played in mentoring scholars each summer.
David then spoke about the importance of the AHI to the writing of Auckland's histories. He thanked Linda for her efforts in getting AHI going and successfully continuing it for a much longer period than previous efforts at similar projects which have started, but then not been sustained, over the last 70 years. He did note, however, that Linda is retiring in February and Jess now has another job; the future of AHI is an important focus for those involved with it. While current and recent scholars are at a stage in their lives where they are unlikely to be able to assist AHI financially, David suggested they might know others interested in continuing Auckland’s histories who may be able to support the initiative.
Henry Grey, a summer scholar in 2023-24, spoke on behalf of all of the scholars about the importance of the programme and thanked everyone connected with AHI. He added that his scholarship had been influential in his choosing a future career path.
About 40 current and former summer scholars, librarians and archivists from Heritage Collections at Auckland Libraries, colleagues from Auckland Council Archives and staff from Cultural Collections at the University of Auckland attended the reunion. Two of the other attendees, Nathan McLeay and Tom Wilkinson, were scholars in the early years of AHI. Nathan is now working as a town planner for the Waipa District Council and Tom is only a few weeks away from submitting his University of Auckland PhD thesis on the history of the American space programme from 1957 to 1963. The current scholars, who start their work this week, are looking forward to meeting library and university staff to help determine which of three ideas they have each presented might be the one they choose for their research.
Stacey Smith (Manager Research and Heritage Services at Auckland Libraries) and her colleagues kindly provided the space for the event in the atrium on the second floor of the library, and helped to lay out and serve the refreshments enjoyed by attendees after the formal part of evening.
Attendees expressed their appreciation for the successful evening. It was also a timely reminder of how important AHI is in generating and making accessible many Auckland stories hidden from sight in Auckland's heritage and archival collections. The Auckland Library Heritage Trust will continue to welcome donations to help it support this important initiative.
Thank you to all participated.
Read more about the Auckland History Initiative.
More about the summer scholars support by ALHT.
