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 🙂

 

A sporting university

Tags

1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, physical education, recreation, sports

The women’s A grade hockey team of 1920. Back (from left): R. Patterson, W. Elder, G. Lynn, F. Barraclough. Centre: E. Stubbs, H. Sellwood (captain), Prof George Thompson (president), V. White (deputy captain), M. Morton. Front: E. D’Auvergne, I. Preston. From Otago University Review, 1921.

With the Olympics underway, it seems a good time to think about sport! The first serious sporting fixture at the University of Otago involved rugby, though it was a very different sort of game back then. In 1871 there were just 81 students enrolled at Otago, but they managed to muster a team for a 22-a-side football game against Otago Boys High School. It extended over several hours and two Saturdays and ended in a draw. George Sale, the young classics professor and an old boy of Rugby School, played alongside the students, and in 1884 he became inaugural president of the Otago University Rugby Football Club. Cricket wasn’t far behind rugby, with its first match also in 1871, against the Citizens Cricket Club. Cricket historian George Griffiths suggested this first match was ‘archetypal’, for it ‘began disgracefully late, two selected players failed to turn up, and University were resoundingly beaten’. George Sale was again one of the team. Enthusiasts formed a University of Otago Cricket Club in 1876, but it only lasted three seasons; a second attempt survived from 1895 to 1900. The university managed to scratch together teams for one-off matches, but it was in the 1930s that it again managed to get together a club which played regularly in the local competition.

Taking a break during the home science tennis tournament of 1952. Photo courtesy of Sadie Andrews.

Tennis was one of the most popular early sports, for it required few people and could be played by men and women together. In 1884 students petitioned the university council to provide a tennis court and it duly obliged; the students formed a tennis club and within a couple of years had raised funds to lay down a second court. The tennis club, like many, had its ups and downs through the years. In 1890 one of its courts had to make way for the new School of Mines building and this was not the last time tennis courts were to provide an ideal flat site for building expansion; in the 1970s the Archway Lecture Theatres took the place of tennis courts.

The Otago University Bicycle Club, featured in an earlier post, was founded in 1896, and a year later the University Gymnastic Club began meeting weekly for ‘both exercise and amusement’. By 1901 the ‘noble art’ of boxing was an important feature of the club: ‘It is a huge treat to see a couple of junior Meds punching each other vigorously’, noted its correspondent in the Review. The gymnastic club was very short of members though, and may have evolved into the more specialist boxing club, which was up and running by 1910.

Hockey was another favourite with both men and women. ‘The hockeyites are enthusiastic and promise great things’, noted the Review in 1905, when both women’s and men’s clubs got started. Otago women students were early adopters of basketball (known as netball from 1970). This new sport, which some found preferable ‘to the more strenuous game of hockey’ was taking off in Dunedin schools and church organisations. University teams played in local matches in 1915, the year that the Otago Basket Ball Association, New Zealand’s first, was established, and by 1918 there was an established university club. The Golf Club, consisting of ‘some thirty enthusiastic players’, got started in 1920. Later to start than some other sports clubs, but destined for a flourishing future, was the rowing club, founded in 1929. It started out using the facilities of the Otago Rowing Club, but by the late 1930s had acquired its own boats and had dozens of members. In subsequent decades the growing university was able to support an ever-broadening range of sports clubs, from archery and taekwondo to diving and badminton, and of course some students also played for clubs outside the university.

Preparing to set off in the men’s harrier race, 1952. Photo courtesy of Sadie Andrews.

Students didn’t have to join a club to enjoy sports. Many a scratch team was put together for a bit of fun, such as the regular annual footy matches between dental and mining students. Residential colleges promoted sports as well, forming teams and playing against other colleges. Soon after Otago’s second college, Knox, opened in 1909, it began playing tennis, hockey and rugby games against the first college, Selwyn. In 1932 they institutionalised their sporting rivalry with the Cameron Shield, hotly contested in various codes ever since. Arthur Porritt, an early 1920s medical student and Selwyn resident, recalled that ‘statutory work accomplished, we indulged to the maximum extent possible in sport …. “Billy” Fea and Mackereth – two “All Blacks” – were our heroes – and we rejoiced in winning the Inter Varsity Tournament’. Porritt was an outstanding athlete himself, winning a bronze medal in the 100m at the 1924 Olympics in Paris (famously portrayed in the film Chariots of Fire, but with a fictional character representing Porritt). Athletics took off at Otago when the Easter Tournament between the four university colleges commenced in 1902. Soon after that first tournament – hosted and won by Canterbury – Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa) presided at the founding meeting of the Otago University Amateur Athletic Club. The club ran annual ‘inter-faculty’ events, where students of Otago’s various faculties competed for athletic glory; they served as trials for the Otago tournament team. In 1923 the athletic club acquired ‘an offspring’, the University Harrier Club, which held Saturday afternoon distance runs. The harrier club reported in 1930 that its ‘finest individual performance’ came from one J. Lovelock, ‘the best distance runner whom Otago University has yet produced’. Jack Lovelock, a medical student of 1929 and 1930, headed to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship in 1931 and became ‘one of the most celebrated of all Olympic champions’, winning gold in the prestigious 1500m race at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Women harriers ready to set off, 1952. Photo courtesy of Sadie Andrews.

