Post researched and written by David Murray, Archivist Last month, a wind storm saw the dramatic toppling of two of the big old elm trees next to our building on Anzac Avenue. Fortunately nobody was hurt, and our building was undamaged, but we were sad to lose the trees. It seems timely to look at […]

Tēnā koutou katoa, ko Scarlett Rogers tōku ingoa, nō Ōtepoti ahau. I am currently a student at the University of Otago and am doing my last paper to complete my Bachelor of Applied Science with a double major in History and Physical Education, Activity and Health. I have a passion for both the history of […]

Blog post researched and written by Kate Guthrie, Collections Assistant – Archives Remember autograph books? For those of us old enough to have had one back in the day, they were the Facebook of the pre-internet age; a little album to collect the thoughts and witticisms of your friends, family and occasionally even the famous. […]

On this blog we last met Marianne Bielschowsky (nee Angermann) as the author of a delicious cake recipe in this post by Ali Clarke. On the day that the cake was made and served to Hocken staff I was unfortunately a little late to morning tea and missed out, all I could do was scrape […]

Post researched and written by Jennie Henderson, Hocken Collections Assistant. Many of us may be feeling a bit hermit-like during New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown, but we are not Dunedin’s first hermits!  100 years ago, Dunedin resident Ben Rudd earned the nickname ‘The Hermit of Flagstaff’ with his reclusive habits. Benjamin Rudd (1854-1930) was born in […]

Post researched and written by Jennie Henderson, Hocken Collections Assistant  – Publications As a researcher, the promise of what might be hiding in a primary source can be irresistible.  Primary sources can convey a sense of time, place, and personality like nothing else. There is a great satisfaction that comes from connecting the dots between […]

Post researched and written by Ali Clarke, Collections Assistant (Archives). One of the more poignant collections held in the Hocken archives is a small number of papers relating to the Kaitangata coal mine disaster (Misc-MS-0840). On 21 February 1879 a miner entered some old workings with a naked light and the firedamp (methane) within exploded. […]

Post written researched and written by Kari Wilson-Allan, Collections Assistant – Archives Blighty is a tiny (72 by 124mm) pocket book, published by the New Zealand Young Men’s Christian Association.  Despite its diminutive size, it contains worlds of insight into respectable expectations of service men on leave. Judging by its condition, our copy has certainly […]

Post researched and written by Jennie Henderson, Hocken Collections Assistant  – Publications In 1866, a gang of four goldfield criminals murdered five men (and their horse) on the Maungatapu track near Nelson. The subsequent search for the bodies, trial, and execution of some of the murderers seized the attention of the nation. Newspapers were full […]

Blog post researched and written by Lakin Wilton, HUMS 301 Intern I have had the fantastic opportunity of interning at the Hocken through the University of Otago’s Humanities Internship, which offers students the chance to be placed in an organisation in Dunedin and undertake a project in place of a paper. The internship counts towards […]