Looking into photographs

Speakers

Joan McCracken, Lynette Shum

Welcome and waiata

Joan McCracken: And I'm delighted you've joined us today. To look into photographs.

Before I start my presentation, I have a little housekeeping. As you'll have seen when you joined the webinar, it is being recorded. And as this is a webinar, your videos and microphones are turned off. However, there's still an opportunity to interact with those of us in the room, and with others in the audience.

If you'd like to share where you're joining us from or have any general questions or comments, then please add them to chat. If you have any questions for me, then please add those to Q&A. You'll find both buttons at the bottom of your Zoom screen. My colleagues Lynette Shunm and Cellia Joe-Olsen will be monitoring chat and Q&A. At the end of the presentation, they'll pass on any questions we receive.

I do also want to acknowledge the date. This is the third anniversary of the Christchurch terrorist attacks. Our thoughts are with all people affected by that awful day.

To open, I'd like to share a verse from the National Library's waiata, written by our colleague, Bella Tarawhiti.

Haere mai e te iwi
Kia piri tāua
Kia kite atu ai
Ngā kupu whakairi e

Ngā mihi, Bella.

Introduction

When we shared the information about this presentation, I posed 3 questions. What book did Herbert Ponting take with him to Antarctica in 1910? What could you buy for 11½d in Christchurch that same year? And who was having a busy day? If any of you know the answers to any of those questions, please do share them in chat. We will get to them eventually in this presentation. But first I would like to share a little about how this presentation came about.

As some of you already know, I'm a very keen radio listener. And I have a particular enthusiasm for Phil O'Brien's programme, Saturday Night Requests on RNZ National. And what is that to do with the presentation about photographs you might ask?

Well, when they're listening to the radio, some people knit. Not me. It's not a skill of mine. Or perhaps they commune with their cat. I sometimes do this. But Parsley is not always a willing recipient of my attentions.

The photograph of Winifred Clift was taken by her husband, Charles, and is part of the collection of family photographs held in the library. On the right is a woman we have not yet identified, taken by another fascinating woman, Robina Nicol.

Born in the Shetland Islands, Robina Sinclair immigrated to New Zealand in 1874 with her parents and siblings. In 1885 she married Alexander Scott Nicol in Wellington and they lived in Austin Terrace, Mount Victoria. Robina Nickel was a skilled amateur photographer and took numerous photos of her family and friends, among whom were a number of women active in the suffrage and temperance movements. She signed the 1893 suffrage petition.

As did this woman. Because some people read when they listen to the radio, as I do myself sometimes, though never in a hammock. And do remember Lydia. She will return later in this presentation.

Making stories on Digital NZ

When I'm not reading, I like to amuse myself, while listening to the radio, by making collections of photographs on Digital New Zealand.

Digital New Zealand is a wonderful research tool, bringing together digital collections from about 220 partners. Most come from Aotearoa's GLAM sector — galleries, libraries, museums and archives. But there are also collections from radio, natural history organisations, and universities, among others.

Some contribute just a few images or audio visual material. But others, like the Turnbull, make many thousands of collection items available. You can even search Papers Past this way.

But the feature I love the most is the capacity to make stories. This is where you can curate your own collection of items and, if you wish to do so, share them with other users on the site. Some examples of user stories are featured on the home page each day. Fortuitously, when I went to take a shot of the front screen recently, one of my stories was showing.

I have lots of stories. Here are a few, including the story that was the basis of this presentation.

Some people really do tell stories. Wonderfully informative collections of words and pictures that are fabulous resources in their own right. The creator Zokoroa is one of my favourites. Her story on the left is about school milk. Some of you might remember that rather mixed blessing from your own school days.

But for me, it's just an opportunity to bring together a collection of images on all sorts of subjects that interest me. Sometimes this is part of researching a topic for work, as in this collection of images relating to Katherine Mansfield's Thordon that I prepared before a walk in the area for Wellington Heritage Week.

I do also use Digital New Zealand stories to collect together items relating to various branches of my family. On the left is a collection relating to my McCracken family. You'll see that the image on the top left is labelled 'your upload'. This is a photo from my family collection that I have added to this story. It can be seen within story, but if you search for Albert Street, Hastings you would not find this one.

