Treasures shared

A 1970s slum house in Grey Lynn.

- Russell Brown

A sad-looking elephant in 1920s Wellington, with an ad for a circus scrawled on its flank. Tables groaning with Kodachrome-coloured coleslaw and ham for the opening of St Lukes Mall in 1971. A yellowing image of the Windsor Castle pub in 1884, captioned with news of “some sensation in Parnell” after “a man named Stafford, while in a drunken state” rode in on a horse.

History is closer to us in some of these images than others, but they all came to my attention through the work of Lisa Truttman, keeper of the Timespanner blog and its associated Facebook page. “My passion is history, research, and stories from the past, especially New Zealand,” she writes in her introduction to the blog. “It is also my living ... It keeps the bills paid, a roof over my head, and food on the table.”