Special Collections
In addition to the Alfred and Isabel Reed Collection, and the McNab New Zealand Collection, the Dunedin Public Library’s Heritage Collections have been augmented by a number of other significant donations made since 1927. These donors and their collections (in round brackets) include: Dorothy Stewart (W. H. Trimble Walt Whitman collection), Esmond de Beer (Sir Walter Scott), Eleanor Farjeon (the Farjeon family), and Jennie Johnston (H. Johnston). In 1985 a substantial donation from Emeritus Professor Colin Gibson established the Colin Gibson Hymnology Collection, which was augmented in 1992 by a further addition of approximately 1200 hymn books, donated by Professor Gibson and the Reverend Ross Wards of Wellington.
In addition to the above donations the Library acquired a collection of books and archival material of New Zealand author and journalist Hector Bolitho in 1975.