Wartime friendship … and romance

Monday, December 6th, 2010 | Anna Blackman | No Comments

“Thank you so much for your lovely cheery letter. My family which is large all took turns in reading it. Although we are lonesome for our two marine sons Walter and Richard, we are consoled to know that such lovely people like yourself and Tom Hickey (Richards friend) do cheer them up.”
So begins a 1943 letter from Emily Shulich, Chicago, to Betty Manley of Lower Hutt. Betty served as a hostess at the American Red Cross’s Cecil Club, providing hospitality to the large influx of American servicemen in New Zealand. She kept up a correspondence with several of the men she met there, along with some of their families, who were grateful for contact with friends of sons who seldom wrote themselves. The letters she received form a substantial part of the papers of the Watson and Manley families (ARC-0665).
Letters from American servicemen to Betty Manley. The censor has cut out a word from Hugh Keahey’s letter, which would have revealed how many miles his camp was from the nearest large town.

The Americans were grateful for the hospitality they received in Wellington. Hugh Keahey wrote to Betty early in 1944 commenting on his sadness at leaving: “As we passed out of the harbor I raised my hand in salute and silently thanked you, the Carters, Louie, Jean (yes Jean too) sincerely for your friendship and kindnesses.” His friend Jesse Allen was less flattering about his time in Wellington: “The reason this is a good nite to write is because I am reminded that it was just a year ago today that we crawled off the boat in Gookland to spend seven dreary months. As I went out to Mudford I thought it was the most gosh awful country I ever saw. Never did change my mind much. Now how do you like that.” Allen had a lively writing style and his letters are full of teasing remarks. The servicemen clearly found Betty Manley attractive. Walter Shulich’s sister Diana wrote to Betty about three photographs her brother had shown the family: “He said the snapshots didn’t flatter you at all and that you were much better looking, although the snapshots showed you to be very pretty. (Yesiree!).”
Meanwhile, Betty Manley was also corresponding with Reg Watson, a Dunedin printer who was serving overseas with the 5th New Zealand Field Ambulance. He sent her letters, cards, telegrams (including a concerned one reading “No news of you for some time …”), postcards of “the eternal city,” textiles from Jerusalem, books and gloves. Some New Zealand women married American servicemen and started new lives in the USA, but Betty’s destiny lay in the south: in 1945 she married Reg Watson and moved to Dunedin.
Some of the items sent by Reg Watson to Betty Manley.

Blog post prepared by Ali Clarke, Reference Assistant

All Hail! Zealandia!

Monday, November 22nd, 2010 | Anna Blackman | No Comments

Zealandia was a familiar symbol to New Zealanders of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Akin to Great Britain’s Britannia and America’s Columbia, she personified New Zealand in poetry, song, and political cartoons, and even appeared on postage stamps and household goods. Her statue surmounts the Boer War memorial at Palmerston.


The depiction of Zealandia on the cover of the song ‘All Hail! Zealandia!’ emphasises the colony’s youth and agricultural wealth (which apparently extended to the production of pineapples!). She carries the United Tribes flag, selected as New Zealand’s first official ensign in 1834. Replaced by the Union Flag in 1840, it became an important symbol of Māori independence and resistance to Crown-perpetuated injustice. It also retained some currency as a patriotic symbol, appearing on this sheet music more than forty years after it fell from official use.


The first verse of the song proclaims:

All hail! Zealandia!

Queen of the Southern Isles

On whose bright destiny

Benignant Nature smiles

Louder than cannon’s roar

Echo from shore to shore

All hail! Zealandia!

Zealandia! All hail!


The music was composed by Robert Peel Crosbie, a Railways Department employee and enthusiastic amateur musician from Christchurch. Francis Hopkins Valpy is sometimes credited with the words, but Crosbie claimed to have written them with Valpy’s assistance. The first performance took place at Lyttelton in 1871 or 1872, several years before the composition of ‘God Defend New Zealand’. This makes ‘All Hail! Zealandia!’ one of New Zealand’s earliest national songs.