Otago students have become sporting stars in many codes through the years. Some came to Otago for its physical education school, which for several decades offered the country’s only sports science tertiary qualification. Many of its alumni became household names, such as netballers Adine Wilson and Anna Rowberry, rugby players Anton Oliver, Josh Kronfeld and Jamie Joseph and cyclist Greg Henderson. Farah Palmer first took rugby seriously after arriving in the south; she went on to lead the Black Ferns to three world cup wins and complete a PhD in physical education. But sports stars came from other disciplines as well. In 1998 Otago claimed a national ‘captaincy treble’: Palmer was captain of the Black Ferns; Taine Randell, a 1997 law and commerce graduate, captain of the All Blacks; and Belinda Colling, a 1998 psychology graduate, captain of the Silver Ferns. Completing a degree while representing your country or province in sport was no easy feat and some sports people dropped out or took longer than usual to finish their studies. In 1990, for instance, John Wright, captain of the New Zealand men’s cricket team, graduated with a BSc in biochemistry, completed after a 15-year break from study. In 2012 the university celebrated when two former students, Hamish Bond and Nathan Cohen, won gold for rowing at the London Olympics; both had studied commerce at Otago before sport took over and they switched to distance education via Massey University. The students’ association recognised its star sportsmen and women with ‘blues’ for outstanding achievements. It also provided financial support for various sports clubs and their facilities. One of the biggest OUSA investments was the Aquatic Centre, opened in 2002 as a new home for the rowing club, which had lost its old premises and boats in a 1999 fire. The splendid facilities presumably contributed to Otago’s long run of success in national and international rowing events in subsequent years.

University sport can be pretty casual! ‘Burgers’ playing volleyball in the spacious surroundings of Helensburgh House, a hall of residence from 1984 to 1991. I’d be delighted to hear from anybody who can identify the year this photo was taken. Photo courtesy of Glenys Roome.

Of course, most students had lesser sporting abilities, and OUSA also developed premises for those who just wanted to keep fit and have fun. Smithells Gym provided room for some indoor activities, but the needs of the physical education school took priority there. OUSA built its Clubs and Societies Building in 1980 to cater for a wide range of activities, and it was soon hosting aerobics classes and weight training. It quickly proved inadequate for the rapidly growing student roll, providing an incentive for the OUSA to take part in a new scheme proposed by the Otago Polytechnic Students Association. The two associations and the university purchased and converted a former stationery factory in Anzac Avenue into the Unipol Recreation Centre, which opened in 1990 and immediately became a hive of physical activity. The university itself developed a recreation services department in 1984, hiring out equipment and organising courses and trips. Recreation services also held the contract to run Unipol. In 2012 Unipol moved to a larger purpose-built space in the new University Plaza building, attracting a jump in student use. Soon afterwards OUSA sold its share of Unipol to the university, unwilling to commit more funds and confident that the university had student needs at heart. Student president Logan Edgar cited the famous example where Unipol had refused a gym booking to the All Blacks ‘when it would have limited the space of students attempting to work out’. OUSA put the proceeds towards a major upgrade of the Clubs and Societies Building (then known as the Recreation Centre), completed in 2014.

This shot of officials at the 1953 interfaculty sports, held at the University Oval, demonstrates the commitment of staff to university sports. From left: Michael Shackleton (medical student), Prof Philip Smithells (Physical Education), Prof Angus Ross (History), Stanley Wilson (Surgery), Prof Bill Adams (Anatomy), Dr Bruce Howie (Pathology), Prof Jack Dodds (Physics), Dr Gil Bogle (Physics). Photo courtesy of Michael Shackleton.

Throughout the university’s history, its students and staff have played an important role in local sport, some as participants and administrators and others as spectators. Indeed, cheering on the local team on the terraces of Carisbrook or, more recently, in ‘the zoo’ at Forsyth Barr Stadium, is an iconic part of ‘scarfie’ culture. This no doubt contributed to the university’s 2014 decision to sponsor the local super rugby team. That decision raised many eyebrows and attracted some opposition, notably from the Tertiary Education Union, unhappy with the extent of spending on marketing within the education sector. Fortunately, the university’s sponsorship coincided with a big improvement in the Highlanders’ results, and when they won the championship in 2015 with ‘University of Otago’ emblazoned on their shirts it was a proud moment for their sponsors. The Highlanders have had another good season, even if they didn’t retain champion status; now it’s time to cheer on our Olympic athletes!

An administrative note

Regular readers may have noticed that this blog post is later than usual. From now on I will be putting up new posts every 4 weeks, rather than every 2. That’s simply because I need to devote more time to writing the book this blog project arose from!

 

The class of 1946

Tags

1940s, graduation, recreation, sports, student health

Waiting for the capping parade to start, 1946. Image courtesy of Arthur Campbell.

1946: New Zealand’s population drew close to 2 million, the long war was finally over, Prime Minister Peter Fraser led the Labour government into a fourth term, Southland held the Ranfurly Shield and The Best Years of Our Lives beat It’s a Wonderful Life to take the Oscar for best picture. But what was life like for Otago’s 2440 students? I recently stumbled upon a survey of a large group of students, which provides some fascinating insights into their lives.

