Heritage et AL

One of the country’s earliest arts journals,  Art in New Zealand,  will be digitised and made freely available to search on Papers Past . The seventy issues of Art in New Zealand (1928–1946) and its successor the Year Book (1945-1951) are treasure for Aotearoa art history researchers and enthusiasts. Image: Cover of Art in New Zealand , December 1942. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections. Established by publisher Harry Tombs, Art in New Zealand aimed to improve standards of art criticism, generate discussion and improve on the art notices in local newspapers that were “more kindly than constructively critical. They spread praise lavishly, and dispraise is a rarety... such notices impart no stimulus to an art that needs stimulating... They may merely narcoticise the artist into the belief that he has ‘arrived,’ or at least is ‘arriving’.” The editors also wanted to provide a forum that would help nurture art unique to New Zealand. “Glancing round annual exhibitions in the ...

Journalism was a paid employment option for some tough and dedicated women in nineteenth-century Aotearoa. However, many women journalists had to remain freelancers. Lizzie Frost Rattray became one of the first women in New Zealand to become an employed, professional journalist. Lizzie Frost Fenton was born on 22 March 1855 in Dunedin. She was educated in England and France, and returned to Auckland in 1881, where she took charge of the Young Women’s Institute, which was a forerunner of the YWCA. Image: New Zealand Graphic. Mrs Lizzie Frost Rattray, 1892. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, NZG-18920723-735-1. Lizzie was also involved with the Girls’ Friendly Society which gave assistance to girls and young women immigrating to Auckland. Image: New Zealand Graphic. The Girls’ Friendly Society, 1909. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, NZG-19090901-31-4. On 1 March 1883, Lizzie Frost Fenton married William Rattray, a prominent Auckland draper. Rattray was the honorary secreta...