2486 days ago

Crowdsourcing history: the women who signed the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition

The Team from Alexander Turnbull Library

Tuesday 21 May 2019
12.10pm - 1.00 pm
Free
National Library Foyer, Cnr Molesworth and Aitken Streets, Thorndon


Come and hear about ways you can connect and use the collections at the Library. Talks will be held on the 3rd Tuesday of every month until November 2019


Crowdsourced biographies
Over 32,000 women from all walks of life signed the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition. But who were these women? And how could their stories be told? This was the problem facing the team who created the He Tohu exhibition and the NZHistory online suffrage database. The answer? Crowdsourced biographies.

With the help of passionate genealogists, librarians, students, historians and more, biographies of those who signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition have been streaming in, filling the gaps and bringing to light many stories in the process.

This talk by staff at Archives New Zealand and Manatū Taonga shares their insights into the crowdsourced biographies, as well as some of the fascinating biographies themselves

About the speakers
Danielle Ashby-Coventry is the archivist at Archives New Zealand responsible for editing and uploading the biographies to He Tohu, alongside the Research and Publishing Group at Manatū Taonga. Jared Davidson is a Senior Archivist Ohu Hāpori at Archives New Zealand and a curator of He Tohu.

Image: Page one of the Women’s Suffrage Petition 1893 (detail). Archives New Zealand

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More messages from your neighbours
22 hours ago

Some Choice News!

Kia pai from Sharing the Good Stuff

DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.

Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.

For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.

Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?

We hope this brings a smile!

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20 days ago

Have you got New Zealand's best shed? Show us and win!

Mei Leng Wong Reporter from NZ Gardener & Get Growing

Once again, Resene and NZ Gardener are on the hunt for New Zealand’s best shed! Send in the photos and the stories behind your man caves, she sheds, clever upcycled spaces, potty potting sheds and colourful chicken coops. The Resene Shed of the Year 2026 winner receives $1000 Resene ColorShop voucher, a $908 large Vegepod Starter Pack and a one-year subscription to NZ Gardener. To enter, tell us in writing (no more than 500 words) why your garden shed is New Zealand’s best, and send up to five high-quality photos by email to mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz. Entries close February 23, 2026.

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1 day ago

Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!

William Hansby Reporter from NZ Gardener & Get Growing

Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.

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