The survey was carried out by the recently-established Student Health Service. The medical school had been carrying out medical examinations of its own students for a while, but in 1946 the university decided to open a general practice health service for all students. It was initiated by the Preventive and Social Medicine Department and partly funded by a social security grant allocated for each student who signed up; it aimed to combine ‘preventive and therapeutic work’. By the end of its first year the service had signed up 736 students, and carried out a statistical analysis of 614 of these, for whom detailed records were available. The information, therefore, covered a quarter of Otago students of that time. It wasn’t a fully representative sample, though. Unsurprisingly, medical students were over-represented, accounting for 53% of the survey, when they were 28% of all Otago students. Home science students were also over-represented, being 20% of those surveyed when they made up just 8% of the student roll. On the other hand, only 15% of those in the survey were arts or science students, at a time when they made up 37% of Otago students. Presumably students at the ‘special’ schools, such as home science, were more likely to sign up to student health as they often came from out of town, and did not already have a local family doctor. The involvement of so many home science students helped sway the gender of the survey, which was 40% female when only 27% of Otago students were women.

A group of dental students clean their pride and joy, 1946. Image courtesy of Michael Shackleton.

The data reported on the physical, mental and social well-being of the students. In an effort to measure the impact of the students’ early environment and class background, they were asked about their home locations and father’s occupation. These reflected New Zealand’s strongly urbanised culture. Just 13% had grown up in the country, and a further 7% in a ‘village’, while 78% had ‘town’ backgrounds. A remarkable 44% had a father with a professional background, 28% were in business, 13% in farming and just 14% in trades. At the 1945 census, just 10% of married men engaged in the workforce were classed as being in ‘clerical and professional occupations’, so it is clear that the children of the upper echelons of society were greatly over-represented at the university. Ethnicity was not recorded, but birthplace was, and 93% of the students had been born in New Zealand – internationalisation had a long way to go! Most of the others had been born in Britain, while a few came from Australia, central Europe, China and the Pacific. 10% of students in the survey lived at home – presumably that included the 6% who were married – and 46% in residential colleges. Flatting was yet to take off in popularity, with just 4% of the sample in flats; 39% lived in ‘digs’, or private board.

The shadow of the war loomed large. The ‘SS War Bride’ was the science students’ float for the 1946 capping parade. Image courtesy of Arthur Campbell.

The shadow of the war loomed large, with 10% of those surveyed having served overseas with the military; this ‘might have a considerable bearing on physical and mental health’, noted Archie Douglas, the student health director. It also had quite a bearing on student life. Tom O’Donnell, a future medical professor and dean of the Wellington school of medicine, was just 16 years old when he arrived to study at Otago towards the end of the war, and recalled that the few returned servicemen in his class provided some welcome maturity. In 1946, a third of the second-year medical class had served in the war. Miles Hursthouse, who was in that class, noted that it ‘became known in that and subsequent years for the dedication and hard work of the students’. The older men, like him, ‘were realising a lifetime ambition and worked like blazes for it, thus stimulating the younger ones to keep with or beat us academically’.

One of many popular physical activities of 1946 students – tramping. Image courtesy of the Hocken Collections, Otago University Tramping Club records, 96-063/036, S15-592b.

But it wasn’t all work: 64% of the students played at least one sport on a regular basis and 41% participated actively in clubs and societies. Reports in the Otago University Review reveal that 1946 was a great year for sports clubs. The boxing, cricket, golf, harrier, ski, soccer and tennis clubs all had successful years, and rowing, after a ‘lapse of some years’, ‘assumed its rightful place in the sporting life of the University’. The rugby club had more members than ever before and fielded 8 teams in the Dunedin competition; 6 players represented Otago and medical student Ron Elvidge, captain of the A team, was selected for the All Blacks. Other clubs and societies had varied success. The Review noted that the photographic society had come to a halt but the literary society had staged a comeback; the debating societies were ‘moderately active’. A new chess club was waiting for chess sets to arrive; the game had ‘a large following’ in the medical school. A new musical union formed a ‘long-needed union between the various musical groups’, with regular ‘gramophone recitals’ and several chamber music recitals in Allen Hall. A piano recital by Lili Kraus, a Hungarian Jew recently released from internship under the Japanese, was a highlight of the year. The dramatic society and dramatic club both staged productions, including The Black Eye, The Spartan Girl, Orange Blossom, a section from The Taming of the Shrew and a play reading of Blithe Spirit. ‘Ill-considered criticism is sometimes levelled at the Drama Club’, suggested OUSA’s intellectual affairs rep, but it ‘works under many difficulties’. The biological society and medical history society flourished, as did the Christian groups, which maintained ‘a continuity for which other societies contend in vain’.

