# Oldest NZ photograph **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-nz-photograph/288079 "2005-02-03T00:12:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-nz-photograph/288079/1 "2005-02-03T00:12:00Z")
What’s the oldest photograph[sup]\*[/sup] taken in New Zealand that’s still in existence? \*Any photographic process will do: daguerreotype, calotype, wet-plate collodion, whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-nz-photograph/288079/2 "2005-02-03T00:21:04Z")
I can’t give you a specific answer, although I think I may have seen some pictures of the damage resulting from the 1855 Wellington earthquake. I suggest that you check with the [Turnbull Library collection.](http://www.natlib.govt.nz/en/using/2atl.html) This has lots of archival material on New Zealand’s early history. ---
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-nz-photograph/288079/3 "2005-02-04T05:36:51Z")
Per **Cunctator** ’s suggestion, I forwarded this question on to the “Ask a Librarian” link at the Alexander Turnbull Library, but the autoreply I received said that I can expect to wait “up to 20 working days” for a response, so I’m going to give this thread one little bump. If I hear anything back from the library, I’ll let you know. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-nz-photograph/288079/4 "2005-02-04T06:01:40Z")
**chukhung** , I’m surprised that none of the New Zealanders has leapt in to answer your query. They must all be too busy preparing for the [Waitangi Day](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=300601) weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-nz-photograph/288079/5 "2005-02-04T06:13:28Z")
I’ve been trying to remember but getting nowhere. I wonder where IceWolf is – it’s just her kind of question I would have thought. I know there’s very old photographs in my family but I don’t know dates and I’m sure they would not be the oldest extant. My family goes back to the first ships. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-nz-photograph/288079/6 "2005-02-04T06:18:42Z")
> [@Primaflora](#): > > My family goes back to the first ships. You mean the first European ships, or the first ships? ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-nz-photograph/288079/7 "2005-02-04T06:26:08Z")
OK I just got to grips with google and there seem to be a lot of images from ca 1865. I’m starting to wonder if there is any one oldest photo. [http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Heritage/Photos/](http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Heritage/Photos/) I poked around on the Turnbull site too. [http://tapuhi.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/spydus/MSG/PHOTONR/PNRMENU.HTM](http://tapuhi.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/spydus/MSG/PHOTONR/PNRMENU.HTM) you can put in dates but everything I pulled up seemed to have a vague attribution. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-nz-photograph/288079/8 "2005-02-04T06:28:14Z")
Ack, first European ships. Sorry. Oh and while I am being a ditz, the earliest image I found on the Tapuhi site was ca 1850. ---
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-nz-photograph/288079/9 "2005-03-03T00:22:17Z")
> [@chukhung](#): > > If I hear anything back from the library, I’ll let you know. This thread isn’t quite a month old, so I’ll give it a bump. I’ve just received a very informative email from John Sullivan, Curator of the Photographic Archive at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. According to him, it’s possible that daguerrotypes were taken in New Zealand as early as 1841, but the first documented attempt at photography in NZ wasn’t until September 1848 when the Lieutenant-Governor tried his hand at it (unfortunately, his attempt was unsuccessful). > [@](#): > > In 1848 I Polack and J Newman advertised their services as daguerreotypists, but no examples of their work in New Zealand is known to exist. > > Between October 1850 and November 1852 a Mr Insley advertised his services throughout New Zealand. It has not been established whether this was Henry E Insley (1811-1894) or Lawson Insley (see “The enigmatic Henry E Insley”, by Joan M Schwartz, in History of Photography v16 no1, Spring 1992, pp70-71, for discussion). A number of daguerreotypes attributed to Insley have survived, and some of these are illustrated in Main & Turner. > > The Alexander Turnbull Library holds a daguerreotype portrait of Edward Catchpool (1806-1874) which, according to the contemporary inscription on the reverse of the plate, was taken in Wellington, New Zealand, in April 1852. The photographer is not identified, but was probably Insley. I cannot definitely say that this is the oldest New Zealand photograph still in existence, but it may well be the earliest precisely dated example. > > A reproduction of this image may be seen on Matapihi, a historical image database hosted by the National Library of New Zealand which draws on the collections of a number of New Zealand institutions. The internet address is: > > [http://www.matapihi.org.nz/](http://www.matapihi.org.nz/) > > A search on the term Catchpool will bring up the image. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-nz-photograph/288079/10 "2005-03-03T00:35:25Z")
I’m glad that you got a reply to your query **chukhung**. I was actually in Wellington last week and I had a browse in a couple of antiquarian bookshops. There were quite a few photos from the 1860s. That seems to square with the earliest date of 1852 that the Library mentioned.