A story from this morning’s Scoop let me know about the Auckland Libraries’ Heritage Images Online database, which recently had 15,645 images added to it from supplements of the Auckland Weekly News from 1935 to 1944. The database now has over 40,000 images available; you can start your browse at http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/heritageimages/apphoto.htm.

There’s a simple keyword search and an advanced search with a bunch of fields, but there’s also the interesting suburban views (choose photos by community) or the most requested photos (popular photos in thirteen different categories, from New Zealand Maori Battalion to Yachts.) The browsing is a little tough as you’re only looking at five pictures at a time, so I went with a keyword search. I searched for pataka (storehouse) and got 24 results.

The results follow the “thumbnail / description” pattern but to get image details look for the “Click for more detail” with the description and click the link next to it. You’ll get a larger version of the image, a little more description, tags, caption, and a link to get the full size image. You’ll also get information about image rights and a link to a price list. Most of the photographs I looked at from that search were from around 1910, though there was one from circa 1885. I also found a few that had descriptions but no online images available.

I did a search for Auckland Weekly News and got over 16151 results (browsable five at a time, ick) with all kinds of photographs. The earliest date I saw in this case was 1899.

There’s a variety of images and subjects covered here, but with the five-at-a-time browsing I recommend either taking advantage of the advanced search or doing very narrow keyword searches.