Women album makers from the Canterbury region of New Zealand, 1890-1910, and their photographic practices A thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art History Victoria Annabel Hearnshaw Victoria University of Wellington 2017 ii Frontispiece [Harriet and Rosa Acland in the conservatory, Mt Peel Station], Lucy Acland photograph album, LA56, private collection, Christchurch. i ii Abstract This thesis examines the photograph albums created by fifteen women born during the reign of Queen Victoria living in the Canterbury region of New Zealand between the years 1890-1910. It will investigate how it was that these women, often working in close association with other members of their family, became involved in photography as an amateur recreational pastime. It will pursue this investigation within the conceptual and structural framework in which these women’s photographs were produced, collected or processed, and organized into albums, arguing that the making of such albums was as much a cultural and social practice as a representational one. Photograph albums are often considered to be generic objects. However this study will treat albums as distinctive and unique documents, comparable to other more-widely consulted primary sources such as letters and diaries. In particular, it will explore the capacity of the album to be a pictorial artefact that provides its own conditions for viewing images over time and space and contribute to a growing body of literature that insists that the photograph album is an important object of study within social history, and indeed within the history of photography in general. In drawing attention to the album making as a gendered pastime I am acknowledging the significance of this activity for women from within the upper and middle classes as a significant aspect of feminine cultural production at this period in our colonial history. As cameras became easier to operate towards the end of the nineteenth century these improvements saw women begin to take their own photographs, and also to print and distribute them within their extended families and beyond. This reflects the extent to which the practices of photography and album-making had become integrated practices by this date. Thus, the role of the album compiler working in the domestic sphere was effectively transformed from a passive consumer (collecting photographs) into an active producer of photographs. However, the extent to which the practice of photography was undertaken by women within colonial New Zealand is only now beginning to be realized. To date, the published evidence for this has been slight. This thesis endeavours to shed light on the contribution of these women working within the domestic sphere, but also those of their number who iii subsequently ventured to use this knowledge outside this limited sphere, and on their visual legacy at this formative period in New Zealand’s history. List of Abbreviations Photograph Albums LA Lucy Acland MLB Margaret and Laura Bowen CB Carrie Buckland JB Jessie Buckland SB Susan Buckland SBc Susan Buckland, copy album EC Elizabeth Colenso KI Kate Ivens MOS Margaret Stoddart MS1 Mary Stoddart, first album MS2 Mary Stoddart, second album KW1 Kate Wood, first album KW2 Kate Wood, second album KW3 Kate Wood, third album FW Florence Wright Note: Numerals after abbreviations indicate page numbers in the photograph album. iv Table of Contents Abstract iii List of abbreviations iv List of illustrations vii Acknowledgements xiv Chapter One: Scope and directions 1 Chapter Two: Family photography – Setting the scene 17 Chapter Three: Case study: John and Harriet Acland 37 Chapter Four: The Buckland family and their contribution to photography 51 Chapter Five: Seeking out the narrative structures in the photograph album 71 Chapter Six: The culture of image-sharing with others 90 Chapter Seven: The domestic sphere and beyond 111 Chapter Eight: Conclusion 130 Notes 137 Appendix I: Description of Photograph Albums 198 Appendix II: Gallery of Illustrations 202 Appendix III: Graphs I-VI 255 Bibliography 259 v vi List of Illustrations Fig. 1 [Harriet and Rosa Acland in the conservatory, Mt Peel Station], c. mid1890s, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA56, private collection, 203 Christchurch. Fig. 2 [Stoddart family, Diamond Harbour], c. 1897, Mary Stoddart photograph album 1, MS14, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 204 Fig. 3 A.C. Barker, The Stoddart family, Diamond Harbour, 1871, Dr A.C. Barker collection, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 204 Fig. 4 A.C. Barker, [Acland family, Mt Peel Station], 1872, Dr A.C. Barker collection, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 205 Fig. 5 [Acland family, Mt Peel Station], May 1895, Acland photographs collection, (MB44), Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, 205 Christchurch. Fig. 6 ‘Xmas I’, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA40, private collection, Christchurch. 