A Living Memorial: A.H. Reed’s Legacy to Dunedin

In 2025, the Dunedin Public Library commemorates A.H. Reed’s 150th birthday with an exhibition A Living Memorial: A.H. Reed’s Legacy to Dunedin, which opens on 14 November in the Reed Gallery, 3rd Floor, City Library.

In the 1920s, Dunedin resident Alfred Hamish Reed (1875-1975), publisher and Christian educationalist, expressed his intention to build a collection of books and autographs “appropriate for a city founded on the principles of religion and education” and in 1948 he made his first substantial gift to the city.

Though the Reed Collection is best known today for its printed Bibles and medieval manuscripts, these items were less prominent in his original gift. More significant then were the large number of autograph letters, inscribed or autographed books with a relationship to a famous person or event, works relating to Charles Dickens and Samuel Johnson, and books about calligraphy and the art of illuminating (which Reed did as a side-line to earn extra money). There were only two medieval manuscripts, three Bibles and nine books printed before 1800.

The ‘golden years’ of A.H. Reed’s purchasing of rare books for the Dunedin Public Library actually occurred between about 1950 and the mid-1960s. The vast majority of the historically significant Bibles, in both manuscript and printed form, were acquired during this period.

Some of the ‘crown jewels’ of the Reed Collection are showcased, but rather than making these the centrepiece of the exhibition, the intent is to capture something of the flavour of the collecting passions of Mr Reed himself, and to pay tribute to his vision.

A Living Memorial: A.H. Reed’s Legacy to Dunedin

Reed Gallery | Floor 3 | Dunedin City Library