In reviewing the museum’s natural history holdings for the latest exhibition, curators re-visited specimens that tell stories of bygone collecting practices when natural history specimens were commodified for fashion, trade, and scientific exchange both within Aotearoa and around the world.

The $20 million collection at New Zealand's oldest museum is at risk unless its aging research facility is replaced soon.

While the Nelson Provincial Museum's main building is in the centre of the city, the Isel Park facility in Stoke holds the vast majority of the collection and it's falling apart.

The museum's chief executive, Lucinda Jimson, said they are close to losing the collection if they don't get out of the building.

Nelson Provincial Museum Senior Curator of Photography Darryl Gallagher has recently uncovered the story of Henry and Alice Brusewitz, a husband and wife commercial photography team who opened for business in Nelson in the 1880s.

For the 2023 Mid-Autumn Festival, Dr Alistair Kwan undertook an object reading of some Chinese artefacts in the Nelson Provincial Museum Pupuri Taonga o Te Tai Ao.

In 2023, Sunday September 3rd marked Merchant Navy Day, which commemorates the role of civilian seafaring crew during periods of armed conflict.

In both world wars, as well as in smaller conflicts, the crews of cargo and passenger ships often encountered peril, unlike any other group of civilians.

When the Nelson Provincial Museum recently acquired tikumu (Celmisia semicordata) samples from a local weaver, they joined a collection of this rare alpine daisy that pre-date European settlement.

When thousands of Nelsonians gathered on Tāhunanui Beach more than 100 years ago and raised money for the people of Belgium, they demonstrated their support for people living in war-torn countries, a practise that continues in the region to this day

Read more about Nelson's long history of humanitarian support.