The Hector Letters

Sir James Hector 1834 - 1907

In April 1865, Dr James Hector was appointed Director of a New Zealand Geological Survey and Colonial Museum. In December of that same year the Colonial Museum was opened to the public, in a building especially erected for the purpose in Museum Street, Wellington.
James Hector held the role of Director of the Museum for 38 years until 1903 when he retired and Augustus Hamilton took over the role.

The James Hector letters form a significant historical record of the early days of the colony and the interactions between scientists, explorers and geologists of that time.

Hector’s records include not only his individual letters, but records from a number of other responsibilities that Hector accepted during his long career, such as management of New Zealand Geological Survey, the Meteorological Department and Weather Office, Standard Weights and Measures, Wellington’s Botanic Gardens, the Patent office and many others.

The Hector Letters contains registered and unregistered correspondence received by the Colonial Museum from 1884 covering a wide range of subjects including Museum matters and other roles which were covered by Hector.

Copies of outward letters on pressed tissue pages contain copies of Hectors replies sent from the Colonial Museum.

The tissue letter books were imaged in 1998 to ensure preservation of the very fragile documents contained within the books. In 2009 the Archives team embarked upon a project to create catalogue records for each letter and have their respective images attached.

The complete first letter book 1865 - 1870 and index pages of the second letterbook 1870 - 1873 are now available to access online. Click on the outward letterbook links below to access images of individual pages. Further letterbooks will be digitised and published online as resources allow.