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…
News
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…
The Misses’ Harris school in Nile St
By Michele Leggott There was a longstanding tradition of teaching among the Harris women. It began with Sarah Harris teaching Sunday school soon after the family’s arrival in Taranaki in March 1841. Later Sarah established two elementary schools near the Harris farm in Frankley Rd in order to educate her own children and those of Read More…
Mr Manby, Professor of Music
By Michele Leggott The inscription on the headstone in Edwin Harris’s pencil sketch reads: ‘Sacred to the memory of Charles William Manby | Formerly of 85 Fleet Street London | Born 8th March 1809 | Died 11th April 1866 | Aged 57 Years | Let everything that has breath praise the Lord | Psalm CL:6.’ Read More…
Playing Snap with Edwin Harris
By Brianna Vincent I thoroughly enjoyed my part of working on Edwin Harris’s sketchbooks, one of the interesting parts of the experience being how it became an exercise in sustained déjà vu. The déjà vu would leave me carefully leafing through the pages and wondering if I had seen this building, this tree, this beach, Read More…
After the War: Edwin’s sketchbooks go live
By Michele Leggott We begin posts for 2020 with online publication of sketches by Edwin Harris from the period of the family’s relocation to Nelson after the loss of their son Corbyn in the Taranaki War of 1860. Our captions are provisional and we welcome improvements from those who know the Nelson region better than Read More…