Photo mysteries

Tags

1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, capping, Christchurch, food science, Helensburgh, languages, Maori, medicine, microbiology, physical education, recreation, St Margaret's

This is a plea for help! Today’s post is rather different from previous ones. I’m posting some photographs I’d like to know more about. Some have appeared on the blog previously, while others are new. They’re all interesting images that I’m thinking of including in the University of Otago history book, and it would be great to have more details before they appear in print. Do you recognise any of the people or places or activities, or can you help with missing dates? If so, I’d love to hear from you, either by a comment on this post, or by email or letter (the ‘about’ page has a link to my university staff page with contact details).

I’ve gathered lots of images from archival, personal and departmental collections over the last few years, but I’m still short in some areas. In particular, I’m keen to locate photos relating to activities involving the commerce division/school of business and the humanities division (though I have a good supply of photos for the languages departments). Zoology, maths and psychology are other departments I’d like to find more images for. Where more general images of student life are concerned, I’d love to find a few photos relating to life in student flats and to lodgings and landladies. I have plenty of capping parade photos, but some other photos of student activities would be great. Overall, the 1980s are a bit of a gap in my lists of potential illustrations, so I’m on the lookout especially for anything from that decade, and to a lesser extent the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s. Another major gap is for images relating to the Christchurch, Wellington and Invercargill campuses. If you have any interesting photos you would be willing to lend to the project, please do get in touch!

Now, on with the mystery photos …

1. Gentlemen dining

Image courtesy of the Hocken Collections, Irvine family papers, MS-4207/006, S16-669a.

These gentlemen, about to indulge in a little fine dining at the Christchurch Club, have connections to the early years of the Christchurch Clinical School (now the University of Otago, Christchurch). Those I have identified so far were either senior Christchurch medical men or Otago administrators and members of the Christchurch Clinical School Council. That council was organised in 1971 and met for the first time in 1972. Max Panckhurst, an Otago chemistry professor who was on the council, died in 1976, so the photo must date from before that, and since it also features Robin Williams, who completed his term as Otago Vice-Chancellor in 1973, it probably comes from the early 1970s. Do you know the exact occasion or year?

The men I have identified are, starting from Max Panckhurst, who is closest to the camera with fair curly hair, and working clockwise: LM Berry, Carl Perkins, George Rolleston, Robin Williams, Leslie Averill, Alan Burdekin (Christchurch Club manager,standing), Bill Adams, LA Bennett, Robin Irvine, unknown, unknown, Pat Cotter (partly obscured), D Horne, Don Beaven, unknown, Fred Shannon, Athol Mann, JL Laurenson. Do you recognise anybody else? Or have I got any of these wrong? Some other potential candidates, who were also on the Clinical School Council, are EA Crothall, DP Girvan, TC Grigg and CF Whitty.

2. Burgers

Were you a Burger? After I published a story about Helensburgh House, a student hall of residence in the former Wakari nurses’ home, I met up with Glenys Roome, who had been its warden. She kindly shared some photos, including these three. Helensburgh House ran from 1984 to 1991 – I’d love to identify which year these were taken, and perhaps some names!

 

3. The missing singer

Photo courtesy of Michael Shackleton.

All but one of the members of the 1952 sextet in this photo are identified – can you help with the full name of the young man third from left? His first name was John. The lineup was, from left: Linley Ellis, Richard Bush, John ?, Keith Monagan, Michael Shackleton, Brian McMahon. The story of the sextet featured in an earlier post.

4. On the rocks

Image courtesy of the Hocken Collections, Otago University Tramping Club records, 96-063/036, S15-592b.

This is one of my favourite photos – it’s already featured on the blog a couple of times and is sure to end up in the book! In the original tramping club album it is identified as being at Mihiwaka, but somebody kindly pointed out when I posted about the tramping club that this is most likely taken from Mount Cargill. Do you recognise this spot? And can you identify any of the 1946 trampers?

5. Phys-eders

The School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences has kindly shared some of their photo collection. The photograph on the beams was taken in the 1970s – were you there, and do you know the exact year? How about the others – any ideas where and when they were taken, or who the people are? I published a post about the early years of the phys ed school in an earlier post, and there are photos on that I’d love to have more information about too, so please take a look!

6. Te Huka Mātauraka

Photo courtesy of the Māori Centre

This photo was taken outside the Māori Centre, Te Huka Mātauraka, in 2002 and featured in a post about the centre. Can you identify anybody?

7. Microbiologists

Image courtesy of the Hocken Collections, Department of Physiology records, r.6681, S16-521c.

This photograph is a good example of the value of this blog. In the original, the man is identified as Franz Bielschowsky, of the cancer research laboratory. When I included it in a story featuring Bielschowsky, people informed me that the man here is actually Leopold Kirschner, a microbiologist working in the Medical Research Council Microbiology Unit. It was probably taken in 1949. Typically for that period, the female assistant is not named – do you know who she is? What, exactly, are they doing? I suspect health and safety procedures have changed since then!

Image courtesy of the Hocken Collections, University of Otago Photographic Unit records, MS-4185/042, S15-500d.

Here’s another microbiology-related photo, taken during the first hands-on science camp in 1990 – it featured in an earlier post about hands-on science. Can you identify any of these high school students? I’m curious to know if any of them ended up as University of Otago students!

