Trove Tuesday: Fun with @TroveNewsBot on Twitter

This week I decided to have a little bit of fun with Trove using Tim Sherratt's (@wragge) new @TroveNewsBot on twitter. Tim has provided TroveNewsBot to the community as another novel way of interfacing with Trove using the Trove API. For readers who are not aware of Tim's fantastic resources I suggest visiting dhistory (which includes QueryPic and Archives Viewer) as well as WraggeLabs Emporium and start exploring from there...you wont be disappointed.

Full details on using TroveNewsBot are provided online at https://github.com/wragge/trovenewsbot, but basically you just send a tweet to @TroveNewsBot with a message which will get treated as a query. This query in turn gets sent off to the Trove API to look for a matching result within the newspaper database. The default settings return the first most relevant result, but this can be overridden by supplying an additional hashtag of #luckdip, #earliest or #latest.

Interfacing with Trove via Twitter

As mentioned above I decided to have a little bit of fun and send it my name to see what result would turn up. So from within Twitter I sent the following tweet:

@TroveNewsBot "jonathan auld" 

Two minutes later TroveNewsBot had replied with the following message:

@Jonathan_Auld 17 Aug 1894: '[From Melbourne Papers.] NEW ZEALAND. AUCKLAND, August 10.' http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9312180 …

Results from Trove

Clicking on the link provided the following article printed in the Hobart (Tasmania) newspaper The Mercury in 1894:

Source: [From Melbourne Papers.] NEW ZEALAND. (1894, August 17). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved June 25, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9312180

The two lines of text relevant to my "Jonathan Auld" query can be seen approximately three quarters of the way down the summary of events for New Zealand and relate to a mining agent named Jonathan Auld who had been found drowned at Reefton...oh dear!

More information from PapersPast

A search on PapersPast found an obituary for Jonathan Auld...

Source: Obituary. (1894, August 13). Inangahua Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 337, p. 2. Retrieved June 25, 2013, from http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=IT18940813.2.11

The second part of Mr Auld's obituary can be found on the same page, mistakenly connected to another article:

Source: PORT OF GREYMOUTH AUG. 11. (1894, August 13). Inangahua Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 337, p. 2. Retrieved June 25, 2013, from http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=IT18940813.2.5

What will your results be?

If you are a user of Twitter, next time you are online, why not give @TroveNewsBot a try and see what 'your name' results are. You may be surprised...

Hemus & Hanna, Auckland NZ [Photographers]

A new studio opens in Auckland

In August 1875, Charles Hemus and John Robert Hanna joined forces in partnership to establish a photographic portrait studio in Auckland. An advertisement in the Auckland Star signaled their intent:

Advertisements (1875, August 12). Auckland Star, p. 3. Retrieved June 16, 2013, from http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=AS18750812.2.25.1&srpos=6

By August 21 a newspaper notice informed the public that premises had been leased for the studio, located at the corner of Queen and Wellesley Streets West:

Advertisements (1875, August 21). Auckland Star, p. 3. Retrieved June 16, 2013, from http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=AS18750821.2.22.5

Several days later a newspaper report on the Hemus & Hanna Studio appeared detailing, among other things, the extent of the photographic studio. Listed are twelve rooms for printing and other branches of the business, plus a large glass room which extended over four adjoining houses:

MESSRS HEMUS AND HANNA'S STUDIO (1875, August 23). Auckland Star, p. 2. Retrieved June 16, 2013, from http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=AS18750823.2.13

On September 1 the photographic studio of Hemus & Hanna officially opened for business:

Advertisements (1875, September 1). Auckland Star, p. 3. Retrieved June 16, 2013, from http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=AS18750901.2.27.5

Hemus & Hanna - Artisits Photographers

Advertising superior portraiture photography, Hemus & Hanna also offered artistically finished photographs using oils, water colours or crayons. An early example rear imprint from one of Hemus & Hanna's carte de visite photographs that appears in the Georgina Auld nee Muir photo album follows:

Example of mid to late 1870s rear imprint from a Hemus & Hanna carte de visite
[Auld Photograph Collection apc-000108-s2]

There were at least three additional photographers operating within Auckland in July 1876. Published in the Daily Southern Cross were the American Photographic Company, R.H. Bartlett, Clarke Bros., plus Hemus & Hanna, all vying for the patronage of the public.

Advertisements (1876, July 13). Daily Southern Cross, p. 4. Retrieved June 16, 2013, from http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=DSC18760713.2.22.7

No doubt to distinguish themselves from the other photographers, Hemus & Hanna started offering photographs of New Zealand's unique sites to tourists. Confirmation of this approach can be seen in an advertising campaign carried out in 1878 when the pair offered photographs of the beautiful Lake Rotomahana district for sale through their Queen Street studio.

Advertisements (1878, June 5). Auckland Star, p. 4. Retrieved June 16, 2013, from
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=AS18780605.2.32.2

Larger sized photographs known as cabinet cards reached their peak in the 1880s and would soon displace the smaller carte de visite sized photographs. Hemus & Hanna started advertising "finely finished enlargements" in September 1881:

Advertisements (1881, September 10). Observer, p. 617. Retrieved June 16, 2013, from http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=TO18810910.2.24.3

Dissolution of partnership

The partnership of Hemus & Hanna was officially dissolved on 14 April 1885.

Advertisements (1885, April 15). New Zealand Herald, p. 1. Retrieved June 16, 2013, from http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NZH18850415.2.2.4

Although Charles Hemus continued the business in his own name, John Robert Hanna would also continue by purchasing the business of Clarke Bros. and opening his own studio. The partnership between Hemus and Hanna lasted just under ten years from August 1875 (officially opening for business in September) through to April 1885.

Further references

• Early New Zealand Photographers and their successors
• Papers Past [National Library of New Zealand]
• Photographers Database [Auckland City Library]