14 December 2009 

Since opening on 27 November 1999, the Museum of Wellington City & Sea's mission has been to preserve, present and promote Wellington’s social, cultural and maritime heritage.

The Museum recently celebrated its 10th birthday with the opening of 10 years in Wonderland – a feature exhibition that delves into the inner world of the Museum. In the style and setting of a Wonderland tea party, this mad hatter exhibition showcases the more unusual objects from the Museum collection which includes over 65,000 items. Some of these fascinating items are on display to the public for the very first time and all give a unique insight into Wellington’s stories with an eccentric twist. 

As part of this exhibition, the Museum has created a real-life personification of Vernon to help visitors better understand the role of Museum collections and cataloguing. In addition, a kiosk within the gallery space provides direct access to e-Hive to allow visitors to gather more information about each particular object in the exhibition. It is also a useful education tool for visiting school groups.

The Museum began using Vernon Systems in 1995 and to date has catalogued over 28,000 objects with the majority of work completed by Museum volunteers.