The Islands of New Zealand, 1841

The Islands of New Zealand, 1841

Kenneth Athol Webster was a New Zealand-born collector of artefacts, manuscripts, books and paintings relating to Aotearoa and the Pacific. For two decades after World War II, he built up one of the largest collections of its type in the world, particularly strong in material relating to early European settlement of Aotearoa, and including manuscripts, artworks, taonga Māori and ephemera. This map, published in 1841 in London, features manuscript annotations drawn by Bishop Selwyn, and it is an excellent example of the rare and important treasures that came into the Alexander Turnbull Library from Webster’s collection in 1967.

It was originally thought to have accompanied the Bishop on his New Zealand travels in the 1840s, but an examination of the map comparing it to other editions of the Wyld maps (another 1841 and an 1846) suggest that the date of the printing is about 1845. As this post-dates his travels, it suggests that the extensive annotations were added later from either his journals or another map.

Permission of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga O Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of this image

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