Museum Blog

Look for the newly-published, beautifully-constructed catalogue of the exhibition, 28 pages, A6 size and only $4.50. It’s a great souvenir of what the Museum is all about. Minkisi has been extended, by popular demand, to May 2014. The catalogue, with photographic highlights from the exhibition, and a commentary is on sale at the Museum Shop.

The power of African art and expression has remained a constant fascination for Des Bovey, who collected African masks and statues while living in France and Africa for many years. His knowledge and passion for African cultures provide us with a unique opportunity to explore other cultures as well as our own.

Click here to find it in our shop.

When he took the box of old carpentry planes down from the shelf, ambulance officer and Whanganui Regional Museum volunteer Brian Smith handled them with extreme care and a kind of reverence.  “These would be 150 years old, or more,'' he guessed, “and they would have come from England.''
Everything is intact on these old tools: the blade, the frog, the guide and the ancient wood holding it all together. Recently cleaned, but in need of a sharpen, the 26 planes in the box could still perform the work for which they were designed.
“These are incredible tools, they really are,'' says Brian.  Each is built to cut to a design; to create bevelled, rounded or angled edges and grooves on wood, jobs done nowadays by machines.
Before Brian joined the ambulance service, he completed a carpentry apprenticeship, starting in 1957.  “There was an old guy, he would have been two generations ahead of me, he had a set of these [tools],'' says Brian.  “There wouldn't be too many people still alive who would have used tools like these. But to get a full set ...''
The variety and condition of this set is impressive and one can't help but wonder who used them and where. When Brian worked as an apprentice for Ellis and Calkin in Marton, he remembers watching the old carpenter using planes exactly like those in the museum.  “When he went through to take a shaving off, it used to whistle, it was so sharp.''
The planes are not very big; they were made to fit snug into the hollow of the hand, the other hand resting on the wooden body, guiding it firmly across the wood's edge, taking it to its final shape in a series of fine shavings. Sliver by measured sliver, the wood would slowly assume its intended form.
“If they could talk,'' muses Brian.  “Feel them, feel the energy ... they're beautiful. It's music; it's like a handrail on a staircase, or a doorhandle, been in one of the old houses for 150 years - how many hands have rubbed this or opened that door? Timber talks to you.''
Working with wood runs in the Smith family.  “My father was a carpenter, my brother was a carpenter.''  Unable to obtain his licence as an ambulance officer until he was 21, Brian filled in the time with a carpentry apprenticeship, continuing the family tradition, even if only for a short time. It's a skill he has maintained, one which led him to this array of wood planes for his “Vaults'' story. “Now they've got bench planers and different heads they can fit to machines to create mouldings,'' he says, nostalgic for the romance of the old hand tools.  “There is wood in some of Wanganui's old shops and houses that would have seen these very tools.  And the guy probably only got paid tuppence an hour.''
The planes are labelled, their names describing their purpose in language old and respected. Tonguing planes, moulding planes, rabbet (also known as rebate) planes, plow planes; all once used daily, now relegated to history and the vaults of the Whanganui Regional Museum. 

Original article appeared in the 'Wanganui Midweek on 8th April 2012, and republished here with permission from the editors.

By Sandi Black, Archivist.

The Whanganui Regional Museum is lucky to have bound copies of the Wanganui Chronicle newspaper in our collection going back to 1856.  I have been carrying out some research in these papers for September 1971, and I don’t know what Split Enz were thinking but I’m definitely seeing some recurrences…

The edition produced on September 1st 42 years ago features an article with an opening paragraph that may well sound familiar to current readers: “Wanganui City Ratepayers will be unable to avoid the financial crunch which is going to come eventually when they have to face up to the tremendous cost of providing a sewage-disposal scheme, not only to meet the immediate needs of the city but to provide for its requirements in the foreseeable future”.  There is no mention of a certain odour that we occasionally notice waft over the town these days, but there is much discussion throughout the month on the need for an upgraded plant and what the associated costs and impacts will be.

September 1971 also saw the build-up towards local body elections.  The newspapers feature many articles and ads on those who are standing for Council or Mayoralty, updates on who is running and who has withdrawn, and what their standpoints and values are.

Recently we have seen articles in the newspaper on local healthcare issues, including the needs of dialysis patients, and 28 September 1971 saw a feature article on a Wanganui woman who was the recipient of a new dialysis machine.  She had spent the previous 12 weeks in Christchurch learning how to use the $4,000 machine (over $52,000 in 2013) and had recently returned home with the machine which was set-up in her bedroom and had enabled her to live a much fuller life than she had previously been capable of.

The newspapers are filled with articles on local interests and personalities, and global events and conflicts, but of course some things do change.  The rise in cost of the dialysis machine is one of many things that have grown in price in the last four decades.  Prices advertised for a few items were: Milo 14oz (400gm) $0.45, Johnsons Baby Powder $0.49, 3lb self-raising flour $0.29, ½ gallon of ice cream $0.79, and 25lbs potatoes $1.75.

