{"id":891,"date":"2016-01-25T22:25:57","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T22:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/?p=891"},"modified":"2016-01-26T05:48:05","modified_gmt":"2016-01-26T05:48:05","slug":"postcards-at-the-hocken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/postcards-at-the-hocken\/","title":{"rendered":"Postcards at the Hocken"},"content":{"rendered":"

Post researched and written by Dr Anna Petersen (Assistant Curator of Photographs), originally published in Deja View\u00a0<\/em>63 (February 2014), pp. 10-14 \u00a0(Journal of the Photographic Collectors’ Association of New Zealand)<\/p>\n

The Hocken Library has a good collection of early postcards available to researchers, as one would expect of an institution located in Dunedin \u2013 the centre of postcard production in Australasia during its postal heyday. There are approximately four thousand postcards in total housed separately in their own sequence within the Hocken Photographs Collection and digital images of about a third of these are currently available on the Hocken Snapshop website.\u00a0 \u00a0Hundreds more are housed within individual holdings named after their donors, as well as in albums and brief descriptions of these are given on the Hakena database<\/a>, available online via the Hocken Library home page.\u00a0 Countless more postcards are to be found in the Hocken Archives Collection though not collected as postcards per se<\/em> and, due to the sheer mass of material and limited resources of the Library, only a mention of the format has so far generally been given on the Hakena database<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A visit to the Hocken provides an opportunity to view postcards by particular photographers alongside other examples of their work.\u00a0 Bill Main chose to mention the E.A. Phillips collection of negatives, for example, in his brief description of the Hocken\u2019s holdings in his book Wish You Were Here<\/em>.[i]<\/a>\u00a0 The recent acquisition of Hardwicke Knight\u2019s collection of photographs and archives currently being catalogued also contains some hundreds of postcards and looks set to bolster in particular the number of images from the Aotearoa series produced by Hugh and G.K. Neill.<\/p>\n

\"GuyFigure1\"<\/a>
Figure 1 Portrait of Guy Morris, F.L. Jones photograph.\u00a0 S09-113b.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

One favourite Dunedin photographer for curators at the Hocken over the years has been Guy Morris (1868-1918, see figure 1<\/strong>). \u00a0Guy Morris\u2019s work was featured at an in-house exhibition in 2009, following the gift of over 100 original photographs from the estate of his eldest daughter, Marina. The show included postcards carrying his images as well as illustrated supplements from the Otago Witness<\/em> newspaper which contain many published copies of Guy\u2019s work from 1900 until his death during the flu epidemic in 1918.<\/p>\n

Hardwicke Knight was the first to mention Guy Morris in his histories of New Zealand photography.[ii]<\/a>\u00a0 He explained how the Morris name was well known in Dunedin at the end of the nineteenth century as John Morris, Guy\u2019s elder brother, headed a thriving photographic business.[iii]<\/a>\u00a0 John Morris (1854-1919) rose to prominence as a portrait photographer, and, in competition with the Burton Brothers, his prints of Dunedin streets also proved popular, possibly as Hardwicke Knight noted, because he included so much life.\u00a0 Guy and another brother, Hugh, began as John\u2019s apprentices and then ran branches of the firm around the city before Guy struck out on his own in 1900, trading under his first name.[iv]<\/a><\/p>\n

Bill Main has published a couple of articles specifically about Guy Morris\u2019s postcards in Postcard Pillar<\/em> in 2007 and 2011, well-illustrated with examples of his colour and real photo cards.\u00a0 A useful list of cards in Bill\u2019s private collection reveals how Guy\u2019s images appeared in a number of different series and though mainly devoted to the Dunedin and Otago region, he also photographed other corners of New Zealand. [v]<\/a> The Hocken holds cards by Guy of places as far south as Stewart Island and north to Bluff Hill in Napier. \u00a0\u00a0Bill Main focused on Guy\u2019s work as a press photographer, putting him on a par with Joseph Zachariah and S.C Smith in Wellington and F.N. Jones in Nelson, and noted\u00a0 how\u00a0 his street scenes were \u2018refreshingly different\u2019 for the choice of subject matter in people going about their business and the manner in which they were taken\u00a0 \u2018with Dunedin\u2019s trams playing a very important part in his ordered compositions\u2019. [vi]<\/a>\u00a0 Another aspect of this is that his subjects can often be matched and dated accurately with photographs in the Otago Witness<\/em>.\u00a0 We can therefore know that his \u2018Naseby Snow Series\u2019 was a record of a heavy fall in July 1908, for example.<\/p>\n

