Letters, etc., relating to the compilation of membership lists., 1971 - 1973

The papers of the Auckland University Field Club were donated to the University Library from the Auckland Institute and Museum in May 1998. The Club was founded in 1922 by members of the Natural Sciences Departments of the University and remained within the University until the Club ceased to exist in 1992. All the papers of the Club were, it seems, taken to the Museum by members of the Field Club who continued the publication of the Club journal Tane under the auspices of the Offshore Islands Research Group.

The papers were presented in two collections, one of which had been sorted into numbered folders with an accompanying key. The two collections have been integrated and reassembled into the following sections: Constitution, Minutes, Financial Records, Correspondence, Subject Files, Members, Trip Reports, “Transect” (the club newsletter), Files relating to Tane, and Photographs.

Two short histories of the Club are among the papers: Fifty years in the field, 1922-1972 : Auckland University Field Club / editor, A.E. Bollard, Auckland, 1972 (Item 5.14); and The sixth decadence of Field Club : the Years 1972-1982, by A.E. Wright; published to mark the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Auckland University Field Club, and the Centenary of the University of Auckland, 1983 (Item 5.18).

Certain gaps can be discerned in these records. It may be that some papers remain in private hands, or that some files were mislaid during their removal from the University to the Auckland Museum.