8. The St Margaret’s ball

Image courtesy of Peter Chin.

This photograph, taken at an early 1960s St Margaret’s ball, featured in a story about Chinese students at Otago. At centre front are Jocelyn Wong and Peter Chin – can you identify anybody else? Exactly which year was it?

9. Picnickers

 

Image courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: 1/2-166716-F. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22884184

The Latin picnic was a popular event in the early twentieth century. This photo was taken at Whare Flat in 1932 – it featured in an earlier post about writers at the university. People identified so far include Dan Davin, on the far right, with Angus Ross in front of him and Christopher Johnson to Davin’s right. Other students include Frank Hall (back left), Winnie McQuilkan (centre front) and Ida Lawson (in dark jacket behind her). The Classics staff, Prof Thomas Dagger Adams and Mary Turnbull, are at front left. Can you identify anybody else?

10. In the food science lab

I featured these mystery photos quite some time ago on the blog, and people have identified Rachel Noble, a 1980s student, as the woman in the centre of the bottom image. The food scientists tell me these students were in the yellow lab, possibly working on an experimental foods course or the product development course run by Richard Beyer. Can you help with the date, or identify any of the other students?

Images courtesy of the Hocken Collections, from the archives of the Association of Home Science Alumnae of NZ, MS-1516/082, S13-556b (above) and S13-556c (below).

 

I have quite a few other photograph puzzles, but will save those for future posts!

Update

Thanks very much to those of you who have identified some of the mystery people already – yay! And thanks for the kind offers of further photographs. For those with photographs, here are a few instructions. If they’re already digital, that’s great. If you are scanning them, it would help if you make them high resolution (say 300dpi), preferably in TIFF format, but JPEGs are okay. If they are hard copy, I’m happy to scan them for you if you’re willing to lend them to me – I promise to return them promptly. I can pick up items if you’re in Dunedin, otherwise you can post them to me (it’s probably easiest if you send them to Ali Clarke, c/o Hocken Collections, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054). Remember if you’re sending images that you need to be willing for them to appear, potentially, in the new university history book (due out 2019) or on this blog! I’ll send you a form to sign granting permission for their use in university publications. Any published photos will be attributed to you; do let me know if there’s a photographer I should clear copyright with as well. Thanks 🙂

 

Radical Carrington

Tags

1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, Arana, Carrington, Stuart House

A happy group of Carrington residents in the late 1940s. Standing (left to right): ?, D Whalan, ?, B Pohe, N Parris, R Williams. At front right is Ben Whitiwhiti. Image courtesy of Bill Dawson, from an album of Robin Cook.

When Carrington opened 70 years ago it had one major difference from Otago’s older residential colleges – it welcomed both men and women. That was pretty radical for the 1940s, and for a few years Carrington was Australasia’s only ‘co-residential’ student hall of residence.

The Stuart House Council’s decision to run a mixed residence was a pragmatic response to the needs and opportunities of the time. It evolved out of a successful experiment at their earlier student residence, Stuart House, which was absorbed into the new Carrington. In 1940 Harold Turner, the assistant minister at Knox Church, where many parishioners were students, came up with the idea of opening a small student hostel in the former Presbyterian Women’s Training Institute at 638 Cumberland Street (where one end of the Student Union is now). He formed a committee with several other enthusiasts, among them George Carrington (secretary of the Otago Education Board) and successful businessmen Cecil Wardell (of the flourishing Wardell’s grocery firm) and Gifford Laurenson (of the equally flourishing bakery firm). Turner later described them as ‘a private voluntary group on a religious but interdenominational basis’.

In 1941 Stuart House, as they renamed the Cumberland Street property, opened to 29 men, some of them accommodated in an ‘annexe’ at the former Training College building across the road (now part of the physical education school). In 1942, with many male students headed off for military service but an influx of women students, the council decided to change Stuart House to a women’s residence. Since some men had already been offered places, they found bedrooms for them in private homes nearby but kept them as ‘associate members’ of Stuart House, which they attended for meals and social activities. This makeshift arrangement proved unexpectedly successful; it was popular with the residents and Turner, the warden, was pleased that the house was ‘much quieter and more orderly than it was last year’.

With no shortage of demand for student accommodation, the Stuart House Council always had an eye out for suitable buildings which might be converted. In 1942 they persuaded the university to purchase Arana, the home of the late Sir James Allen, and lease it to them. It opened as a residence for men in 1943. In late 1944 another good property, located on Heriot Row, came on the market. Carrington bought it on spec, having heard a rumour that the government was planning to provide money for teachers’ college student accommodation. Fortunately this proved correct, and after some delay the Otago Education Board funded the building, leaving its management in the hands of the council (now named the Stuart Residence Halls Council). Like Stuart House and Arana, Carrington was open to both university and teachers’ college students.

Building a float for the 1946 capping procession, in front of the first house purchased for Carrington. The man with saw in hand is Murray Menzies, who became a surgeon. Image from Pat Menzies, courtesy of Carrington College.

Students moved into the new Carrington Hall in 1945 – women into the former Halstead property and men into one of the two neighbouring houses the council had purchased. The generous grounds of the old houses provided room for yet more accommodation and in 1947 a brand new wing named Stuart House opened, along with more temporary buildings made from army huts. In that year Carrington provided a home for 105 students, being 53 men and 52 women. The original Stuart House in Cumberland Street became flats in 1947; the council sold the building in 1952.

