Story and photos Catherine Field-Dodgson and Michele Leggott In October 2024, we travelled to Ōtautahi Christchurch to deliver a keynote presentation for Opening the Archives: access, engagement, innovation. The conference was organised by the Australian Society of Archivists (ASA), Archives & Records Association of NZ Te Huinga Mahara (ARANZ) and the Pacific Regional Branch of Read More…
Tag: emily cumming harris
Here comes 2025
Story and photos Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson Welcome to Emily Cumming Harris in New Zealand and Australia. 2025 is a big year for us and for Emily as Te Papa Press publishes our book Groundwork: The Art and Writing of Emily Cumming Harris. Please keep an eye on the blog for updates about publication Read More…
Edwin and Emily Harris at the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand Annual Conference in Nelson
By Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson, with research support from Wayne Orchiston and Ian Cooper First there were Emily’s three small oil paintings of celestial events, each with a connection to Dr Frank Bett, her friend and neighbour in Nile St from around 1910. Bett owned the three paintings and after his death in 1957 Read More…
Happy birthday Emily Harris!
By Michele Leggott Thanks to the person who put three framed Emily Harris prints on TradeMe recently, we now have a set of Emily’s beautiful botanical paintings issued by the Turnbull Library in 1968. Our set is 2183 of an edition of 2500. The prints are in good condition and show Emily’s rendition of rangiora Read More…
Tainui trees north of Mokau
By Michele Leggott, with research support from Catherine Field-Dodgson I wasn’t dreaming. There really is a sign on the road north of Mokau and it says ‘Tainui Trees.’ We back up the car and Mark crosses the road where the sign is pointing. There he finds a signboard for Tainui Scenic Reserve, topped by a Read More…
Emily Harris at Te Papa Press 2025
By Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson We are pleased to confirm that Te Papa Press of Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington will publish our Emily Harris book in 2025. Full-colour reproduction of Emily’s paintings and drawings will accompany a text that traces her art and writing across the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Our project restores the Read More…
Hector’s tree daisy: another Emily Harris oil
By Annabel Galpin In 2006 my mother Janet Briant was downsizing and moving to a retirement village in Whanganui. Before moving she went through the process of dividing many of her possessions between my sisters and me. Among these were several unframed artworks including two of Emily’s oils on strawboard, much in need of conservation. Read More…
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…
And this is my picture: a 1906 painting comes to Wellington
By Russell Briant And this is my picture. Or how we got our own Emily Harris, ‘Kiekie, Tī Ngahere, Nīkau, Mikoikoi and Neinei’ (1906) My name is Russell Briant and Emily Cumming Harris is my 3x great aunt. Those of you who have read this wonderful blog may know that the Briant connection with the Read More…
Antarctic Flowers 1906 at Puke Ariki
By Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson, with research support from Runa Bhakta and Libby Baker Four tall spikes of ligusticum reach from the bottom of a rectangular panel towards the top of Emily Harris’s painting. The two largest have flower heads that resemble a carrot in flower, but with pink rather than white umbels and Read More…