In 1893 New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote. Signatures for 13 separate petitions were collected by women throughout the country and the presentation of these to Parliament in July 1893 galvanised support for this historic law change.  

In 2011 the largest of the petitions, and the only one which survives, was digitised by Archives New Zealand. Here, (left to right) archivist Lillie Le Dorre, conservator Ronnie Pace, senior archivist David Sanderson and preservation technician Caroline Garratt carefully shepherd the petition through the digitising process.