Even the laundry was once segregated! A photo taken by 1953-4 resident Lex Familton after a raid on the women’s drying room. Image courtesy of Carrington College.

So, the radical experiment in accommodating women and men in the same residential college happened rather by accident, but since it proved a success it was allowed to continue. Of course the liberals of the 1940s weren’t quite as liberal as those of later generations, and there were strict rules about the mixing of men and women at Carrington. They could socialise freely in the communal spaces, but for the first few decades they had segregated bedroom wings/houses. Until 1976 all of the wardens were clergymen, some more conservative than others. Legend has it that one warden and his wife would listen in at the men’s doors to ensure any women had left before 7p.m. In 1973 the integration of buildings commenced, though men and women still had separate floors for many years.

Turner wrote in the 1950s about the advantages of mixed residences, where the sexes could socialise in a ‘natural and happy’ way and form ‘decent and sensible friendships’. Pranks and raids were less extreme than in some of the men’s colleges and, overall, it made ‘the men less crude, and the girls less giggly’. Co-residence could be ‘too distracting for some students’, though, suggested Turner, and some argued that it was ‘good for men to spend some years in a thoroughly masculine environment; presumably the parallel position is true of women’.

Though some university authorities got pretty het up about mixed flatting in the 1960s, they saw the advantages of mixed residential colleges, especially as the number of women students grew and eventually overtook the number of men. University College (Unicol) opened in 1969 as another mixed residence, albeit with men and women living in separate towers for many years. During the 1970s Studholme, Salmond, Arana and Aquinas all went co-ed, St Margaret’s joined the trend in 1981, and in 1983 the oldest colleges – Selwyn and Knox – finally and controversially lost their positions as bastions of masculinity (some would say chauvinism!).

Gymnastics at Carrington, from the album of Robin Cook, a resident of the late 1940s. Image courtesy of Bill Dawson.

Meanwhile, the trailblazer Carrington continued on its happy way as a residence open to all. As neighbouring properties came on the market they were absorbed into the college, which now provides accommodation for around 240 students in an attractively landscaped collection of 11 buildings, some of them refurbished large old homes and some of them purpose-built. The Stuart Residence Halls Council eventually sold both Carrington and Arana to the university, which now directly manages these colleges. With the funds obtained, the council then made very generous gifts back to the university, endowing the Stuart Chair in Science Communication and the Stuart Chair in Scottish Studies.

Do you have any memories to share of the early decades of Carrington? Can you identify anybody in the photographs? If so, I’d love to hear from you!

Recruiting scientists

Tags

1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, anatomy, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, microbiology, neuroscience, physical education

Looking at bacteria on an agar model of a set of teeth during the microbiology project at the first Hands-on science camp, 1990. Image courtesy of the Hocken Collections, University of Otago Photographic Unit records, MS-4185/042, S15-500d.

Recruiting good students is a priority for every university department. Everybody wants to attract the brightest and the best, but there is no shortage of competition from other subjects and other universities. Attracting interest early is essential, for once students have dropped a subject in school, they are unlikely to consider it as an option for tertiary study. In 1987 Donald McGregor, Dean of Otago’s Faculty of Science, noted “grave and widespread concerns over science and mathematics education in New Zealand”. Students were less well prepared than a few years earlier, many were turning away from science at an early age, and a much smaller proportion of the brightest students were enrolling in tertiary science courses.

Some individual science departments had already established programmes to promote their subjects in schools – for example, in 1985 the Department of Mathematics and Statistics started a junior maths competition and, together with the Department of Computer Science, organised a national computer art competition. Now the Science Faculty set up a Science-Link Committee to foster links with schools and promote science in the community, and also a Science Education Forum for concerned educators to support one another in advancing science and maths education at all levels in Otago. University scientists took part in a wide variety of activities to promote science in schools, ranging from more competitions and science fairs to an adopt-a-scientist programme and a junior chemistry club (for intermediate school children).

One of the boldest new schemes of the Science Education Forum had a national reach and included all of the sciences. Hands-on science brought a group of secondary students of ‘exceptional’ ability to Otago in January 1990 for a week of science activities – Gerry Carrington, convenor of the organising committee, described it as an “outward bound school for scientists”. The first science camp was an enormous success, setting a pattern which has continued ever since. In the mornings students worked in small groups on a challenging project designed by one of the university departments and guided by staff and tutors. The afternoons were taken up by a more relaxed recreation programme, allowing them to explore the Dunedin environs. Participants from out of town – about 100 of the 140 involved that first year – stayed in one of the residential colleges, and organisers arranged sponsorship for those who could not afford the expenses.

Some intense work underway during the anatomy project at Hands-on science, 2015. Image courtesy of Hands-on science.

After that first year, described by students as “exciting and inspiring”, Hands-on science became a fixture on the university calendar every January, attracting more applications each year. Eventually the roll settled at around 240, with many turned away (there were 520 applicants for this year’s course). As well as their research projects, students listened to inspiring lectures. A programme of “science snacks”, allowing participants to get a briefer taste of a wide variety of science activities, was later added to the afternoon schedule, though there were still a few purely recreational activities on offer, including quizzes, discos and outdoor challenges.

