Madi Ojala is a Museum and Heritage Studies student at Victoria University who has been completing a Summer Internship at Te Papa. She discusses Adkin’s geological excursions and the appeal of working with Adkin’s prints, albums and diaries.Read more
‘Adkin’s photographs provide an honest, in-depth insight into rural life in New Zealand during the first half of the 20th century.’ Danielle Campbell, a Museum and Heritage Studies student at Victoria University, discusses her three favourite Leslie Adkin photographs that she came across during her summer internship at Te Papa.Read more
Kirstie Ross considers other notions of duty and service that many men, like Levin farmer Leslie Adkin, had to weigh up in the face of the demands being made on them to serve as soldiers.Read more
An update from history curator Kirstie Ross on the progress made transcribing selected diaries from those kept by Horowhenua farmer Leslie Adkin for 40 years.Read more
We’re asking for volunteers to transcribe Leslie’s dairies from October 1917, just after he was conscripted to serve in the army, through to the end of the conflict in November 1918.Read more
Summer holidays are over. Some schools have re-opened and offices have filled up with workers returning to their routines. As for Christmas – well that feels like ancient history now. But you can relive past holiday happiness by reading these joy-filled diary entries written by Horowhenua farmer, Leslie Adkin, describingRead more
I have a confession: I am a bit of a vampire of sorts. I feed on Te Papa’s Photography collection – I use it to think and process ideas, to research and to write. Over the last year I have focused on what I believe counts: connections between photography and small storiesRead more
New Zealand’s Governor, Lord Liverpool, announced the state of war with Germany under the central arch on the steps of Parliament (see above) on 5 August 1914. People assembled there to hear the news responded with ‘a cheer that displayed the tense emotions of the crowd…Hats and hands were raisedRead more
Some of my favourite social history images in Te Papa’s photography collection are of trampers taken by Leslie Adkin (1888-1964). A man of many talents and interests, Adkin was a founding member of the Levin-Waiohepu Tramping Club, which was established in the 1920s. This was one of the first tramping clubsRead more
