Panoramic photographs of New Zealand and the Pacific, taken 1923-1928 by R P Moore, who had premises at 80 Manners Street, Wellington.

Images reflect that Moore was an entrepreneur who made contact with local firms (including laundries, motor vehicle service stations, freezing works, gold mining etc); town clerks for images about towns and localities; and individual property owners for farmland and homesteads. He was also commissioned by the New Zealand Tourist and Publicity Department for projects such as photographing Maori themes in the Rotorua area for the officers of the American Fleet which visited in 1925; royal visits including HRH Duke of York's receptions all over New Zealand and his fishing camp at Tongariro. Tourist scenes included the gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers; landscape on White Island; deep sea fishing on Mayor Island; and many views of glaciers, mountains, Milford Track etc.

See an article in The Press (Saturday 16 February 1979 - copy in Library backfile), by Derrick Rooney, who spoke to Moore's nephew K H C Plimmer. Plimmer spoke of his uncle's studio in which Moore's sister worked at hand-colouring the tinted prints, with another family member helping to transport the bulky equipment around the countryside.

There are many interesting comments in his marginal notes, eg Pan-1651 where the client wanted accurate detail with multiple colours in the "oil" tinted copies; or Pan-1525, price 9.9.0 [pounds] + note "Print out Kodak paper & in case front fence shows up badly print on 8" mask, otherwise on 10""; or Pan-1436, "Print from left of film & get house on hill in right in. See that Peninsula prints up as well".

Associated material - Biographical notes, conservation information, photocopies of negative boxes, and notes about the cirkut camera, are in the R P Moore folder in the back file

Quantity: 2455 b&w original negative(s) with 2457 images.

Physical Description: Nitrate film panoramic negatives

Provenance: Uncertain. Possibly held, in the 1960s, by the Publicity Studios.

Processing information: Archivists notes - Enhancement of descriptive records was done in 2015, including the cancelling of former NegColl and Box numbers. PAColl-3406 and PAColl-3567 were unlinked from PA-Group-00376, as they are made up of prints that don't have the same provenance.

Original negatives may be viewed at the discretion of the Curator.