But most of my collections come about because of something I find that makes me go, "Ooh, that's interesting" or, "That's fun." or, "I wonder if there are more like that." Where did this fascination with pictures, especially photographs, come from?

By the time I came to work at the Turnbull for the first time in the 1970s, I was already intrigued by photographs. I grew up with this book, 'The Family of Man'. Pages of beautiful, moving black and white images that I went back to time and time again.

You can see that one of my parents has even written my name on it to show that this copy was to come to me. I remain very grateful for that.

I was astounded to find, when I got the book out to take this photograph, that sometime in the past I'd even created an index to the photographers. There isn't one in the book.

One of my early positions at the Turnbull was a library assistant in the photograph section. When the library moved into its current home in the National Library Building, a new section was created, Pictorial Reference Service, later, Turnbull Library Pictures. And I was team leader. Here we help researchers find images to meet their needs using a collection of some 200,000 black and white copy prints of selected items in Turnbull's pictorial collections, including photographs, paintings, drawings and maps and ephemera.

The photograph on the left shows me with the then director of Whanganui Regional Museum, Sharon Dell, also a previous staff member at the Turnbull, and later Hocken librarian.

It was a wonderful collection and a wonderful service, but not easy for people out of Wellington to access. And then there was a revolution. The library joined the digital age and began a significant digitisation project based on public requests and curatorial selections. These digital copies were then made available through Timeframes.

Timeframes and Matapihi

Timeframes, New Zealand's heritage in pictures was launched on the Internet in February 1997. The site went live with 1000 images from the pictorial collections of the Turnbull Library. Images were continually added, and by the 30th of June 1997, over 2500 images were available for browsing. There was a goal at that time for 5000 images online by December 1997. And by the year 2000, the goal set was 25,000 images.

This is the publicity when we reached 10,000 images, and you'll recognise that Lydia was the random selection for the 10,000's inage. That was on the 11th of March 1999.

Then came Matapihi, launched in 2004 with five partner organisations, including the Turnbull. Matapihi was a portal to access the collections of partners from around the motu.

Neither Timeframes nor Matapihi exist in their original formats now. What happened to them?

National Library's image search

Timeframes was absorbed into the National Library's website. The federated search allows you to look for published and unpublished visual, textual, and sound material across the Turnbull and National Library collections. You can still focus on pictorial material through the image search link on the homepage.

There are a lot more than 10,000 images available now. Nearly two and a half million in fact, though a high proportion of these come from Papers Past. There are filter options that can help you focus your search, including images.

Here I have looked for waterfalls, another of my story subjects. There is a bit of a trick to the search though, as you'll also find photographs, paintings and cartoons under the filtered term 'other'.

And Matapihi. That was the forerunner of Digital New Zealand. So now it's time to take a closer look at some of the images in my 'Looking into Photographs' story. You'll notice that many of the images I select from my collections are from the late 19th, early 20th century. Partly because this is an era that interests me — it's the time when my grandparents were growing up — but also because of the wonderful clarity of the glass plate negatives of time.

Victoria Avenue, Whanganui

Let's start with this view of Victoria Avenue, in Whanganui in 1913, taken by Frank Denton.

Streets are very rewarding to look at closely. On the front of the tram, we can now see that there are three notices. On the left, Hayward's Pictures are advertising their Saturday matinee. In the centre we can see the destination of the tram, Aramoho via Dublin Street. And on the right, the New Zealand Swimming Championships are advertised.

A search on Papers Past brought back a number of advertisements and articles that add to this story. We learn that Hayward Pictures also boasted an orchestra, and we are encouraged to come and judge for ourselves.

Not surprisingly, when New Zealand swimming championships were being held in Whanganui in 1913 got a lot of coverage. They were held in the district high school baths. And I was delighted to find that Mr Champion was again the champion. A little more research and I found out that Malcolm Edward Champion was the first New Zealander to win an Olympic gold medal. He was part of the Australasian relay team who won the 4 x 200 race at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912. He would definitely have been a draw card for the championships in Whanganui in 1913.

