IMAGE
Hannah family: Collection relating to the Hannah family and R. Hannah & Co. Ltd
- Date
- 1868-[ca 1990s]
- By
- R. Hannah & Company Ltd; Hannah, Robert, 1846-1930; Hannah, James Alexander, 1876-1936; Johnson, Neal Grenville, active 1950s-1990s
- Reference
- ATL-Group-00028
- Description
Collection comprises the papers of Robert Hannah and the Hannah family, and records relating to R. Hannah & Co. Ltd collected by the family. Material covers the period 1868 – [ca 1990s] and includes financial records, correspondence, diaries, ephemera, publications, and photographs.
Family papers include letters and telegrams sent by Robert William, George, and Alfred Hannah to their parents, and letters or cards sent to the Hannah family by extended family and friends after Robert Hannah’s death in 1930. Robert Hannah’s papers include two diaries, his personal letter book, and a ledger recording private financial transactions.
Material related to R. Hannah & Co. Ltd includes original financial records (ledgers, balance sheets, receipts, cashbooks), company guidelines (Hannah’s rules and regulations, sick benefit society booklet), newsletters, and administrative correspondence. Correspondence also relates to Robert Hannah’s broader commercial and official activities (executing wills, sale and purchase of land or property).
Photographic material includes loose and mounted prints depicting R. Hannah & Co. Ltd staff, the three R. Hannah & Co. Ltd factories in Wellington, and Hannah's shops throughout New Zealand. Images were taken by various photographers, mainly between 1940 and 1970. Photographs related to Hannah's shops depict building exteriors, window displays, retail staff, shop interiors, and customers shopping at sales. Prints related to Leeds Street factory include group portraits of staff in the courtyard and staff at work inside the Leeds Street factory, circa 1908. One 35mm negative strip shows multiple views of entrance to 'Midas' shop in Auckland.
Collection also contains material relating to the history of R. Hannah & Co. Ltd, the Hannah family, and Antrim House collected by the family. This includes research notes, published outputs, documents or publications of historical interest, and company records or secondary resources likely collected for research purposes (newspaper clippings, advertising, industry reference guides). Some items include notes referring to a company archive.
Arrangement: Negative strip held at 35mm-101596-F.
Robert Hannah immigrated to New Zealand from Northern Ireland in 1866. He opened his first shoe shop in Charleston, on the West Coast of the South Island, in 1868. By 1874 Hannah had moved to Wellington and was running R. Hannah & Co. Ltd, a boot and shoe manufacturing, importing, and retail business. The company had well-known factories on Lambton Quay and Leeds Street in Wellington, as well as retail branches named Hannah's throughout New Zealand. In 1875 Robert Hannah married Hannah Ferguson and they had seven children: James, George, Robert William, Lilian, Edith, Jessie, and Kathleen. From 1905 the family lived in Antrim House, on Boulcott Street. James Hannah joined his father in the family business. Lilian Hannah married Frederick Hills Johnson and their son Neal also worked in the family firm.
Quantity: 96 b&w original photographic print(s). 47 folder(s). 13 volume(s). 2 b&w copy photographic print(s). 1 b&w original negative(s).
Physical Description: Manuscript and typescript material, photographs, ephemera, bound volumes, and published works.
Provenance: Donated by Robert Hannah's great-great-grandson, Richard Johnson, Wellington, 2015.
Processing information: Not all names associated with collection have been indexed.
- Use/Reproduction
- Please ask the Library for permission to reproduce items from this collection. Copyright: Please check copyright.
- Access restrictions
- No access restrictions
- Format
- 96 b&w original photographic print(s), 47 folder(s), 13 volume(s), 2 b&w copy photographic print(s), 1 b&w original negative(s), Manuscripts, Typescripts, Photographic prints, Ledgers (Account books), Publications (Documents), Family papers, Business records, Manuscript and typescript material, photographs, ephemera, bound volumes, and published works.