Art is an integral part of Wanganui history and has found its way into many areas of the Whanganui Regional Museum.  Amongst the Museum’s art collection is a sampling of locally executed work by Cranleigh Barton, a talented watercolour painter.
“He trained as a lawyer but was a very adept artist,'' she says. “In his middle age he gave up the law and painted full time.  He was prolific and he has paintings and collections all over New Zealand.''
But that's not his only claim to fame. His mother's grandfather was the Rev Richard Taylor and the museum has a large Taylor collection, courtesy of Cranleigh Barton.
“Cranleigh was a proud genealogist,'' says Libby, “forever interested in his family history. He collected a lot of material.'' Although he did not live here, he was a member of the Wanganui Historical Society and was actively involved in researching local history and promoting Wanganui; “So much so that he donated his large collection of Taylor material to the Historical Society. In 1999, the society closed down and its collection came to the museum.  They had broad interests and left us an interesting collection, which incorporates the Cranleigh Barton collection and, in particular, a couple of important sketchbooks and notebooks of Richard Taylor himself.''
Cranleigh Harper Barton was born in Feilding in 1890, where his father was manager of the Bank of Australasia. He gained his degree from Victoria University in 1912, having first passed his solicitors' final in 1910.  His interest in art and his artistic ability were well established by then, having attended art classes at Wellington Technical School under Maud Kimball, later Maud Sherwood, a noted Sydney artist.  In 1924 Barton undertook art studies at the Slade School in London, intending to study for a year and resume legal practice in New Zealand. However, he was persuaded to stay in London for four years, during which time he exhibited twice at the Graham Gallery in Bond St. One of the exhibitions was attended by Queen Mary who bought two of his paintings. Other successes were incentive enough to take up painting as a profession.
“He was erudite, he was communicative and he had a huge circle of friends he wrote to,'' says Libby. His life, therefore was well documented.
So why did Libby choose Mr Barton to talk about?  “I'm interested in the amateur side of historical art and in 2008 I knew there was this big collection here and at long last I had to pay attention to it because we were valuing the paintings, drawings and prints.  We've got about 140 pieces and a lot of it is ecclesiastical art. He loved painting houses and he had a strong affiliation with Whanganui, but he worked in Venice and Rome and all over.''
Cranleigh Barton travelled widely and painted wherever he went, much as a modern tourist would take photographs. Paintings of the large abbeys and cathedrals of Europe abound, as well as a large amount of work from the Pacific.  He favoured a course, fibrous paper for his work which, as Libby points out, must influence the textural quality of his painting. Postcard perfect in their perspective, much of his work is almost feminine in subject, colour and execution.
Many paintings are valued as historical documents. “I believe he was both recording and producing a work of art,'' says Libby.
He died in Christchurch in 1975.

Original article appeared in the 'Wanganui Midweek on 19th September 2012, and republished here with permission from the editors.

By Elizabeth Hamblyn.

Visitors to Whanganui today have a choice of bridges to cross, but in the past new and adventurous ways were found to navigate it, and grab a little attention at the same time.  One of the more unusual ways of crossing the Whanganui River was done by the aerialist Señor Vertelli, who in 1867 walked across the river on a tightrope.  Señor Vertelli described himself as the ‘Australian Blondin’ in reference to the French daredevil and tight-rope walker, Charles Blondin, who became world famous for his crossing of Niagara Falls by tight-rope in 1859.

Señor Vertelli arrived in Whanganui in October 1867 and saw an opportunity to boost his reputation by crossing the Whanganui River using the wire cable used by river ferry punts. He placed an advertisement in the Wanganui Herald outlining his intention to cross the river on 26th October 1867, “regardless of danger, unconscious of fear”.

On the appointed day Vertelli appeared punctually at 3pm, looking every inch the professional showman in his gold singlet and bright blue tights.  The wind was blowing very strongly as Vertelli clambered up on the wire, but he took up his balancing pole and stared out unconcerned.  Weighing over 11 kilos and 5.5 meters long the balancing pole was no prop.  As the crowd held their breath in suspense Vertelli traversed the 300 meter cable and then turned around and crossed back to the town side.  The cheer that went up from the crown was deafening and everyone in his vicinity moved in to congratulate him and drop coins into a large leather bag which Vertelli had ready and waiting for just such a display of public goodwill.

Vertelli crossed the river again shortly afterward, but this time pushed a wheel barrow along in front of him.  However, according to the Evening Post article of 6 November 1867 “he found the spectators deaf to his entreaties to be allowed to carry one of them over on his back”.  Although not as brave as the man himself, the crowd was not too shy to re-fill his bag with money in appreciation of his efforts.