The National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum

Published shortly after the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum opened in Buckle Street in 1936, this book of charcoal sketches shows the then-new building in all its glory. Though now empty of exhibits, the exterior and many of the larger interior spaces of the building have changed little since these drawings were made and it is often only the stylish 1930s fashion being worn by visitors that date the pictures so firmly. Within four years of this publication being printed, the building was closed to the public and was occupied by the Royal NZ Navy and Air Force during the Second World War. It did not open again until September 1948 though curation and maintenance of the collections continued during the eight years it was closed. The National Art Gallery and National Museum (renamed as such in 1972) were merged in 1992 to form the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (commonly known as Te Papa). They remained operating in this building until shortly before the new Te Papa building opened on the Wellington waterfront in 1998. Today the Dominion Museum building is owned by Massey University in partnership with the Wellington Tenths Trust.

Marmaduke 'Duke' Matthews emigrated to New Zealand from Oxfordshire (UK) as a young man in 1904. He became a pioneer aviator in Auckland  and was one of the first pilots in NZ to receive formal certification. He was rejected for active service during WWI on physical grounds so became an instructor of military pilots instead. He had no formal instruction in art but by the end of the war he had established himself as a commercial artist. In 1929 he moved to Wellington, developed a more serious interest in the art and became well known for producing etchings of schools & universities and exhibited at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington in 1935.