Kauri Gum Diggers, Auckland. Cabinet card albumen photograph.
Kaikohe, New Zealand: Ca. 1880. A large group of kauri gum diggers assembled at their camp are pictured in this cabinet card. A pencil inscription on the verso reads, "Kauri Gum Diggers, Auckland". The photographer stamp on verso reads, "J. Low, Photo Kaikohe".
The image depicts 15 men (Maori and non Maori), 1 boy (Maori), a horse, and three dogs. Two crossed shovels stand at the right side near a large sack of gum, and a wooden framed hut with canvas roof is visible behind the group. Kauri gum, the fossilized resin of kauri trees, was used by the Maori in many ways: as a fire starter, a pigment for tattooing, and a material for keepsake and jewelry carving.
The only recorded photographer by the name of John Low we were able to locate was born in Scotland, and emigrated to New Zealand in 1865, opening a photography studio in 1874. An advertisement in the Waikato Times announces the opening of Low's studio there:
"Photography! photography! J. Low has much pleasure in announcing that he has errected (sic) a Studio in the township of Ngaruawahia and is now prepared to execute any order with which he may be favoured". (Waikato Times, 11 April 1874).
Albumen photograph, 5 3/4 x 4", mounted on cabinet card 6 1/2 x 4 1/4" Very good overall. Item #26162
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