Do you know these staff members?

Spurred on by the popularity of the Vespa and it's many imitators, motor scooter clubs were springing up all around New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s. This one was based in Wellington, but there is no doubt that it would have passed through Horowhenua. A 1959 report on the Auckland Motor Scooter Club by the 'Press' revealed their plan for an epic journey to Bluff and back! So the Wellington scooters wouldn't have had a problem popping to Levin for some lunch.

In today's world of higher speed limits and big SUVs I think many Club members may think twice about it. 

This humorous slide would have been shown during cinema intermission in Foxton. The design may have been a generic one used by many garages (the farmer's language seems more American than local) but the message was loud and clear! 

This slide is in a similar style to another Foxton slide, O'Leary and Sons plumbers. Both feature eye  - catching cartoons which show the social embarrassment of not calling 'an expert' to do the job.

MAVtech cannot find any record of when Evans & Cooper were operating. However, by the looks of the car the 1950s would be a good estimate. 

R.N Speirs had a big presence in Foxton and MAVtech has a range of cinema advertising slides showing them advertising timber and cooking appliances! This particular slide is advertising an infra-red electric heater.

Foxton has plenty of late 19th/early 20th century villas and Foxton Beach is famous for it's batches. Both have plenty of character and charm but not a lot of insulation! A heater would be just the thing during a cold, wintery day.  This slide would date from the 1960s (approximately).

If you came into the library on Wednesday 1 March, you could have been forgiven for thinking you'd taken the DeLorean back to the 1980s. Staff were dressed up to celebrate the opening of the exhibition 'Rewind to the 80's'.

The exhibition was a collaboration between Libraries Horowhenua and MAVtech, the Museum of Audio and Visual Technology (Foxton). It was a nostalgic flashback to the technology of the 1980s, an important decade full of momentum and transformation, with a new millennium on the horizon. Much of the technology we enjoy today stems from innovations from this time.

MAVtech scoured their archives to find some fantastic examples... there's even a space helmet television!

These images are scans of Instax Square photos - actual film photos!

Pictured: iSite & Visitor Information Coordinator Sarah Ward

If you came into the library on Wednesday 1 March, you could have been forgiven for thinking you'd taken the DeLorean back to the 1980s. Staff were dressed up to celebrate the opening of the exhibition 'Rewind to the 80's'.

The exhibition was a collaboration between Libraries Horowhenua and MAVtech, the Museum of Audio and Visual Technology (Foxton). It was a nostalgic flashback to the technology of the 1980s, an important decade full of momentum and transformation, with a new millennium on the horizon. Much of the technology we enjoy today stems from innovations from this time.

MAVtech scoured their archives to find some fantastic examples... there's even a space helmet television!

These images are scans of Instax Square photos - actual film photos!

Pictured: Digital Inclusion Coordinator Leala Faleseuga

If you came into the library on Wednesday 1 March, you could have been forgiven for thinking you'd taken the DeLorean back to the 1980s. Staff were dressed up to celebrate the opening of the exhibition 'Rewind to the 80's'. 

The exhibition was a collaboration between Libraries Horowhenua and MAVtech, the Museum of Audio and Visual Technology (Foxton). It was a nostalgic flashback to the technology of the 1980s, an important decade full of momentum and transformation, with a new millennium on the horizon. Much of the technology we enjoy today stems from innovations from this time. 

MAVtech scoured their archives to find some fantastic examples... there's even a space helmet television! 

These images are scans of Instax Square photos - actual film photos!

Pictured: Services to Older Adults Librarian Jen Walton & Library Comms Coordinator Nicky Jenkins.

 If you came into the library on Wednesday 1 March, you could have been forgiven for thinking you'd taken the DeLorean back to the 1980s. Staff were dressed up to celebrate the opening of the exhibition 'Rewind to the 80's'.

The exhibition was a collaboration between Libraries Horowhenua and MAVtech, the Museum of Audio and Visual Technology (Foxton). It was a nostalgic flashback to the technology of the 1980s, an important decade full of momentum and transformation, with a new millennium on the horizon. Much of the technology we enjoy today stems from innovations from this time.

MAVtech scoured their archives to find some fantastic examples... there's even a space helmet television!

These images are scans of Instax Square photos - actual film photos!

Pictured: Information, Research and Local History Librarian Kiri Pepene

 If you came into the library on Wednesday 1 March, you could have been forgiven for thinking you'd taken the DeLorean back to the 1980s. Staff were dressed up to celebrate the opening of the exhibition 'Rewind to the 80's'.

