Story: Rural recreation

Country Women’s Institute handcrafts display

Country Women’s Institute handcrafts display

Bessie Spencer sits with handcrafts from Hawke’s Bay institutes, at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin in 1925. Bessie Spencer founded the first institute at Rissington in rural Hawke’s Bay in 1921, and by 1925 there were six in Hawke’s Bay. The movement, which offered country women the chance to meet and learn handcrafts, spread quickly among rural communities.

Photo donated by Randell and Penny Simcox to the New Zealand Federation of Women's Institutes.

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New Zealand Federation of Women's Institutes

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How to cite this page:

Jock Phillips, 'Rural recreation - Country halls, 1890–1960', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/17687/country-womens-institute-handcrafts-display (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Jock Phillips, published 24 Nov 2008