Relaxing picnics and scrummy barbecues exude that special Kiwi summer feeling – no span of warm, sunny days is complete without a barbecue, or a picnic at least. Over the past couple of centuries outdoor eating has become a novel activity for many people, reserved for recreation or special occasions, alone or with company. As...

Some time ago, two banana boxes of dirty and damaged glass plate negatives came into the collection of Ashburton Museum. These photo negatives came to us in absolutely terrible shape, having been covered in dirt and grime after being stored under the floorboards of a garden shed for possibly decades. These large format images (about...

When you are dealing with as large an archive collection as I am, it makes sense to break projects into small(ish) sections. Having over 6 million images to deal with, for example, is a task so enormous that one person can’t realistically hope to process every item in their lifetime. Especially alongside all the other...

  When the team at Ashburton Museum began planning an exhibition on Tekau Knitwear, there were only a handful of garments and images held in the museum’s collection and archives. Yet we knew this was an important story to tell. The business was widely known and renowned. Not just in Ashburton – where the business...

Caring for Treasures

They say a picture can paint a thousand words and from my experience working with photographs, I know this is true. Visual images can provide so much information that the written word just can’t. Images can rekindle memories, and form a link with people or times gone by. Ashburton Museum houses all kinds of treasures,...

One of the brightest radio models that was shown in our Sounds Like Us exhibition was ‘Grandmas knitting basket’, designed by Courtney Foon. It featured an assortment of wools and accessories that spoke about the ‘awkward’ jumpers that most people have been given as gifts. Often scratchy, sometimes in the weirdest of colours or designs,...

Dressing Up at the Radiant Hall

As you may have heard, last year the Ashburton Museum presented an exhibit called ‘Meet You at The Radiant Hall’. It was a fun project to bring to life. When we first started thinking about the exhibition we realised that the museum had few tangible items to demonstrate how important ‘The Radiant’ was for locals....

How do you invite people to parties these days? With my family I get an email, text or invitation to an event via Facebook. As most of my family live in one town and see each other often they forget I don’t know the details, so it often means a few texts to discover the...

Stationed far from home, what could World War One soldiers do to express their love and thoughts for those far distant? A small gift was one option. Soldiers sent back many things as souvenirs but none were more popular than the postcards known as Silks. They made a beautiful, small and easily posted gift, with...

Easter treats and predictions

For many who will suffer a ‘chocolate overdose’ this Easter, it’s probably hard to imagine that it wasn’t always predicted to become such a sweet holiday. On March 31, 1894, the Ashburton Guardian boldly claimed what was by then no doubt a widely a shared belief that, “Easter eggs are now a thing of the...