The Edinburgh of the South: Seeking the New town

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Forever an Educator

Article on the life and contribution of Michael Findlay (1959-2019)

Antipodes to Sydenham: Showcasing New Zealand at the Festival of Empire

Coinciding with the coronation of King George V, the 1911 Festival of Empire at the Crystal Palace in Sydenham aimed to increase mutual understanding and goodwill across imperial Britain. For many, it would have provided their first insight of the extent their nation’s empire. This paper focusses on the representation of New Zealand on this imperial stage. The dominions were represented by stand-alone pavilions that were modelled as two-thirds scale versions of their respective parliament buildings. These timber and plaster simulacra presented imposing exteriors that enclosed large interior exhibition spaces. An electric railway journeyed around the pavilions passing static dioramas showing aspects of colonial life, while in the afternoons a Pageant of Empire presented successive scenes of English and imperial history. One instalment of these re-enactments included the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840 and a finale showing peoples of empire paying homage to Britannia. Despite good intentions, things did not run smoothly; New Zealand’s exhibits were late arriving, and its interior display within the pavilion and the exterior dioramas provoked criticism. A Te Arawa performance group from New Zealand’s central North Island, led by Makereti, Maggie Papakura, journeyed to Britain to take part in the show. After British officials declared their village on the Crystal Palace grounds to be a fire risk, they walked off. Nevertheless, of all the features associated with New Zealand at that time in London, these Māori performers appear to have attracted the greatest interest. Events at the festival reveal a complicated attitude towards the empire and inter-colonial relations. To a large extent this was set aside when the empire joined as one in the First World War; however, despite this unity of purpose, traces of this ambivalence would persist

Pomara in London, 1846

Pomara in London, 1846 'The Spectator' declared it to be "the most interesting exhibition of the season." For three months in the London summer of 1846, George French Angas exhibited watercolours and artefacts of New Zealand and South Australia, providing many Europeans with their first detailed exposure to representations of Māori and their material culture. Exhibits of portraits of Māori, and images of pā, as well as examples of weapons, carvings, canoe models, birds and minerals caused many to reassess the disparaging view of Māori that the New Zealand Company had been putting about. However, the greatest contributor to the exhibition’s outstanding success was the striking presence of a young Māori man named Hemi Pomara, or Pōmare, who attended the show each afternoon. He was described as "the orphaned son of a Chatham Islands chief." In 1844 Pōmare travelled with Angas to Sydney, and then to London. Meeting royalty, members of the nobility and learned society, his intelligence and arresting countenance made an exceptional impression of those who met him. His likeness was published in a magazine and he became the subject of a poem. After the exhibition, things did not go so well. Following the exhibition Pōmare found work in shipping; however, the special status which he received in London did not continue. At sea, he was physically assaulted, returning to Sydney in 1847, and then on to New Zealand. This paper discusses Pōmare’s time abroad and his impact on the Europeans

A View of Sydney: The Taylor Panorama Reassessed

In the 1820s British society had the opportunity to experience life in Sydney, New South Wales through the publication of a panorama of the military officer, Major James Taylor (1785–1829). The 1823 aquatints of his watercolours presented views of Sydney from the military area on the present-day Observation Hill. As well as communicating Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s progressive vision for a colony that was advancing beyond its status as a penal settlement, it presented its audience with narratives of life in Sydney. Taylor’s panorama survives through four preparatory watercolours and the three elegant aquatints. This publication drew sufficient interest to prompt subsequent editions in France and Britain. By the early twentieth century the work was valued in Australia as a record of the fabric of colonial Sydney, with later researchers discussing Taylor’s representation of various participants’ roles in the fledgling settlement. Analysis of Taylor’s study and its publication in Europe provides further insight into his composition and its reception, as well as furthering our understanding of life in New South Wales at that time

A Further Panorama by Earle? A View of Rio de Janeiro, 1823

In 1968 Anthony Murray-Oliver noted that the travelling artist, Augustus Earle, had produced a panorama of Rio de Janeiro. Such a work could have provided the basis for Robert Burford’s Panorama of Rio of 1827 and 1828 shown in Leicester Square. Burford’s presentation is known through reviews, advertisements and the six-penny guide with its accompanying woodcut. Based upon drawings reputedly made in 1823, Burford’s spectacle shows a view from within Guanabara Bay, with various ships dotted about the middle distance including some that supposedly participated in the Brazilian struggle for independence. Scholars have sometimes attributed this view to William John Burchell. Earle resided in Brazil between 1820 and 1824 and communicated with Burford regarding his panorama of Sydney at least as early as 1826. While the evidence supporting Earle’s authorship remains circumstantial, this attribution offers an intriguing prospect. It prompts us to consider, if Earle had provided these drawings, why would his contribution have been anonymous, what would it tell us about his experience of South America, and how would it extend our understanding of his and Burford’s panoramic works