Most of the Otago Settlers Museum's archives section in Dunedin, New Zealand will be closed to the public until the museum's redevelopment is completed in late 2012, but the portrait photograph collection will remain available and will soon be online.
One of New Zealand's finest social history museums, Otago Settlers Museum, established in 1898, stands to the south of Dunedin's Railway Station. The roof of the former NZR bus station building will be replaced this year as part of the $35 million redevelopment, requiring the archives to be packed away for safekeeping.
Museum staff said photographs in the museum's portrait gallery could be seen there as usual, and about 6000 portrait photographs from the archives had already been digitised and would soon be made available via computer.
After 2012, the new archive would be more than twice as big, and better than the previous facility, offering greater access and space for researchers and collections.
You can read more in an article by John Gibb in the Otago Daily Times at http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/89201/redevelopment-closes-settlers-museum-archives.