206 Fig. 7 ‘Xmas II’, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA40, private collection, Christchurch. 206 Fig. 8 Ghémar Frères, Queen Victoria and Princess Beatrice, 1863. 207 Fig. 9 Leonida Caldesi, [The royal family at Osborne House], 1859. 207 Fig. 10 Harriet Acland, ‘Father in Study, March, 1893’, Acland photographs collection, (MB44), Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, Christchurch. 208 Fig. 11 John Acland, [Father in Study], 1893, Acland photographs collection, (MB44), Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, Christchurch. 208 Fig. 12 [Views of Peel Forest], 1893, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA37, private collection, Christchurch. 209 Fig. 13 Harriet Acland, [3 photographs of the drawing room at Mt Peel homestead], 1893, Dr Barker, [First habitations at Mt Peel Station], 1861, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA44, private collection, Christchurch. 210 Fig. 14 Harriet Acland, [Drawing room Mt Peel homestead], 1893, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA44, private Collection, Christchurch. 210 Fig. 15 Harriet Acland, [Sitting room of Lucy Acland], Lucy Acland photograph 211 album, LA61, private collection, Christchurch. vii Fig. 16 [Kings and Queens of England], c. early 1890s, Susan Buckland photograph album, SB15, private collection, Louisville, Kentucky. 212 Fig. 17 ‘King Charles hiding in a tree…’, c. early 1890s, Caroline Buckland photograph album, CB9, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 212 Fig. 18 Caroline Buckland, ‘Baking Day’, 1896, Susan Buckland photograph album, SB18, private collection, Louisville, Kentucky. 213 Fig. 19 Jessie Buckland, ‘The Jackeroo’, 1898, Jessie Buckland album, JB33, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 213 Fig. 20 Susan Buckland, ‘After the Toil of the Day’, 1898, Jessie Buckland album, JB33, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 214 Fig. 21 [The Water Carrier], Caroline Buckland photograph album, CB35, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 215 Fig. 22 [The Water Carrier], Jessie Buckland photograph album, JB16, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 215 Fig. 23 ‘The Sweet Burden’, Caroline Buckland photograph album, CB35, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 216 Fig. 24 Susan Buckland, ‘The Sweet Burden’, Susan Buckland photograph album, SB60, private collection, Louisville, Kentucky. 216 Fig. 25 Jessie Buckland, ‘Coming Thro’ the Rye’, 1897, Jessie Buckland photograph photograph album, JB8, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 217 Fig. 26 J.R. Hanna, ‘Coming through the Rye’, c. 1902, Cyclopedia of New Zealand, (Christchurch, 1902): 319. 218 Fig. 27 Jessie Buckland, ‘Coming Thro’ the Rye’, 1897, Susan Buckland photograph album, SB72, private collection, Louisville, Kentucky. 219 Fig. 28 Elizabeth Hocken, ‘Mother's Treasure Box’, 1895, Susan Buckland photograph album, SB19, private collection, Louisville, Kentucky. 220 Fig. 29 Caroline Buckland, ‘Baking Day’, 1896, Jessie Buckland photograph album, JB5, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 220 Fig. 30 Jessie Buckland, ‘Coming Thro’ the Rye’, Summer Scene, the Australasian, 29 May, 1897, p. 1079. 221 Fig. 31 ‘The Arcadia’, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA1, private collection, 222 viii Christchurch. Fig. 32 ‘LCB MLB’, [Laura and Margaret Bowen], The Bowen photograph album, MLB9, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 223 Fig. 33 Margaret and Laura Bowen, S.S. Discovery, 1901, The Bowen photograph album, MLB3, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 223 Fig. 34 [The Bowen family at Middleton], Detail of Fig. 33, MLB3. 224 Fig. 35 [Captain Scott at Middleton, Christchurch with his cousin, Robert Julian Scott and his wife, Gertrude Elizabeth Scott, née Bowen]. Detail of Fig. 33, MLB3. 224 Fig. 36 ‘Botanical Gardens, Melbourne’, Australia, Margaret Stoddart photograph album, MOS26, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 225 Fig.37 ‘Mt Torlesse, August 1892’, Margaret Stoddart photograph album, MOS10, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 226 Fig. 38 ‘Mt Torlesse, August 1893’, Margaret Stoddart photograph album, MOS16, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 227 Fig. 39 [Matagouri], Mt Torlesse, August 1893, Margaret Stoddart photograph album, (MOS16), Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 228 Fig. 40 [Homecoming], ‘Peel Forest, 1892’, Lucy Acland photograph album, LA42, private collection, Christchurch. 229 Fig. 41 Sample page from Jessie Buckland's album, JB44, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 230 Fig. 42 Sample page from Jessie Buckland's album, JB21, Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin. 231 Fig. 43 Sample page from Jessie Buckland’s album, JB64, Hocken Library, University