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Copyright
Unknown
Charleston day book
Date: 1868
From: Hannah family: Collection relating to the Hannah family and R. Hannah & Co. Ltd
Reference: MS-Papers-12046-12
Description: One notebook belonging to recording Robert Hannah's income and expenses between 21 August 1871 and 15 January 1872. Front half of notebook list customer names, the shoes (wellingtons, workmen's boots) or services (repairs) they purchased, and prices. Back half of notebook lists possible manufacturing expenses. This sequence works inwards from from back of notebook. An R. Hannah & Co. Ltd sticker on back cover reads "R. Hannah's Charleston Day Book". Folder also contains one document recording Robert Hannah and William Graham Jackson's purchase of "Stock Boot Leather [etc] and premises" (Charleston, 22 January 1872). Quantity: 1 folder(s). Physical Description: Paper notebook with marbled cover, 20 x 16cm Processing information: Document originally interleaved inside notebook is enclosed in folder.
Research file
Date: 1873, 1929, 1966
From: Hannah family: Collection relating to the Hannah family and R. Hannah & Co. Ltd
Reference: MSI-Papers-12046-2
Description: Contains a plan of Cuba Street and inwards correspondence from the City Engineer regarding allocating street numbers (4 January 1929), undated handwritten research notes about the Hannah family, a newspaper clipping from the Taranaki Daily Herald regarding a new Hannahs Building in New Plymouth (20 August 1966), photocopies of R. Hannah & Co. Ltd advertising, and the front page of the Charleston Herald (1 October 1873). Quantity: 1 folder(s). Processing information: Material was originally delivered together in a manila folder.
Photographs of Hannah's shops, Leeds Street Factory, and company staff
Date: 1879-1889, [ca 1910s], 1928, 1930-1942, [ca 1950s-1970s]
From: Hannah family: Collection relating to the Hannah family and R. Hannah & Co. Ltd
By: Barker, Frank Giles, 1891-1955; Batchelor's Candid Studio; Don & Beatrice Peat Studio; Redfern Studios Ltd; Russell Orr Ltd; Filmograph Company (Wellington, N.Z.)
Reference: PAColl-10468-2
Description: Contains photographs of Hannah's shops throughout New Zealand, the R. Hannah & Co. Ltd factory in Leeds Street, and company staff. Photographs were taken between 1879 and the 1970s by the Filmograph Company Wellington, F. G. Barker, Russell Orr, Batchelor’s Candid Studio, Redfern Studios, K. E. Niven Studio, Don & Beatrice Peat Studio, Jerome Studios, and other unidentified photographers. Photographs relating to Hannah's shops show building exteriors and window displays throughout New Zealand between 1928 and circa 1980s: Ashburton, Napier (showing earthquake damage in 1931), Masterton, Wellington (Cuba Street and Lambton Quay), Greymouth, and Auckland (Queen Street, Otahuhu). Other prints depict staff, customers, and shoe displays inside shops in Blenheim, Tauranga, and at 230 Heretaunga Street, Hastings. Further photographs also relate specifically to Hannah’s shops in the Hawke’s Bay, likely during the 1940s and 1950s. Eight prints depict the exterior and interior of a shop identified as “Hastings Branch”. Twelve prints relating to the opening of Hannah's 48th branch on Emerson Street, Napier, show signs announcing an opening sale, customers waiting outside, and the shop filled with staff, customers, shoes, and price signs. Other prints depict similar sales in Greymouth and Whakatane. Nine prints depict the Leeds Street factory interior and successive stages of the mechanised shoe manufacturing process, circa 1908. Prints show the factory layout, women sewing, men using different machines to assemble shoes and attach soles or heels, people packing shoes for dispatch, supervisors in white lab coats, and stacked raw materials or half-finished shoes. One print depicts the view towards Wellington Harbour over houses and commercial buildings on Cuba, Marion and Leeds streets. Several buildings are labelled: R. Hannah & Co., Aspro, People’s Palace, and C & A Odlin Timber & Hardware Co. Ltd. A 1952 copy print is an oblique projection line drawing of the Leeds Street factory. Photographs of staff include portraits of Robert Hannah (circa 1880s), William Hannah (circa 