For those of you who were not able to join us last Thursday evening, you can now watch the keynote address here. Many thanks to Nicole Kearney for arranging this for us.

I have also posted a talk originally proposed for the symposium, but not specifcally related to natural history (though it does feature some marvellous animals in the watermarks). The talk is by Ian Christie-Miller, who has designed a very good system for photographing backlit watermarks and demonstrates in his talk the value of watermark information.

Thanks again to all who presented last Friday, esp. Rosi Crane for framing our day with clear connections to natural history publications in NZ, and to all who joined us online. I was relieved that the technology behaved for the most part, and am grateful for the support from the University lecture theatre technicians and eConferencing services. This was our largest symposium to date, thanks to online participation.

Double-page plate following Dedication; “Museum room, including crocodile on the ceiling”. By: Ferrante Imperato 1599. Courtesy of the Smithsonian.

Many thanks to all who submitted abstracts for the symposium.  We were not able to accommodate everyone, but we were excited by the high level of interest and pleased to welcome several participants from overseas who will join us by Zoom.  The selection of papers and speakers is given in our full programme.  The location of the symposium will be the St. David Lecture Theatre, across the Leith from the Clocktower building.  Even though we only anticipate a maximum crowd of about 70, social distancing arrangements mean that every other row is blocked off and only every third seat is usable, so we’ll be well separated.  Weather permitting, we’ll be able to circulate on the patio outside at tea breaks.  In any event, we can meet in person, but it will not be quite the same as past years.  And everything could still change if cases suddenly made their way south in the next 10 days.  We will advise everyone via email of any changes to plans.

Our keynote address will take place entirely via Zoom.  We look forward to hearing from Nicole Kearney and regret not being able to have her visit in person.

We will also be live-streaming the event for those who wish to join us from elsewhere or who are wary of groups in person.  We realise the NZ time zone is not ideal for everyone, especially Europeans.  We unfortunately do not have the resources to take a single recording of the event and reproduce individual presentations, and we don’t wish to break the day up into a string of separate Zoom meetings in the interest of sustaining conversations across the day.  So we do hope you can join us, at least for the talk or panel that most interests you.

The Centre for the Book and the English and Linguistics Programme is pleased to announce the publication of the latest title in the NZ Colonial Texts series.  This title, A Thousand Pities, was written by Ellen Taylor and published in London in 1901.  Now the novel is once again available, edited with an introduction by Kirsty Carpenter setting in the novel in its historical and social contexts.  An order form may be downloaded here, detailing payment options and contacts.

Happy reading!