\"GuyFigure2\"<\/a>
Figure 2 \u2018Lawyer\u2019s Head Dunedin NZ\u2019, Standard Series postcard, Guy photograph, c.1908.\u00a0 S14-006b.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I would like to draw attention to Guy\u2019s early postcards that at first sight might not seem as interesting or exciting to collect in terms of action.\u00a0 These include colour lithograph views of sunsets and largely empty shorelines like that shown in figure 2<\/strong>, now such ubiquitous subjects in the postcard market with its modern printing techniques.\u00a0 During the first decade of the twentieth century, however, such mechanically reproduced scenes were about as close to a real colour photograph as was possible.\u00a0 Moreover, the subject of unspoilt nature in the form of uncrowded spaces, unpolluted water and clear skies was very topical (as indeed is still the case), as people in Europe looked to escape their over-populated, smog-bound cities and local authorities sought to attract the discerning public to Dunedin.<\/p>\n

Guy\u2019s career as a photographer covered the Edwardian period, often referred to as \u2018The Age of Innocence\u2019 before World War One.\u00a0 Dunedin was a safe haven even by New Zealand standards and residents actively promoted the city as a good place to raise a family.\u00a0 The Otago Witness<\/em> newspaper published a weekly column espousing the teachings of local hero, F. Truby King and \u2018Dunedin became the Citadel\u2019 of the Plunket Movement.[vii]<\/a>\u00a0 The newspaper also supported the Dunedin Expansion League\u2019s quest to attract industrious, skilled workmen with large young families to bolster the population, further business interests and regain the position of foremost city in New Zealand.[viii]<\/a><\/p>\n

The golden beaches lying literally at Dunedin\u2019s doorstep, which had been largely neglected by photographers until this point, constituted a major selling point and Guy\u2019s photographs and postcards served an integral part in advertising the fact.\u00a0 While the focus of photographers during the late nineteenth century had been on promoting the material progress of the colony and Muir and Moodie\u2019s extensive stock of postcards concentrated on built-up areas of the city, Guy offered a change of scene and rather different set of values.\u00a0 Along with his postcards of other public beauty spots like the Botanical Gardens and Outram Glen, Guy\u2019s images of the open coastline spoke of a romantic closeness to nature and wealth of wholesome leisure activities which held universal appeal.<\/p>\n

\"GuyFigure3\"<\/a>
Figure 3 Original photograph of an image included in \u2018Scenes on the Beach at St Clair, Dunedin\u2019, Otago Witness Christmas Annual, 1905, p.40.\u00a0 S09-096g.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A critical aspect of the message was that the sandy stretch was accessible to all and, by in large, this appeared to be the case.\u00a0 The trams that Bill Main noted as integral to Guy\u2019s cityscapes, now linked the suburbs more completely to the business centre making it easier for everyone to travel and bathe in the salt water, walk along the esplanade, picnic and take in the fresh air.\u00a0 Crowds of people made their way there each Labour Day when the weather was fine, and over the summer months as documented in Guy\u2019s photographs published in the Otago Witness Christmas Annual<\/em> (for example, see figure 3<\/strong>).\u00a0 Copies of the Christmas Annual<\/em> made their way across the world courtesy of the New Zealand Government Department of Tourist and Health Resorts.\u00a0 Of course the very idea of being on the beach around Christmas time was a novelty for adults of European origin.\u00a0 One copy of the Guy postcard in figure 4<\/strong> (a photograph reproduced in at least four different postcard series including F.T. Opalette, F.T. Domed Glossine and Industria) was sent by one local resident as a Christmas card to a friend just down the Otago Harbour at Broad Bay.<\/p>\n

