Discover Canterbury: Christ’s College

Each year Christchurch City Libraries hosts an annual Photo Hunt to encourage people to share their photographs and stories of Canterbury. It runs throughout October, from Sunday 1st to Tuesday 31st, and the theme for 2023 is Our Stories of Living and Learning.

Former Immigration barracks, Lyttelton. © Christchurch Star. CCL-DW-14401.

Christ's College, an independent Anglican secondary school, was founded in 1850 by Reverend Henry Jacobs. It started life in the former Lyttelton Immigration Barracks, before moving in 1852 to St Michael's Parsonage in Oxford Terrace where they were able to accommodate both day and boarding students. Classes focused on "classical education, including Greek and Latin, as well as Modern Languages, Mathematics, English, History and Geography". (Christ's College, 2023). In 1856, with 35 students and 3 staff, Christ's College moved to its current site on Rolleston Avenue.

Old Christ's College footbridge to Hagley Park. No known copyright. CCL-Kete-15959.

The image directly above, as well as the one below, were contributed to the collection during the Christchurch Photo Hunt 2008 and 2014 respectively. This years theme "recognises our legacy of learning and education" (Christchurch City Council, 2023), and it is safe to say that Christ's College certainly has a long and continuing legacy of learning and education, being the oldest independent school in New Zealand.

School House, Christ’s College. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 NZ. CCL-Kete-26407.

Contributions like these add to the illustration of our history, preserving our collective memories for future generations. Why not share your photographs from your school days, and contribute to this year's Photo Hunt.

Previous Photo Hunt entries can be viewed on discoverywall.nz and at canterburystories.nz

Enter the 2023 Christchurch Photo Hunt

We are running things a bit differently this year. Here is how you can contribute your images to the Photo Hunt:

  1. Upload your photos to discoverywall.nz;
  2. Submit your photos through our online entry form.

There is no longer a process for dropping your photos at libraries. If you have photos you want to scan, you can:

  1. Come along to a Digitise Your Photos event at selected libraries during October;
  2. Scan your photos at Auahatanga | Creativity at Tūranga or at Te Hāpua Halswell Centre. Learn more about how to access the photo scanners.

Please note that bound, framed or mounted photos are unable to be scanned at the Digitise Your Photos events. This is because the scanner feeds through photos rather than being flatbed as with some other scanners. If you would like to contribute any of these types of photos please contact us directly at librarydigitalcontent@ccc.govt.nz.

References

Discover Canterbury

Discover Canterbury is a fortnightly blog post promoting beautiful, interesting, weird, and wonderful digital content from our Canterbury Stories and Discovery Wall collections.
Read Discover Canterbury posts

Explore local images and share your photos