1930), S. L. Blank (1964), R. J. McAsley (1971), and Finance Director N. East (circa 1960s). Group portraits include two prints depicting workers outside the entrance to the R. Hannah Co. Ltd Cuba Street factory and first Cuba Street shop in 1879. Six other group portraits depict possibly managers in the Wellington warehouse "Conference Room" (1966), and supervisors "on occassion of retirement party" (1975). Named staff include: D. C. Brown, D. R. Watt, W. Davis, A. Dowdle, W. Muller, R. McIntyre, F. Owers, A. D. Anton, H. C. Campion, R. Parkes, H. T. Hutton, A. W. Pike, D. G. Finlayson, D. L. Travers, A. Cornish, R. J. Laffan, F. Wigney, J. F. Crump, G. T. Hedges, H. J. Lichtwark, Ray Jones, Denny Dawe, Doug Askew, Hal Crooks, Doug Luke, Ian Walker, and Rex Gardiner. Remaining prints show a Hannah’s shoes display at the 1952 Wellington Winter Show, Robert Hannah and another man with a car (1928), and a horse-drawn float displaying Hannah’s Christmas advertising in a parade at the Basin Reserve (1928). Arrangement: Chronological. Quantity: 81 b&w original photographic print(s). 2 b&w copy photographic print(s). Physical Description: 83 photographic prints
Wellington City
Date: 04 May 1905
From: Hannah family: Collection relating to the Hannah family and R. Hannah & Co. Ltd
By: Muir & Moodie (Firm)
Reference: PAColl-D-1443
Description: Photograph taken in 1905 by Muir & Moodie depicting the view over Wellington City looking towards Mount Victoria from the intersection of The Terrace and Macdonald Crescent. Inscriptions: Mat verso - bottom left - P. J. Rodgers Photo, 8 Woodward St City Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s). Physical Description: 50 x 61cm
Letter book
Date: 1889-1903
From: Hannah family: Collection relating to the Hannah family and R. Hannah & Co. Ltd
Reference: MS-Papers-12046-10
Description: One bound volume containing copies of Robert Hannah's outwards correspondence to friends and business associates, mainly between 22 June and 19 October 1889. Other dates covered include 3 April to 19 August 1890, 12 November 1891, 13 May 1892, and 19 December 1901 to 4 May 1903. Subjects include personal, business, and financial matters. 1889 letters address matters associated with the collapse of Lightband, Allan & Co, including Robert Hannah purchasing Martin Lightband's interest in R. Hannah & Co. Ltd, settlement of the Lightband, Allan & Co. estate, and reorganising relationships with suppliers in Australia and Britain. Letter 38 includes a "List of Houses we have been importing Boots & Shoes etc from". Correspondents in 1889 include individuals (E G Latter Esq "Official Assignee in the Estate of Lightband, Allan & Co"; Martin Lightband; Mr E Jackson, London; James Embling Esq, Christchurch; The Manager, Colonial Bank of New Zealand, Wellington; J E Pope, Town Clerk, Wellington) and companies associated with shoe manufacturing, import, or retail. This includes leatheries and grinderies (Gavin Gibson & Co., Melbourne; Somervell Brothers, Netherfield), shoe manufacturers (Enoch Taylor & Co., Sydney), and tanners (Ireland Brothers, Auckland). Letters addressed to D P Morse and A J Benedict of New York discuss a recent holiday to America (visits to Salt Lake City and Niagara Falls, train travel, lost luggage), a hosiery shipment, and Benedict's visit to New Zealand. Letters to William Cabena of Melbourne discuss both personal and business matters, including their business relationship, and Hannah's opinions on aspects of shoe manufacturing. Remaining letters discuss various subjects including appointing Mr R Sinclair as manager of the Cuba Street shop (1890), Hannah's business interests in Auckland, a partnership with A W Bock of Hokitika (1890), goods supply and shipping, invoicing, property, and building work. Correspondents include J Stove (Kumara), E J Reid Esq (Manager, Colonial Bank of New Zealand, Wellington), J Burgess Esq, "Alf", "Chuck", George Colebrook Esq (London), Messrs Colebrook & Knight (London), and Messrs Morse & Rogers (New York). Quantity: 1 volume(s). Physical Description: Bound volume with leather spine and marble end-papers, iron gall ink on tissue paper, 28 x 23cm Transfers: Loose letters removed from inside back cover now held at MS-Papers-12046-11..
