Thank you to everyone who came out to Rangiora Museum on the 15th August for the first Cantage event since our 2023 reset! It was great to see so many people – and from such a range of organisations so thank you for the support and enthusiasm for the group starting again. We did discuss ideas for of what would be useful for future workshops, events and tours – and announced our next event on 2nd November at the MacMillan Brown Library at University of Canterbury, details to follow closer to the time.
We had a wonderful presentation from some members of the Rangiora Museum Committee – and a big thank you to John, David and Angela for presenting. It was a really interesting overview of the collection, their family and local history resources (including photos and archives), how they deal with potential accessions and donations, and the research materials specific to their area, such as the Horrell land ownership resource.
David and John gave us an insight into their photo collection which totals around 30,000 images. The collection now includes a new accession – the actual camera local photographer John Miles Verrall used, which has now been donated by his family along with further glass plates. John Miles Verrall farmed at Swannanoa from 1893-1913. He was also an MP and a photographer who was very active in the district, specialising in rural photography. His large glass plate slide collection was already part of the Musuem collection so the camera was an absolute bonus. The Museum now holds more than 5,000 glass plate negatives from Verrall, Charles Jennings and others.
We also had a view into the highlights of their textile collection from Angela – which was fascinating and dates back to the early 1800’s. Angela talked about the challenges of storage and preservation as well as a few highlights including the wedding dress that was featured on TVNZ last year! Also the fabulous knitted outfits from the 1940’s, currently on display, that had been passed to the Museum after being donated to a local second shop.
We then moved on to a tour of the museum and a big thank you to the kind members who provided the lovely morning tea.
To all our members who couldn’t make it the Rangiora Museum is well worth a visit if you are in the area. Opening hours are on their website and they also have an active Facebook page. Any enquiries or questions can be sent to: rangioraearlyrecords@xtra.co.nz.
Thanks once again to Cantage Committee member Sally O’Connell for organising the event, and to the Rangiora Museum for hosting.
Cantage - Canterbury Heritage 