And Dustin's advertising on the roof of the other tram, which by the way is going to Castlecliff, wants a smart waitress. I love the woman on the bike holding her hat. And at the back of the Castlecliff tram, we can see two women having a conversation.

On the Aramoho tram, there look to be two conductors, and a man poised in what looks to be a very dangerous position, about to leap out of the tram.

By looking closely at the clock tower, we can see that it is 5 past 12, so we're looking at the very busy midday crowds. Perhaps all these men on bikes are heading home for their lunch. And isn't it good to view the houses in the street behind the clock tower.

I've picked out George and Kersley's Limited veranda because they were one of the major retailers in Whanganui at the time. And we can take a closer look at their store.

In this photo, we can see their new store, which Papers Past, the Wanganui Chronicle, in fact, on the 20th January tells us, "Mr. Battle has accepted the tender of Messrs. Ashwell and McAneny, of Whanganui, for the erection of Messrs. George and Kersley's new premises. The new building, which will occupy the site of the present shop, will be a three-storey one. The contractors will make an immediate start with the work." That's January 1914, and Mr Battle was the architect. However, the shop we're going to go into was the previous one that we saw the veranda of in the previous picture.

More bikes.

I love this picture. It's got such a presence and such wonderful clothing. They all do look as though they're white, but I don't know that that would be true. I think some of them would definitely have had some colour. But I just know that I'm very glad that I don't have to look after them.

And I call this one 'still life with parasols and petticoats'.

Unidentified couple, Canterbury

Looking at people's clothing, costume is a lovely thing to do. This is an unidentified couple, probably in Canterbury, 'cause that's where the photographer, Adam Henry Pearson Maclay worked.

We can see that this woman was wearing some lovely jewellery. Do you think that's her husband? If he is her husband, of course, it's very easy to jump to conclusions and make assumptions when you're looking at photographs.

Stores

Grocery stores and other stores make particularly fun viewing when you look up close. This store is likely to be in Nelson, the home of Frederick Nelson Jones, the photographer.

This picture on the left intrigues me particularly. You can see the weighing machine. And there are often weighing machines in pictures like this. And you can also see the string hanging down from above the man, the shopkeeper. And I think that would have been used to tie out parcels for people to take their groceries home.

On the right, we can see 'K Jam is pure K Jam'. And we can also see honey and cocoa being advertised.

And you could do a whole presentation on the till, like this one. I don't really know what the man is pouring. If anyone's got any ideas, please do share that. You'll see above his head that there's a sign for Doctor Morse's Indian Root Pills. There are lots and lots of advertisements in the papers for Doctor Morse's Indian Root Pills, which apparently cured everything, particularly intestinal things. And between 1900 and 1920 there were 23,108 advertisements for Doctor Morses Indian Root Pills in the newspapers that are digitised on Papers Past.

This greengrocers shop looks really fantastic to me. I'm a vegetarian. I love greengrocers shops.

And here we have some of the products. The Waipawa Mail on the 1st of December 1924 talks about all gold dessert fruits being canned in Australia. And they're the best on the market. You can also see in the bottom corner, kumura and onions and sweets.

And the wonderful photo, or poster, above the the drinks — "Eat more fruit." This was a campaign that was started in Victoria by the Director General of Railways, who could see the benefits of encouraging people to eat more fruit, so that the growers would transport their fruit on his railways. And I was delighted to see on Papers Past that the Ashburton Guardian reported on the 4th of August, 1928, at Catholic fancy dress ball, Kathleen McDonnell won the prize for the most original costume, 'Eat more fruit'.

And I was very pleased to see this picture, because who knew that in around 1910, they had the equivalent of what I would now call a $2.00 shop? Everything in this shop, the Novelty Warehouse in Christchurch, is available for 11½d.

You can see brushes and baskets. And you can see all sorts of household-ware. In fact 60,000 useful articles in daily use can be bought for one shilling each. I thought that was interesting, that on the signs on the window it says 11½d, but in the newspaper it says one shilling.

