Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Open every day 10am-6pm
(except Christmas Day)
Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Nancy Adams (1926–2007) was one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most notable botanists and a talented artist. One of Te Papa’s most prolific botany collectors of all time, she also painted and drew an incredible number of botanical illustrations. She used her artwork to produce important books about Aotearoa New Zealand’s flora, including seaweeds, flowers, trees, and alpine plants.
Talented artist and botanist Nancy Adams had a passion for algae and seaweed. This small display of collected specimens and vivid watercolours celebrates the centenary of Adams’ birth.
On now
Wed 22 July – November 2026
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga
Watch Senior Curator Art Rebecca Rice talking about Nancy Adams and her contribution to the art and botany collection at Te Papa.
Nancy Adams was a botanist, botanical artist, and museum curator. Over the course of her life, she illustrated over 40 publications on Aotearoa New Zealand flora, many written by her. Her publications covered trees, plants, and flowers, but she eventually specialised in marine algae, helping to develop Te Papa’s seaweed collection.
Art history research assistant Amy Holtman has helped rediscover Nancy Adams’ extensive work for the book An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, adding another layer to our understanding of Adams’ contributions to Aotearoa New Zealand’s culture and renewing our awareness of her impact on our cultural heritage.
Lucia Adams and Margo Montes de Oca spent some time looking through several of Nancy Adams’ field guides which were published as part of the ‘Mobil New Zealand Nature Series’ – in particular, Mountain Flowers in New Zealand (1980) and New Zealand Native Trees (1967).
Nancy Adams was a key player in the early decades of the Dominion Museum, making substantial curatorial contributions to collections spanning from colonial history to botany and producing illustrations, now a valuable part of the Te Papa Art collection Lucia Adams and Margo Montes de Oca discuss her influence and curatorial eye in Te Papa’s archives and in the outside world.
Te Papa holds journals filled with field notes from Adams’ research, as well as a collection of original drawings and plates. Several of the sketches and field notes are from her trips to Rakiura Stewart Island in 1971 and 1972, and over summer, researchers Lucia Adams and Margo Montes de Oca decided to investigate these trips in detail.
Aotearoa New Zealand’s extensive coastline is home to hugely diverse and luxuriant seaweed flora. Over the last 100 years, a significant number of women have contributed to the study of our macro-algae and showed a passion for the botanical world from an early age.
As a group of plants, macro-algae (or seaweeds) are little known and are often disregarded, but not by Nancy Adams.
Of the 3322 specimens she collected for Te Papa’s herbarium, over two thirds – 2285 – are algae.
As part of a summer research project, Lucia Adams and Annie Barnard have been working with Te Papa’s collection of Nancy Adams’ works, digitising botanical specimens, enriching catalogue records, and writing about her work and influence. They are taking a series of field trips to sites that were important in Nancy’s life and work. Here is the first in a series of blogs documenting these trips.
In the second blog in this series Lucia Adams from Botany and Annie Barnard from Art visit more sites and interview people important in the professional life of Nancy Adams.
As part of a summer research project, Lucia Adams from Botany and Annie Barnard from Art took a series of field trips to sites that were important in Nancy Adam’s life and work. Here is the third and final in a series of blogs documenting these trips.
She collected 3,321 botanical specimens for the Te Papa herbarium, and identified a staggering 6,874 additional specimens in the collection. Te Papa also holds a vast collection of paintings and drawings by Nancy Adams, as well as field notebooks, photographs, and other archival material. Explore Nancy Adams’ entire catalogue on Collections Online.
As well as painting, drawing and describing New Zealand flora, Nancy Adams also collected and identified botanical specimens – including Myosotis (forget-me-not).
The Three Kings Islands are a hotspot for seaweed diversity – a fact recognised early on by Dominion Museum (Te Papa’s predecessor) Assistant Curator of Botany Nancy Adams.
Forest Scene, by Nancy Adams CBE. Purchased 2007. CC BY 4.0. Te Papa (CA000888/027/0002)
Watercolour and crayon titled "Coromandel Coast", about 1940–1990, by Nancy Adams CBE. Purchased 2007. CC BY 4.0. Te Papa (CA000925/002/0010)
Te Papa’s botanical collections and research encompass marine algae (seaweeds), lichens, mosses, liverworts, lycophytes, ferns, and seed plants.
The magnificent plant world of Aotearoa New Zealand in art and object.
