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…
Tag: Nelson
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…
Queen of the Butterflies
Ellen Harris surrounded by plants, flowers and butterflies. It’s one of the most striking photos in the Family Album and the most elaborate photo we have of any of the sisters. While working on the ‘Sisters at a Glance’ posts, we began to refer to it as the ‘fairy tale’ photo when discussing the many Read More…
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…
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…
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…
On the ground at Nile St
We’ve been thinking about 34 Nile St, Nelson for a long time now, consulting street plans, Post Office Directories and electoral rolls in our efforts to trace the movement of Harris family members on the site 1862-1925. We know that the family arrived in Nelson in three instalments. Sarah Harris sailed 11 April 1860 from Read More…
Nile Street again
Last week Michele and I contacted our Nelson correspondents/field researchers Belinda Fletcher and Iain Sharp with a small photo from the Harris family album. The photo is a street view with a row of three houses to the right behind a picket fence, a big tree after the second house, 8 figures on the road Read More…
Writing Lines: highlights from Emily’s 1860s letters
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…