An alternative setting by Dunedin music teacher Frederick Leech was published in 1874, and widely performed during the following 20 or 30 years. Crosbie’s original but less known version was eventually published in 1885 with a dedication to former premier Sir Julius Vogel. A reviewer at the time described the work as a stirring song of ‘eminently national type’ and suggested that it should become immensely popular.


The piece was ‘uncommonly well printed’ by the Lyttelton Times Company, although there is a spelling mistake on the cover for those who care to look for it!


All Hail! Zealandia! Words and music by R.P. Crosbie

Christchurch: Lyttelton Times (printers), [1885].


David Murray, Assistant Archivist, Hocken Collections.

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2010 Hocken Lecture

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 | Anna Blackman | No Comments


Constructing a past: Hocken and the memorialising
of history

Tuesday 16 November, 5.30pm, followed by refreshments


Castle 1 Lecture Theatre, University of Otago, Dunedin

ALL WELCOME


The theme of this year’s Hocken Lecture will be drawn from Jock Phillips’ thinking about Hocken and his generation of history-makers. He says “Dr Hocken was a leading member of the first generation of Pakeha New Zealanders who set out to construct a past for New Zealand. He did so partly through his writing but more importantly through his collecting. At the same time there was another way of preserving memories of the past. New Zealanders began to put up memorials, statues and monuments throughout the country to make permanent the memory of significant people and historical events. In this lecture I want to explore briefly the history that Hocken sought to preserve and then to compare this with the history memorialised in stone in New Zealand in 1880-1914”. This is a theme that resonates with the Library’s celebration of its centenary of service to scholarship and documenting life in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Treasures abound in recently catalogued scout archives

Friday, October 22nd, 2010 | Anna Blackman | No Comments

The first New Zealand scout troop was officially registered at Kaiapoi on 3 July 1908, following the arrival of Baden-Powell’s book ‘Scouting for Boys’ in New Zealand. The movement was formed by Lieutenant-Colonel O. Cossgrove, who became the first chief commissioner.
Originally a branch of the United Kingdom Scout Association, the New Zealand Boy Scouts Association became independent in 1953 and in this year became the Scout Association of New Zealand.  In 1911, the first all-Maori scout troop was formed at Ohinemutu.  Cubbing was introduced in 1916 and Venturer scouting was introduced in 1965.

The records of the New Zealand Scout Association, Otago Area, held at the Hocken occupy over seven and a half metres of shelving and include those of scout groups from all over Otago, such as the Owaka Scout Group, Halfway Bush Scout Group and North East Valley Scout Group.

The collections include a vast array of material, such as minute books, logs, scrapbooks, jamboree papers, newsletters, magazines, photographs and textile banners.
An example of a handwritten, illustrated log of a trip to Port Craig by Andersons Bay Rover Sea Scout Crew, 1955 (image from MS-3486/010):


A colourful log book entry of the 13th Dunedin North East Valley Scout Troop describing an account of Easter camp and woodcraft signs, 1951 (image from MS-3486/103):

The earliest record is a minute book of the St Martin’s Boy Scouts, which began in April 1927, before changing to North East Valley Boy Scouts in 1935. (Image from MS-3486/090).
The Rovering branch of scouting was officially started in England in 1917. The First Dunedin District Rover Crew was established in 1926. Handwritten, illustrated log of a caving trip to Dunback by Andersons Bay Rover Sea Scout Crew, 1954 (image from MS-3486/009).
There are approximately 16,000 Scouts in New Zealand.  In the lower South Island there are currently 50 active scout groups, 12 Venturer Units and 2 Rover Crews.  There are plenty of newsletters being produced to keep people up to date on developments:
Image from MS-3486/017

Visitors are welcome to come in and view the scouting material, or you can look through our listings on ‘Hakena’ at http://hakena.otago.ac.nz/nreq/Welcome.html

Post prepared by Debbie Gale, Arrangement and Description Archivist.

Subdivision map of Kelvin Grove Dunedin

Monday, September 27th, 2010 | Anna Blackman | 1 Comment

Kelvin Grove Dunedin, by Bastings, Leary & Co., 1879. R. Hay surveyor.

One of the most attractive sales plans in the collection and typical of its time, this black and white auction notice for the North East Valley subdivision of Kelvin Grove plays up the rustic element with heading and border of twigs and a sketch of the rural location. Why not live with nature only a few minutes’ tram ride from the city?

