St John’s Collegiate School art lessons taught by Wilhelm Dittmer While working on a research request we came across this advertisement for drawing, painting, and sketching lessons at St John’s College to be taught by Wilhelm Dittmer. This piece of ephemera is held in our ‘St John’s School and King’s… Read More »“Entirely from Nature”: Art Lessons at St John’s Collegiate School
Honey bees are our friends, and William Cotton knew it. Much of the human food supply relies on honey bee pollinating services. Aotearoa/New Zealand has 28 native bee species, but none of these have the crop pollinating abilities of honey bees, so essential to our present diet. Records show… Read More »William Cotton, the Bee Master of St John’s College
Ever seen a Silver Book of Common Prayer? A recent addition to the Kinder Library is a curious copy of a silver ‘The Book of Common Prayer’ which was found online by one of our eagle-eyed librarians. If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid… Read More »Silver Version of ‘The Book of Common Prayer’
‘The Powder Plot’ from a bound edition of ‘The Book of Common Prayer’ On the 5th of November 1605, a group of English Catholics attempted to blow up the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder. It became known as the Powder Plot. Catholics in England had faced heavy persecution… Read More »The Powder Plot
What do you imagine when you hear the words ”The Undine”? A) An opera by E.T.A. Hoffman, b) A non-humanoid species in the television series Star Trek, c) A mythological creature in the same class as mermaids, d) The name of a vessel owned by Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, e)… Read More »The Voyage of the Undine
![John Kinder's bookplate [DG 231 ARN]](https://www.kinderlibrary.ac.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/arnolds-history-of-rome-bookplatedg-231-arn.jpg)
A gifted letter to John Kinder was discovered in the archives In 1855 John Kinder was appointed to the position of Headmaster at the Church of England Grammar School in Auckland, which was then part of St John’s College. He previously was the Master at Alleyne’s Grammar School at Uttoxeter… Read More »A Letter to John Kinder
There is a new display in the library for the St John’s College classes of 1979 to 1981 who held a reunion here over the weekend (22nd-24th July). This display presents items from the archives held at the John Kinder Theological Library relating to the College of St John the… Read More »College Life at the John Kinder Theological Library Archives
Consecration Deed for Bishop Frederick Augustus Bennett, first Bishop of Aotearoa Papers recently received from a diocesan archive, where they had been placed for safekeeping in the 1940s, reveal the Consecration Deed for Bishop Frederick Augustus Bennett, first Bishop of Aotearoa, as well as the various declarations he had to… Read More »A Consecration Deed and Pectoral Cross for Bishop Frederick Augustus Bennett
What do Bishop Simkin and Zodiac Records have in common? In 2016, we were given items as a donation relating to the former Bishop of Auckland, William John Simkin, which included this acetate of the recording of his funeral service in 1967. The recording was likely to have been mastered… Read More »He’s a Mod? Bishop Simkin and Zodiac Records
The parish of St Thomas’ in Tamaki, located on the northeast boundary of the original grounds of St John’s College, was built in 1842 with the foundation stone laid in 1843 by Acting Governor Willoughby Shortland. The building was designed by Sampson Kempthorne, who was known as the “Workhouse Architect”… Read More »“Borrow Bravely”: The Lending Library at St Thomas’, Tamaki
