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Ballarat Street, Queenstown, NZ, flooded 1878; Hart, Campbell & Co; 1878; C.014174

Ballarat Street, Queenstown, NZ, flooded 1878, Hart William P., 1878, C.014174
Name/Title
Ballarat Street, Queenstown, NZ, flooded 1878
About this object
View looking down partially flooded street, building left and right. Group of men standing at left and at end of street. Boats visible at end of street, mountains in distance.

This photograph is part of Te Papa's historical photograph collection. It appears to be one of over a hundred Hart, Campbell & Co negatives purchased by the Burton Brothers in the late nineteenth century and subsequently published as their own.

See more at Te Papa's Collections Online: http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/ObjectDetails.aspx?oid=18969
Maker
Hart William P.
Maker Role
photographer
Maker
Hart, Campbell & Co
Maker Role
photography studio
Date Made
1878
Place Made
New Zealand
Medium and Materials
black and white collodion glass negative
Object Type
wet collodion negatives
Object number
C.014174

Tags

Balconies
Cities & towns
Commercial streets
Floods
Mountains
Natural disasters
queenstown
Ships
Stores & shops


Include tags such as place names, people, dates, events and colours. Use commas to separate multiple tags. e.g. Pablo Picasso, Madrid, red, 1930s.

Results from DigitalNZ

Long before photographs were used in newspapers, William Hart took this picture of Queenstown in flood. Like so many news images of later times, it draws on the extraordinary spectacle of people boating in an urban street – and in this case, even the possibility that a ship might be about to literally steam into town. Photography was still a relative novelty, so the townsfolk were out in force to be recorded for posterity. Their presence reinforces the sense in which photography can be both witness and performance.
Ballarat Street, Queenstown, NZ, flooded 1878
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
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