Women album makers from the Canterbury region of New Zealand, 1890-1910, and their ...

299 Pages·2017·10.13 MB·English

by  John Hearnshaw

Women album makers from the Canterbury
region of New Zealand, 1890-1910,
and their photographic practices

A thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington
in fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of
Master of Arts in Art History

Victoria Annabel Hearnshaw

Victoria University of Wellington

2017
ii
Frontispiece
[Harriet and Rosa Acland in the conservatory, Mt Peel Station],
Lucy Acland photograph album, LA56, private collection, Christchurch.

i
ii
Abstract

This thesis examines the photograph albums created by fifteen women born during the
reign of Queen Victoria living in the Canterbury region of New Zealand between the years
1890-1910. It will investigate how it was that these women, often working in close
association with other members of their family, became involved in photography as an
amateur recreational pastime. It will pursue this investigation within the conceptual and
structural framework in which these women’s photographs were produced, collected or
processed, and organized into albums, arguing that the making of such albums was as
much a cultural and social practice as a representational one.

Photograph albums are often considered to be generic objects. However this study will
treat albums as distinctive and unique documents, comparable to other more-widely
consulted primary sources such as letters and diaries. In particular, it will explore the
capacity of the album to be a pictorial artefact that provides its own conditions for viewing
images over time and space and contribute to a growing body of literature that insists that
the photograph album is an important object of study within social history, and indeed
within the history of photography in general.

In drawing attention to the album making as a gendered pastime I am acknowledging the
significance of this activity for women from within the upper and middle classes as a
significant aspect of feminine cultural production at this period in our colonial history. As
cameras became easier to operate towards the end of the nineteenth century these
improvements saw women begin to take their own photographs, and also to print and
distribute them within their extended families and beyond. This reflects the extent to
which the practices of photography and album-making had become integrated practices by
this date. Thus, the role of the album compiler working in the domestic sphere was
effectively transformed from a passive consumer (collecting photographs) into an active
producer of photographs.

However, the extent to which the practice of photography was undertaken by women
within colonial New Zealand is only now beginning to be realized. To date, the published
evidence for this has been slight. This thesis endeavours to shed light on the contribution
of these women working within the domestic sphere, but also those of their number who
iii
subsequently ventured to use this knowledge outside this limited sphere, and on their
visual legacy at this formative period in New Zealand’s history.

List of Abbreviations

Photograph Albums
LA Lucy Acland
MLB Margaret and Laura Bowen
CB Carrie Buckland
JB Jessie Buckland
SB Susan Buckland
SBc Susan Buckland, copy album
EC Elizabeth Colenso
KI Kate Ivens
MOS Margaret Stoddart
MS Mary Stoddart, first album
1
MS Mary Stoddart, second album
2
KW Kate Wood, first album
1
KW Kate Wood, second album
2
KW Kate Wood, third album
3
FW Florence Wright

Note: Numerals after abbreviations indicate page numbers in the photograph album.

iv
Table of Contents

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of illustrations vii

Acknowledgements xiv

Chapter One: Scope and directions 1

Chapter Two: Family photography – Setting the scene 17

Chapter Three: Case study: John and Harriet Acland 37

Chapter Four: The Buckland family and their contribution to photography 51

Chapter Five: Seeking out the narrative structures in the photograph album 71

Chapter Six: The culture of image-sharing with others 90

Chapter Seven: The domestic sphere and beyond 111

Chapter Eight: Conclusion 130

Notes 137

Appendix I: Description of Photograph Albums 198

Appendix II: Gallery of Illustrations 202

Appendix III: Graphs I-VI 255

Bibliography 259

v
vi
List of Illustrations

Fig. 1 [Harriet and Rosa Acland in the conservatory, Mt Peel Station], c.
mid1890s, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA56, private collection,
203
Christchurch.

