ARANZ Wellington Branch is pleased to present

The ARANZ Lecture, 2009
Intimate Letters of NZ’s most Remarkable Women Travellers

Top New Zealand biographer Joanne Drayton, (left) reveals the Lost Memories she unearthed in personal correspondence archives as she researched for books on Kiwi “Queen of Crime” Ngaio Marsh, and outstanding women artists Frances Hodgkins, Edith Collier and Rhona Haszard.
Dr Drayton will be the 2009 Archives and Records Association of NZ (ARANZ) Lecturer in Wellington in May. Preparing her latest work last year, Ngaio Marsh – Her Life in Crime, she spent a year delving the Alexander Turnbull Library correspondence archives. She found: “Oddly enough, Ngaio Marsh was a bit of a stinker at covering her tracks. She was a pyromaniac where letters were concerned. I did find some fascinating ones, though!’

The archives at the National Library and the Auckland Art Gallery’s Eric McCormick library were sources for Dr Drayton’s 2005 biography, Frances Hodgkins: A Private Viewing. She remembers: “When it comes to illuminating private details in correspondence - Hodgkins' are second to none!” She adds: “Rhona Haszard's letters in the Te Papa Archives were also pretty hot!”

The ARANZ Lecture highlights the theme for the ARANZ Records and Archives Week 2009 (RAW09) over the first week of May:

Dr Drayton’s ARANZ Lecture will be of fascination to artists, writers, jurists and historians, as well as archives, records and information management professionals.

When: May 5, 2009, 5.45pm to 7.30pm.
Where: Training Suite, Archives of New Zealand, 10 Mulgrave Street, Wellington.

Entrance fee: Gold coin to cover reception catering.
Earlybird registrations are advisable. Seating will be limited.
RSVP immediately or by close of business, Friday, May 1, 2009, to Mark Crookston, at mark.crookston@archives.govt.nz.

Listener feature on Joanne Drayton.