And I thought that some of you might not be familiar with halfpennies and pennies and shillings. So, at the time of this picture, New Zealand was using British coins. And here are the examples of those — the halfpenny, the penny, and shilling.

Houses

Which takes us into a house, 'cause if you're going to use a scrubbing brush that you can buy for 11½d, two of them, we'd be using them in the house.

Here's a maid in a Christchurch house, unidentified, taking a well deserved rest. She's moved slightly, so she's a little blurry.

You can see the dinner service on the shelves. And please take note of that lovely decoration that's lining all of the shelves.

And above the clock, here we see a picture— and I went looking on Papers Past to see if I could find it, 'cause it looks a wee bit like a newspaper photo to me. And I did indeed find something very similar. Not quite the same, but from the Otago Witness of the 25th of June 1902, we have a picture of King Edward the 7th and Queen Alexandra in their coronation robes.

They were a wee bit premature in publishing this picture because the king to be got ill and the coronation did not go ahead in June, but in fact took place in August, 1902.

And those decorations, well you can see from this photo, this close-up, that they're actually on newsprint. Newsprint that has words on it. And the words say, "The start and the finish", but I'm afraid I don't know what is starting and what is finishing.

We're very lucky to have not only this picture of this house, but also a picture of what I would call 'the scullery'. You can see through the door. The stove. And the clock and the picture on the wall. And here is what I would call a mangle, and I presume this is the washing machine. And here, we can take a close-up of some of the crockery.

Perhaps this is the everyday service, compared to the other ones that were in the kitchen, I don't know.

Another Christchurch picture, another one taken by Steffano Webb. There's something very peaceful about this picture that I've always liked.

But it may have been taken during the war. Perhaps she's reading a letter from someone overseas.

Another one of my stories is flowers. So this picture also appears in my story about flowers. And this little view brings together another couple of my stories about pictures and books. But you can also see, here, the telephone. And I was delighted to find that the Christchurch libraries have digitised their 1922 telephone directory. If you want to look up something, I found Steffano Webb, the photographer, listed in the directory for 1922.

Let's start with pictures on the wall. You remember Lydia from earlier in the presentation? This is a picture taken inside the house that she and William shared at Carlyle Street in Napier.

Let's take a look first at this wicker stand. You'll see on the shelf there are two stereoscopic viewers.

And on this photo, this is a stereoscope, you'll see somebody, we don't know who he is, holding a stereoscope and about to put in a stereoscopic card. And in the background, here's Lydia back on that hammock. She certainly looks relaxed. And I think she's looking at one of the photographs as well.

And now we're going to look at two of the photographs that are on the wall, and also at that banjo in use.

Because one of those photos, that photo on the wall of the Anglican Cathedral in Napier, we now have the negative of that specific photograph in the collection. And you could take a closer look at the people outside the church.

Begun in 1886, the church was consecrated in December 1888, and completed by 1890. The cathedral was designed by Christchurch architect, Benjamin Mountfort.

And here's the interior. The cathedral was destroyed in the 1931 earthquake.

And here we have Lydia and a family group playing those banjos. And this family group happens to be the Mountfort family, the architect of the cathedral. I am presuming that this is Benjamin, here, and his wife, Emily Elizabeth, over here.

They came to New Zealand in 1850, on one of the first four ships coming to Canterbury, Charlotte Jane.

Bookcases and books

And the other topic I mentioned that I collect, bookcases and books. Photos of them, that is.

This photo by Albert Percy Godber. Percy Godber, like William Williams, was a railway man, and he was particularly interested in Te Ao Māori. And as you can see by his bookshelf, he collected many books on the subject, including, here, a Bible written in Māori, and 'Old New Zealand' here. And on the other shelves, this extraordinary volume, called 'With the Lost Legion in New Zealand', Which I found, has been digitised by the New Zealand Text Centre at Victoria University.

And then, not all bookshelves are in houses. Some of them are in huts. In Antarctica. Here's a photo of Herbert Ponting. He was a photographer on Scott's expedition. With his bed, this beard. In his darkroom. On the Terra Nova expedition that left Lyttelton in 1910.

