Old N.Z. views.

Collection — item: 2014/11

Identifier: MSS-Archives-2014/11

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This album contains 52 albumen prints, 50 x 70 mm mounted on cardboard and taken by the Dunedin photographer Frank Arnold Coxhead. 26 prints are signed FAC in negative and most are numbered and titled in negative. The title on the spine of the album is Old N.Z. Views and the photographs are of a variety of natural and urban New Zealand landscapes circa 1880-1889.

Included are photographs of landscapes in Auckland, Waiwera, Russell, Ohinemutu, Wellington, Christchurch, Timaru, Dunedin, Waikora, Invercargill, Bluff and Milford Sound.

These albums were often put together for customers based on their personal selection made at Coxhead’s Octagon gallery. The chosen photographs were then mounted in albums either provided by Coxhead or supplied by the customer. As a result, no two of these albums are alike. Other albums have also been preserved and can be found in a number of libraries throughout New Zealand.

Dates

ca 1880-1889

Creator

Coxhead, Frank Arnold (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Not restricted.

Conditions Governing Use

Cotton gloves must be worn when handling this item.

Biographical / Historical

Frank Arnold Coxhead was a prominent Dunedin photographer born on the 30th November 1851 in London, England to Frederick and Mary Coxhead. Frederick Coxhead was a Custom House Agent in Dunedin, so as a young boy in 1858, Frank Coxhead emigrated to Otago alongside his parents and elder brother Harry.

In 1870 Coxhead joined his brother in a photography business known as Coxhead Brothers on Moray Place West, Dunedin. Six years later he married Annie Maria Baker, with whom he had four children, at St John's Church, Invercargill. By 1885 Coxhead was operating under his own name in premises near the Octagon. His photography focussed predominantly on landscapes and he travelled within New Zealand and abroad to capture a wide variety of scenery. In 1886 he travelled North to photograph the aftermath of the Tarawera eruption and was also later commissioned to record the development of the Otago Central Railway.

In March 1893 Coxhead sold up his business, which was succeeded by Mr Thomas Muir. He and his family then moved to Berkeley, California where Coxhead worked for provision merchants Messrs Folger & Co. He died in 1908 and was survived by his wife and four children.

References

Knight, H. (1998). COXHEAD, Frank Arnold (1851-c1919). In J. Thomson, J. (Ed.), Southern people : a dictionary of Otago Southland biography (pp. 107). Dunedin, N.Z. : Longacre Press in association with the Dunedin City Council 1998.

London Metropolitan Archives. St Magnus the Martyr, City of London, Register of baptisms, 1813-1978. P69/MAG/A/008/MS21748, pp. 46.

Notice of death in Personal Items. (1908, April 29). Otago Witness, pp. 25.

Notice of marriage. (1876, December 11). Southland Times, pp. 2.