Heritage et AL

For the past few months, the heritage floor, on the second floor of the Central City Library, has hosted a display titled Our Girls -- a tribute to the role of women in the First World War. The content covers the following topics: prohibition and making-do, cartoon depictions of women, the anti-militarists, the fundraising effort, working girls, nurses abroad, and the absence of men. It has been an interesting exercise to find images to cover such a variety of topics. Women were not always portrayed favourably, especially in the political cartoons of the day. Publications like Freelance and Truth condemned the ‘wowser’ prohibitionists as out to spoil a boy’s fun (men did not escape the condemnation, either) or they depicted women as vain and ignorant.  Ref: Cartoon from the New Zealand Freelance , 6 March 1915, p.11.  The caption for the cartoon above reads:  Shopman: “Yes, Miss, all face powders have gone up in price on account of the war.” Y...

Recently, an advertisement from a page in a journal, displayed in the current  Sir George Grey Special Collections  exhibition:  World War 1914 -1918 , made me look closer. The product is soap and the accompanying illustration is not unusual or incredibly striking. It was the text which made me pause, as it reminded me of scenes in Pat Barker's novel  Regeneration . In particular, the lives of a group of munitionettes, who provide an insight into an element of home front life during the First World War. Ref:  The sphere. Vol. 76, no. 995. London: Illustrated Newspapers, 1918. Munitionettes were British women employed in munitions factories during the First World War. These women worked with hazardous chemicals on a daily basis with minimal protection. Receiving an injury or getting killed by an explosion were always possibilities. Many munitionettes worked with TNT, which after prolonged exposure, would turn their skin a yellow colour -- leadi...

It is said that accessories make an outfit, well that is just as true for men as it is for a woman. Have a wander through the accessories that people used to wear in the photos below, drawn from the heritage collections at Auckland Libraries. Some things like bow ties and belts don't look much different from today but you don't see many people wearing bows that large in their hair, as sported by the ladies and children in the first decade of the 20th century! Bow ties: Ref: 601-192B, the Masters McLauchlin, c. 1924, Sir George Grey Special Collections Ref: 31-66350, the Lyric Quartette, 1911, Sir George Grey Special Collections Ref: 31-66166, McDougal group, 1911, Sir George Grey Special Collections

The Sir George Grey Special Collections at the Central City Library holds the archive of Broadsheet magazine as well as copies of  items such as the magazine, letters, posters , Broadsheet was a feminist magazine focusing on women's issues, publishedin New Zealand between 1973-1997. On display in the reading room cabinet at the moment, is a selection of photographs from the recently acquired photographic print archive of the magazine. The display includes images of protest events, notably by New Zealand women, and of the interior of an early incarnation of the Broadsheet bookshop. This bookshop eventually became 'The Women's Bookshop' which is now located on Ponsonby Road. Ref: NZMS596, Broadsheet bookshop badges, c. 1982/1983, Sir George Grey Special Collections