Imaging Sir Joseph James Kinsey (1852-1936) : a man of many parts.

• Main Author: Lummis, Geraldine
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: University of Canterbury 2019
• Subjects: Antarctic; Shackleton; New Zealand; Blanche; Harper; Doyle; Fitzgerald; Christchurch; Turnbull; Lister; Kinsey; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.26021/3590; https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/17854

This thesis introduces Sir Joseph James Kinsey (1852-1936) as entrepreneur, collector, amateur mountaineer, photographer, successful businessman and booster/developer. Kinsey’s services as attorney and New Zealand Representative to Antarctic expeditions were recognised in 1914 when he was awarded the Scott Medal by the Royal Geographic Society, and in 1917 when he became a Knight Bachelor with the title of Sir Joseph Kinsey. Although Kinsey was not a ‘rich- lister’, this dissertation argues that he is worthy of investigation. It shows how one man added significantly to the economic and cultural activity of New Zealand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Photographs reveal his friendship with early explorers and mountaineers of the Southern Alps including Arthur P. Harper, Michael FitzGerald and Matthias Zurbriggen. Images illustrate his humour, his expertise with his camera and his skill in the darkroom. Photographs and signatures in Kinsey’s leather-bound Visitors’ books identify some of his most distinguished guests including Antarctic explorers Robert Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, literary guests Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw, Blanche Baughan, and botanist Leonard Cockayne. The thesis uses Kinsey’s Visitors’ books and albums to record the continuities and changes in the society in which he lived and demonstrates the importance and value of the networks he cultivated. It shows, too, the power of photographic records as historical documents. Evidence for this analysis is drawn from the archives of the Canterbury Museum, Canterbury Club, Alexander Turnbull Library, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland War Memorial Museum, Christchurch Art Gallery, newspapers, photographs and personal correspondence. The intention of this thesis is to make Kinsey visible, to recognise the contributions he made to major events and the importance of the part he played in New Zealand’s past.