A collection of published and unpublished material relating to the Municipal Electricity Department including photographs of Christchurch and surrounds taken in the course of the business from its formation in 1903. It also includes material from bodies that merged into the department as local body reorganisation, and electricity reform occurred up to the formation of Orion New Zealand.

The images document the building of the M.E.D. building in the 1930s, various types of the electrical infrastructure, and includes views of the city from early to mid twentieth century.