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Marti Friedlander was one of New Zealand’s most outstanding twentieth-century photographers. Her work was massively influential both in the development of photography as an artistic practice in New Zealand and in the…

Hoani Te Heuheu Tūkino, sometimes known as Hoani Te Rerehau or John Heuheu, was the youngest of five children of Tūreiti Te Heuheu Tūkino V of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and his wife, Te Rerehau Kahotea (also known as Mere Te Iwa…

Harry Scott was a psychology educator and researcher whose work on the effects of isolation evolved from his own experiences as an imprisoned conscientious objector during the Second World War. He was a significant…

John O’Shea occupies a decisive position in the development of the New Zealand film industry. He was responsible for the only feature production in New Zealand between 1940 and the early 1970s, and singlehandedly…

Takamoana derived chiefly rank among Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti and Ngāti Kahungunu in Heretaunga (Hawke's Bay) through his mother, Te Rotohenga, also known as Winipere. Winipere married twice: Takamoana's father was…

William Hobson was born in Waterford, Ireland, on 26 September 1792, the third of five sons of Samuel Hobson, a barrister, and his wife, Martha Jones. William joined the Royal Navy before his 11th birthday, signing on…

W.H. (Bill) Oliver was one of New Zealand’s most eminent twentieth-century historians. He gained distinction as a scholar of British and New Zealand history and was part of a tradition of poet-historians, with five…

In the second half of the twentieth century, Keith Sinclair transformed how New Zealanders understood themselves and their history. A prominent poet and New Zealand’s most important historian of the 1950s and 1960s, his…

Robert Stout was born on 28 September 1844 at Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland, the eldest of the six children of Thomas Stout, a merchant, and his wife, Margaret Smith. His education began at kindergarten at about the age…

James Macandrew, the son of a merchant, Colin Macandrew, and his wife, Barbara Johnston, was baptised in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 18 May 1819. Little is known of his early life; he is said to have attended Ayr Academy and…

Richard John Seddon was born at School Brow, Eccleston, near St Helens, Lancashire, England, on 22 June 1845. His father was Thomas Seddon, headmaster of Eccleston grammar school, who had married Jane Lindsay, a Scot…

Edward Gibbon Wakefield was born probably in London, England, on 20 March 1796. His father, Edward Wakefield, was a farmer and land agent, who had married Susanna Crash in London in 1791. Edward Gibbon was the oldest…

Early life On 29 May 1953 New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Tenzing Norgay, as part of a British team, reached the 8,848-metre summit of Mt Everest, the world’s highest mountain. This was the culmination of 12…

Edward William Stafford was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 23 April 1819, eldest son of Berkeley Buckingham Smith Stafford of Maine, County Louth, Ireland, and his wife, Anne Tytler. Stafford grew up in the leisured,…