\"GuyFigure4\"<\/a>
Figure 4 \u2018St Clair, Dunedin, N.Z.\u2019, Guy postcard, c.1909. S14-006a.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yet then, as now, it was still possible to find the beach virtually to oneself and judging from his output, Guy spent hours photographing beside the sea.\u00a0 Purely from an aesthetic point of view, Guy found an ever-changing play of light and form in the vista of earth, sea and sky between Lawyer\u2019s Head and St Clair known as Ocean Beach, the warren of curious volcanic rock formations further south towards the expanse of sand looking out to Green Island and drama of the waves of the South Pacific Ocean hitting land.\u00a0 Amongst the original prints by Guy in the Hocken Photographs Collection are many studies (figure 5<\/strong>) that obviously constituted a library of images to choose from for his postcards.<\/p>\n

\"GuyFigure5\"<\/a>
Figure 5 St Kilda, Guy photograph, undated. Marina Morris Collection. S14-006d.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By working productively and spending the time, Guy established a personal relationship with the Dunedin coast, making it his own.\u00a0 Though some other postcard images of the area by different photographers can be seen on the Hocken Snapshop site, Guy appears to have produced the largest number. \u00a0Guy\u2019s postcards and published photographs comprise both public as well as more private views, perhaps none more so than those that include his own children enjoying themselves.\u00a0 The card entitled \u2018Ocean Beach, Dunedin. A Summer Seascape\u2019 (figure 6<\/strong>) may well feature his three young daughters just above his signature, a portrait of whom is also reproduced here from the Hocken Photographs Collection (figure 7<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\"GuyFigure6\"<\/a>
Figure 6 \u2018Ocean Beach, Dunedin. \u00a0A Summer Seascape\u2019, Guy postcard, undated.\u00a0 S14-006c.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Guy<\/a>
Figure 7 \u2018Gathering Wild Berries\u2019 [Portrait of Jean, Dorothy and Marina Morris], original photograph reproduced in Otago Witness Christmas Annual, December 1912, p. 39.\u00a0 S14-008.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Studying postcards of the closest beaches at the Hocken, we are left with a record of Guy\u2019s vision of a healthy city environment and people\u2015fresh, clean, full of natural beauty and promise.\u00a0 What were once new views of Dunedin are now old, but over a century later, they remain relevant.\u00a0 The same virtues that Guy and other citizens valued continue to satisfy local residents and attract foreign families to the city.\u00a0 Providing just a sample of the postcards held at the Hocken, Guy\u2019s postcards are undoubtedly worth collecting and preserving.\u00a0 They represent just a fraction of the postcards held at the Hocken but speak of the potential the collection holds for researchers as a whole.<\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> William Main, Wish You Were Here, <\/em>Wakefield, 2005, p.114.<\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a> For example, see Hardwicke Knight, Photography in New Zealand:\u00a0 A Social and Technical History<\/em>, Dunedin, 1971, p.108.<\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a> Hardwicke Knight, The Photography of John Richard Morris: An Appreciation of his contribution to New Zealand portrait and view photography in the nineteenth century<\/em>, Dunedin, 1995.<\/p>\n

[iv]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[v]<\/a> William Main, \u201cGuy\u201d Guy Clayton Morris 1868-1918\u2019, Postcard Pillar<\/em>, issue 79 (August 2007), pp. 16-17.<\/p>\n

[vi]<\/a> Main, p.15.<\/p>\n

[vii]<\/a> Erik Olssen, A History of Otago<\/em>, Dunedin, 1984, p.151.<\/p>\n

[viii]<\/a> See, for example, \u2018Dunedin The City Beautiful\u2019, Otago Witness Christmas Annual,<\/em> December 1912, \u00a0<\/em>back cover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Post researched and written by Dr Anna Petersen (Assistant Curator of Photographs), originally published in Deja View\u00a063 (February 2014), pp. 10-14 \u00a0(Journal of the Photographic Collectors’ Association of New Zealand) The Hocken Library has a good collection of early postcards available to researchers, as one would expect of an institution located in Dunedin \u2013 the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14625,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15348,15386],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical-photographs","category-print-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14625"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}