Panorama of R. Hannah & Co. Ltd staff at Leeds Street factory, Wellington
Date: [1932-1933]
From: Hannah family: Collection relating to the Hannah family and R. Hannah & Co. Ltd
By: Rodgers, Peter Joseph, 1878-1950
Reference: PA6-891
Description: Panoramic photograph depicting approximately 250 staff members of R. Hannah & Co. Ltd outside the Leeds Street factory in Wellington. Image was taken by an unknown photographer, likely between 1932 and 1933. Title supplied by Library. Inscriptions: Verso - top right - 1932 or 1933, Given by Barry Rogers whose mother is in the photo , He is a rep for Booker & Friend & calls on Julie M. Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s). Physical Description: Gelatin silver photographic print, 13.5 x 82 cm. Processing information: This item was flattened as part of a panorama flattening project in 2022. It had previously been stored rolled.
Panorama of R. Hannah & Co. Ltd staff at Leeds Street factory, Wellington
Date: [1925-1930?]
From: Hannah family: Collection relating to the Hannah family and R. Hannah & Co. Ltd
By: Rodgers, Peter Joseph, 1878-1950
Reference: PA6-890
Description: Panoramic photograph depicting approximately 250 R. Hannah & Co. Ltd staff outside the Leeds Street factory in Wellington. Image was taken by P J Rodgers, likely between 1925 and 1930. Hannah and Robert Hannah are seated in the centre of the front row. Title supplied by Library. PA6-824 is a larger, alternate panorama from the same photo session. Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s) Panorama. Physical Description: Gelatin silver photographic print, 13.5 x 74.5 cm. Processing information: This item was flattened as part of a panorama flattening project in 2022. It had previously been stored rolled.
Letters and documents relating to the sale and purchase of land
Date: 1873, 1909
From: Hannah family: Collection relating to the Hannah family and R. Hannah & Co. Ltd
Reference: fMS-Papers-12046-1
Description: Contains inwards correspondence and documents related to the sale and purchase of land or property. This includes letters and a plan related to purchasing "Mr Wiggin's" property on Lambton Quay (1909), and a letter from Charles Izard stating the worth and intended sale price of his property (1909). Also includes an agreement for the sale of land by William Waring-Taylor to John Smith, Blacksmith of Wellington (1873). Quantity: 1 folder(s).
Letters and documents relating to land and property
Date: 1915-1924
From: Hannah family: Collection relating to the Hannah family and R. Hannah & Co. Ltd
Reference: MS-Papers-12046-08
Description: Contains letters and official documents relating to the sale, purchase, and leasing of land or property between 1915 and 1924. Correspondence is mainly inwards, from the Palmerston North branch of Dalgety & Company soliciting interest in property in the central North Island (Manakau, Rangitkei, Whanganui, Rata). Also contains material regarding the purchase of land under Hannah Hannah's name on Boulcoutt Street (1916), an agreement regarding the sale of a property at 13 Upland Road to Duncan M. G. Somerville, and one tenancy agreement between Victor England and Robert Hannah for a property in Waiwetu Road, Lower Hutt (1924). Quantity: 1 folder(s).
Letters and documents relating to R. Hannah & Co. Ltd administration
Date: 1903-1904, 1909-1911, 1919,1923-1924, 1945
From: Hannah family: Collection relating to the Hannah family and R. Hannah & Co. Ltd
Reference: MS-Papers-12046-06
Description: Contains inwards and outwards correspondence regarding administrative matters, including registering R. Hannah & Co. Ltd as a company, hiring staff, insurance, advertising, and the sale of George Johnson's shares. Quantity: 1 folder(s).