The newly built Gore Coronation Library, photographed in 1910, was one of 18 libraries in New Zealand to be built with funds from the Carnegie Foundation, established by Scottish-born American businessman Andrew Carnegie. At the time of its opening it housed 2125 books, with room to add another 10,000.
By the 1980s, the library collection had outgrown the space and shifted to a new building. The old library underwent extensive renovations and in 1984 opened as the Eastern Southland Gallery, which is now recognised as one of the country’s leading provincial art galleries.
