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The Charlotte Museum
The Charlotte Museum Te Whare Takatāpui-Wāhine o Aotearoa, is a museum dedicated to lesbian histories in Auckland, New Zealand, located off Karangahape Road at 1A Howe Street, Freemans Bay. It is the only museum in the world dedicated solely to lesbian culture and history.[1] BackgroundThe Charlotte Museum's purpose is to collect, preserve, record and display lesbian herstory and cultural heritage.[2] As well as being a museum, the Charlotte Museum is also home to the Saphira Research Library & Document Archive as well as a Community Art Gallery and a Community Space. The museum regularly hosts a range of events including walking tours, artist and educator talks focused on lesbian sapphic histories, speed dating, music nights, movie nights and quiz nights. They also put on a student internship programme organised with the University of Auckland.[3] There is an option for women to donate their own collections of lesbian material culture for the Charlotte Museum to preserve, furthering the idea of a collective effort to preserve and display lesbian cultural heritage.[4] HistoryIn 2000, a group of Auckland women set out to change the status of lesbian culture in public history; at the time, there were almost no accessible public records on lesbian life.[5] Furthermore, the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand (LAGANZ) held in Wellington could not hold objects in their collection, resulting in tangible and visible lesbian culture at threat of being permanently lost. Subsequently, the Charlotte Museum was set up by Miriam Saphira, Nicola Jackson, Christine Hammerton and Paula Wallis in 2007 to preserve and build up lesbian histories.[6][7] The Charlotte Museum is named after Charlotte Prime (Ngāpuhi) and Charlotte Smith (Ngāpuhi), two lesbian women who were regular members of the KG Club.[3] Its first physical location was in Surrey Crescent, Grey Lynn, in 2008, a year after the Charlotte Museum Trust had been established.[3] This charitable trust emerged on 7 May 2007 in recognition of the Charlotte Museum being an organisation that benefits the public at large.[3][8] In 2018, the Charlotte Museum relocated to New Lynn and then to its current location in Freemans Bay in June 2023. Recent Exhibitions
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