The drama of French

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1960s, 1970s, drama, French, languages, theatre studies

These days Allen Hall is full of drama – it is the home of the university’s theatre studies programme and venue for its weekly lunchtime theatre performances. But this building, which housed the student union until the current union building opened in 1974, also witnessed various drama performances long before theatre studies appeared on the scene. During the 1960s and 1970s the Department of Modern Languages (which split into separate French, German and Russian departments around 1970) staged plays in French and German. Some of the 1960s plays took place off-campus at the Globe Theatre, but by the 1970s Allen Hall had become the main venue.

Felicity Brown (Ismene) and Dorothy Page (Antigone) in ‘Antigone’, 1965. Photograph courtesy of Roger Collins.

The French play was not a formal part of the department’s teaching programme, but an extracurricular activity involving a lot of hard work and fun. Staff, students, former students and friends of the department all played roles. The productions revealed considerable talent, and not just for acting. The programme for Jean Anouilh’s Antigone, presented in 1965, was handsomely designed by John Brown and printed on a handpress by French lecturer Roger Collins, while William Southgate, destined to become a well-known conductor and composer, took charge of the music. The title role of Antigone went to Dorothy Page, later head of Otago’s Department of History.

Priscilla McQueen (Toinette), Malcolm Glenny (Thomas Diafoirus), Ray Stone (Argan) and Jack Thompson (Monsieur Diafoirus) in ‘Le Malade Imaginaire’, Allen Hall, 1971. Photograph courtesy of Roger Collins.

Works by the great comic playwright Molière (1622-1673) were always a popular choice. Those produced at Otago included Les Femmes Savantes (1964), Tartuffe (1966), Le Malade Imaginaire (1971) and Le Mariage Forcé/Les Précieuses Ridicules (1974). The Evening Star commented in its review of Le Malade Imaginaire that “the fact that the play is spoken in French did not deter a large audience; and by way of reward for facing a bleak, wet night, they were entertained by a piece for the theatre as lively and as enjoyable as when it was first presented in 1673.” The “lively, warm-hearted, completely entertaining” production ran for three performances. French lecturer Ray Stone played the hypochondriac Argan, but the best-known name on the programme today is that of poet Cilla McQueen, who graduated MA from Otago in 1971. She played the role of Argan’s servant Toinette.

Roger Collins (Clitandre) and Molly Anderson (Belise) in ‘Les Femmes Savantes’, Allen Hall, 1964. Photograph courtesy of Roger Collins.

I am grateful to Roger Collins for sharing with me his programmes and photographs of these productions. Did you ever perform in, or attend, one of Otago’s French or German plays?

Anyone for mental science?

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1910s, jubilee, Knox, mental science, philosophy, psychology, St Margaret's, war

Professor Dunlop and mental science students in 1919. Image courtesy of the Hocken Collections, Album 89, S13-215b.

In 1919, as part of its jubilee celebrations, the university commissioned Charles Armstrong to photograph its buildings and people. This image comes from the wonderful album which resulted, now among the treasures held at the Hocken Collections. It features Professor Francis Dunlop and the mental science students. I can’t help thinking there should be another person in the front row – did somebody develop stage fright and run away at the last moment, perhaps?

Mental science (sometimes known as mental and moral philosophy) was a significant part of the university’s offerings for many decades. It combined two fields of study we now think of as distinctly different: philosophy and psychology. In 1919 the mental science course for beginning students included psychology and either ethics or logic (deductive and inductive). The advanced class included logic (“mainly viewed as the methodology of scientific enquiry”), psychology, and ethics (“in its full extent, treated both theoretically and historically”). There was also an honours class in the history of philosophy. Eventually psychology emerged from the shadow of philosophy and the arts faculty to become an independent department within the science faculty in 1964.

Dunlop, himself an Otago graduate, was Professor of Mental Science from 1913 until his death in 1931. Like his predecessor in the chair he was a Presbyterian minister; he completed his doctorate in Germany under Rudolf Eucken, a proponent of Lebensphilosophie, a form of idealism. Dunlop was famous for his enormous book collection and his steam-powered car.

