In the Museum and Beyond
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JOIN USWhat’s On for history fans
There’s always something happening at Cambridge Museum from fascinating talks and local history displays to special community events. Come along, discover stories from our past, and connect with people who care about keeping our heritage alive.
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Friday 7 November, 10.30am, Morning Tea & Display Planning
Join us at the Museum for a relaxed morning tea as we plan our new summer display together. This year’s theme is “The Kitchen” — a celebration of the everyday objects that have shaped how we cook, eat and live.
Bring your memories and ideas for items to include, share your stories over a cuppa, and help us create a display that truly connects with visitors.
RSVP by Wednesday 5 November for catering purposes.
Thursday, 20 November 2025, Cambridge Historical Society AGM and Special Talk:
Reel Conversations: Stories from Cambridge Filmmakers Matt Hicks (The Tavern) and Andrew Johnstone (When the Cows Come Home).
Cambridge Bridge Club, Fort Street, 7pm. FREE and all welcome
Join the Cambridge Historical Society for a short AGM and a special evening with local filmmakers Matt Hicks (The Tavern) and Andrew Johnstone (When the Cows Come Home). From town streets to Fencourt paddocks, discover how Cambridge has been captured on screen.
RSVP by Monday 17 November for catering purposes.
Please note this event is not organised by the Museum but will be of interest to history fans. Please use the link below to register.
Public Lecture: The Last Witnesses of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Professor M.G. Sheftall
Friday 5 December 2025 Time: 5:00-6:30 pm Venue: St. Andrew’s Anglican Church Parish Centre, Cambridge
Sponsor: Japan Studies Centre, New Zealand Asia Institute, University of Auckland
Please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/public-lecture-the-last-witnesses-of- hiroshima-and-nagasaki-tickets
Since 2016, Japan-based cultural historian M.G. Sheftall has been asking hibakusha – survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – to share with him their memories of the worst day of their lives. In the two volumes to arise from this research- iroshima: The Last Witnesses (Dutton, 2024) and Nagasaki: The Last Mitnesses (Dutton, 2025)- Sheftall layers the stories of hibakusha in harrowing detail, to give a minute-by-minute account of the leadup, execution, and aftermath of the world-changing atomic bombing missions of 6 August and 9 August 1945.
These survivors and witnesses, who now have an average age over ninety years old, are quite literally fhe last people who can still provide us with reliable and detailed testimony about life in their cities before the bombings, tell us what they experienced on the day those cities were obliterated,and give us some appreciation of whatit has entailed to live with those memories and scars during the subsequent seventy- plus years. The personal accounts they contain serve as cautionary tales abont horror and insanity of nuclear warfare, reminding us- it is hoped that the world still lives with this danger at our doorstep. But the stories these hibakusha have shared with Sheftall- and through him, with all of us — also stand as testaments to the incredible resilience of the human spirit in the face unfathomable horror, suffering, and destruction.
About the speaker: M.G. Sheftall is a professor of modern Japanese cultural history and communication at Shizuoka University. His research focuses on the modern evolution of Japanese national identity, with particular emphasis on WWII and the lingering effects of that conflict at both. ollective and individual levels of Japanese consciousness. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed Blossoms in the Wnd: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze (NAL Caliber, 2005), his first major work of Japanese WWII oral history.
Please register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/public-lecture-the-last-witnesses-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-tickets
FRIENDS ONLY EVENT – Join here
Tuesday May 26th, 2026 – JOINT PARTNERSHIP HISTORY LECTURE – Christopher Archer & Warren Dawson ( – Recovering a New Zealand ANZAC Legacy – The Story of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade in Egypt and Palestine (1916–1919)
On the eve of WWI in 1914, New Zealand dispatched two brigades to join the Imperial Army—one of Infantry and one of Mounted Horse. After Gallipoli, the infantry was sent to Europe, but the Mounted Brigade remained in Egypt.
Over the next three years, the troopers of the NZMR rode 400 miles across desert and mountain in a campaign that defeated the Ottoman, German, and Austrian forces in a series of victories unmatched in military history. Yet, their extraordinary story was largely forgotten in the aftermath of the war—until, a hundred years later, their legacy began to be recovered.
Christopher Archer, historian and author of Saviours of Zion, and Warren Dawson, who retraced his grandfather’s route in partnership with Israeli historians, will share their insights into this remarkable history. Together, they have also been closely involved with the project to erect a 5-metre Silver Fern memorial in Gan Sorek, Israel, commemorating the New Zealand troopers who fought in Palestine.
FRIENDS ONLY EVENT – Join here
Tuesday August 25th, 2026 – JOINT PARTNERSHIP HISTORY LECTURE – Dr James Goodrich – Odontology and a Marine: The Battle of Tarawa
Dr James (Jimbo) Goodrich is an active forensic odontologist in Cambridge, with more than 25 years experience in the field.He attended the Christchurch Earthquake, Mosque Shootings, and Whakaari White Island Volcano disaster victim identification efforts, as well as more routine individual identification work for the police.
He has presented internationally on his work with Drs Corinne D’Anjou and David Senn with identification of marines from the Battle of Tarawa in 1941, among other things.
Jim is a Fellow of several organisations, including the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and is a past president of the New Zealand Society of Forensic Odontology.
Jim is one of the few members of the New Zealand Society of Forensic Odontology to have been fully credentialed in Bitemarks, and his current interests are in the field of the ethical considerations around using dental age estimation to threshold adulthood.
FRIENDS ONLY EVENT – Join here
Tuesday October 27th, 2026 – – JOINT PARTNERSHIP HISTORY LECTURE -Rod Smith – From Galway to the Waikato Land War – A peerage family’s connections
Rod Smith, family history researcher and writer, presents “Galway to the Waikato Land Wars – A Peerage Family’s Connections”.
Rod is a retired public servant, and former newspaper journalist and probation officer. His career included time crewing a cargo freighter, work in an English youth conference centre, and service in the Justice Department, Parliament, the Ministry of Defence, the Forest Service, and the Accident Compensation Corporation.
An avid family historian for over 35 years he has researched in depth his wife’s connections to landed Irish families, publishing his findings in two books – Guinness Down Under: the famous brew and the family come to Australia and New Zealand (2017) and Clancarty: the high times and humble of a noble Irish Family (2024). While researching Clancarty he discovered reports of the family’s involvement in the Waikato Land War of 1863-64 and a revealing speech given by the 3rd Earl of Clancarty in the House of Lords in 1864 on the subject of New Zealand race relations. Rod’s presentation will explore the events of 1863-64 and the several connections between the Earls of Clancarty and New Zealand.