One of the earliest guide books to Christchurch in the Library,The Royal Album of Christchurch Views, from c.1888, includes images of the College.
Making them Proud
20 November 2023
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One of the earliest guide books to Christchurch in the Library,The Royal Album of Christchurch Views, from c.1888, includes images of the College.
It is no exaggeration to say that the people of Christchurch came to develop a fondness for their College over time. Almost as soon as they were completed, the College buildings began to feature in the cultural landscape for Cantabrians. They were represented in local guides, and their virtues were extolled in books celebrating the achievements of the Province.
The Royal Album of Christchurch Views from circa 1888 already features illustrations of Canterbury College showing the newly completed Classics Building, dwarfing the slightly out of scale pedestrians. From then on the College Buildings appear in almost every tourist guide in the University Library’s Collection, often accompanied by gushing statements such as this from Christchurch from the Air in the 1930s which claimed “Many of the buildings are architectural gems. Ivy clad, mellow Canterbury College, the Museum with its severer lines, and the noble Anglican Cathedral can vie in beauty with any similar edifices in Australasia.”It was not only the buildings that inspired city pride. The graduates of the College were also acclaimed as representing the best of Christchurch.
The Cyclopedia of New Zealand wrote in 1903 that “These Colleges have sent forth brilliant men and women, who are now engaged in politics, literature, art or the professions and are taking prominent parts in building up a great colonial nation … Canterbury College itself can justly claim to be the most successful of all Colleges in the colony affiliated to the University of New Zealand.”
Perhaps that sense of pride in the achievements of graduates is what has inspired many local citizens and businesses to donate to the College, making it possible for Canterbury to provide scholarships and assistance for research projects.
The eye catching cover of Christchurch from the Air, c.1930.
Canterbury College at top right, in a page from Christchurch New Zealand.
The Cyclopedia of New Zealand summed it up in stating that “The people of Canterbury take a pride in their educational institution, which plays an important part in the life of the Community.”
The Commemoration Day Programme for 1934 lists scholarships and prizes donated to the College as including amongst many others: Canterbury Employers Association donation of £25 for books; NZ Society of Accountants grant of £1575 for instruction in Accountancy; Astronomical Society of CHCH donation of £423/10/9 for the erection of an observatory; and Julia Wilding donation of £100 for a lectureship in memory of her children Anthony and Gladys Wilding.