The health service made an attempt to assess the ‘mental hygiene’ of students with a scale measuring their ‘temperament’. A creditable 43% were described as ‘calm’, 39% as ‘average’ and 17% as ‘nervous’. The nervous perhaps included the 8% classed as heavy smokers (’more than 10 cigarettes a day, or the equivalent in pipes’); a further 36% were ‘light’ smokers, while 56% didn’t smoke. Physical examination of the students uncovered a range of physical ‘defects’. The most common – each affecting 17% of the study group – were ‘thyroid’, ‘previous respiratory illness’ and ‘vision unsatisfactory’ (17% wore glasses regularly and 4% for reading – according to my optometrist those are very low percentages compared with today’s student cohort). The most common reason for students to consult the health service was a skin problem, while the greatest cause of acute sickness was ‘the feverish attack labelled flu’. Another problem ‘constantly calling for diagnosis and treatment’ was ‘the possible appendix’.

The School of Mines float for 1946 featured ‘Paddy’s Band of Angels’, a reference to recently-retired cabinet minister Paddy Webb, who declared that ‘the people should take their hats off to the miners’. The capping parade was a popular public event. Image courtesy of Arthur Campbell.

Infectious disease loomed large in the histories of 1946 students. The ‘common cold and its complications is the outstanding ailment of the student group’, reported Douglas, but many had previously suffered more serious infections. Half had experienced mumps, and more than half whooping cough and chickenpox, while a remarkable 95% had suffered measles. A smaller number had survived scarlet fever, diphtheria and polio. Pneumonia and rheumatic fever were the most common causes of the ‘serious illness’ that 9% reported as part of their health history. The threat of tuberculosis – for which the first effective drug treatment, streptomycin, was only discovered in 1944 – was a constant concern. 10% of students had been in contact with TB within their own family. The clinic conducted 270 Mantoux tests and 72 were positive, indicating those people had been infected with TB, though they did not necessarily have active disease (‘latent’ TB being more common). The other main tool of tuberculosis screening – a chest x-ray – was provided to 309 students.

The class of 1946 was clearly a hardy group. Though they came, on the whole, from relatively privileged backgrounds, these young people had grown up during an economic depression, recovered from a range of potentially life-threatening or disabling illnesses and survived a long war (some of them on active service). They worked hard and many of them played hard. The capping carnival – which had been on hold during the war years – was revived in full in 1946 and enjoyed by both students and community. There was an air of conservatism among students: one of the most controversial issues on campus in 1946 was a campaign to overthrow the traditional exclusion of women from participation in the capping show. Women remained behind the scenes in 1946 but would finally appear on stage at the 1947 show.

The cast of the Knox Farce, ‘Cameo and Mabelette’, performed at the 1946 capping show. Image courtesy of Michael Shackleton.

I don’t suppose the director of the student health service had historians in mind when he compiled his report on the clinic’s first year! Nevertheless, his broad-ranging analysis has survived to provide a fascinating window into the lives of one generation of Otago students. I am grateful to him, and also to some former students of 1946 – Arthur Campbell and Michael Shackleton – who have shared some of their photographs from student days.

Heading to the hills

Tags

1920s, 1930s, 1940s, climbing, recreation, sports, tramping

The 1100 or so students at Otago in the 1920s were an energetic bunch and a number of sports thrived, notably athletics, rugby, tennis, netball (then called basketball), hockey and boxing. The 1920s also witnessed the birth of one of the most enduringly popular clubs on campus: the Otago University Tramping Club. Tramping was just taking off in New Zealand in the 1920s. Walking for recreation had been popular for many years and climbing also had its devotees, but tramping, involving more energetic walks, often in the wilderness, was something new. Wellington’s Tararua Tramping Club was the country’s first, founded in 1919, and eight more clubs emerged during the 1920s, including the Otago Tramping Club in 1923 and the Otago University Tramping Club in 1927.

A group of energetic 1920s students with the summit of Mt Park in the background. From the Otago University Review, September 1925.

Groups of Otago students had already been out exploring the southern wilderness before the club began. The Grave Talbot Pass in the Darran Mountains is named in honour of two Otago graduates, William Grave and Arthur Talbot, who pioneered this link from Lake Wakatipu to Milford Sound in the 1910s. The pass would prove too strenuous for most tourists, but the valleys leading up to it on both sides were made more accessible by groups of students who formed the tracks, working over the summers between 1914 and 1925. An article in the September 1925 Review recounts their adventures of the last two summers, including life in campsites, on the track, and scaling mountains. They named a lake after George Thompson (French lecturer and chair of the professorial board) and a mountain after James Park (head of the School of Mines). Another mountain became Students Peak. An ascent of Mt Christina took four days, with the day they reached the summit fuelled by ‘an excellent breakfast of cocoa, porridge, and cold boiled kea’. Many will relate to their ‘perpetual war with the innumerable army of sandflies’! A newspaper article names those who scaled Mt Christina and Mt Park that summer as Kenneth Roberts, William Grave, George Moir, RSM Sinclair and Henry Slater, all former Otago students. Those who worked on the track in 1920 are named in another newspaper article as Merville Harris, David Jennings and Stewart Crawford, all medical students, and dental student Joseph Tanner.

