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Album (115)

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Elizabeth Colenso Album

Album information

Album nameElizabeth ColensoDigitised detailsThe physical photograph album contains 114 numbered prints (most with captions) on 43 numbered pages. 1v. 28 x 39 cm.

These have been digitised and can be found below.About the albumThe album is inscribed on the first page, in three different hands:

"E. Colenso, Norfolk Id. 1872-1889" (probably Elizabeth Colenso's handwriting)

"Revd. Petrie, An Easter offering from the daughter of the above E.C., F.M.S., 1922" (Francis Mary Simcox's handwriting)

"Presented to the NZ Anglican Board of Missions, 23 Nov. 1937. Iris E. Petrie" (Iris E. Petrie's handwriting)

As shown in the inscriptions, the album passed from Elizabeth Colenso’s daughter Frances, to the Rev’d Frederick Herbert Petrie (1875-1948) in 1922. Petrie was with the Melanesian Mission at Gela (Nggela) also known as Florida in the Bungana Diocese, June 1907-1909, and subsequently lived in New Zealand.

His daughter-in-law, Iris Petrie gave the album to the New Zealand Anglican Board of Missions in 1937. The NZAMB archives are held on behalf of the Board by the John Kinder Theological Library, Auckland.

Elizabeth Colenso, best remembered for her work in New Zealand with the Church Missionary Society and Maori, including English to Maori translation work, especially the 1868 Maori Bible. She worked for the Melanesian Mission on Norfolk Island from early 1876 to 1898. Again, while working for the Melanesian Mission, she worked with translation of texts into Mota, the agreed language of the Melanesian Mission. As unmarried European women started to be sent to work at the Mission, Elizabeth took leadership of them, also in training the young Melanesian women in household skills prior to marriage to one of the male scholars. Working for the Melanesian Mission for 20 years, the assumption has been made that the annotations in her hand are accurate.

The Melanesian Mission, later the Diocese of Melanesia, was initially a part of the New Zealand Anglican Church, set up by Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand. The Mission was first based in Auckland at Kohimarama, subsequently moving to Norfolk Island in late 1867.

This album contains 114 photographs of various origins. Some are identified as taken during the 1892 voyage of Bishop Henry Montgomery of Tasmania to Melanesia. Bishop Montgomery had borrowed a camera from close friend John Watt Beattie, a Hobart photographer, and both Dr Welchman and Mr Brittain of the Mission staff are noted as having taken photographs with this camera. The plates were returned by Montgomery to Beattie back in Hobart, and some of these photographs were later included by Beattie in his collection of Pacific photographs.

Bishop Terry Brown, former Bishop of Malaita, Church of Melanesia suggests that Beattie himself made a tour to the Mission headquarters on Norfolk Island in 1896 and included photos from this time in his Pacific Islands catalogue. (From a paper by Terry Brown to the ASAO 2011 conference). The New Zealand Herald shows Beattie departing Auckland on the Southern Cross 24 July 1896 for Norfolk Island, and returning with Bishop Cecil Wilson on 23 September 1896.

Most photographs are annotated, thus giving some local information not always found with other collections of Melanesian Mission photographs.

Image

Norfolk Island and Nepean Island seen from Phillip Island

Waterfall on Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island Rocky Shore

Nepean and Phillip Islands seen from Norfolk Island

Bishop John Richardson Selwyn and wife with a group from the Mission

Group of Melanesian Students at Norfolk Island

Melanesian Group at the Mission, Norfolk Island

Group of Melanesian Women at Norfolk Island

Dr Metcalf's Residence, Norfolk Island

Mrs Metcalf and Family

Archdeacon Palmer and Youngest Son Willie

Mrs Colenso, Mrs Comins, Mrs Browning, Miss Rossiter

Norfolk Islanders and Mission Staff Outside the Dining hall, St Barnabas Day

Cooks Quarters, St Barnabas Norfolk Island

Interior of Patteson Memorial Chapel St Barnabas

Patteson Memorial Chapel, St Barnabas

New Sewing Room, St Barnabas

Printing Staff St Barnabas

Sewing Room in Mrs Colenso's House

David Buffet, Norfolk Island

Mrs Colenso's House Norfolk Island

Foliage with flowers similar to a bottlebrush

Relief Art Work of the Ascension

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