The collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library are in the custody of the National Library and are normally held in its Wellington building. It is named after Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull (1868–1918), whose bequest to the nation included the 55,000 volume nucleus of the current collection. It is charged under the Act to:
- 'Preserve, protect, develop, and make accessible for all the people of New Zealand the collections of that library in perpetuity and in a manner consistent with their status as documentary heritage and taonga'; and
- 'Develop the research collections and the services of the Alexander Turnbull Library, particularly in the fields of New Zealand and Pacific studies and rare books'; and
- 'Develop and maintain a comprehensive collection of documents relating to New Zealand and the people of New Zealand.'
Turnbull collected the works of John Milton extensively, and the library now has holdings of Milton's works which are "ranked among the finest in the world" and "good collections of seventeenth-century poetical miscellanies and of Dryden material, ... along with fine sets of literary periodicals."
Turnbull House, the library's former location in Bowen Street in downtown Wellington, is now run by the Department of Conservation.
Read more about this topic: National Library Of New Zealand
Famous quotes containing the words alexander and/or library:
“I thought when I was a young man that I would conquer the world with truth. I thought I would lead an army greater than Alexander ever dreamed of. Not to conquer nations, but to liberate mankind. With truth. With the golden sound of the Word. But only a few of them heard. Only a few of you understood. The rest of you put on black and sat in chapel.”
—Philip Dunne (1908–1992)
“A man’s library is a sort of harem.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)