Perspective

At Karaka Bay

At Karaka Bay

Here are some of the late-19th cen­tury Māori res­id­ents of Karaka Bay, in one of sev­er­al sim­il­ar pho­to­graphs by Henry Wright (1844–1932). The Pāke­hā woman is prob­ably Wright’s daugh­ter, while […]

Horse town

Horse town

Here is early Wel­ling­ton on a good day, look­ing north down Lamb­ton Quay. On the left, with the ver­anda, is Barrett’s Hotel, the social hub for many. On the right […]

The richest man in Wellington

The richest man in Wellington

Here is Wil­li­am Barn­ard Rhodes (1807–78), the richest man in early Wel­ling­ton, pho­to­graphed in 1858 with his first wife Sarah, and Mary­ann, his Māori daugh­ter from an earli­er rela­tion­ship. It […]

The fastest woman in the world

The fastest woman in the world

Few places in Wel­ling­ton are as rich in social his­tory as the Basin Reserve. Nowadays, it is regarded inter­na­tion­ally as one of the world’s old­est and best crick­et grounds. Since […]

Agnes Bennett, motorist

Agnes Bennett, motorist

Here is Dr Agnes Ben­nett (1872–1960), pho­to­graphed with friends on a sum­mer driv­ing exped­i­tion in her new car. It was on the eve of World War I and they were […]

How to do Swedish drill

How to do Swedish drill

Here we are at the Wel­ling­ton Girls’ Col­lege in Thorndon. It is Par­ents’ Day, 1927, and the girls are demon­strat­ing their skill at Swedish drill. This par­tic­u­lar move was called […]

The Wilson house, 1967

The Wilson house, 1967

Through the 1960s, pho­to­graph­er and archi­tec­ture research­er Duncan Winder had a mis­sion. He was an enthu­si­ast for good archi­tec­ture and set him­self the task of doc­u­ment­ing it, all around Wellington […]

Sharp suits, 1960

Sharp suits, 1960

 It is always good to cel­eb­rate a suc­cess­ful Wel­ling­ton busi­ness. Vance Vivi­an, Wellington’s very own top-of-the-range spe­cialty men’s cloth­ing store, has just turned 90. The com­pany is still going strong, […]

Rugby in the rain, 1921

Rugby in the rain, 1921

This month the All Blacks take on the South Afric­ans at the Cake Tin. They are always our toughest rugby foes. This pho­to­graph is from the final test of the […]