There is nothing like copy editing and proof reading to focus the mind and eyes on textual detail. But the same close attention also tunes the ear to tones and inflections of the voice coming off the page. After our latest stint with Emily’s writing, it was the work of a moment to go cherry-picking Read More…
News
Shedding some light on the Plymouth Paddons
Contributed by Nigel Overton, City Heritage Curator, The Box, Plymouth Museums Galleries Archives Further word from Plymouth confirms that Henry John Paddon (1803-1874) and Francis William Paddon (c.1804?-1860) were indeed two individuals, but they were two men who had much in common. Both are mentioned in the Harris family correspondence, and both appear to have Read More…
Pinning down Edwin’s St Andrew’s
Men and women of the library, conduits to knowledge that lies beyond the easy touch of a button, are the true heroes of research. They know where to go and seem endlessly patient in the retrieval of lost components and the closing of puzzling gaps. Once started on a trail, they do not give up, Read More…
Connecting with Edwin’s optical amusement
Annabel Galpin and her daughter Louise were in New Plymouth earlier this year for the WOMAD festival. They also made time to go and see at first hand Edwin Harris’s optical amusement, the view of new Plymouth 3 august 1860 that has collaged figures and carefully cut openings (windows, doors, tents, moon) through which actual Read More…
Portrait of Sarah Harris
We are so lucky to be in touch with the Harris Family descendants based here in New Zealand. This week we hear from one of them about their recollections. ________ I am Roseanne Cranstone (nee Briant), a great-great-granddaughter of Sarah Harris, who was one of the first settlers in New Plymouth. She is also the Read More…
Joining the Dots: England
Sometimes what was (the past) is a heartbeat away from what is (the present, ourselves standing in a particular location). Worlds coalesce for a moment and then move apart. Here are some highlights from our searches in England that seem to join the dots between one world and another. We are in Liskeard, Cornwall, and Read More…
What Happened at Ilchester Mansion
The clue was staring at us all along. Edwin’s youngest sister Ellen Susan Harris, writing to New Zealand in 1842, gives an insouciant account of leaving her position as a governess and then continues with family news: But I will say no more of myself as I think you will be better pleased to hear Read More…
Emily’s Plymouth, 1840
Can we reconstruct Emily Harris’s Plymouth from traces in family letters and what the city archivists can show us now? Nigel Overton takes us on a tour of central Plymouth based on material compiled by Graham Naylor from the addresses we forwarded a couple of weeks ago. It’s a magic experience that suddenly makes vivid Read More…
Edwin Harris, Interior of St Andrew’s Church, 1825
The year is 1896. Edwin Harris and his youngest daughter Ellen are dead, and Emily is living alone at 34 Nile St in Nelson. On black-edged notepaper she writes to her sister Mary Weyergang with some important news from England. A letter has come from cousin Bessie Harris in Plymouth, thanking Emily for the condolences Read More…
Emmanuel college, Leo Greenwood and Kareena
Leonard Hugh Graham Greenwood (1880-1965) was a New Zealand-born classicist who was a Fellow of Emmanuel college, Cambridge, between 1909 and 1943. He made periodic visits to family in New Zealand and continued to live at Emmanuel until his death at the age of 85. An obituary in the 1966 Emmanuel College Magazine begins: In Read More…