Marsden Collection Online Soon
Two hundred years ago (in December) Rev Samuel Marsden gave the first Christian service on New Zealand soil at Oihi Bay, in the Bay of Islands, and planted the first group of missionaries before he sailed back to New South Wales. This early missionary activity generated considerable paper records between the missionaries, marsden, and the Church Missionary Society. These comprise the Marsden Papers at the Hocken Library, containing journals as well as hundred of letters. For over 20 years, Gordon Parsonson, a former member of Otago’s History Department – now aged 94, has been transcribing this hand-written material, some of which will soon go online.
Click here to see a recent Otago Daily Times article on Gordon Parsonson.
The digitization project has been led by the University Library and Hocken Library, with considerable input from the Centre for Research on Colonial Culture.
The Marsden project will go live in November, and will become a great resource for historians and other Humanities scholars.