An interesting feature of the class photograph is that several of the men are wearing prominent Returned Soldiers’ Association badges. There was a big jump in Otago student numbers in 1919 as men returned to, or began, their studies after the war. One of the returned servicemen in the class (second row from back, on the far right) is Hubert Ryburn. Ryburn returned to his Otago studies after serving in France, eventually completing a master’s degree in mathematics. He then went to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, finished off his training in theology in New York and returned to New Zealand as a Presbyterian minister. In 1931, while minister of St Andrew’s Church, Dunedin, he married Jocelyn Dunlop, the daughter of his former mental science professor. From 1941 to 1963 Hubert Ryburn was Master of Knox College, where he was renowned for being “firm but fair”. After his retirement he moved to St Margaret’s College, where Jocelyn Ryburn was Warden until 1974. She was a stalwart of many organisations and served as president of one of New Zealand’s most influential bodies, the Plunket Society. Hubert Ryburn’s most significant contribution to the University of Otago came through the University Council, which he sat on from 1946. From 1955 to 1970 he was the highly capable Chancellor of his alma mater.

Do you recognise any other students in this photograph? If so, please get in touch!

The textbook bonanza

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1890s, benefactors, chemistry

Dr J.W. Mellor, c.1904. Image courtesy of the Hocken Collections, from Album 518, S13-215a.

Reading the newspaper story about recent law graduate Jason Ushaw inspired me to think about other Otago graduates who have overcome difficult odds. One from the university’s early years is among the most distinguished scientists to come out of Otago. Like Ushaw, Joseph Mellor came from an unprivileged background. Born in Yorkshire in 1869, he arrived in New Zealand with his parents at the age of ten years. His father Job Mellor, who worked at the Roslyn Woollen Mills, could not afford to send his six children to high school, so Joseph started in the boot trade when he was thirteen. He read and studied in his spare time, and when the Dunedin Technical Classes Association started evening classes in 1889 he finally had the chance to pursue secondary schooling. Three years later he matriculated, entitling him to enrol for a university degree.

Thanks to a co-operative employer and a scholarship, Joseph Mellor began part-time classes at the University of Otago in 1892, where he studied under the charismatic Professor of Chemistry, James Gow Black. Mellor completed a BSc in 1897, followed by an honours year. His brilliance then won him a prestigious 1851 Exhibition Scholarship, offered to about eight recipients from Britain and its empire each year. This would fund three years of overseas research. Before heading to Victoria University in Manchester to begin his research, Mellor taught for a while at Lincoln Agricultural College and married Emma Bakes, the Mornington Wesleyan Church organist.

After completing his doctorate in 1902, Mellor remained in England. While teaching in Staffordshire he became interested in the local pottery industry and became a noted expert in the science of ceramics. In the ‘spare time’ he squeezed out of days spent as director of a research institution Mellor completed the task for which he is best remembered today, writing a remarkable number of textbooks. His books covered a range of topics within chemistry and some, such as Modern Inorganic Chemistry (first published 1912, 8 editions) became standard undergraduate texts. His master work was the 12-volume Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, published between 1922 and 1938. Not all of his writing was serious, though, for he also wrote amusing letters and drew cartoons for his nephews and nieces in New Zealand (Joseph and Emma had no children of their own).

Joseph Mellor, who died in London in 1938, obviously appreciated the education and opportunities he had received back in Dunedin. Emma Mellor, who visited Otago in 1950, gifted books and archives, including cartoons, from his collection to the university (it is now part of the University of Otago Library Special Collections). She also made a very generous bequest to the university of the royalties on Joseph Mellor’s books. This become the Mellor fund, administered by the Professor of Chemistry for the benefit of research in pure chemistry. Joseph and Emma Mellor are remembered today by a prize for the leading student of 400-level chemistry.

The charming photograph of Joseph Mellor teaching comes from an album which belonged to his father, Job Mellor. I’m told by those who know better than me that the first line of calculus written on the board is the Van der Waals equation.

Do you have any plans to write a bestseller? If so, you might like to remember Otago when you decide what to do with the proceeds! And if you feel that your road to academic success is a rocky one, you might be inspired by what one biographer wrote about Mellor’s many achievements: “It is difficult to escape the conclusion that Mellor’s determination to undertake such heavy tasks must have been fortified through mastering the adversity of earlier years.”

Who was first?

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1930s, 1940s, Cook Islands, Fiji, international students, Maori, Pacific

Like many organisations, the university is keen to celebrate its pioneers – the first people to complete a particular achievement. Identifying who those people are is sometimes straightforward, for example, the University of Otago’s first graduate was Alexander Williamson (1874) and its first woman graduate was Caroline Freeman (1885).

