By Nigel Overton Harris & Sons of Plymouth, Devon: From House Painters & Glaziers to Decorators, Furnishers, Picture Frame Makers, Gallery Owners and sometime suppliers of Artists’ Materials, Fancy Goods and Stationery. Having by chance recently come across an advertisement for Harris & Sons in a circa 1930 Plymouth guidebook, I was prompted to Read More…
News
From Happy Valley to Siberia: Miss Kate Marsden
By Michele Leggott It is Wednesday 2 January 1889 and the campers at Happy Valley have just two more nights to enjoy themselves under the stars before heading back to Nelson and the start of another working year. Emily Harris records the moment in her diary: Our concert this evening was better as we had Read More…
Which Miss Harris?
By Michele Leggott Last week Ellen had a letter from Dr Taylor & some coloured views of London. He was in Kent, he intended visiting the Exhibition. His letters are always amusing, he wishes that we would get married so that our names might not harass him so. (30 May 1886) Emily Harris is amused Read More…
James Upfill Wilson Redux
By Brianna Vincent. Our recent James Upfill Wilson post didn’t include a photo of him. Despite extensive searches we had found possibilities but not probabilities. There was nothing that we could point to with a measure of confidence and say ‘we think this is him’. Our best guess was a photo of a photo in Read More…
Reading the Stone
By Michele Leggott There is only one other headstone like it in the whole of St Mary’s Churchyard. Genealogist John Pickering confirms for us that the stone marking the burials of Hugh Corbyn Harris and his sister Frances Emma Harris is unusual in being slate. The other slate marker belongs to the grave of John Read More…
James Upfill Wilson
By Michele Leggott The next morning I went to call upon the Rev S. Poole, the examiner for the BA degree, to ask when I could have the room. He had just gone out but came back while I was talking to Mrs P.. He was in a great hurry to get to the schoolroom, Read More…
Ned’s Dress
By Dasha Zapisetskaya Transcribing a handwritten diary is like doing maths homework; you might whizz through three or four pages before becoming completely stumped by one little problem. This is exactly what happened as I worked through Emily Harris’s account of her visit to a friend in November 1885. ‘I stayed a few days with Read More…
Mrs Hardcastle was a splendid show woman
By Michele Leggott The Wanganui Chronicle reviewer offers a detailed critique of the still life and flower paintings of Mrs Hardcastle, wife of the town’s recently appointed resident magistrate: (72) is a full sized brace of French partridges, hung against the deal lined wall of a larder. If the frame of the picture had been Read More…
Camping out beyond Happy Valley
By Michele Leggott Emily Harris loved camping. She wrote in her diary: ‘Ever since our very successful camping out party last year, I had determined to go again if possible. So whenever the Wrights mentioned it I always said I wished we could go again and so by degrees another party was arranged for Read More…
Chess, Art, Theosophy: The Studio at 34 Nile St
By Brianna Vincent When I hear the words ‘art studio’, I think of a place filled with peaceful solitude and quiet. But Emily’s studio in the Harris home at 34 Nile Street East was a bustling social space that served a variety of purposes, some of which we can find evidence for advertised in the Read More…