Mastering the art

New history of Auckland Museum finds its creation more of interest than dedicated collector who made it happen.

- THOMAS MCLEAN

The title of this beautifully produced book is a little misleading. Most readers imagine collectors as individuals who are obsessed with a particular artist or artefact; fewer imagine someone like Thomas Cheeseman, whose professional life was dedicated to collecting objects for a public museum. The Curator seems closer to the mark. Furthermore, while Cheeseman is certainly mentioned more often than anyone else, the authors are not very interested in him as a husband, father, neighbour, friend or foe. Their narrative is mostly focused on their subtitle's final six words: the making of the Auckland Museum.

Cheeseman was born in 1845 in the port city of Hull in Yorkshire, the son of a Methodist minister. The family made the six-month journey to New Zealand's then-capital Auckland in 1853, joining other relations who had already immigrated. The ramshackle settlement was gradually becoming an important mercantile centre, though its cultural offerings were slow to develop. Cheeseman's father did his part, offering lectures at the Auckland Mechanics' Institute and helping to found the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, which introduced “exotic species of animals, birds and fish to New Zealand”. Cheeseman himself was among the first members of a third institution for public education, the Auckland Institute (originally called the Auckland Philosophical Society).