Wellingtonians
STOP PRESS!! Wellingtonians: From the Turnbull Collections is now a book, with revised and expanded entries, and some new ones too. It is a high-quality publication - cost $29.99. Available from good bookshops or from the publisher, Steele Roberts.
In late 2010 the Alexander Turnbull Library began a regular feature in a Wellington community newspaper (first the Wellingtonian and now the Capital Times). It presents a Wellington image from the Turnbull collections, with an accompanying story. They are all now brought together in this online exhibition, "Wellingtonians."
The aim of the regular feature is to give a fresh and quirky look at Wellington history, told through the Turnbull collections. Most of the images come from the photograph collection but there are artworks and maps, posters and manuscripts, and more.
Wellingtonians does not concentrate on big events and well-known people (although there are certainly some of those). Nor does it give a chronological account. It unfolds in a more serendipitous way. A documentary photograph of a twenty-first century protest at Parliament is followed by a pencil sketch of Te Aro pa in 1841; an account of royal visit festivities in 1901 precedes a cartoon about the chaos of six o’clock closing. You can always be sure that the one next week will be completely different.
In the newspaper only one entry can be seen at a time. Now they can all be seen together. As more are published they will be added. This exhibition will keep on growing. Keep an eye on it. There will certainly be something here you did not know about Wellington, a little city truly like no other.
David Colquhoun
Alexander Turnbull Library
The first windmill
Blood on the water
One for Anzac Day
Endurance swimming, 1930-1931
Sunrise on Mt Victoria
Walking the city streets
The Lewd and Ludicrous
Art deco high rise
Taxis and toilets
Mexican Rose
Mr Anscombe’s masterpiece
Pageantry at Newtown Park
A Wellington vista
Reluctant residents
Unseemly swimming
Burning down the House
The first Santa parades
A hatpin menace
A cold plunge in Khandallah
The big house on the hill
Clerks of the future
The littlest shop in Wellington
The National War Memorial
Politics in Willis Street
Another postcard from Cynicus
All Black glory, 1908
Haka and poi, 1937
Fanzone, 1956
The commercial photography of Gordon Burt
Tragedy off Island Bay
A composer in Wellington
Dancing at the Majestic, 1942
Split dresses and well-fitting hemlines, 1957
Rugby invincibles
The emigrant’s dream
The Chee Kung Tong orchestra
Lost at sea
A Wellington family portrait
A chaotic waterfront
A St Patrick’s panorama
Traffic training in Karori
Maori language week
“Golly, wot a corker game!”
Peter Jackson’s Newtown
Sporting heroines
Father's Day
Burrowing to Karori
Dancing with the Ace-High band
Lambton beach, 1856
“Two apples a day”
A Gallipoli diary
Going electric
The Wahine storm
Dancing with the Prince of Wales
The waterfront as it might have been
‘Screaming mayhem” at the Town Hall
Supercity, 1899
Hold on to your hat
Seven hours to Sydney
One for Valentine’s day
Burlesque melodrama and graceful dancing
Class war, 1913
Suzy's Coffee Lounge was the place to be
A moment of glory for New Zealand cricket
A Lambton Quay panorama
A message from the Post Office
Nellikuthra the elephant
Dylan Owen's protest photography
An early view of Māori Wellington
A quick way downhill
The slums of the city
No bicycle for Mr Macalister
The art of Samuel Brees
The royal visit of 1901
The cartoons of Nevile Lodge
The townscapes of S. C. Smith
Magnitude 8.1
Three citizens, a dog, and the Library van
The trams - it was never quite like this
A new view of the old library
Motorcycle mania in the eastern suburbs
The Beatles come to town
Duels, beans and bouquets
