This fossilised ammonite represents one of the oldest items in the NZHPT’s collections.  At the least, it would be 65 million years old.  Ammonites were predatory, squid-like creatures which lived in the oceans between 240 and 65 million years ago.

Today, these creatures are known to exist only from their fossilised remains. Their closest living relatives include the octopus, squid and nautilus.  The Roman natural philosopher Pliny the Elder named these fossils ammonis cornua after the Egyptian god Ammon (Amun). Amun was typically depicted with ram’s horns, which is echoed in the distinctive coil shape of the fossil.

This specimen is from Cambridge, England, and is a sample of Upper Greensand, a sedimentary rock from the Cretaceous period (145 – 65 million years ago). The characteristic coil shape and the chambers of the shell are clearly visible.

It is one of the many ancient items at the Thames School of Mines, whose collection contains hundreds of fossils and thousands of minerals from a range of periods and locations.

At the time this daguerreotype was made, Dr Henry Weekes (1804 / 1814-1894) was studying medicine at the University College, London.  The daguerreotype process was announced in 1839 by a French inventor, Louis Daguerre.  The images created by this process have great clarity, and this became a popular medium for photographic portraits.

The subject of the photograph, Henry Weekes, emigrated to New Zealand in 1840, and worked as the surgeon-superintendent on board the ‘William Bryan’, which arrived in New Plymouth on 30 March 1841.  The following year Weekes returned to England, however in 1845 he again set forth to New Zealand, with his wife accompanying him.  They remained in Auckland until 1849, when they sold their property and departed for California.  Weekes returned to England before coming back to New Zealand in 1854, where he served in the Auckland Militia during the New Zealand wars.  Dr Weekes was a prominent identity on the early Thames goldfield, noted as the Health Officer in 1869. 

Encased in a leather case with mother of pearl decoration, this daguerreotype was donated to the Thames School of Mines in the late 1960s.

This collection of minerals and stones is housed in the Thames School of Mines Mineralogical Museum.  The museum was designed as a teaching tool for gold miners to learn about the nature of the minerals they were mining.  The collection contains a large number of specimens from the local area, as well as from destinations further afield – including Russia, Borneo, Sweden and Mexico.

Mineral and stone specimens were donated and loaned to the Mineralogical Museum for the purpose of education.  Currently the Museum is home to a broad range of colourful, unusual, as well as some rare examples of geological specimens.

The NZHPT collections project is still making interesting discoveries that often demonstrate a personal touch. Recently discovered tucked in a locker in the Teaching Laboratory at the Thames School of Mines is an exercise book, dated 1896.  

Written in the book are notes and diagrams on geology, geometry and plate tectonics. Its owner had obviously suffered the annoyance of lending out his books only never to see them again.  Penned inside the front cover is the following poem:  

“If borrowed by a friend
Right welcome he shall be
To read to study not to lend
But to return to me

Not that imparted knowledge doth
Diminish learning store
But things I find if often lent
Return to me no more

Black is the raven
Black is the rook
Black is the School of Mines boy
That steals this book”.

This oil painting was created W Huddlestone in 1896.  The subject of the painting is the May Queen Mine, which was located in Thames.  Several buildings are depicted, including the stamping battery, which was located close to the mine shaft.  In the battery, heavy iron stamps crushed the gold bearing quartz.  A raised tramway crosses the valley, and several figures are shown working on and around these structures.  In the background of the composition is the Firth of Thames, Tikapa Moana and the Haupakekoha Ranges. 

Gold mining in Thames reached its pinnacle in 1871, five years after mining had commenced in the region, when over 1,000,000 ounces of bullion was extracted.  Nearly 1000 stamps were in action around Thames, many of these were working day and night to crush quartz in order to extract the gold and silver from it 24 hours a day, six days a week.