A popular weekly photo feature in the Otago Daily Times has led to the Otago Settlers Museum securing a slice of "motoring" history.
It has made a rare purchase, buying a pedal car used as a traffic education tool in New Zealand primary schools to add to its transport collection.
A 1958 Evening Star photograph showing a boy in a pedal car taking part in a traffic education lesson at Mornington School was reproduced in January last year as a Saturday "Within Living Memory" image from the past.
Settlers Museum curator Peter Read said a reader saw the photograph and rang the museum inviting it to buy a similar pedal car which he had owned for years.
The museum rarely bought items but decided to buy this one, he said this week.
"It was too good to pass up".
The German-made car has a fibreglass body and is powered by pedals and a chain. Mr Read said he did not know exactly when it was made but expected it was in the 1950s.
His research showed the former Department of Transport had dozens of cars and used them for about 20 years from the 1950s.
Mr Read said he did not know whether the museum's pedal car was its original colour or where it had been used.
"We hope it was used in Dunedin, but we don't know. We would love to hear from anyone who can tell us more."
Collections team leader Claire Nodder said the museum's acquisitions budget was "very small" and only two or three items were bought annually.
She would not say how much had been paid for the car.
"We bought it for its social value rather than its monetary value. It is something a lot of people will remember using when they were at school."
