Dominion Museum

The New Zealand Dominion Museum building was completed in 1936, and is located on Buckle Street in Wellington next to the National War Memorial. The building originally housed the National Museum, the National Art Gallery of New Zealand and the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. It currently houses part of the Massey University Wellington Campus. Prior to 1913, the Dominion Museum was known as the Colonial Museum. The Colonial Museum was originally housed in a small wooden building behind what is now the New Zealand Parliament Buildings. In 1930, the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum Act 1930 established a board of trustees, leading to the building on Buckle street. The building housed the Dominion Museum, the National Art Gallery of New Zealand and the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts (who had sold their land and donated the proceeds to the new organisation on the provision that they would be accommodated). In 1972, an act of Parliament updated the Dominion Museum's name to the National Museum. In 1992 Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Act 1992 combined the National Museum and the National Art Gallery to form the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The Dominion Museum building was featured in Peter Jackson's 1996 film the Frighteners, and in Peter Webber's 2012 film Emperor