Records and Archives Week 2010

Cantage is keen to have more participants in our RAW week exhibition. This is the exhibition we are planning to run at Christchurch City Libraries where we will have digital images (from as many Cantage collections as we can get) projected onto a wall at the Libraries. We will then celebrate with a morning tea on Friday 7th May where we can all present the item we have chosen for the exhibition.

This is a great opportunity to share some of the gems in your collection and to show the wealth of material in our local area. It is also the first time we have tried to do a joint Cantage project so we are wanting it to be a success!

If you have items in your collection but are not sure how to take a digital image please contact amanda.brown@ccc.govt.nz or annabel.armstrong-clarke@ccc.govt.nz . Amanda and Annabel are happy to come and visit and take an image for the exhibition.

Don’t forget the theme for RAW 2010 is archives and records of industry. “New Zealanders are renowned for our ingenuity and clever ideas (our No.8 wire mentality). Archives and records are an important means of preserving our history of industry, innovation, trade, enterprise, research, science, technology and economic development.”

Many of you in the North Canterbury area I’m sure have material regarding the agricultural industry which would be perfect for this theme.

 

Out of the Darkroom

Dr Alfred Charles Barker (1819-1873)

Canterbury Museum was recently gifted a significant collection relating to Dr Alfred Charles Barker (1819-1873) who was ship’s surgeon on board the Charlotte Jane, but is better known for his remarkable photography.

The collection includes photographs of family and Canterbury scenes, diaries on board the Charlotte Jane and correspondence between various family members. The Barker children’s letters to their uncle Matthias during the 1860s provide an engaging record of childhood in colonial Canterbury. Letters from Alfred’s son Samuel Delabere Barker’s describe a perilous journey in Africa during the 1870s, his shaky handwriting showing the effects of malaria.

An exhibition titled Out of the Darkroom: Dr A.C. Barker, Photographer and Family Man will open at the Museum on 4 April 2009, showcasing items from the new collection. Public tours of the exhibition will run as part of Archives Week in May. These will be held in the Visitor Lounge on 6 May, 10.00am and 11.30am and 12 May, 6.00 – 7.00pm. Free admission, bookings are essential: phone 366 9429 ext 817 or email discovery@canterburymuseum.com.