Scrapbooks treasure trove of history

Neil Gamble  holds some Taieri History from old Otago Daily Times newspaper clippings collected...
Neil Gamble holds some Taieri History from old Otago Daily Times newspaper clippings collected in a series of scrapbooks over 40 years. Photo by Peter McIntosh.

''It is the most eclectic mix,'' Taieri Historic Museum president Neil Gamble said, gesturing to a box brimming with scrapbooks.

''The problem we have is, if we try to have a look at these to get a handle on what's there, we only get about four pages in and that's the day gone, because, if you're brought up in Taieri, there's something there that ...''

Mr Gamble interrupts himself, gazing down at one clipping in one of the scrapbooks.

''See, here's one on a schoolboy killed at a railway crossing.''

About 15 years ago, the museum received more than 100 scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings, assembled over 40 years, from 1940 to 1980.

The devoted scrapbooker was Donald Edward Gordon, who lived on the Taieri Plain until he died in the 1980s.

Over the years, Mr Gordon cut out hundreds of newspaper articles and pasted them into books using what was probably homemade glue.

When he ran out of scrapbooks, he would paste the clippings into whatever he could find.

''You had to watch out,'' Mr Gamble said.

''Any book was fair game.''

Mr Gamble and Mr Gordon were distantly related, and had known one another since they were children.

Mr Gamble remembered Mr Gordon scrapbooking over the years, but never paid much attention to it until he saw the boxes and boxes of scrapbooks when they were given to the museum.

''It gave me a greater appreciation of what he'd done, because we thought he just passed his life doing menial jobs on the farm,'' he said.

''He was one of those people who had a greater appreciation for things that most people wouldn't understand.''

Mr Gamble said the museum hoped to scan or copy the scrapbooks so they would be available to everyone.

''You could almost get emotional over it, because it's a record of the Taieri Plain, and not just the Taieri Plain, but things that have happened in Otago, in wartime, that we've all forgotten about,'' he said.

''They represent snapshots of the local history and time. What he's left behind, we can't even put a price on.''

carla.green@odt.co.nz

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