It’s not all serious! Students demonstrate the ascent of humanity during Campus Capers, a treasure hunt to familiarise students with the campus, 2013. Image courtesy of Hands-on science.

In its first 26 years Hands-on science has proved an effective recruitment tool for the sciences and, more specifically, for the sciences at Otago – around 40% of those attending end up as Otago students. More than half the participants some years are female, so it has helped encourage women into science careers. In more recent years there has also been increasing interest in the programme from Maori, who have been, traditionally, much under-represented in the sciences. Hands-on science has also proved particularly valuable for young people from small towns, giving them an opportunity to meet others with an interest in science.

Unsurprisingly for a programme designed for exceptional students, there have been some remarkable individuals attending Hands-on science. Perhaps the best-known to date is Chris Butcher, one of the engineers who created the Halo computer games. For some, the programme has determined their entire career. Christopher Lind, a 16-year-old from Rangiora, was inspired by Otago’s Brian Hyland, who explained the science of studying the brain and its functions. “I knew right then I wanted to be a neurosurgeon… I thought the brain sounded interesting and brain surgery was a frontier science”, he commented to the Otago Daily Times when he returned to Dunedin for a conference in 2009. Lind graduated in medicine from Otago and is now a neurosurgical professor in Perth, Australia.

With stories like this it is no wonder the people behind Hands-on science felt reason to celebrate last year when they held the 25th programme! Do you have any stories to share of Hands-on science? And can you help identify any of the participants in the photographs?

The physical education project at a recent Hands-on science course. Image courtesy of Hands-on science.

Off the starting blocks for physical education

Tags

1940s, 1950s, 1960s, physical education

Physical education students practising sling ball, year unknown. Photograph courtesy of the Hocken Collections, P.A. Smithells papers, MS-1001/222, S14-562c.

Much like the Department of Geography, the School of Physical Education was created in the 1940s to meet the demand for well-educated teachers. Early twentieth century educational authorities promoted physical training in schools, believing that healthy bodies created healthy minds. Compulsory physical education would, they suggested, prepare children to become better citizens. It wasn’t only educators that saw its value, though. Charles Hercus, who was Dean of the Otago Medical School and Professor of Public Health, was an early advocate of university education in physical education, seeing it as an important aspect of promoting the good health of the nation. In the late 1930s, he and the University of Otago authorities began the process of getting approval from the University of New Zealand for a degree in physical education, but the war held matters up. Auckland, too, liked the idea of beginning a diploma in physical education.

Matters became more urgent after the introduction of a new secondary school curriculum in 1946 – this made phys ed a compulsory subject for all secondary pupils. Earlier plans for a degree were put aside, and instead Otago obtained approval to offer a three-year diploma in physical education. This would give more flexibility and freedom to the university in moulding the course, and hopefully it would soon become well-accepted, just like the Associateship of the Otago School of Mines, which had a very good international reputation.

In 1947 Otago appointed the remarkable Philip Smithells as first director of the School of Physical Education, along with two other staff, Peter Robertson and Emmy Bellwood. Smithells – commonly known as PAS (from his initials) – was a Cambridge graduate who migrated to New Zealand in 1939 to become the national Department of Education’s Superintendent of Physical Education. He used his considerable expertise and skills to establish a respected course at the University of Otago, remaining director of the programme until his retirement in 1974.

Philip Smithells, affectionately known as PAS, teaching in the School of Physical Education, year unknown. Photograph courtesy of the Hocken Collections, P.A. Smithells papers, MS-1001/217, S14-562a.

Otago’s first class of 30 physical education students – known as the “guinea pigs” – began their course in 1948. Some of their courses were taken in other university departments: chemistry, physics, anatomy, physiology, education, and food values (in home science). But the school itself taught a wide range of subjects, including both practical and theoretical studies: physical education, pedagogy, gymnastics, games, athletics, aquatics, recreation, dance and health education. Classes were based at the old Training College building at 655 Cumberland Street and its gym nextdoor – these buildings are still part of the much expanded school today. Student numbers grew slowly, first exceeding 100 in total in 1961. From the early 1950s, outdoor recreation was taught at the Trotter’s Gorge Hut.

Most early students went on to careers as teachers. In 1967 Smithells, looking back at the school’s first twenty years, noted that 400 people had gained Diplomas in Physical Education, with 90% starting their professional lives as secondary school teachers. The generous bursaries and studentships offered to people training as teachers in that period were largely responsible for this. The wider range of careers open to today’s graduates is reflected in the school’s current name – the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences. But some early students did branch out from teaching: Smithells reported that former Otago students worked in child welfare institutions, mental hospitals and teachers’ colleges, including some now in senior management positions. A large number of women graduates who had married “work in their local communities in corrective work, work with older women and in modern dance.” Other early graduates had gone on to further education, with 30 obtaining masters degrees (and another 12 in progress); 7 had completed doctorates in the USA and Canada with 8 others in progress. Though there were, as yet, no postgraduate physical education courses at Otago, some staff and students had carried out research activities, assisted by “a well equipped exercise physiology laboratory, a partially equipped biomechanics laboratory, and a library in which both the book and serial collection is superior to any in the Southern Hemisphere.” A clinic offering individual physical education to children referred by their doctors provided important experience for students, as well as a useful service to the community; by 1967 it had treated about 500 children with special needs relating to “skill, courage, tenseness, motor control or perception.”

