About Timeframes
On this page:
What will I find on Timeframes?
Te reo Māori (including macrons)
What are the featured images and featured collections?
What is Timeframes?
Timeframes is an online database of heritage images from the Alexander Turnbull Library.
The Alexander Turnbull Library, a division of the National Library of New Zealand, holds the nation’s pre-eminent collection of publications, manuscripts, music, maps, sound recordings, ephemera, photographs, cartoons, paintings, drawings and prints.
The picture collections cover the social and natural history of New Zealand, the Pacific and Antarctica from the earliest European contact to the present. .
What will I find on Timeframes?
Currently a selection of over 42,000 images from the Library’s collections is accessible through Timeframes.
Geography, history, the natural environment, people and events are featured.
You can find copies of photographs, drawings, paintings, ephemera (posters, programmes advertisements etc), maps and cartoons. There are also a small number textual items.
A full descriptive record taken from the Library’s database TAPUHI accompanies each image. TAPUHI provides access to descriptions of the manuscript and pictures collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library.
Link to TAPUHI
We regularly make digital copies of images and add them to Timeframes, but Timeframes contains copies of only a small proportion of the holdings of the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library. So if you can’t find what you are looking for on Timeframes you could try:
- TAPUHI
- the National Library catalogue (for published material including maps and some ephemera)
- contacting us for assistance with your research query.
Timeframes includes items of cultural value to Māori people and other New Zealanders. These taonga are carefully selected and carry the mana of their iwi (people), whichever medium may be represented.
Timeframes draws on historical sources, and may include materials that contain offensive language or stereotypes. These should be viewed in the context of the time and place in which they were created.
We try to preserve the integrity of the original items by presenting them as a record of the era in which they were produced. We do not enhance the appearance or quality of items.
Te reo Māori (including macrons)
The National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa supports the correct use of the Māori language and in particular the Māori Language Commission guideline that macrons be used in Māori words where appropriate.
However, the ability to display macrons on our web site is limited by current technology and limited standardisation. Because of such technical constraints, the macrons that should appear in some Māori language words may not appear or may appear incorrectly. We apologise for any offence this may cause.
More information about the National Library's use of macrons can be found on the National Library of New Zealand website
Legal statements
Copyright
Information on this website is subject to Crown copyright and/or the copyright of third party owners. You can search, browse, print and download items for research and personal study. Permission must be obtained for any other use.
Many items on Timeframes are identified as being the copyright of a third party. Permission to reproduce such material must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned. More information is available on the Using & ordering page or contact us if you have any questions.
Privacy
Information about how the National Library collects and stores information about users of its websites is available on the National Library of New Zealand website.
http://www.natlib.govt.nz/en/legalstatements.html#privacy
Site Accessibility
This site has been designed to meet the World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and New Zealand Government Web Guidelines.
As part of this process we have provided the following keyboard shortcuts to the main sections of the site (for those not using a mouse).
Keyboard shortcuts
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0 = Site accessibility information including access keys
1 = Timeframes Home page
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This website has been designed to work best in modern browsers which support HTML and CSS standards in patricular Windows Internet Explorer version 6.0, Netscape Navigator version 8.0 and Mozilla Firefox v1.0.4 (or later).
The latest versions of these supported browsers can all be downloaded for free:
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People using earlier browsers should still be able to see all the content however some visual elements may display differently. Please contact us if you have any problems accessing the information on this website.
What are the featured images and featured collections?
The featured images are randomly selected items from the Timeframes database and will change daily.
The featured collections are selected by staff to highlight the work of one photographer, artist, organisation or collector. This selection will change regularly.
Homepage image credits
All the images featured on the homepage will not be visible to all users of Timeframes. The browser you are using and the settings on your computer will govern the number of images that can be seen.
Rigobert Bonne, 1727-1795 |  | |
George French Angas, 1822-1886 |  | |
William Forster, 1851-1891 |  | |
Sydney Charles Smith, 1888-1972 |  | |
Heaphy, Charles 1820-1881 |  | |
Murray Webb, b 1947 |  | |
Photographer unidentified |  | |
John Philemon Backhouse, 1845-1908 |  | |
National Safety Association of New Zealand |  | |