Herbert Ponting himself is perhaps best known now as the photographer and filmmaker for Captain Scott's second Antarctic expedition, from which he returned with thousands of stunning photographs and extensive film footage. The Turnbull holds some wonderful photograph albums. The original negatives are in the UK.

But for five years prior to going to the Antarctic, Ponting travelled in Japan. And when I took a look at this photograph, I saw, here, what I read as 'Mikyako something in Kyoto, Japan', which I thought was very intriguing, which is how I found, when I went Googling, that he had indeed travelled in Japan. And after he returned to Britain, his photographs of Japan were widely exhibited and published, including in his memoir, 'In Lotusland'.

And so, we looked further around his bedroom, darkroom, and of course, not surprisingly, we see a mix of clothing suitable for the Antarctic, and photographic gear.

On the shelf, it looks like boxes of glass plate negatives.

But on the top shelf there are some books, including his own book, 'In Lotusland Japan', which was published by Macmillan in 1910. It includes eight illustrations in colour and 96 in monochrome from photographs taken by the author. In total, 395 pages. Quite a load to carry with you.

And here he is in Antarctica, showing one of those pictures taken in Japan. And here is one of those absolutely beautiful photographs. Taken in Antarctic.

Landscapes

More landscape. This time we're back with Lydia and William. This time we're looking at the Bluff Hill in Napier, long before the earthquake that raised so much of the land in that area.

In a close-up we will show Lydia, standing very precariously, on the edge of Bluff Hill, and a wonderful view of some of the houses in the background.

But in the far distance of that photograph, I saw that round, strange building and I thought, "I wonder what that is." I went looking. It looked like a gas building and indeed, there is this lovely picture by William Williams of the Napier Gas Company.

And the Turnbull has an extraordinary collection of aerial photographs taken by Whites Aviation, including this picture of Hastings in March 1966.

And if you look really closely, you can see my house, the house that I grew up in.

And that's the photo of the house that we saw earlier on, in the collection of photographs relating to the McCracken Family.

Family photos

Family photos are great to look at closely. And this is a photo of Percy Godber, the bookshelf owner, his family out on a picnic. We have his daughter, Phyllis; his son, William, holding some binoculars; and an unknown boy; and his wife Laura.

What did they take with them on their picnic? Well, it's a bit hard to tell because it's all wrapped up in paper. But I think that's a cake in the foreground. And if we take a close look at the bottle, we can see that it's essence of chicory coffee, or coffee and chicory. And in this article, or advertisement, in the Hawera & Normany Star from the 6th of December, 1911, we find that two cases of Symington's Essence of Coffe and Chicory came on Turakina from London, and presumably were distributed throughout the country.

There are some other very interesting things on that list, including London sperm candles made from, well, sperm whales; jars of cheese; cases of milk; and cube sugar.

I particularly like this photo because I think it's taken somewhere in the vicinity of where I live now in Khandallah, maybe just around the corner. This is Kaiwharawhara, I believe.

And more outdoor picnics. This picture is used very regularly. Taken by Thelma Kent, about whom I wrote some years ago for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, with a group of her friends on a camping trip somewhere. This is a bit later than the other photos that I've shown today.

And what were they having for their breakfast? Weetbix and eggs, by the looks of things.

Children

Children also make intriguing studies. I have a collection of children's toys —mostly teddy bears, but other toys as well. Charlie Gifford, Algernon Charles Gifford, was a math teacher here at Wellington College. There is an observatory with his name still in college grounds.

This is a photo that he took of his daughter, Doreen, playing in the garden with her pram. But you can see that it is somewhat set up, because here, he's put a peg to make sure she doesn't roll the pram away, and here, X marks the spot where it was to be parked.

And here's Doreen again, a little older this time. Reading in bed. And we can make out that this is 'The Three Jovial Huntsmen', a popular British picture book, illustrated by a Randolph Caldecott, engraved and printed by Edmund Evans, and published by George Routledge & Sons in London in 1880. And what an inventive photo, bar the reflection in the mirror.

