Waitaki Museum Blog
Featuring thoughts and ideas from the Waitaki Museum.
This is the final blog in a series of four focussed on the history of the North Otago Museum.
This is the third blog in a series of four focussed on the history of the North Otago Museum.
This is the second blog in a series of four focussed on the history of the North Otago Museum.
This is the first blog in a series of four focussed on the history of the North Otago Museum.
Over the last few months we have been sorting out our washing collection. The collection gives a good overview of the technological development that occurred throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This very basic electric washing machine was donated to the North Otago Museum in 1994. The body is a tin case into which has been inserted a brass interior with a stainless steel rim. At the bottom of the interior is a large element, next to which is a hole for the water to drain.
One hundred years ago New Zealand soldiers were involved in the Battle for Chunuk Bair. This battle is considered New Zealand’s most important action in the Gallipoli Campaign.
Washing boards were a very early way of washing clothes. This washing board was sold by AJ Headland in his shop on Thames St around 1890. The frame is wood, while the grooves used to agitate and remove dirt are metal.
The Swiftsure vacuum washer was patented by a subsidiary of the British Vacuum Company, founded by Hubert Cecil Booth in 1901. The vacuum washer was actually a posser (sometimes known as a dolly), a stick-like implement used to mix the washing when it was in a tub.
This wooden rocker style washing machine consists of a cradle which slots into the circular base, standing on four legs. The interior is ribbed, and when water and washing has been put in, rocking the cradle backwards and forwards agitates the clothes, removing any dirt.
This wooden hand operated washing machine dates from around the early 1900s. It was manufactured by the Canadian firm David Maxwell and Sons, who not only produced household items such as washing machines and churns, but also agricultural and harvesting machinery.
This Speedway washing machine would have been sold in New Zealand around 1930. It is a single tub washer, although there was also a twin-tub Speedway, which was a pre-cursor to the Hoovermatic. Our Speedway is a non-electric agitator style of washer made of galvanised tin with a copper exterior.
Speed Queen washing machines are made by the American company Barlow and Seelig Manufacturing.
Ordinary objects can sometimes turn out to be extraordinary. This can be because of the stories that accompany the object, or perhaps because of the object’s rarity or value. This is certainly the case for many of the North Otago Museum’s everyday objects!
North Otago Museum holds around thirty memorial and honours boards. Honours boards have come from schools, clubs and societies, whilst the memorial boards pay tribute to soldiers killed.
Many soldiers bought embroidered items like this cloth to send home to their mothers, sisters, wives or sweethearts.
Quanti est sapere or How valuable is wisdom is the motto of Waitaki Boys’ High School. The school was founded in 1883 and during the First World War period the school was headed by
The Ardgowan-Weston Red Cross made this quilt during the First World War. It was probably made between 1915 and 1917.
