Dr John Griffiths, School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication, has won the 2021 Alan Mason Award for Historical Studies which is awarded annually by the Geoscience Society of New Zealand.
The award will enable Dr Griffiths to carry out research into exhibitions displaying New Zealand’s mineral wealth between 1851 and 1990.
“During this time many exhibitions were staged across the world, to both inform and entertain visitors and to promote a nation’s products,” Dr Griffiths says.
“They have been described as ‘glorified showrooms’, in which nations and firms displayed goods in the hope of encouraging sales. They were also where a nation demonstrated its economic progress. A key aspect of the contribution that New Zealand made to these exhibitions was displaying its mineral wealth.
“My project aims to provide a comprehensive account of each of the exhibitions staged, the minerals that were displayed and why those minerals were valued in the Empire and indeed, globally.”
Dr Griffiths will also examine the main organisers of these exhibitions, especially those who took it upon themselves to display the minerals.
“I’ll also research how these exhibitions and the minerals displayed, changed across time.”
The Alan Mason Award will also enable Dr Griffiths to publish articles in historical journals based on his research and to travel to Wellington to undertake further research in the National Library of New Zealand and Archives New Zealand.
The series of exhibitions that Dr Griffiths will research begins with the Great Exhibition of 1851 and runs through to the later twentieth century.
“This research is important because it will focus on New Zealand’s contribution to these hugely popular global events,” Dr Griffiths says.
The Geoscience Society of New Zealand represents its community by providing collaborative leadership, advocacy and information to connect people and Earth sciences within Aotearoa New Zealand and has more than 700 members from universities, Crown Research Institutes, industry and consultancies.
Alan Mason was a leading science historian. Following retirement from a business career, he chronicled the history of geology in New Zealand, and produced three biographies of pioneer geologists.