The School of Physical Education’s first class – the “guinea pigs” – practising a Kentucky running set, 1948. Photograph courtesy of the Hocken Collections, P.A. Smithells papers, MS-1001/222, S14-562b.

There is lots of interesting material about the early years of physical education at Otago, and further afield, in the papers of Philip Smithells, held at the Hocken Collections. These include many wonderful photographs, like the ones reproduced here – there are some particularly good photographs of modern dance and gymnastics. It seems we can hold Smithells partly responsible, too, for all those folk dancing classes at school! Do you have any memories to share of the early years of the School of Physical Education? And can you identify any of the students in the photographs, or help date them?

 

A royal walkabout

Tags

1970s, Critic, royalty

The Queen chats to students in the university library. In the background the Duke of Edinburgh does likewise. Photograph courtesy of the Hocken Collections, University of Otago Registry records, AG-180-072/021, S14-561c.

The University of Otago has hosted numerous visiting dignitaries over the years, from a Thai princess to Samoan and Malaysian cabinet ministers to the Crown Prince of Brunei. But the biggest occasion for celebrity star-power was undoubtedly 18 March 1970, when the Queen visited the Dunedin campus, bringing with her the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Princess Anne. The University Photographic Unit was on hand to record proceedings – these photographs come from a wonderful album they put together, now held in the archives of the University Registry at the Hocken.

The 1970 royal tour of New Zealand did not attract the remarkable fervour of the Queen’s visit of 1952-1953, but it did bring up some milestones. This was the first time the royals completed informal “walkabouts” to meet the public, and it was the first visit of Prince Charles (then 21 years old) and Princess Anne (19 years) to this country. The royals fitted several activities into their one day in Dunedin. After an official civic welcome at the Oval, attended by more than 20,000 people, they visited patients at Wakari Hospital. Charles and Anne then attended a “Young People’s Civic Luncheon” at the University Union. A couple of hours later their parents joined them for a tour of the university. In the evening the family attended a NZBC symphony orchestra concert, which featured an acclaimed performance from the young soprano Kiri Te Kanawa. Though nobody informed the audience, the royals and organisers were put on edge that evening by a couple of anonymous threats of bombs at the Town Hall.

Prince Charles and Princess Anne meet Otago students in the University Union. Accompanying the princess is Laraine Waters, the “lady vice-president” of OUSA. Image courtesy of the Hocken Collections, University of Otago Registry records, AG-180-072/021, S14-561b.

Students of 1970 evidently had mixed feelings about royalty: their welcome was “restrained but warm” reported the Evening Star. One group brandished a Welsh flag that attracted the attention of the young Prince of Wales and his father; but the most vocal students were the group of 60 or so who performed a haka on the balconies of the top floors of Unicol and sang various songs, including the national anthem and “God save the Queen,” along with the less respectful “Why was she born so beautiful” and “Why are we waiting”. Critic reported the visit in its usual cynical style: Princess Anne “hid a nice-looking figure in lousy clothes” (described in the Otago Daily Times as “a brown dress and crescent-shaped hat of gathered aqua chiffon banded with brown”); while Prince Charles was mocked for reportedly informing an anthropology student that “there isn’t any pre-history in New Zealand.”

After chatting with students in the Union, the royals toured various parts of the campus, including the library, chemistry labs in the Interim Science Building, and design and foods labs at the Home Science School. Everywhere they went, they engaged people in conversation about their studies; international students fielded questions about adapting to life in New Zealand. Students reported the visitors to be friendly and easy to talk with. The Queen was, claimed the Evening Star, “particularly impressed” with the fraction collector being used by Peter Elder in the chemistry research lab. Judging by the photo below, I’m not convinced that she was equally “impressed” with the university’s gift of its recently published centenary history, presented in the Council Chamber, where she met senior university staff and council members. I wonder if she ever read it?

University Chancellor Hubert Ryburn presented to the Queen a specially-bound copy of the centenary history and centenary record. Looking on is his wife Jocelyn Ryburn, Warden of St Margaret’s College. Vice-Chancellor Robin Williams stands partially obscured next to the Queen. University of Otago Registry records, AG-180-072/021, S14-561d.

Do you remember the royal tour of 1970? Can you help identify any of the students in these photographs?

Geography gets off the ground

Tags

1940s, 1950s, field work, geography

Geography students on a stage III field trip outside the Vulcan Hotel, St Bathans, c.1953. Head of department Ron Lister stands sixth from left in the front. Can you identify anybody else? Photograph courtesy of Patricia Graham.

Geography has the high school syllabus to thank for its beginnings as a university subject at Otago. In recent weeks I’ve posted about a couple of popular subjects that first got their own departments at Otago in the 1960s: psychology and anthropology. Geography got off the ground a little earlier because, unlike those two subjects, it was taught in schools. In 1945 the government introduced extensive changes to the secondary school curriculum, including, among other things, a new focus on social studies. With the school leaving age raised from 14 years to 15 years in 1944, and a policy to reduce class sizes, there was an ever-increasing demand for teachers able to teach junior pupils social studies and senior pupils geography. Secondary principals had already been campaigning for a full university degree in geography for some years, and there was clearly a demand for the subject from people who had enjoyed it at school. World War II only increased this demand – overseas service prompted an interest in geography for some New Zealanders, while others who had stayed home and followed the events of the war also developed a new passion for the subject. Existing geography courses at Auckland and Canterbury could not keep up with the demand.

