The Cyclopedia of New Zealand

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand: industrial, descriptive, historical, biographical facts, figures, illustrations was an encyclopaedia published in New Zealand between 1897 and 1908 by the Cyclopedia Company Ltd.Arthur McKee was one of the original directors of the company that published The Cyclopedia, and his business partner H. Gamble worked with him on the first volume. Six volumes were published on the people, places and organisations of provinces of New Zealand. Despite being vanity press (articles were largely paid for by their subjects) and almost wholly restricted to white male European colonists to the exclusion of Māori, women and other minorities, the Cyclopedia is now a key historical resource because of its breadth of coverage. Many small towns and social institutions were covered which were poorly covered by contemporary newspapers. The first volume, which covered Wellington, also included the colonial government, politicians, governors, and public servants. The first volume was produced in Wellington, and the remaining volumes were produced in Christchurch.

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand was superseded by the three-volume An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand published by the Government of New Zealand in 1966 and then later Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, a government-run, born-digital encyclopaedia established in 2002.

The Cyclopedia was digitised by the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre in 2008–2009.

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