Other ‘firsts’ are not so easy to confirm, as the university’s early records are rather sparse where personal information is concerned. I’ve written previously about some of Otago’s early Maori students and graduates. Early records do not note the ethnicity of students and names are not always a reliable indicator, as some Maori students had English names, while some Pakeha students had Maori given names (with Huia quite a popular choice). A little prior knowledge or oral tradition is needed to help spot potential candidates!

I’ve been asked about early students from the Pacific, and some of the same problems arise. For instance, one of Otago’s most famous Pasifika graduates had a name with quite a Welsh sound to it – Thomas Davis. Davis, a Cook Islander, graduated from Otago in medicine in 1945 and had a career in public health and research physiology before serving as Prime Minister of the Cook Islands from 1978 to 1987. Otago awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2005.

One of Otago’s most famous former students was Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, pictured here with his wife Adi Lala in 1969 during his installation as Tui Nayau on the island of Nayau, Fiji. Image courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library, PAColl-0199-012.

The earliest Pasifika student I’ve found so far is Ratu Jione Dovi, who began at Otago in 1929 and graduated MBChB in 1935. As the honorific Ratu indicates, he came from a chiefly Fijian family. After graduating Dovi practised in New Zealand and served with the NZEF in the Solomon Islands before settling back in Fiji. Other Fijians of noble descent soon followed Dovi to Otago, among them Ratu Immanuel Vosailagi, who graduated in dentistry in 1944, and perhaps the most famous of all, Ratu Kamisese Mara, who commenced his medical studies at Otago around 1943 but continued his education (in history) at Oxford. Mara, awarded an honorary doctorate by Otago in 1973, served as Prime Minister of Fiji from 1970 to 1992 and then President until 2000. An early Indo-Fijian student was Mutyala Satyanand, who graduated in medicine in 1940, settling afterwards in New Zealand – his son Anand was Governor General of New Zealand from 2006 to 2011.

Are you able to help in my search for early Pacific Island students? If so, I’d love to hear from you! Who were the first Otago students from Samoa and Tonga and Vanuatu and Niue and Tokelau? And what about some early Pasifika women?

The food science mystery

Tags

1990s, consumer and applied sciences, food science, home science

Image from the archives of the Association of Home Science Alumnae of NZ, Hocken Collections, MS-1516/082, S13-556c.

This week’s post is another photograph identification challenge. These two images come from the archives of the Association of Home Science Alumnae of New Zealand, held at the Hocken Collections. They are from a series of large format photos, mounted for use in a display. Unfortunately they have no details attached, but I’m guessing from the hairstyles that they date from the 1990s (I’m willing to be corrected on that though!). Are you able to name any of the women in these images? They seem to be in the food science lab, but what exactly are they doing? Judging by the look on the face of the woman in the centre with plate and spoon, if she’s tasting something it’s not especially appealing.

Food science was an integral part of the home science degree and diploma courses from their beginning in 1911. Early foods courses involved practical cookery skills, becoming more demanding as students advanced. For instance, in 1937 the Foods II course of “experimental cookery” was “designed to standardize methods of cookery on the basis of the composition of Foods” and students had to complete Applied Chemistry I alongside or before this course. Later advanced courses were more explicitly about science rather than cookery. In the 1953 Chemistry of Foods paper students learned about “Proteins, carbohydrates, fats, mineral matter; the fundamental principles and practice in gravimetric and volumetric analysis as used in food chemistry; determination of moisture, protein, fat, sugar, ash in common food materials; determination of more important fat constants; detection of food preservatives and adulterations.” They spent 3.3 hours in the lab each week, conducting experiments using milk, butter, cereals, yeast, vinegar and baking powders.

By the 1980s food science had two streams – food science, and consumer food science, which dealt with food market acceptance and product development. Research interests of the department in 1988 ranged from flavour changes during storage of frozen stone fruit to the development of surimi. Like the Department of Human Nutrition, the Department of Food Science emerged from the umbrella of home science to become an important department in its own right within the Division of Sciences.

Can you help name these mystery scientists? Or do you have any memories of the food science lab to share?

Image from the archives of the Association of Home Science Alumnae of NZ, Hocken Collections, MS-1516/082, S13-556b.