The department began when Otago’s first geography lecturer, Ben Garnier, arrived late in 1945; from 1946 students could commence a major in geography for a BA, and an MA course began in 1950. Garnier was born in China and educated in England; he completed a master’s degree from Cambridge and taught at Wellington Technical College before taking up the Otago post. After leaving in 1951 he continued his academic career in geography in Nigeria, the US and Canada. Garnier later recalled his first lecture at Otago. The new department was allocated a few rooms in Mellor House, an old home in Union Street (now part of the Department of Psychology), and the furniture arrived just a couple of hours before the first class. “When I entered the lecture room, I could hardly believe my eyes,” wrote Garnier. “Every seat was taken. There were people sitting on the tables and others were propping up the walls, while a substantial number had spilled over onto the verandah outside. Instead of the 20 to 25 students I had been advised to expect, there were, as I remember, between 70 and 80 starting off geography at Otago.” Garnier was delighted at this response, and relieved when the university found them a larger lecture room.

The booming new department got a helping hand from the Professors of Geology and Mines, who lent maps, aerial photographs and equipment to help with the practical elements of the course. The first demonstrator was one of the many returned servicemen flooding onto campus; he was studying mining but his experience as an Air Force navigator made him ideal to teach some geography skills! Richard Greenwood, another Cambridge-trained geographer, arrived early in 1948 as the department’s second lecturer; his wife Eileen, also a geographer, became a demonstrator. Greenwood recalled that the students “were a stimulating mixture of school leavers and returned servicemen.” He taught on the regional geography of Europe and Asia, while Garnier concentrated on physical geography, including his special interest field of climatology. Students interpreted maps and carried out rural and urban surveys as part of their field work. The Taieri was a frequent subject of student surveys, and Karitane was another location mapped and interpreted with varying degrees of success by early students. Senior students went further afield for their practical work. 1940s student Mary Jackson (nee Kibblewhite) recalled a Stage III field trip to Benmore Station, near Omarama, where “my birthday was marked by a day’s deer stalking with four male students and a large meat pie for my birthday cake, which the five of us ate while sheltering from the wind in the snow tussocks high on the hills.”

The 1954 Stage III field trip was based in Balclutha. Ron Lister is on the far right. Seated next to him is Mary Kibblewhite, then possibly Doric Mabon and Elizabeth Blomfield. The woman closest to the camera is Beverley South; next to her is Jocelyn Cole, then John Sinclair and Mary James. At the back left, partially obscured, is Raynor Robb. Second on the right from him is Ray Shave. Photograph courtesy of Patricia Graham.

Regular field trips and tutorials helped create within geography a spirit of camaraderie and the department became well-known for its friendly environment. Though neither Garnier nor Greenwood remained long at Otago, they successfully established, with only minimal resources, a large new department. Their initial work was consolidated by their successors, most notably Ron Lister, who replaced Garnier as senior lecturer in 1952. When geography finally got its first professorial chair, in 1965, Lister was appointed to the role; he retired in 1982 after thirty years as head of department.

Some of the information in this post comes from a wonderful book of reminiscences, From Mellor to Hocken, published in 1995 to mark the department’s 50th anniversary. Do you have any further stories to share of the early years of the Department of Geography? I am grateful to the remarkable Hugh Kidd, long-time geography staff member, for helping identify the photographs. Can you spot anybody else you know in them?

Becoming part of Asia

Tags

1950s, 1960s, 1970s, Africa, Arana, Asia, biochemistry, Colombo Plan, international students, mineral technology, mining, Pacific, physics

Oo Khaik Cheang, Philippa Wiggins and an unidentified person at a farewell morning tea for Oo in the Department of Biochemistry, c.1964. Photograph courtesy of the Hocken Collections, Department of Biochemistry records, MS-4113/009, S14.512b.

In the middle of the twentieth century Pakeha New Zealanders, who had for generations looked “home” to Britain, became increasingly conscious that they were part of the Asia-Pacific region. The arrival of Asian students on New Zealand university campuses as part of the Colombo Plan played no small part in this changing perspective of the world.

The Colombo Plan – named for the city where it was signed, Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) – was a 1950 agreement between various Commonwealth countries to promote economic and social development in Asia and the Pacific. There were various aspects to the scheme: more developed nations sent money and technical expertise to countries in need of assistance, and they also provided education within their own tertiary institutions for promising students from developing nations. Around 3500 students came to New Zealand as part of the Colombo Plan during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. This country then withdrew from that aspect of the scheme, though the Colombo Plan survives today, considerably modified from its origins of over sixty years ago.