Fig. 2 [Stoddart family, Diamond Harbour], c. 1897, Mary Stoddart photograph
album 1, MS 4, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 204
1

Fig. 3 A.C. Barker, The Stoddart family, Diamond Harbour, 1871, Dr A.C.
Barker collection, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 204

Fig. 4 A.C. Barker, [Acland family, Mt Peel Station], 1872, Dr A.C. Barker
collection, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 205

Fig. 5 [Acland family, Mt Peel Station], May 1895, Acland photographs
collection, (MB44), Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury,
205
Christchurch.

Fig. 6 ‘Xmas I’, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA40, private collection,
Christchurch. 206

Fig. 7 ‘Xmas II’, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA40, private collection,
Christchurch. 206

Fig. 8 Ghémar Frères, Queen Victoria and Princess Beatrice, 1863.
207
Fig. 9 Leonida Caldesi, [The royal family at Osborne House], 1859.
207
Fig. 10 Harriet Acland, ‘Father in Study, March, 1893’, Acland photographs
collection, (MB44), Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury,
208
Christchurch.

Fig. 11 John Acland, [Father in Study], 1893, Acland photographs collection,
(MB44), Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, Christchurch. 208

Fig. 12 [Views of Peel Forest], 1893, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA37,
private collection, Christchurch. 209

Fig. 13 Harriet Acland, [3 photographs of the drawing room at Mt Peel
homestead], 1893, Dr Barker, [First habitations at Mt Peel Station], 1861, Lucy
210
Acland photograph album, LA44, private collection, Christchurch.

Fig. 14 Harriet Acland, [Drawing room Mt Peel homestead], 1893, Lucy Acland
photograph album, LA44, private Collection, Christchurch. 210

Fig. 15 Harriet Acland, [Sitting room of Lucy Acland], Lucy Acland photograph
211
album, LA61, private collection, Christchurch.
vii
Fig. 16 [Kings and Queens of England], c. early 1890s, Susan Buckland
photograph album, SB15, private collection, Louisville, Kentucky. 212

Fig. 17 ‘King Charles hiding in a tree…’, c. early 1890s, Caroline Buckland
photograph album, CB9, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 212

Fig. 18 Caroline Buckland, ‘Baking Day’, 1896, Susan Buckland photograph
album, SB18, private collection, Louisville, Kentucky. 213

Fig. 19 Jessie Buckland, ‘The Jackeroo’, 1898, Jessie Buckland album, JB33,
Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 213

Fig. 20 Susan Buckland, ‘After the Toil of the Day’, 1898, Jessie Buckland album,
JB33, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 214

Fig. 21 [The Water Carrier], Caroline Buckland photograph album, CB35, Hocken
Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 215

Fig. 22 [The Water Carrier], Jessie Buckland photograph album, JB16, Hocken
Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 215

Fig. 23 ‘The Sweet Burden’, Caroline Buckland photograph album, CB35, Hocken
Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 216

Fig. 24 Susan Buckland, ‘The Sweet Burden’, Susan Buckland photograph album,
SB60, private collection, Louisville, Kentucky. 216

Fig. 25 Jessie Buckland, ‘Coming Thro’ the Rye’, 1897, Jessie Buckland
photograph photograph album, JB8, Hocken Library, University of Otago,
217
Dunedin.

Fig. 26 J.R. Hanna, ‘Coming through the Rye’, c. 1902, Cyclopedia of New
Zealand, (Christchurch, 1902): 319. 218

Fig. 27 Jessie Buckland, ‘Coming Thro’ the Rye’, 1897, Susan Buckland
photograph album, SB72, private collection, Louisville, Kentucky. 219

Fig. 28 Elizabeth Hocken, ‘Mother's Treasure Box’, 1895, Susan Buckland
photograph album, SB19, private collection, Louisville, Kentucky. 220

Fig. 29 Caroline Buckland, ‘Baking Day’, 1896, Jessie Buckland photograph
album, JB5, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 220

Fig. 30 Jessie Buckland, ‘Coming Thro’ the Rye’, Summer Scene, the
Australasian, 29 May, 1897, p. 1079. 221

Fig. 31 ‘The Arcadia’, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA1, private collection, 222
viii