These were strictly all-male adventures, but one of the joys of the tramping club was its accessibility to both men and women, with romance sometimes flourishing in the great outdoors or at the club’s social gatherings. The earliest reports I’ve found of the club are from 1929, when it was in its third season. The new committee elected late that year included Mr W.M. Stothart (the president, who sadly died over the summer), Miss E. Labes, Miss W. Fairbairn, Miss B. Dash, Mr B.C. Bellhouse and Mr Russell. That year ‘every holiday has seen happy parties of enthusiastic walkers out in the open country, which so fortunately forms the environment of Dunedin’. Some students might find mountaineering too much but could, as the 1930 report noted, ‘appreciate the joy of a brisk tramp, with its accompaniments of wood-fires and billy-teas’. Among the ‘scenic resorts’ explored by university trampers in 1930 were Harbour Cone, the Spit, Red Hut, Mount Charles, Tomahawk Creek and Chain Hills Tarn. Many of these were day outings, but some trips went further afield. In 1938 the club had ‘over thirty enthusiastic members’ who took part in day trips, two weekend trips (Mt Misery and Silver Peaks via Evansdale) plus a five-day excursion ‘to the various places of interest about Lake Wakatipu’.

Numbers waxed and waned, with some years finding more dedicated trampers than others; the club was always keen to recruit new members. ‘A good outing, providing both exercise and glorious scenery is assured’, stated a report in Critic in 1931. The club’s aims were stated in the front of its trip diary, started in 1940. It wanted to ‘foster tramping activities’ and ‘break down the barrier of interfaculty isolation’. It was also keen to ‘inculcate in members the canons of good tramping’. These included ‘a love of natural beauty and the outdoors; a respect for private property; a scrupulous care regarding fires; an idea of what is adequate in the matter of equipment and food; a sense of obedience to one and only one leader; and a realisation that a party must always keep together’.

A 1929 Critic notice provided advice for beginners on how to ‘dress for the occasion’. A ‘haversack is far preferable to a young suit case. On the longer trips women will find skirts rather a hindrance and are strongly advised to wear “strides”. Then again boots or shoes should be stout, comfortable and nailed; and of course do not wear a collar and tie, because it simply is not done in the best circles’. Clearly practicality was important, and the trip diary for the first tramp of the year in 1940 comments that over lunch there was ‘some amusement … at the President’s expense – in connection with his bootiful hat – a blue velvet beret’.

A club outing at Mihiwaka, 1946. Image courtesy of the Hocken Collections, from an Otago University Tramping Club album, 96-063-36, S15-592b.

In appealing to potential members, the club had a few prejudices to overcome. A 1947 report emphasised that it was not all about extreme fitness: ‘We are convinced that the only thing which keeps our membership below the 100-mark is the popular illusion that a tramper is one who steams round the landscape at a steady 20 miles per hour, bowed to earth by a Bergan of the size and shape of a young bungalow. This is false – such a figure is only to be met with in the vulgar and more pushing clubs, such as the Tararuas. We prefer to stroll gently along with fitting dignity, stopping for the regulation ten minutes in every half-hour. Of course we have a large number of young “keen types” in our membership, but many of us are completely decrepit.’

Over the years many people have been introduced to the joys of tramping and to the beauties of the natural world around Dunedin and further afield through the Otago University Tramping Club. There has been the occasional tragedy along the way, but for most it has been a positive experience. This post has concentrated on its early years – to anybody wanting to learn of its later history I recommend the highly entertaining book 45 Years of Antics: Adventures and Escapades of the Otago University Tramping Club, published by the club in 2006. This is a compilation of articles from its magazine, produced annually (with a few gaps) from 1960; editor Kevin Lloyd also tracked down a club trip diary from 1934 to include.

Student life in 1934

Tags

1930s, books, clothing, film, food, home science, music, recreation, sports, Studholme

Margaret Foster-Barham on the 1926 Triumph 500cc motorbike she rode from Nelson to Otago. Image courtesy of Judy Hogg.

“At present I am full of ‘pep’ with lots of good resolutions for work, health, exercise, thoughts & deeds.” So begins the 1934 diary of Margaret Foster-Barham as she commenced her final year of study for the three-year Diploma in Home Science at Otago. Margaret lived at Lower Studholme, the original Studholme building (where Unicol is today). As a senior resident she now had the luxury of a room to herself, though she had mixed feelings about that. “It’s rather a pity all the old wives are so far away. However perhaps it will be better not to see too much of them. Their talk upon dress & men becomes a little irksome.”

The freshers’ welcome, held at Upper Studholme, was an enjoyable event. Margaret was impressed with the supper and recorded the menu “as it might be a suggestion for some other time.” The students indulged in oyster and salmon patties with green peas, Parker House rolls, sandwiches, peach ice cream, coffee, salted almonds and other nuts. The Dean of Home Science, the impressive American Ann Strong, then gave a talk about her recent trip, showing “photos on a moving camera.” Strong had also brought back from her trip “a fascinating new gong” for Studholme, “on which different calls can be played.” Margaret found the Dean “most inspiring”, as she “expresses ideals in just the manner I would put things if I could.”

Margaret found her workload pretty heavy at times. As part of the practical element of her home science course she took her turn, paired with another student, at housekeeping at Studholme, which included a stint of cooking dinner over Easter. Later in the year she “nearly bust with pride” when she got 80% in nutrition. Then there was dressmaking. The students all made a “body,” a basic pattern to fit their own measurements, to be used as a basis for other patterns. Margaret’s diary reveals that body image is not a new problem. “I have been working at the old body,” she wrote in March. “She is looking quite nice, though is alarmingly big. It’s rather a good thing we can’t see ourselves as others see us!!” Her sewing projects included a green woollen dress and a peach velvet dress. A green silk dress was “not too successful. Brassiere kept slipping & also straps. Very maternal effect!”