Otago’s first Colombo Plan students arrived in the early 1950s, with numbers gradually building up. In 1965 there were just over 160 international students on campus, more than half of them from Asian countries. Probably most, if not all, of the Asian students were here on the Colombo scheme. The largest group came from the countries which would later form Malaysia: 39 from Malaya, 11 from Sabah and 8 from Sarawak. Another 10 came from Thailand, 8 from Singapore, 8 from Hong Kong, 2 from Ceylon, 2 from Indonesia, 1 from Java and 1 from Burma. A quarter of these Asian students were women. Otago also had 28 international students from Africa and 26 from the Pacific Islands that year.

The Colombo Plan students completed courses in a wide range of disciplines. Most lived in residential colleges for at least part of their course, and in recognition of this the government provided funding for the university to expand its residential capability. The money was used to extend Arana Hall (now Arana College), with its new Colombo Wing opening in 1968. But authorities were keen for the Colombo Plan students to be integrated throughout the community, so they were spread around all the colleges, and also enjoyed the hospitality of New Zealand host families during holidays.

Arrival in Dunedin, with its less than tropical climate, could be something of a shock for students from Asia! Furthermore, especially in the early years of the scheme, many New Zealanders were unaccustomed to the presence of ‘foreigners’ and treated anybody speaking in another language with suspicion. Fortunately, other members of the community made a real effort to welcome the visitors and the students themselves appreciated the opportunity to learn about Kiwi culture. Some really threw themselves into student life. One outstanding example of this is Mazlan Othman, who arrived in Dunedin in the early 1970s as an undergraduate science student and went on to become the first woman to complete a PhD in physics at Otago. She enjoyed all the capping events, attended protest rallies, played in a band, worked in a restaurant, visited the mountains and enjoyed long discussions at the pub with other students. She learned to appreciate New Zealanders’ egalitarian outlook on life.

Some of these mining students are likely to have been at Otago on the Colombo Plan – they were clearly getting into the spirit of Otago student life! Freshers’ welcome 1964, Department of Mineral Technology album, MS-3843/005, S13-561b, Hocken Collections, University of Otago.

Like many other Colombo Plan graduates, Mazlan Othman went on to a successful career. She returned to Malaysia to teach, and later worked in the Prime Minister’s office to oversee development of Malaysia’s national planetarium. She then became Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Many became university lecturers in their home countries. Oo Khaik Cheang, who features in the photograph above, became Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur). He completed a PhD on “The biosynthesis of bacterial cell wall constituents” at Otago, graduating in 1965. Others went on to signficant political careers. A well-known example is Sulaiman bin Haji Daud, who graduated in dentistry from Otago in 1962. Over many years in Malaysian politics he served as minister in various portfolios, including education and health. Soedjati Djiwandono, who studied education, politics and languages at Otago before completing post-graduate qualifications in London, became a distinguished political scientist in Indonesia.

The Colombo Plan offered the opportunity for students to complete qualifications not yet available in their home countries, and to bring the benefits of that learning to their home communities. But the plan also had great benefits for the host countries. It brought a new diversity to the student body and introduced New Zealanders to new cultures. Lifelong friendships were forged in Otago’s residential colleges, lecture theatres, labs and the student union. The scheme brought some especially bright minds to Otago, for competition for the scholarships was fierce. The connections made through the Colombo Plan would have a very long impact on the university, as the goodwill built up encouraged further generations of international students to enrol here. It is no accident that the largest group of international students at this university in more recent decades has been from Malaysia, which was also the home of the largest group of Otago Colombo Plan students.

Did you attend Otago under the Colombo Plan? If so, do you have any memories to share? Can you help identify anybody in the photographs? I have published the image of the mining students on this blog previously, but I’m yet to identify any of the people, or the location!

Update – 27 March 2014: Many thanks to Alison Finigan of the Alumni Office who found a mining graduate at an alumni function in Kuala Lumpur who identified some of the people in the mystery photograph! Among the men standing are Boon Meer Prasart (left), Vivoon Petpaichit (3rd from left), Chai ? (wearing dark glasses) and Paichit Patasorn (right). All four were from Thailand. Can you add any more details?

Another update – 16 December 2014: A big thank you to Nic MacArthur who identified Ray Soper as the man standing second from left in the photograph of mining students at their freshers’ do. Ray graduated with a BSc in 1967, a couple of years ahead of Nic, who graduated with a BSc (Hons) in mineral technology in 1969. A check of the graduation programmes also reveals what are hopefully the correct names of three of the Thai mining students. Viroon Petpaisit graduated BSc in December 1965, while Paichit Pathnopas and Sunan Boonmeeprasert were awarded Bachelors of Engineering in December 1966. I’m still wondering what the venue is – anybody out there know?

More information – 26 July 2016: My thanks to Jean Kennedy, who identified the man in dark glasses in the mining student photograph as Riew Kongsangchai, who graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in December 1965. Jean became friends with the Thai mining students through the International Club in 1963 and remembers them as ‘the best cooks among the Asian students’; they shared a flat in Clyde Street.

Out in the field

Tags

1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, botany, field work, geography

Botanists on a research trip to Secretary Island, Fiordland, in 1964. From left: Alan Mark, Geoff Baylis, George Scott, Larry Bliss, Peter Wardle, Harold Jacobs. Photograph courtesy of the Department of Botany.

Otago was delighted to be listed as one of the world’s most beautiful university campuses by the Telegraph last year, and by the Huffington Post more recently. Otago has another great advantage in being located in the stunning natural environment of southern New Zealand (not that I’m at all biased!). A major part of the appeal of the university for some staff and students is its proximity to spectacular landscapes and opportunities for snow sports, tramping, and other outdoor recreation.

