Portraits of the Wellington Indian community
We are kaitiaki of a large amount of photographic portraits featuring members of Wellington’s Indian community.
These portraits date from the 1910s to 1940s, and were mainly taken at the Cuba Photographic Studio, 147 Cuba Street, Wellington.
The earlier portraits from the 1910s–1920s were taken at the previous studio at the same location, Berry & Co, established by William Berry in 1897.
In the 1990s, nearly 4,000 glass plate negatives (including these portraits) were found in a cupboard by one of the tenants of 147 Cuba Street, Wellington, and were purchased for Te Papa’s collections in 1998.
We would like to identify the people in these portraits and learn something about their lives in Aotearoa New Zealand, and to reconnect them with their descendants. Do you recognise any of the names or faces in this collection?
If so, any information you can offer about the sitters would be appreciated. To aid identification, please include the Te Papa registration number for the photograph (A.014206, for example) when you contact us (indianportraits@tepapa.govt.nz).
View the portraits on Collections Online.
Read more on RNZ’s articles:
Left: Young man circa 1930, Wellington, by Cuba Photographic Studio. Purchased 1998 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa (B.046973). Right: Portrait of a man, circa 1930, Wellington, by Cuba Photographic Studio. Purchased 1998 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa (B.046957)