He kāhui whakaahua –a constellation of carte de visite images

Tēnā hoki rā tātou ngā mema me ngā kaitautoko o Te Rōpū Whakahau.

My name is Sheena Tawera. I work as an Arrangement and Description Librarian at Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL) in Wellington. I am very fortunate to be able to work with taonga held within the Alexander Turnbull Library’s unpublished collections.

ATL holds a number of 19^th century carte de visite images of Maori who had their portraits taken by Hawkes Bay photographer Samuel Carnell: https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.77989

In 2018 Alexander Turnbull Library undertook an inhouse Facial Recognition pilot project.

A sample of Samuel Carnell’s carte de visite portraits of unidentified Māori were selected, scanned and matched with existing carte de visite images, using Facial Recognition Technology. A number of likely and exact match images were made, adding to the Alexander Turnbull Library’s pātaka of digital images.

We are keen to find out more about the tipuna and rangatira within the following selection of carte de visite images below:– their names, where they were from, their whānau, hapū, and iwi affiliations for our records, and for their ongoing discoverability as taonga.

If you do have information that you are happy to share, feel free to contact us at Ask a librarian.

E tino hikaka ana mātou kia mohio mai, nō wai ēnei whakaahua – nōhou pea? Tēnā, whakapā mai ōu whakautu ki te hono “Ask a librarian” :

Ngā mihi nunui

Nāku iti noa, nā

Sheena Tawera