Elizabeth Pulman
New Zealand Ferns

Public Domain

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Images(11)

Artist Elizabeth PulmanNew Zealander, born England, 1836–1900

Artist Reginald Wormald BrewerBritish, 1850–1915

CultureBritish

Titles

New Zealand Ferns

Datec. 1894

MediumAlbum of gelatin silver prints, albumen silver prints and pressed ferns

DimensionsClosed: 14 3/4 × 11 7/8 × 2 1/4 in. (37.5 × 30.2 × 5.7 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors

Object number2017.353

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS

DescriptionLike
many Victorian gentlemen interested in the natural world, Reginald Brewer
collected and carefully pressed ferns in a handmade album while traveling in
New Zealand. Surprisingly, he also collected a different type of native
specimen: portraits of heavily tattooed Maori chiefs by Elizabeth Pulman, a
prominent English-born photographer in Auckland. Traditional Maori ta moko—slicing or chiseling the
skin—yields deep grooves stained with dark pigment, a practice frowned upon by
missionaries and abandoned by the 1860s. Brewer’s inclusion of such photographs
amid other New Zealand specimens strikingly illustrates both his curiosity
about the natural world and his colonial perspective.
Provenance[Librairie Serge Plantureux, Paris]; purchased by MFAH, 2017.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Embossed in gold, front cover: NEW // ZEALAND FERNS

Inscribed in black ink, front free end page, center: From // R.W. Brewer. // With kind Wishes.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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