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New Zealand Scenery. c.1870
| Title |
New Zealand Scenery. c.1870 |
| Reference |
GBR/0115/Y3089A |
| Creator |
Mundy, Daniel Louis, d 1881, photographer |
| Covering Dates |
circa 1870 |
| Extent and Medium |
7 images; Generally in fair condition, although with some fading. |
| Repository |
Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library |
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| Content and context |
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Daniel Mundy was born, probably in 1826 or 1827, in Wiltshire, England. He was one of the finest of the pioneer photographers of New Zealand, making several important photographic expeditions into the interior of the country in the 1850s and '60s and photographing Maori life and the geological features of the country. It is not known exactly when he moved to New Zealand, but he made a photographic journey in the Southern Alps in 1858 and took over the photographic business of William Meluish in 1864; a studio in Prince's Street, Dunedin in 1864 claims the business was established in 1856. He photographed the construction of the Dunedin Exhibition buildings in 1864, exhibited photographs at New Zealand Industrial Exhibition under the business name of Mundy and La Mert, Photographers, Christchurch, photographed a collection of moa skeletons at Canterbury Museum for Sir Julius Haast and lectured to the Photographic Society, London in 1873. He died at Emerald Hill, Victoria, on 30 November 1881.
A commercially produced portfolio containing signed, mounted prints, measuring approximately 240 x 185 mm, with brief descriptive captions pasted to the mounts. It seems likely that these prints form only a part of the complete portfolio: apart from the small number of prints, their geographical location and subject matter seem somewhat unbalanced - six of the views are from a relatively compact area of the eastern section of the North Island, with only one print from the South Island (Christchurch). The dating of the prints also raises problems of exactitude. The reference numbers on the captions range from 3 to 153, arguing a significant time-span in the taking of the pictures and also a large number of prints available in the series. These photographs could well be part of the series of 46 prints Mundy exhibited at the Colonial and Vienna Exhibition in Christchurch in 1872.
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Access and Use
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Please cite as Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library, New Zealand Scenery. c.1870, Y3089A |
| Further information |
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Further details of Mundy's career can be found in:
Knight, Hardwicke (1971), Photography in New Zealand, Dunedin: John McIndoe.
Some of his work is finely reproduced in autotype illustrations in:
Hochstetter, Ferdinand Christian von (1875), Rotomahana; and the boiling springs of New Zealand, London.
Indexed
This collection level description was entered by SG using information from the original typescript catalogue.
This collection is available on microfiche: Australasia, fiche number 76.
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| Index Terms |
| New Zealand |
| Oceania |
| Mundy, Daniel Louis (d 1881) photographer |
| RCS/Y3089A contains: |
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1
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Bay of Islands, Victoria [sic] where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by the native chiefs. 242 x 184 mm. A view looking across a field with farm buildings at the right of the picture and the Bay, studded with islands beyond. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed by Captain William Hobson (on the British Government's behalf) and a gathering of Maori chiefs, on February 6, 1840, establishing Crown Sovereignty (with 'extreme reluctance') over the already widely settled islands of New Zealand.
Fair condition, some fading in from edges.. |
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2
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Poverty Bay - Waipawa Valley from the head of the Bay. 253 x 192 mm. A view looking over the valley from a thickly vegetated hillside, with two men sitting in the foreground. Gisborne, situated at the north shore of the Bay, was the spot where Captain Cook first set foot on New Zealand soil in October 1769. He gave the Bay its name after his welcome there, having to kill four Maoris after a hostile reception.
Fair condition, some fading in from edges.. |
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3
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Mercury Bay - where Captain Cook took the transit of Mercury. 232 x 186 mm. A view of Whitianga, with a jetty in the foreground leading to houses, the 'Whitiangi Hotel' and the 'Whitiangi Music Hall'. The photograph also has several people posing for the camera. Mercury Bay is a large inlet on the east coast of Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island. Whitianga is situated at a narrow strait between Mercury Bay and Whitianga Harbour, an inland extension of the Bay. It was east of Whitianga, at Cook's Beach, that Cook observed the transit of Mercury (and so named the bay) on November 9, 1769.
Fair condition, some dirt marks.. |
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4
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Thames Gold Fields - Hunt's Claim or Shotover. 238 x 182 mm. A view looking along a rough track in a valley which leads to mine workings and buildings, with a figure standing beside the road in the middle distance. The Thames area, which lies south-east of Auckland on the Coromandel Peninsula, was the scene of a gold rush in 1867. This picture shows the Shotover Reef, the first important reef to be found in the area, which was discovered by William Hunt in August 1867 and which in 1871 produced nearly £2,000,000 worth of gold.
Fair condition, slight fading and some dirt marks.. |
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5
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Rotomahana or Hot Lake District - Kanapanapa, or Boiling Mud Lake. 254 x 195 mm. A view showing the mud lake, dotted with craters of mud and with steam rising from the hillside behind. In a reproduction of this print in Hochstetter (1875), the steam rising from the hills has been retouched to make it more visible:. 'The bottom of the ravine consists chiefly of mud in a fluid state ... farther on are numerous small mud cones, from two to five feet in height, some of which, like miniature volcanoes, throw up hot mud from their craters, with a deadened, rumbling sound'.
Fair condition, some fading in from edges.. |
–1875 |
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6
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Christchurch - Government Building looking west, Canterbury. 236 x 190 mm. A view of the Canterbury Provincial Council Chambers, an ecclesiatical looking building in brick with white stone facings. The wooden buildings to the left of the Chambers are the earlier council buildings. The Chambers were completed in 1865 to the design of B.W. Mountford.
Fair condition, some fading.. |
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7
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Hokianga - Phormian Tenax - or flax rope-making. 244 x 184 mm. A view showing a small rope-making factory. At the right, men can be seen winding and spinning long lengths of flax into ropes, while behind them the stripped flax is drying on lines. Other workers are standing outside the shed where the flax is prepared. At the left of the picture, at roof level, can be seen the last few feet of a water race. The wheel itself is out of the picture. Hokianga lies on the west coast of the North Auckland peninsula. Phorium Tenax (named by botanists on Cook's second voyage in 1772) is the botanical name for the main plant used in the New Zealand flax industry; the plant is native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island.
Good condition, apart from slight fading in from edges.. |
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