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Teen Blog

Reading, Wellington, and whatever else – teenblog@wcl.govt.nz

Tag: newspapers

Cool New Meme Formats from Recollect

Do you know about Recollect? Recollect is a database of heritage photos, books, maps and other Te Whanganui-ā-tara related ephemera.

If I was a responsible librarian, I would tell you all about how it is an excellent resource for important things like school assignments. I would point out the photos of what Cuba Street looked like in 1894, or this photography exhibit that explored Wellington’s transgender community in the 70’s. I would tell you all about how these resources can provide us with a snapshot of our city’s history, how deep diving into these resources might help us see connections between our past and current city, and how by engaging with our history we can gain insight into how to create a better future.

But I am not a responsible librarian, I am a chaotic good librarian. I would like to suggest instead that you explore Recollect for some meme reasons. Because, truly, there are so many meme structures ripe for the picking. Below, I offer you my incredibly average attempts at content. Please take these/make your own historical Wellington memes, and share them below in the comments if you like!

If you do use images from Recollect, please remember to include a reference link back to the original page. Here is where I found the above images:

Bucket Fountain Shade

Toddler Clearly Up To Something

Why Is This Man Smiling?

Too Many Garfields

Fighting off the boredom with PapersPast

Are you really, incredibly, horrendously and hyperbolically bored? I know. Me too. Lockdown is still, absolutely, the right thing to be doing but that doesn’t mean it’s easy or fun or not boring.

This is just a teeny blog post but the resource I’m highlighting here can provide hours of interesting scrolling. There is a site called PapersPast that anyone can access for FREE and it is a digitised and readable form of hundreds of the newspapers and magazines from Aotearoa/New Zealand’s past. It’s a resource from the National Library of New Zealand and is a great example of how informative and interesting archival material can be.

This site is for you if:

  • You want to learn more about local history.
  • You’ve got really hooked on researching genealogy, what with ancestry.com being available from home at the moment and all!
  • You want to read newspapers but are, sensibly, limiting yourself to current news intake as there is only so much news it is healthy to consume at this time.
  • You’re bored and want something to do.
  • You’ve become increasingly interested in news and the media and the role it plays in the world through seeing the impact that is has at a time like this.
  • You’re studying history at school and you need to find some primary sources for a project.

NOTE: Old school newspapers may not be quite what you expect. Back in the day they were such a foundational and unique resource that people and communities put all sorts of stuff in there. Sometimes they feel more like blogs or Facebook feeds than they do contemporary print media. If someone loses their favourite knitted beanie ...they probably didn’t call them beanies back then… where does the word beanie even come from?...  on Cuba street back in the early 1900s, everybody knows about it! That kinda thing. It’s weird and fascinating. We’re keen to see what kind of stuff you’re able to find!