In 1879 pioneer cycling enthusiasts formed the Pioneer Bicycle Club to foster 'the new and exciting sport of bicycle racing' and to cater for sportsmen from all around the South Island interested in cycling. In 1889 the club amalgamated with the Canterbury Amateur Athletic Club, also founded in 1879, to form the Pioneer Amateur Bicycle & Athletic Club. In 1904 the club's headquarters building was opened and it became the centre for a wide variety of amateur sports ranging from cycling to billiards, tennis and mountaineering. A motor club was added in 1918 and the organisation was renamed the Pioneer Amateur Motor and Sports Club. In 1919 older members formed the Pioneer Sports Club Company Limited as a holding company to own and manage the club's premises. In 1933 a fire badly damaged the building, which was not reopened until 1935. Also in 1933 the club's name reverted to simply the Pioneer Amateur Sports Club. Membership dwindled as other sports established their own headquarters, and in 1968 the club was disbanded. In 1976 the club company was wound up and its assets handed to the Christchurch City Council.

In addition to providing a history of the development of sporting bodies, the collection offers insights into social history: the motor club provided transport for nurses making house calls during the flu epidemic of 1918; a debt collector was employed to chase up overdue fees from members during the Depression; J.E. Green’s correspondence ranges from comments about member S.G. Holland’s chances of being elected Prime Minister to Green’s views about professional sportsmen corrupting amateur sports. Although primarily Canterbury focussed, F.J. Macdonald’s Tracks of the Wheel, provides handwritten accounts of the numerous cycling trips he made throughout New Zealand between 1896-1911. The Images Series contains many individual portraits and scenes of sporting events. The portraits and membership lists may also be of interest to family historians. The collection is a growing one as club secretaries periodically donate more recent material. The latest addition includes the papers of the Pioneer Motor Club, donated in November 2007.