And this is the photo I used on the National Library website to promote this talk. This is Makowhai School, 1909, taken again by Frank Denton, who took those pictures of Victoria Street in Whanganui.

I went to look for Makowhai on the map. It's very difficult to find. I'm not even sure that it really exists anymore. There's certainly a stream. But it's a very remote rural area in Taranaki. And I found, in the newspaper, the Manawatu Herald for the 7th of January, 1903, a little remark from the Manawatu County Council meeting, from seven residents of Mickey Town, requesting that the place be renamed, and suggesting Hammondville. The Council decided on Makowhai, the name of the creek adjoining. So, I'm not surprised they wanted to change it honestly. Mickey Ville is not a a marvellous name.

And then in 1909, there's an article relating to the meeting of the Whanganui Education Board, in which it says "Miss Lynch is to remain in charge of the Makowhai School, which has been made a main school."

I'm wondering if this is she in the picture. I could find no mention of a male teacher, so I'm wondering if this is someone who's come in, perhaps an inspector.

Another story to be told about this picture. I was delighted to see that G. Ellery has got a picture on the wall. Ellery is a family connection of mine. And again, we see the clock. This time it's 11 o'clock. Marvellous gaslamp. And the map of the world.

And these intriguing children, with their bare feet, in their slates. And the little looks at the camera. And did you notice in the big picture how some of the children are facing one way and some the other? This was not unusual in classrooms of the day.

Percy Godber at the Petone railway workshops

And now we come back to Percy Godber, and this absolutely astounding picture of his brass finishing leathe at the Petone railway workshops. Percy Godber was a railway worker, as you can see, and a keen amateur photographer. We've got many, many thousands of pictures of his, many of them of railways, some of his family, some of the Baptist Church that he went to in Petone, but all really interesting. And another example of somebody who took on photography when his child was newly born, William, his first photographs date from his birth around 1900.

And as Percy Godber, that last of my questions, was having a busy day.

H K McKenzie at the Ellerslie racecourse

And right at the start, on the opening slide, I showed this picture, because I think it's a lovely example of somebody looking and looking and looking in the depths of photographs.

This is H K McKenzie, the head gardener at Ellerslie Racecourse in November 1935. It comes from the Collection of the New Zealand Freelance, a newspaper of the time. And it comes from a collection, probably, of people, personalities, at the races.

Closing

I've come to the end of my slides. Please, if you've got any questions, do add them to the chat or to the Q&A. But I do have something on which I'd like to finish.

And this is a poem by Jeanette Stace, relating to the family of man.

The Family of Man falls open at the birth of a baby.
The family of Man falls open at three children held behind a wire fence.
The Family of Man Falls open at two women laughing.
The Family of Man says: she is the tree of life, the land is a mother that never dies.
The Family of Man has fallen apart with looking, has pages ripped and missing, has pages mended with Sellotape.
The Family of Man is greatly in need of repair.
We want the Family of Man (and Woman) to last forever.

Thank you to my colleagues who have supported today's presentation. And thank you to everyone who has joined us today.

When you leave the session, you should receive a short survey. Just one question, asking how you found out about this event. We would appreciate it if you've got time to respond. And if you'd like to hear about future events being held at the library on-site or online, and you're not already on our What's On mailing list, please do sign up. You can subscribe on the events page of the National Library website and we will add the addresses to chat.

Questions and comments

Do you have any questions?

Lynette, Celia? I don't think— oh, there might be some chat. But I don't know if there's any questions. If Lynette and Celia could let me know, that would be fantastic.

Lynette Shum: There's a, there's a—

Joan McCracken: Lynette are you speaking? Because you're on mute.

Lynette Shum: Sorry, I just lost the comment on chat, which tells us where...

Ah, Makowhai School was eight miles from Bulls.

Joan McCracken: Oh. [Laughter]. Thank you.

Lynette Shum: Thank you, Lynda [INAUDIBLE].

Joan McCracken: I couldn't find anything about, on Google really, about the school itself. So if anyone does have some additional information, that would be terrific.

Lynette Shum: Lots and lots of lovely positive feedback, and apparently you're an inspiration to many, Joan, to do some more of the same for themselves.

