Marguerite Durling, one of our amazing Online Cenotaph volunteer transcribers, recently received an Associate Emerita of the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The Museum Medals 2021 ceremony was held in the Events Centre on Tuesday 28 June 2022. We are publishing Marguerite's speech below, as well as the introduction given by David Reeves, Director of Collections & Research.

Introduction

Marguerite Durling has been a tireless supporter of Auckland Museum in a voluntary capacity for nearly 20 years. In both public-facing roles and behind the scenes she has given countless hours across a range of activities.  The least visible of these has been her transcription of hand-written archives and manuscripts, creating versions accessible to researchers. It is delicate, detailed, and often monotonous work, that most people would not have the patience, time or ability to do take on. By way of example, she completed transcribing 700 pages of a Royal New Zealand Navy list numbering 14,000 entries, 50 years of Thomas Cheeseman’s Botany Letters, (including all the Latin references), the J.A. Smith Letter Book of the mid-1880s with references to the early years of the Museum. Marguerite has also documented the historical minutes of the Institute Council and this is only a fraction of what she has worked on.

Marguerite arrived in Auckland as a child with her family in the 1950s. On their first day in the city, nothing was open, so they visited the Auckland Museum which began a lifelong interest and association. In 2003 she became a volunteer at the Museum and worked on the Information Desk welcoming visitors. She soon completed training to become a Guide, a role she has carried out for the last 16 years.

In 2007 Marguerite joined both the Museum Circle and the Institute. As well as giving her time, Marguerite has made a number of generous financial contributions to specific Museum projects (for which she has not sought public acknowledgement, preferring the quiet satisfaction of contributing to the Museum’s success).

Marguerite Durling is an outstanding example of the value of skilled and motivated volunteers at the Museum.  The many aspects of her tireless support and her gifts of time and of sharing her knowledge make her a very worthy medal recipient.  We are delighted to announce Margurite Durling as Associate Emerita of AWMM for 2021.

- David Reeves, Director Collections & Research

Oh my!  I feel so hugely honoured that Lyndy Sainsbury and Lisa Rudolphe instigated this nomination – thank you so much.  Lyndy’s Uncle Jim was the first to get me started transcribing with his brothers’ WWII correspondence.

But, Actually, it’s me that owes an enormous debt of gratitude to the Auckland Museum for the wonderfully productive and stimulating retirement I’ve had as a volunteer here. 

It is often said that managing volunteers is like herding cats and Ros Currie with her assistant Alfiya have that remarkable ability to have over 280 of us purring in no time; keeping us all engaged and taking our passion for the Museum to our own communities.

I also owe the Documentary Heritage team a huge thank you for allowing me to transcribe some of the many letters, diaries and journals held in this amazing collection. Particularly Elizabeth Lorimer, whose enthusiasm for the collections she cares for is truly infectious.   

You know, putting digitized handwritten documents online doesn’t necessarily make them readable. The Williams Missionaries for example – they often wrote page 3 of a letter at right angles over the top of page 1.   (Computer geeks, please don’t take this as a challenge – I’m very happy doing what I do).   

All my interminable Lockdown days were filled with the company of so many correspondents, known and not-so-known – Like an early bushman who had seen live Huia and learned their call – Wow, we can actually hear that whistle with a trill at the end – that I couldn’t put into words but it’s there!!

Thomas Cheeseman's Botany Field Books were a different challenge with all those 5-syllable names! A copy of his NZ Flora found on TradeMe helped so I can now spell Metrosideros polymorpha  (I can even show you one; Arthur Purchas had a whole avenue of them planted in the Domain!)

I do think Thomas would be tickled to think he still has a secretary today!!  I know his sisters would – Their devilishly funny stories of 1890s Institute Day Trips were a dose of light relief   – no mention of any scientific names.

Today’s Institute day trips aren’t quite so adventurous as getting the steamer stuck on a sandbank at South Head and having to wait till early next morning to float it off. 

It is gratifying to see that the Auckland Museum Institute (AMI) is still playing its part in Museum life today. Supporting the Postgraduate Scholarship Programmes is a key part of the AMI’s programme; so we’re delighted to see these young people’s successes acknowledged here tonight.

I am not a big fan  of having a Bucket List – I always thought I would be better to do that risky stuff whilst I was young enough to heal and before the humiliation of Twitter and Facebook.  But I do have one ambition and that is to be here for the 100^th anniversary of this building in 2029

So, ka nui te mihi – thank you once again and, please may I stay a little longer? (There’s a few thousand more Navy records to go!)

- Marguerite Durling, Associate Emerita of the Auckland War Memorial Museum

We asked Marguerite to identify some of the challenges faced when transcribing handwritten records and she has provided her preliminary list below.

• Blunt pencil (did no one have a pencil sharpener)
• Faint pencil - faded to nothing
• Smudged ink - just as bad
• Blurred scans - make me feel cross-eyed
• Poor spelling
• Crossing out or writing over the top (much cleaner/easier with 'delete' on computers)
• Ships with similar names (Waitaki/Waitoki/Waiana/Waipaki, Gail/Gale,   Baltannic/Baltraffic) writers often start the word well and then scribble the ending
• Home interruptions
• Cat balanced on knee (never had to manage that in the office)

The Online Cenotaph team thank Marguerite for all her tireless work transcribing tens of thousands of names for Online Cenotaph across eight transcription projects and counting. Her energy for, and expertise in, transcription, is second to none and we are so proud she has been honoured by Auckland Museum for her work.