But Margaret’s life was not all work; she socialised regularly with friends, both male and female. She particularly enjoyed the “pictures”, which she attended frequently. Favourites she saw in 1934 included Bitter Sweet, starring Anna Neagle, and The Song of Songs, which Margaret found “very beautiful … in excellent taste.” It starred Marlene Dietrich: “I love her voice & figure.” Wednesday nights at the musical society were another regular highlight: “It is great fun. We are doing a very jolly ballad of Gustav Holst, called King Estmere.” There was also time for a little light reading. One favourite was “a jolly little book”: The Small Dark Man by Irish writer Maurice Walsh. It was “light & well written” and Margaret noted it would  be “rather a nice book to give for a present.”

Margaret Foster-Barham. Photograph courtesy of Judy Hogg.

Margaret also enjoyed more energetic pursuits, such as tennis, though she noted that her “tennis needs much improvement.” An outing with her friend Tony to watch motorbike racing was “exciting in patches but for the most part boring & cold.” Motorbikes were, however, an important influence in Margaret’s life. She rode her Triumph from her family home in Nelson to university, and later to her teaching job at a Canterbury school. On one occasion she fell off in the gravel at Oaro just south of Kaikoura. Local farmer Owen Stanford rescued her from the ditch and, as daughter Judy explains, Margaret showed her gratitude by marrying him!

In 1934 there were only 1237 students at the University of Otago, including 79 studying home science. Just 319 – a quarter – of Otago students were women. The campus was clearly a very different place from today, but some things don’t change. Students still struggle to balance work and play, celebrate when they get good marks, enjoy socialising and movies and music, have adventures getting from A to B, and analyse the quality of residential college food. My heartfelt thanks to Judy Hogg for sharing her mother’s charming diary and allowing us a peek into one woman’s experience of life at Otago eighty years ago!

 

Allen Hall turns 100

Tags

1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1980s, recreation, theatre studies

The “Students’ Union and Mining School” (now known as the Archway Building), from the University of Otago Annual Report, 1929. The School of Mines was on the left of the archway and the union on the right.

Exactly 100 years ago, on 7 April 1914, Allen Hall was formally opened as part of Otago’s first student union building. The Governor of New Zealand, Lord Liverpool, arrived on campus to mark the grand occasion, when the new classrooms known as the Oliver Wing (an extension to the clocktower building, now part of the registry) were also opened. In the new assembly hall the Governor commented to a large and appreciative audience that he wished Otago students “the best of luck, frivolity and joy.”

This occasion was the culmination of many years of campaigning and fundraising by both students and staff. Before Allen Hall, students had no suitable place to meet and socialise. The Mayor of Dunedin, future cabinet minister William Downie Stewart, reflected at the opening on his own student days during the 1890s. In the new buildings, he commented, “it would be possible not only for the male under-graduates and the lady under-graduates to have afternoon tea, but they would be able to have it in company. That was an undreamt of luxury in his day, and as a consequence some of them had grown up rather shy.”

The students’ association and Christian Union had been wanting facilities for quite some time, but the campaign gathered momentum around 1908, when Thomas Gilray, Professor of English and Chair of the Professorial Board, took up the cause. “Certainly nothing is more urgently required by us at the present time than a suitable building for the use of students,” he wrote in his 1908 annual report. As the University Council had no funds to spare, the cost of any building would have to come from fundraising and special government grants. Students did what they could to raise money at various carnivals, but Gilray realised they needed to get the local community involved and invited “the ladies of Dunedin” to hold a bazaar. This took place in 1909 and raised an impressive sum – nearly £1200, the equivalent of around $200,000 today. After that, stated Gilray, “it was time for the men of the community to do something.” Various local worthies donated generous sums, led off by the Chancellor, James Allen, who headed a fundraising committee. Allen – whose home Arana later became a residential college – was also an influential parliamentarian, and he persuaded the Prime Minister, Southlander Joseph Ward, to commit the government to a generous subsidy, supplying £2 for every £1 raised. One celebrity donor was the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, who donated the proceeds of a public lecture to the student building fund.

The new bluestone building was designed by Edmund Anscombe to fit with the original university buildings and other additions, including the adjacent School of Mines, also designed by Anscombe. It contained a large assembly hall (named Allen Hall in recognition of the contribution of James Allen to the project and to the university), student executive room, common rooms (one each for men and women), dressing rooms, bathrooms, a “buffet” (canteen) and “other accessories of an up-to-date building.” Allen Hall became a venue for occasions both formal and informal, for meetings, dances and all sorts of “frivolity and joy.” Students also had, finally, a place to relax and grab a bite between classes.

There were just over 600 students at Otago when Allen Hall opened in 1914. As numbers crept up over the next few decades, the student union became increasingly crowded. Students of the 1940s recall being squashed in shoulder to shoulder at dances; the canteen was getting too small and it was difficult to fit everybody in when there was a large meeting. After another long period of planning and fundraising, the current student union building was opened in 1960, when the student roll was 2666. Another floor was added nine years later, with the roll already almost doubled again.

