item details
NameWhite Terrace
ProductionCharles Spencer; photographer; 1880; Rotorua
Classificationphotographic prints, albumen prints, black-and-white prints, vintage prints
Materialssilver, albumen, printing-out paper
Materials Summaryalbumen silver print
Techniquesblack-and-white photography
DimensionsImage: 165mm (height), 202mm (length)
Registration NumberO.020751
Credit linePurchased 1999 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds
Overview
This extract originally appeared in New Zealand Photography Collected: 175 Years of Photography in Aotearoa (Te Papa Press, 2025).
The Pink and White Terraces—dazzling, pool-studded sinter terraces formed by volcanic activity—were the main drawcard. When the Tarawera eruption buried them forever in 1886, earlier photographs took on special value as irreplaceable records of the lost wonder.