A portrait of two unidentified young women by Whanganui photographer William James Harding. It is part of the new Person Includes Woman: Nineteenth-Century Women Confronting the Lens exhibition at the Kate Sheppard House in Christchurch. Ref: 1/4-008029-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington
A portrait of two unidentified young women by Whanganui photographer William James Harding. It is part of the new Person Includes Woman: Nineteenth-Century Women Confronting the Lens exhibition at the Kate Sheppard House in Christchurch. Ref: 1/4-008029-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington
A “powerful” new exhibition displays a Whanganui photographer’s portraits taken during a period of great societal transformation and the fight for women’s suffrage.
The work by Whanganui photographer William James Harding of unnamed women in the Whanganui-Rangitīkei area, taken between 1856 and 1889, is on display at Te Whare WaiutuutuKate Sheppard House in Christchurch from today (Suffrage Day).
The exhibition is titled Person Includes Woman: Nineteenth-Century Women Confronting the Lens.
“I became obsessed by this largely unrecognised series of glass plate negatives,” Te Whare Waiutuutu Kate Sheppard House property lead Helen Osborne said.
The images offered “an intimate glimpse of women” living through a historic time.
The portraits, which Harding collected over about 30 years, capture a diverse range of women across social spheres and lifestyles. All were taken before women were legally defined as “people” in New Zealand.
A portrait of an unidentified Māori woman by William James Harding, from the new exhibition in Christchurch. Ref.1/4-017127-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington
The Electoral Act of 1893 gave women the status of personhood and thus allowed them to vote after years of tireless lobbying and protest. It made New Zealand the first self-governing country to allow women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
“For the first time, the law declared that ‘person includes woman’ – a legal statement that recognised the legal and universal civic status of wāhine/women,” Osborne said.
“These three words exposed the absurdity of needing to define women as people. They remain a powerful reminder of how recent the struggle for women’s equality was and how deeply embedded in our nation’s collective memory and identity [it is].”
She said Harding’s collection of portraits over the decades leading up to the legislation was a telling tapestry of the women and their lives at this significant point in history.
“William Harding provided a safe and affordable space for a wide cross-section of women, Māori and Pākehā, to sit for a portrait.
“They weren’t simply passive sitters or confined to colonial ideals of domesticity. They were recorded as individuals confronting the lens with intelligence, discomfort, confidence or unease.”
Those elements shaped the title of the exhibition.
The collection was recognised by Unesco’s Memory of the World Register in 2024 for its cultural and historical significance, along with its striking visuals.
The portraits were not originally captured with political intent, but their subjects have inadvertent significance. Women, especially across the diverse spheres portrayed in the collection, were not typically included in formal archives at that time.
Harding arrived in New Zealand from England in 1855 with his wife, Annie, and they settled in Whanganui. He set up a photography business in 1856, and she ran a successful dance studio.
There was intense competition from other photographic studios, and Harding’s business was heavily subsidised by his wife’s dance studio for a while.
The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography records: “When taking portraits [...] Harding failed to flatter his sitters either by investing in elaborate studios and fittings or by retouching”.
“The direct and steady gazes of his subjects connect with the viewer,” Osborne said.
“The images reflect a range of social positions – from young to old, wāhine Māori, to working class to elite settler. Many names are now not known. The women selected all have presence, and their images challenge the restrictive visual codes of the Victorian era.
“For Māori, the concept of kanohi kitea – the seen face – carries deeper cultural significance. Being visible and remembered within one’s own whānau and community has enduring value.
“This also speaks to mana wāhine – the authority, resilience and presence of Māori women – which persists even when the colonial record has silenced or obscured their names.”
The names of the women documented in the collection have been lost through time.
The Hardings left 6500 glass plates, including this collection, when they moved to Sydney in 1889. The plates are held in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington and in the Whanganui Regional Museum.
Te Whare Waiutuutu Kate Sheppard House in Ilam was once the home and campaign hub of suffragist Kate Sheppard, who led a movement of national and international activism that helped to secure women’s suffrage. Today, the house is cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
