Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson Groundwork came to Devonport Library on Tuesday 15 April, five days after its launch in Wellington. Catherine and her family travelled to Auckland for the event, as did Jo Elliott, Senior Project Editor at Te Papa Press. About 70 people filled the library to welcome Emily Harris into the light Read More…
Tag: emily cumming harris
Out of the shadows: Groundwork launches at Te Papa in Wellington
Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson Nine years of research and writing culminated last week in the cafe turned launch space at Te Papa in Wellington. More than 120 guests gathered to bring Groundwork: The Art and Writing of Emily Cumming Harris into the light of day. Just prior to the main event, Harris descendants and Read More…
Groundwork: The art and writing of Emily Cumming Harris
Coming to a bookshop near you 10 April 2025 and available from Te Papa Press here. RRP $60.
Emily Harris’s big paintings and their people
Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson Why did Emily Harris produce so many large oil paintings in 1906? The question has been on our minds since first realising that the oils signed and dated in red at lower left or right are part of an exhibit Emily sent to the International Exhibition in Christchurch that year. Read More…
New Zealand Liliaceae, 1906
Catherine Field-Dodgson and Michele Leggott In January we received an intriguing email from archivist Katherine Pawley at the University of Auckland. ‘It just leapt out at me,’ she told us, indicating a link to a tall skinny painting by an unknown artist at Webb’s auction house in Auckland. As soon as we clicked on the Read More…
Aunt Grace’s photos
Story and photos by Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson The envelope is small, opening on its right side, with an inscription in black ink that reads: ‘Godfrey Briant from Aunt Grace.’ It was rediscovered a few months ago among family files at the home of Goff and Judith Briant in Marton. Hugh Godfrey Briant, known Read More…
A letter from Emily Harris, 1862
Story by Michele Leggott It is November 2024. Harris descendant Heather Jones hand-delivers Emma Hill’s scrapbook, the real thing, to a kitchen bench in Devonport. The scrapbook and an envelope of family letters and photos has made its way from Judith Briant in Marton to Heather in Clevedon to its latest destination in Auckland. In Read More…
Talking to the archivists
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…
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…