I was delighted
to be back in Christchurch last week for the first time since the 2011
earthquake, not least to find one of my favourite museums, the Canterbury Museum, virtually unscathed and bustling with visitors. Why one of my
favourites? Well first up must be that it is unique, as far as I know, in
having a delightfully obscure biblical text from the book of Job inscribed over
its main entrance, "Lo these are parts of His ways but how little a portion
is heard of Him".
Secondly, it has
one of the world’s greatest Antarctic collections from the Heroic Era, in which
pride of place must go to the vehicles. There is a wheel from the Arroll
Johnston motor car that Shackleton took on his 1907-09 expedition in which he
hoped to cruise to the Pole at a modest 25mph. There is the extraordinary
plywood boxed motor tractor that was used on Shackleton’s second expedition,
with skis at the front and a big paddle wheel at the back (remember that the
tank had not yet been invented). This vehicle proved far more trouble than it was worth, and vastly less efficient than the humble Manchurian pony and huskie.
And then there are the two vehicles that featured front of stage in the Trans
Antarctic Expedition of 1957/8 - Vivian Fuchs’ lumbering great snowcat, and
right beside it the canvas wrapped cab of one of Edmund Hillary’s’ converted
Ferguson tractors. Each set off from opposite sides of the continent, and what
an epic story it was as they fought their way to the South Pole. You will have
to read the best book on the expedition to find out who (sort of) won or
check out my blog from March 2015.
Fuchs' Snowcat with Hillary's Ferguson tractor behind
Thirdly, the
Museum has some very fine dioramas. The film Night at the Museum (and its endless successors) largely works through the scenes where its dioramas come alive. They were actually invented by Louis Daguerre (he
of the Daguerreotype), and became in the early part of the 20th century a common museum technique for showing an historical event or a natural
history scene. At their best they can impart a highly realistic view; the battle scenes in the Australian War Memorial’s World War One Galleries (see my
blog from April 2015)
providing a point of access for the visitors that few other mediums can
provide. The fact they survive in so many museums is a testament to their
interpretive power. At the Canterbury Museum they are principally used to
depict pre-colonial Maori life and bird scenes. Both types in their own
way are spectacular, notable because of the quality of the artwork.
One of the Canterbury Museum dioramas
So, when you
are next in South Island, New Zealand do take time to visit the Museum – it’s a
real treat.
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