Story: Public history

Guy Scholefield, 1947

Guy Scholefield, 1947

A long-standing interest in the life stories of prominent New Zealanders led Parliamentary Librarian Guy Scholefield to amass, in his own time, a collection of biographical notes with a view to publishing privately A dictionary of New Zealand biography. When the National Centennial Historical Committee (of which Scholefield was a member) learned of this project, they suggested it should be an official centennial publication. Scholefield, who compiled the immensely popular two-volume work which appeared in 1940, received an honorarium of £300. He envisaged his dictionary as an ongoing work, to be updated at intervals, but when he proposed a third volume in 1955 the government was very reluctant to fund it, and it never eventuated. However, a new biographical dictionary began in the 1980s.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, New Zealand Free Lance Collection (PA-Group-00079)
Reference: PAColl-7171-81

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Nancy Swarbrick, 'Public history - Government publications, 1900–1970s', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/44436/guy-scholefield-1947 (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 22 Oct 2014