Captain Cook at the Turnbull: Perspectives Original Evidence

The Friends of the Turnbull Library supports the work of the Alexander Turnbull Library, and promotes public interest in the Library’s collections.

Perspectives on Cook's voyages
It’s a truism of Pacific studies that a wider variety of perspectives on Cook’s voyages find expression today than in previous decades of scholarship.

Original items from the Alexander Turnbull collections relating to Cook's first visit to the Pacific.

Dr Oliver Stead’s talk presents a summary of original items in the Alexander Turnbull Library collections relating to Captain James Cook whose remarkable first visit to New Zealand and the Pacific Islands 250 years ago gathered a wealth of information, artefacts and botanical specimens, and produced the very first detailed map of New Zealand.

About the speaker:
Dr Oliver Stead has been Curator Drawings Paintings and Prints at the Alexander Turnbull Library since October 2015. He is the author of a number of books on New Zealand art.

Oliver has previously held senior and specialist roles in several collecting institutions including:
- Dunedin Public Art Gallery
- Auckland War Memorial Museum
- National Library of Australia, and
- The James Wallace Art Trust

His doctoral research focussed on the New Zealand-born art dealer and collector Sir Rex Nan Kivell.