Active Archives event recap

On the 28th of February we held a very successful ‘Active Archives’ event in conjunction with the regional branches of National Digital Forum (NDF) and the Archives & Records Association of NZ (ARANZ). With a group of around 50 people we came from all parts of the GLAM sector and included participants from local and central government, tertiary and secondary education, volunteer groups, museums, and the private sector. It was a wonderful chance to hear some truly interesting presentations, engage with the Canterbury Disaster Salvage Team, network with each other and have a moment to think outside of our everyday boxes!

The day began with presentations by Canterbury Disaster Salvage Team (CDST) members Joanna Condon (Archives NZ), Lydia Baxendell (University of Canterbury) and retiring member Lynn Campbell. It was a good chance to reflect on the work of the CDST since it began in the 1980’s and to gather feedback from our community as the team moves into the future. As well as the survey results (sent to Cantage members a few weeks ago) we broke into workshop groups and ran through a series of disaster related questions and brainstorming on what support our community would like to see from the CDST group in coming days.

The CDST also presented founding member and conservator Lynn Campbell with a special trophy and flowers to thank her for all of her hard work over her years. Many of our institutions have benefited from her help and guidance.

Left to right: CDST members Joanna Condon, Lynn Campbell, Julie Sowby, Lydia Baxendell.

After lunch we reflected on the UNESCO Memory of the World project – presented by Caroline Etherington and Jo Condon from Archives NZ and Erin Kimber, from University of Canterbury. They shared recent Canterbury nominations, inscriptions to the register from their own institutions and their experience of the process. The Canterbury Provincial Government papers inscribed on the register were shared in an earlier Cantage blog post but further details of all collections on the NZ register, including the three held by the Macmillan Library (Armson Collins architectural drawings, Tokyo War Crimes collection and Ursula Bethall collection) can be seen at: https://unescomow.nz/new-zealand-register

The afternoon continued with a discussion on the ethics of the colourisation of black & white photos led by Matthew O’Sullican (Keeper of Photographs, Air Force Museum of New Zealand). The conversation raised all kinds of questions and gave lots of food for thought around not only colourisation but the rise of AI, copyright and how we will deal with collection challenges of the future.

The last session of the day was led by Jonathan Hunt from Catalyst on Linked Data. This included an exercise where we broke into groups and managed to successfully publish some linked data ourselves on NZ artists. It was a technical exercise that pulled some of us out of our comfort zone but again allowed us to broaden our thinking on different aspects of access and metadata outside of our day to day experiences.

Thanks to everyone who helped organise this joint event (Helen Thomas and Matthew O’Sullivan from NDF, Evan Greensides from ARANZ and Joanna Condon from Archives NZ), to the Cantage committee for helping on the day and to all of our presenters. Keep an eye out for our next event and come and join us!

Exploring the past through Canterbury Stories

Are you tired of the present? Want to meander down memory lane? Interested in doing some research? Or perhaps just to remind yourself what Christchurch looked like before the earthquakes.

Canterbury Stories has over 70,000 digital heritage items for you to explore from home! These include photographs, negatives, maps, videos and archival items relating to Canterbury from the 1850s to the 2020s covering a wide variety of topics.

If you find an item that you can provide more information for or memories about, you can do this. You can add comments and stories so that we all know more about what took place. You just need to create an account and be logged in.

You can also create your own mini collection by gathering items in to a set. You can then share the set with friends and family. To do this, you will need to create an account and be logged in. Come up with a name for your set then search or browse the collections or explore the existing sets to gather the items you want. You can create multiple sets and your set can have up to 450 images, so have fun exploring and gathering! See the Canterbury Stories Contribute page for more information on how to create a set.

Gail and Maeve
Digital Content Team
Christchurch City Libraries

View more images on Canterbury Stories

Highlights of the Rangiora Museum Tour

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 2^nd 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.

An Introduction to Caring for Victorian Photographs

An Introduction to Caring for Victorian Photographs

Thursday 19 – Friday 20 November 2015, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Canterbury Museum
Rolleston Avenue
Christchurch

$15 per person – to cover cost of materials
Bring your own lunch or buy at the Museum Cafe

Often the care of photographs is neglected due to a lack of knowledge about their proper care and storage. This seminar aims to address this by providing a basic overview of the most common photographic processes for nineteenth century images.

The seminar will be aimed at, but not limited to, small institutions with volunteer staff, or newcomers to the archival field, that have photographic collections as part of a wider archival collection. Some practical exercises will be included; specific conservation issues will not be covered.

Please think about any problems or issues you have, or might want to talk about and, if possible, bring along an example to look at. There’s no guarantee you will get definitive answers on the day but your hosts will try to find answers and get back to you.

Please contact Joanna Szczepanski if you have any further questions. joannas@canterburymuseum.com or 03 366 9429 ext 895

Run by Canterbury Museum and the Airforce Museum of New Zealand

Christchurch Photo Hunt 2014

Making Connections: Experience our past – present – future

Cantabrians are being asked to dust off their family albums, dig out any boxes of old snaps, and do their bit to preserve the region’s heritage.

Christchurch City Libraries’ annual Photo Hunt – is an opportunity to discover photo treasures that will reconnect Cantabrians to cherish, celebrate and commemorate our past.

The categories are:

• People – families, cultural and social events.
• Places – buildings, suburbs and the city.
• Two views in time – 2 photos of the same scene, place or person at different time periods. Images can be from any era, depicting any facet of Christchurch’s growth, development, social life or events in the city’s past and present.

As well as helping to boost important historical records, entrants are in line for some great prizes – one of two iPad minis or a Kobo ereader.

Enter at your local library.

Entries can be submitted at any Christchurch City library.

Bring your photograph(s) to your local library, and complete the entry form. Images will be carefully scanned and returned.

They will be viewable online at Kete Christchurch, our community repository.

Entries open Monday 29 September 2014 and close 5pm 31 October. Winners announced on 28 November 2014.

Enter online

Download the entry form as a Word Document, and email the completed form and your photograph(s) to librarydigitalcontent@ccc.govt.nz.

 

Christchurch photo hunt 2012

How to enter the photo hunt

The ordinary is extraordinary

Christchurch Photo Hunt – 20th century Christchurch

Christchurch City Libraries is once again holding the Christchurch photo hunt. This year’s theme is ‘The ordinary is extraordinary’ and we are looking for photographs of 20th century Christchurch. The categories this year are:

• People – families, cultural and social events,
• Places – buildings, suburbs and the city.

Submit your photographs for copying (they will be returned) by using an entry form at your local library. The photo hunt runs from 1st October to 31st October.

See more from this archive

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.