The land, which is on the west side of North Road, was purchased from William Henry Valpy in 1852 by James Hunter who named the area Kelvin Grove after his Scottish home north of Glasgow. By 1879 it was in the hands of local entrepreneur David Proudfoot who began a regular steam and horse drawn tram service the same year, building tramsheds and stables at the foot of the subdivision. To encourage patronage he entered tram ticket numbers in a lottery with building sections in the subdivision as prizes.

The auction plan shows existing land use, and features such as water courses, native bush, existing buildings and proposed roads. The steam and horse-drawn trams shown were replaced by electric ones in 1903.

Blog posted prepared by Karen Craw, Senior Library Assistant – Maps, with reference to Gary Blackman’s  North East Valley History notes 2005.

Miranda Looks Back – a reminiscence of John Gully

Monday, September 6th, 2010 | Anna Blackman | 1 Comment

Myrtle Lee was born in Taranaki in 1876. Her father was the educationalist Robert Lee, and her grandfather the painter John Gully. Lee studied at the Slade School of Art, London, and became art mistress at Heathfield School, Ascot. In the 1950s she wrote ‘Miranda Looks Back’, an unpublished book of illustrated childhood reminiscences written for children. In one chapter Lee recalls her impressions of her grandparents’ and their house at Nelson in the 1880s:

Our grandparents lived across in the other island and we all loved to go and stay with them in their large gabled wooden house with a verandah all round and a big rose garden. I slept in a wee fairy-tale bedroom up in one of the gables.
They both seemed incredibly old but I think now it was their solemn ways and clothes, and because I was so young.

There was a mystery about them – especially my grandfather, who disappeared all day and was not to be disturbed. He appeared at meals. There he sat with his white whiskers and his kind eyes with their heavy eyelids like my mother’s. I scarcely took my eyes off his face and wondered what he did all day.

I knew what grandmother did. She bustled about the house seeing to old May who did the housework. Seeing to the gardener who produced the fruit and vegetables. Seeing to her sewing parties. These latter were made up of legions of good women doing good works for the poor. They sent off crates of strange and useful garments for Dr Barnado’s Homes in England.

It wasn’t exactly a house for children – we had to be so very good, and what was worse, we wanted to be. Were they not the mother and father of our mother? Yes, and so gentle and kind. These quiet old things living in a sleepy hollow of a town were the same doughty pioneers who landed on a rough beach some 50 years before.

One never-to-be-forgotten day I was exploring the rather rambling house and found a door, usually shut, wide open. There was no one in it. It was full of light which came from a skylight, and big French windows with shutters opened into a rose garden bright with the sun. There among the roses was my grandfather. But it was the room that caught my attention.

So that was it – a studio! My grandfather was an artist. I stared at the unfinished picture on the easel, at the paintboxes and the brushes, at all the lovely paraphernalia, and I crept away, most satisfied, for from that house I knew what I was going to do when I grew up.

[Lee, Myrtle: Reminiscences entitled ‘Miranda Looks Back’. Misc-MS-1997.]

Blogpost researched and written by David Murray, Assistant Archivist.

100 Up – a snapshot of Dunedin life: 1910 & 2010

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 | Anna Blackman | No Comments


100 UP is the Hocken’s latest exhibition. Taking its name from Seven UP, a successful series of documentary films that follows the lives of fourteen individuals at seven-year intervals, the exhibition similarly uses a longitudinal method of study. Mounted to commemorate the Hocken Library’s 1910 opening, it presents a snapshot of Dunedin life from that year, and this.


An interesting array of objects including postcards, photographs, posters and ephemera, that date to around 1910 are placed alongside 2010 representations of the city. Contemporary observations of Dunedin are largely presented through the photographs of Max Oettli, which were commissioned by the Friends of Hocken Collections to mark the Library’s centenary. The Hocken would like to thank the Friends for this generous gift.