Joan McCracken: Oh, thank you. I do hope you do. It's such fun. Listen to [INAUDBLE] so I can absolutely recommend it as an inactivity.

I think there's one question in Q&A? Possibly?

Lynette Shum: There is. "Thanks for this lovely presentation." from Scott Flutie. "Are there any plans to digitise remaining print copies in the drawers at ATL?"

Joan McCracken: Well, that's a really good question. Yes, is the answer. But, in fact, the 200,000 images that we had in the drawers back in the days of Turnbull Library Pictures has been reduced significantly now. Because as images are ordered from the drawers, they're added to our online selection. And that happens daily that things are added.

So yes, we're generally getting there. But we also do a lot of what we would call curatorial selection. So things that— whole collections that are digitised. So for example, I showed the picture from Whites Aviation of Hastings, where I lived. But during the time when the National Library was closed for refurbishment between 2010 and 11, round about that time. We digitised over 90,000 of White's Aviation negatives. So that's how we're building that online collection. So both from the drawers but also from the many thousands of images and albums, negatives, prints that are in our photographic archive.

Lynette Shum: It's a question from Jane. "I enjoyed your presentation, pointing out details I've never thought to look at. Do you have a favourite wet plate collodion image?

Joan McCracken: Oh. Every day I have a different favourite. So I've shown you quite a number of my favourites today. But it really does depend. Years ago, colleagues and I did a little display at the library called Handsome Prints, P-R-I-N-T-S. And in that particular display I selected a photograph of Isabel Field, the sister of Frances Hodgkins, sketching. And I selected it because it really reminded me of my sister, Barbara, who was an artist. So depending on the day, that might be my favourite.

Lynette Shum: Michael Miller wants to know, "What's the location of the photo in your background."

Joan McCracken: Ah, that's Oriental Bay. Not the Oriental Bay we know and love, though. A very empty Oriental Bay. I haven't quite figured out just where it is, but I'm looking out my window now, I'm in Khandallah at Oriental Bay, and I can see in the distance. And I wonder if it's just round the head there, coming back from the point. So if anyone can give us an exact location, that would be fantastic.

Lynette Shum: Sue Bannister wants to know, "Family collections of the past that would be of interest — is the best way to share these publicly through the stories page you mentioned?"

Joan McCracken: Well it is certainly a way. And I found that it's a really good way of keeping together things that I find often serendipitously — not a word you should use — unprepared. Because you can put the things that you find in other collections as well as your own. People won't find them, however. As I mentioned, my Albert Street one won't come up in a search. So they would have to know that it was there. You can make your stories private and just share the links with the people you want to see those images. So that's another thing you can do. But certainly it is a way of sharing family photos.

Lynette Shum: No further questions, and I think your timing has been immaculate.

Joan McCracken: Well, that's a relief, she says. [Laughter]

So, just to remind you that if you'd like to hear about future events being held at the library, on-site or online, and you are not already on our What's On mailing list, please do sign. I don't know if anyone's put the addresses in chat, but if we could do that, www.natlib.govt.nz/events for our sign up page.

For Digital New Zealand, please do go and have a look, Digital New Zealand on digitalnz.org.

And can I also recommend a site that I haven't talked about today, but absolutely wonderful to spend time with, is Digital Pacific that is also run out of the National Library's digital team. Thank you to them for all their work, and to all my colleagues who make it possible for us to see these digitised images online, from the acquisition of the image through to the digitisation. The arrangement in the description. And of course to the photographers, and to the donors, go all our heartfelt thanks.

Lynette Shum: There's one late question. From Anne Shelton, "Do you have any search tips for researchers?"

Joan McCracken: No. I just put in words and see what comes back. So one day I might put in the word 'purple' and just see what comes up. Or if, as I do, have these areas of interest, so I thought 'flowers' and I put in 'flowers' and you get all sorts of unlikely things. I started doing an A to Z of vegetables. It's intriguing what you find when you put in 'carrot' or something like that. So honestly, I think just have fun. Have fun.

I think it is time for us to go. Ka kite ano. Hope to see you again. Bye.

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