A Glistening Web: Whakatū / Nelson 11-12 October 2023

By Catherine Field-Dodgson and Michele Leggott   In mid-October, Michele and Catherine travelled to Whakatū / Nelson for a quick research trip, and to deliver the Nelson Historical Society’s 2023 James Jenkins Memorial lecture. Michele was accompanied by her friend Susan Davis. Mary Gavin, president of the Nelson Historical Society, and Yolanda Persico, the society’s secretary, Read More…

Antarctic panels revealed

By Catherine Field-Dodgson and Michele Leggott   Last month Michele reflected on Emily Harris’s missing 1906 sub-antarctic panel and wondered what it might look like:  We can make some guesses about the size and content of Emily’s second panel of Antarctic flowers, to date unlocated. Given her predilection for symmetry we can guess the second panel Read More…

Thomas Kirk at Te Papa: the Campbell Island flora 

By Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson  14 January 1890  The Colonial Government Steamship Hinemoa reaches Campbell Island with botanists Thomas Kirk and Frederick Chapman on board. The steamer has visited the Snares and the Auckland Islands, travelling ever further south into the brief sub-antarctic summer since leaving Bluff 8 January on her periodic tour of Read More…

Emily at the Nelson Philosophical Society

By Catherine Field-Dodgson Nestled amongst the collection of Emily Harris watercolours at the Turnbull Library in Wellington is a large painting of a weird plant with huge green leaves. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to an overgrown cabbage, or something out of The Day of the Triffids, it’s certainly not a commonly-seen plant in Read More…