The current Student Union building in the 1960s, before another storey was added. Photograph courtesy of Arthur Campbell.

Once the student union had moved out, Allen Hall fell into a period of neglect and was seldom used. It was revived in the 1980s as the centre of the theatre studies programme; long-time staff member Lisa Warrington describes it as “a great testing ground for students” and it has hosted hundreds of plays, including the popular Lunchtime Theatre (held weekly during teaching time). Later this year, in September, theatre studies is holding a reunion – open to anybody with a connection to Allen Hall – to mark the centenary. You can read more about the centenary celebrations and theatre studies in a recent Otago Magazine article.

The Historic Places Trust registered Otago’s first student union as an historic place in 1988. It is significant architecturally, as part of the famous complex of historic buildings at the centre of the university. But it is also much more than that. For nearly fifty years the building was a social centre for the thousands of students that passed through Otago. The “frivolity and joy” wished to Otago students by the Governor one hundred years ago was then expressed in a new way in Allen Hall, through the many stage productions presented there through the theatre studies programme. Happy centenary Allen Hall! Do you have any memories to share of events in this now venerable building?

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!

Intellectual ravers and charismatic sceners

Tags

1970s, clubs, orientation, recreation, teaching

The cover of the 1975 OUSA Orientation Handbook featured Patty from the popular Peanuts cartoon.

“Dentistry gives you an opportunity to use your hands as well as your head” …. “The great myth that Home Science is a breeze just isn’t anything but a great myth” …. Surveying “is basically easy, but there is a heavy workload which requires consistent effort, and which becomes monotonous” …. Theology “has a lot of hard work and its rewards are almost entirely personal” …. Medicine “involves making an intense personal commitment” …. In Commerce “the workload is heavy. Don’t expect an exactly joyous atmosphere either”. So goes some of the advice from the article “Just what are we in for?” from the OUSA’s 1975 orientation handbook.

The Arts Faculty came in for the most analysis, with brief comments, admitted to be “unashamedly shallow”, on individual departments. These mentioned whether significant internal assessment – then a very new feature – was used, the state of staff-student relationships and the quality of teaching. Anthropology I, for instance, included “some very good lectures, and some very bad”. Economics I lectures were “often good for a laugh”, while teaching in the Russian Department was “abysmal”. One sign of the times was the comment on the attitudes of staff, with “conservative” a pejorative term. The Philosophy Department was “conservative and its attitudes sometimes approach arrogance”, while in the Classics Department “staff-student relations are cordial”, but “it remains a conservative department”. Large classes in Psychology meant staff couldn’t get to know everyone, but “they are not conservative, and as befits their chosen field of study are concerned with your welfare”.

To 21st century eyes, the entire publication is an intriguing mixture, ironically enough, of conservatism and new ideas. Though nearly 40% of Otago students were women that year there were just two women on the thirteen-strong OUSA executive, which was dominated by law students. Several of the men had impressive 1970s-style long hair and beards. Two of the exec later became well known public figures: information officer Jon Gadsby is a comedian and writer; and cultural affairs officer Jim Mora a popular broadcaster. Listed alongside the Catholic Society and Student Christian Movement were the Baha’i Club and Ananda Marga. The latter, meaning Path of Bliss, taught yoga and meditation: in those days of recent new exploration of space and deep oceans, “meditation is the inner spaceship to explore the vast uncharted areas of our own consciousness.”

Political radicalism was catered for in several of the clubs: HART (Halt All Racist Tours), COV (Committee on Vietnam for Peace in Vietnam) and SPAN (South Pacific Action Network). The latter took action “on matters of South Pacific concern from an anti-imperialist perspective”. The article “The life and times of Joe Cool, or how to make friends and influence all the other deadheads at Otago University” gave advice on “choosing your scene”. It noted that “on Campus power lies with a) The Newspaper-Literary magazine complex; b) the Students Politics group; c) the Charismatic Sceners; d) the Intellectual Ravers; e) the arty-farty drama types; f) the freaks. (Sport is no longer a power source but a valuable physical resource.)”

Most of the recommended eating places have long gone. The Siroco in Lower Dowling Street was “one of the City’s better coffee shops”, Big Daddy’s in the Octagon was “Great for a hot pie at 6am”, the Kandlelight Café at St Clair was “a great place for evening coffee” and Joe Tui’s in Albany Street was “famed in campus lore and legend – but no reported deaths!” Among the “interesting shops” were Isador in Rattray Street “for weird women’s clothes”, Poppourri in Lower Stuart Street with “good pottery and prices” and Maranatha in Bath Street for “the best quality leather goods in town.” There’s no mention of any supplier for one of the phenomena I remember vividly from the 1970s – macramé – but perhaps it could be picked up at the Witches Coven in Lower Stuart Street, a “usual commercial so called ‘with it’ shop.”

The Witches Coven could supply all the needs of the ‘with it’ 1970s student. Advertisement from the OUSA Orientation Handbook, 1975.

Were you a ‘raver’ or a ‘scener’? Do you have any stories to share of student life in the 1970s?