The exhibition was a collaboration between Libraries Horowhenua and MAVtech, the Museum of Audio and Visual Technology (Foxton). It was a nostalgic flashback to the technology of the 1980s, an important decade full of momentum and transformation, with a new millennium on the horizon. Much of the technology we enjoy today stems from innovations from this time.

MAVtech scoured their archives to find some fantastic examples... there's even a space helmet television!

These images are scans of Instax Square photos - actual film photos!

Pictured: Collections and Content Librarian Larissa Dixon

If you came into the library on Wednesday 1 March, you could have been forgiven for thinking you'd taken the DeLorean back to the 1980s. Staff were dressed up to celebrate the opening of the exhibition 'Rewind to the 80's'.

The exhibition was a collaboration between Libraries Horowhenua and MAVtech, the Museum of Audio and Visual Technology (Foxton). It was a nostalgic flashback to the technology of the 1980s, an important decade full of momentum and transformation, with a new millennium on the horizon. Much of the technology we enjoy today stems from innovations from this time.

MAVtech scoured their archives to find some fantastic examples... there's even a space helmet television!

These images are scans of Instax Square photos - actual film photos!

Pictured: Library Communications Coordinator Nicky Jenkins

​

The art of the 'silly cat photo' so beloved by the internet dates back to the 1870s. Cats have been seen dressed up in suits (one even had a monocle on!) and were often accompanied by silly captions. 

This cat doesn't look at all pleased to be in it's photograph. As an image it lacks technical polish- the shadow of the photographer intrudes into the image. A hand (soon to be scratched, maybe?) holds the unwilling feline still. The whole thing is overexposed. 

While it wouldn't win any awards, snapshots like this are some of the most pure slices of life ever to be recorded. Even better, it is a magic lantern projector slide- it took effort to make it. So someone, somewhere saw the photo and thought 'that is worth keeping'. 

But it probably wasn't the cat.

In the dead of night, sometime in 1983/1984, two trainee radio technicians crept out of the staff hostel at the Himatangi Radio transmitting station and out into the darkness. Making their way to the main road they carefully (but not very quietly) removed the AA sign pointing towards the government communications station- stopping only to dive into the bushes every time a car drove past. Their mission complete, they snuck into the hostel and carefully hid the sign.

This AA sign remained a carefully guarded secret until 2016. The station had long gone- satellite communications led to it being obsolete and it was closed down in 1993, but a control panel and other equipment survived at the MAVtech Museum in Foxton. It now hangs from the ceiling and points the way to the radio exhibit. 

How many other road signs succumbed to pranks and hijinks in the decades the station operated? Nobody knows for sure- but given the stories we hear it probably wasn't just the one!

Just as we sit through ads before watching videos on YouTube, audiences were viewing advertising slides in the cinema over fifty years ago. Each slide lasted for only a few seconds and were shown at the end of intermission as the audience waited for the second half of their picture to begin.

Nobody goes to the cinema to see advertising and W.A. Coleman must have known this thanks to their slide's witty pun.  Each slide was shown for only a few seconds so the best of them had an eye catching design and a quick, memorable message. On those criteria this is one of the most effective slides held at MAVtech!

The Companies Offices shows W.A. Coleman was registered in 1956 but are no longer trading. Thanks to cinema advertising slides many local businesses live on in the archives of many museums.

Written on back - Jaycee Levin Event Elephant Race Wally Wise (Mayor), Val Hercus, , Ross Smith, Mr A. McCready

Elephant Race along Oxford Street, Levin, January 1963

4 elephants with local people ridering them dressed as jockeys

Any use of this image must be accompanied by the credit “Horowhenua Historical Society Inc.”

Hector McDonald on a horse in the Grand Hotel

Any use of this image must be accompanied by the credit “Horowhenua Historical Society Inc.”

Man in Period Costume

Any use of this image must be accompanied by the credit “Horowhenua Historical Society Inc.”

Penciled on back – Otaki

Written on back with blue ballpoint pen – Otaki 3c

Man & woman (unidentified) 1 B&W photo print

Man (left) wearing knitted wool cloak & dark glasses. Woman (right) wearing torn sack cloak & dark glasses.

Any use of this image must be accompanied by the credit “Horowhenua Historical Society Inc.”

Black and white photograph.

Larry Sykes, a magician who resided at Foxton Beach 1980-90s.

Black and white photograph.

Any use of this image must be accompanied by the credit “Foxton Historical Society”