A small museum in rural Canterbury has appealed to the public for help in unveiling the unidentified subjects of hundreds of photographs in its archives.
Rangiora Museum holds around 300 images whose subjects and origins are unknown, many of them donated by families clearing out the homes of elderly relatives.
“If people are clearing out their elderly relative’s house after they’ve passed away or moved into a rest home, they’ll often bring items in here if they think they could be of use to us,” museum president John Biggs said.
However, many of these items and photographs come lacking context.
Driven by fears the stories behind them will be lost, a group of volunteers are working diligently to uncover the background of each item where they can.
Rangiora Museum photographic curator Bev McLean told 1News a lot of the best tips come from volunteers recognising elements from each picture.
“A lot of our volunteers are 70 plus, and to hear them talk about, ‘that was so and so’s shop, and that was next to this shop on High St, it’s not there now, but this is what they did’. It’s just magic to hear those stories about people,” she said.
Rangiora archives wants to know the subjects in more than 300 historic images. (Source: 1News)
McLean said those personal memories help preserve the region’s identity.
“Stories from the past of our families are incredibly important. They’re our roots — that’s where we came from.”
But the dedicated group at Rangiora Museum can’t do it alone, hence their appeal to the public for help identifying and sharing the stories of these mystery artifacts.
Biggs said people were “welcome to come in and have a look, particularly if they think they had relatives who came from this area”.