Getting away from it all

Tags

1940s, 1950s, medicine, physical education, recreation, student health

Building Trotter’s Gorge Hut, 1951. From Philip Smithells papers, MS-1001/218, S13-559b, Hocken Collections, University of Otago

If you’ve ever stayed at the university’s Trotter’s Gorge Hut, you can be grateful to two pioneering Otago staff of the 1940s and 50s, Philip Smithells and Archie Douglas. Douglas, who graduated in medicine in 1932, returned to Otago in 1944 as a lecturer in the Department of Bacteriology and Public Health (later split into the microbiology and preventive medicine departments). Archie Douglas and Sir Charles Hercus, who was Professor of Public Health and Dean of the Medical School, set up the Student Health Service soon afterwards, partly as a tool to teach medical students about community and preventive medicine. The service, also open to teachers’ college students, was the first of its kind in the Australasian universities. It worked from the Department of Preventive Medicine until 1962, when it moved into new premises at 46 Union Street, and Douglas was director until his retirement in 1964.

Meanwhile, Philip Smithells arrived in Dunedin in 1947 as first director of the School of Physical Education. Smithells came from England to New Zealand in 1939 as superintendent of physical education for the Department of Education in Wellington. At Otago he developed from scratch a respected course in physical education, with a broad emphasis which included body mechanics, dance, recreation, sport and education alongside the basic health sciences. His belief that physical education was important to everybody, regardless of ability, was demonstrated in the remedial clinics offered by the school to children with physical impairments.

Smithells and Douglas were both advocates of outdoor recreation and loved getting out into the country. The exact details are unclear, but Douglas was, according to Smithells, “one of the instigators” of the Trotter’s Gorge Hut, which was built in 1951. He “hoped many students would spend weekends at this beautiful place as a change from town and life in halls of residence.” This was preventive medicine at its best. Of course the hut also provided a most convenient venue for the outdoor education component of the physical education course. The papers of Philip Smithells, held in the Hocken Collections, include many photographs of students enjoying a range of activities in Trotter’s Gorge, from rifle-shooting, archery, gymnastics and hiking to cooking outdoors. Also included is this great shot of the construction of the hut. It was mostly built by physical education students and staff, with a few helpers from other faculties. Please let me know if you can identify any of the people in the photograph!

Smithells wrote in 1967 that the hut had “never been used as much as was originally hoped.” However, it still stands in its beautiful location, ready to welcome students and other visitors for a minimal fee. With no electricity and no vehicle access Trotter’s Gorge Hut really does offer an opportunity to escape urban life!

Fashion for the great outdoors

Tags

1920s, clothing, consumer and applied sciences, food science, home science, human nutrition, recreation

Image from the records of the Association of the Home Science Alumnae of New Zealand, MS-1516/074, S13-559a, Hocken Collections, University of Otago.

The lovely Alison Finigan, head of alumni relations, once suggested that this blog includes photos from the decades that fashion forgot – so how could I resist putting up this wonderful image! The three women are, from left to right, Neige Todhunter, Winifred Stenhouse and M. Wilkinson. They were all home science students, enjoying a weekend of outdoor recreation in Karitane in 1927. Clothing was one of the subjects in the home science faculty, with a stage one course in garment construction and a stage two course in dress. The dress course, according to the University Calendar, investigated the “historic, artistic, economic and social aspects of dress as applied to the University girl’s wardrobe.” It seems highly likely that these women made, and perhaps also designed, their outfits.

The University of Otago School of Home Science opened in 1911. As the national “special school” it attracted students – all women for its first decades – from throughout New Zealand. Students could complete a three-year diploma or a four-year degree. In addition to clothing, subjects of study in the 1920s included chemistry; applied chemistry (food, household chemistry, laundry); physics; biology; physiology; nutrition and dietetics; bacteriology, sanitary science and hygiene; house planning, home administration and mothercraft; household and social economics; education; and foods (technology, housekeeping and experimental cookery). “Home science” later evolved into “consumer and applied sciences,” incorporating various other applied science subjects. Several of the original constituent specialist subjects of home science have survived into the 21st century: human nutrition and food science are now major departments in their own right within the Sciences Division, while design and clothing and textile sciences are now part of the applied sciences department.

Qualifications from the School of Home Science could take women of the 1920s a long way. Neige Todhunter, whose unusual name (French for snow) derived from her birth during a Christchurch snow storm, was a particularly distinguished graduate. After graduating with Otago’s first master’s degree in home science in 1928 she headed to the USA for further study, completing a PhD at Columbia University in 1933 with a thesis on Vitamin A. She taught in Washington State for a while and then for many years at the University of Alabama, where she established a human nutrition laboratory and became Dean of the School of Home Economics. After ‘retirement’ she had a long association with Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where she pursued an interest in the history of nutrition. Throughout her career she was involved in various high-level advisory committees on nutrition, as well as professional organisations. Some of her historical publications sound intriguing: I’d like to read her article “Dietetics in the Shakespearean plays”, which reflected her love of literature!

A long obituary of Todhunter, who died in 1991, makes no mention of her dress style. I wonder if the Otago undergraduate course on the “artistic” aspect of dress had any long-lasting impact?