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Story: Regional cultural life

Thomas Morland Hocken with a Māori carving

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Thomas Morland Hocken with a Māori carving

Thomas Morland Hocken was a Dunedin doctor who developed a passion for collecting objects of Māori and Pacific ethnology and books pertinent to the history of New Zealand. He gave his ethnological collections to the Otago Museum, and his books formed the basis of the Hocken Library, which opened in 1910, the year of his death. Hocken's collections and his public lectures helped inspire an interest in history among the Dunedin community during the late 19th century.

Using this item

Hocken Collections, University of Otago

Reference: S04-309a

Permission of the Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, must be obtained before any re-use of this image. Further information may be obtained from the Library through its website.

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How to cite this page

Pip Howells, Regional cultural life – Early regional arts and culture, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/44485/thomas-morland-hocken-with-a-maori-carving (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Pip Howells, published 14 March 2014.