Of course, for some staff and students, notably those in the botany, geography, geology and marine science departments, getting into the great outdoors is not just recreation, but a significant part of their study and research. Over the years undergraduate geography students have attended field camps in various locations around southern New Zealand, among them Tekapo, Pounawea, Herbert, Gunns Bush, Bannockburn and, more recently, Ruataniwha. While the field camps for geography science majors tended to be out in the wilderness, geography arts majors stayed in more settled locations, such as Queenstown, Invercargill, Oamaru and Wanaka. Conditions were not luxurious – Emeritus Professor Peter Holland recalls the year when it was so cold at Bannockburn that the pipes froze and there was no running water! Residential field camps played no small part in the friendly and family-type atmosphere which made the department very popular with students.

Prof Alan Mark (front left) and botany students on Mt Armstrong, in Mt Aspiring National Park, 1984. Michael Heads is at the back wearing a check shirt – do you recognise anybody else? Photograph courtesy of the Department of Botany.

For a couple of decades botanist Alan Mark took the students in his combined second and third year course on New Zealand plant ecology on an extensive 10-12 day field trip to experience the varied ecological niches of southern New Zealand. These remarkable trips generally included on the itinerary Oamaru, the Mackenzie country, Mt Cook, Mt Hutt, the Craigieburn Range, Arthurs Pass, Harihari, Haast, Jackson Bay, Central Otago and the Mt Pisa or Old Man Ranges. Accommodation ranged from shearers’ quarters to Forestry Service stations. It was a physically demanding trip, but once they had recovered students came to appreciate all they had learned, and it certainly brought classes closer together. Botany students also took less demanding weekend trips to Manapouri, with the extra attractions of a boat trip and a good lunch courtesy of the Guardians of Lake Manapouri.

Many postgraduate students and staff of these departments carried out their own extensive field trips as part of their research, and of course marine scientists had their own research vessel … but I’ll save that for another post. Do you have any memorable stories to share about university field trips?

A damp party of botanists emerges from sampling forest on Secretary Island, Fiordland, c.1995. From left: Kath Dickinson, Brent Fagan, Alan Mark, Steven Roxburgh, Brent Kelley, Warren King. Photograph courtesy of the Department of Botany.

Sporting gentlemen

Tags

1890s, cycling, recreation, sports

The Otago University Cycling Club, circa 1897. Image courtesy of Hocken Collections, S13-245.

It’s a big sporting week in Dunedin, with a Bledisloe Cup match here next Saturday, so it seems appropriate that this week’s blog post should be about sport. This wonderful photograph from the Hocken features one of the most popular sports of the late nineteenth century, cycling. The 1890s was the “golden age” of cycling. Improvements to bicycle design, such as the pneumatic tyre, rear wheel drive and diamond-shaped frame, made riding more efficient and comfortable, and bikes really took off as a means of transport and recreation.

The Otago University Cycling Club was formed in 1896 and was one of several local cycling clubs, among them the large Otago and Dunedin clubs, and the smaller Mimiro Ladies’ Club, High School Club and Railways Club. Several hundred riders took part in the combined ride for the official opening of the season in October 1897. This photograph was taken around that year, perhaps before the university club’s own handicap road race in July. Though there is a glaring absence of women here, another photograph of the club from around the same period does include two women, so they were not excluded from membership.

Herbert Black, a School of Mines student, won the 18-mile race from Outram to Mosgiel and back by way of Allanton with a time of 53 minutes. He is seated second from the right in the middle row of the photograph. Seated on Black’s right is medical student Thomas Will, who was club captain that year. The blurry figure seated on the far right is Edward Howlison. He does not seem to have been a university student or staff member, but was a very important figure in the Dunedin cycling community. Around 1895 he went into partnership with Frederick Cooke to manufacture and sell bicycles – the firm later expanded to sell motor vehicles and Cooke Howlison remains a major vehicle dealer in Dunedin to this day.

The second-place getter in the 1897 race, law student William Downie Stewart, is standing fifth from left, with another law student, Leslie Williams, on his left. Stewart later had a notable career as a lawyer and politician, serving in cabinet for many years. Another well-known politician appears in this photograph – the gentleman with cane and splendid moustache standing second from the right is parliamentarian James Allen (later Sir James). He was a life member of the University Council and later served as Chancellor; he was also a long-serving cabinet minister in the Reform Government and Minister of Defence during World War I. He was a vice-president of the cycling club, together with several members of the university staff; this was probably an honorary role, though Allen was a keen sportsman who had represented Otago in rugby. Another gentleman not dressed for cycling, standing next to Allen on the far right, is law lecturer William Milne.

The club’s first captain, seated on the ground at front left, was John McPhee. Like many early Otago students he was a school teacher who studied at university part-time – he completed three years of terms but does not seem to have ever graduated. Only two other people in the photograph have been identified. Just in front of the door, in bowler hat with head in profile, is Dr Macpherson, and the man standing fourth from the right is Mr Fogo. If you know anything about these two men, or if you can identify anybody else here, I’d love to hear from you!

Anyone for mental science?

Tags

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!