We have produced a stunning poster to promote this show. It will be coming to a bollard near you soon – so keep a look out for the exhibition’s distinctive ‘100 UP’ logo. The reverse side of the poster features images of a number of collection items including postcards, historic photographs, St George food labels and a 1910 edition of the ‘Sure to Rise’ cookery book, on the reverse. The poster is available for purchase at the Hocken’s office or email us with your order at hocken@otago.ac.nz.

Regardless of whether you are new to Dunedin or a long term resident we think you will enjoy the show. If you are unable to visit the exhibition in person, an online version of the exhibition is currently in production and you will be able to view it soon via the Hocken page of the University of Otago’s website.

Natalie Poland, Curator of Pictorial Collections

Interesting use of photographs of Cargill’s Castle

Thursday, August 5th, 2010 | Anna Blackman | No Comments

The Otago Daily Times recently published the story of Warren Justice and his scale model of Cargill’s Castle

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/119111/cargills-castle-model-completed

Warren based his model on historical photographs of the well known landmark (also known as the Cliffs) which he found at the Hocken. While researchers use information from the Hocken for a wide variety of purposes this is probably one of the more unusual. It’s good to hear that the Cargill’s Castle Trust may be able to use the model in its’ work towards the preservation of the Castle.

Doing Well and Doing Good : Ross and Glendining : Scottish Enterprise in New Zealand

Thursday, July 29th, 2010 | Anna Blackman | 3 Comments

The Hocken Collections recently hosted a book launch for the long awaited (by Hocken staff anyway) book by Stephen Jones, Doing Well and Doing Good : Ross and Glendining: Scottish Enterprise in New Zealand, published by OU Press.

Steve has been a regular visitor to the Hocken through several “generations” of archivists and reference desk staff. For many years he made an annual pilgrimage to Dunedin from his Scottish home in Dundee to complete the next phase of research on the records of Ross and Glendining held in the Hocken Collections.  Tips on finding material in the collection and Steve’s interests in Ross and Glendining were passed on from archivist to archivist as it became known that exemplary service could result in a free lunch! Reams of photocopied pages were dispatched to Dundee, but they only seemed to encourage him to travel back to NZ with further questions to be answered by interrogation of the original records!
Business communications from an 1877 Ross and Glendining letterbook, the paper is translucent and thin as tissue and difficult to photocopy from.
We admired his passion for lists of obscurely written financial reports and the analysis of the business data he copied from the records and wondered what the result would be. My own interest in the progress of the project was further stimulated by attending an excellent presentation in the School of Business by Steve on his research findings. The quarterly financial reports had been analysed, the columns of handwritten numbers in pounds shilllings and pence totted up and made meaningful and Steve described the role of Ross and Glendining in the fabric of NZ life. I’m looking forward to reading the book and  reviews are very positive. The Hocken staff are really pleased to see the work finished and published but we will miss Steve and his visits.
A handwritten financial activity report for the six months prior to January 1894 from the Ross and Glendining archives. Stephen read hundreds of pages such as this during his research.

Find out more about what’s at the Hocken – Reference Guides

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 | Anna Blackman | 1 Comment

Do you want to know more about the wonderful treasures to be found at the Hocken? The Hocken staff have written various reference guides to help researchers locate material in our collections. These are available in hardcopy in the reference area, or as PDFs on our website at http://www.library.otago.ac.nz/hocken/guides.html

As well as a general introduction to the Hocken and a guide to Maori resources, we have two main series of guides: genealogy guides and research guides. The genealogy guides include information on our resources for researching Maori whakapapa; births, deaths and marriages; shipping; education; occupations; and residences. We also have a guide to internet resources, and a guide to the records of Otago and Southland orphanages and children’s homes (some of these sources are held by other institutions).

The series of research guides currently stands at 17 with several new ones appearing each year. These guides are primarily aimed at university students and researchers, but they include information which will also be of interest to many other people. They do not list all our resources, but give examples of items in our collections along with suggestions on how to locate other relevant material. Popular guides in this series include those to war-related material (there are separate guides for World War I, World War II, the South African War and two guides on the New Zealand Wars), missionary sources, religion sources and mining sources. Recent additions to the series are on Pacific Islands sources and tourism sources, and a health sciences reference guide will be out next month.

We hope you find these guides useful, and welcome your feedback!

Post prepared by Ali Clarke, Reference Assistant