Research Notes

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 15, Issue 2, 1 October 1982, Page 132

Research Notes

Peter Gibbons, a senior lecturer in history at the University of Waikato, is spending some six months in Wellington on academic leave during 1982, and a substantial part of his time is being spent working on the Turnbull’s collections. His major areas of investigation are the development of the ‘pioneer myth’ of New Zealand history, and the history of New Zealand popular culture, especially leisure and recreational activities, including sport.

John Hetet, a graduate student in the Department of English at Victoria University, has presented an M. A. thesis ‘A Word Concerning Libels and Libellers: Roger L’Estrange and the Regulation of the Later Seventeenth Century Press’ which draws heavily on the Turnbull’s holdings of L’Estrange’s works. An appendix to the thesis gives bibliographical descriptions of over 50 relevant items held by the Turnbull.

Dennis Dean, Associate Professor of English and Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, will be working for some three months on the Gideon Mantell papers in the Turnbull for a biography. Professor Dean’s research is being funded by a grant from the United States National Science Foundation. Penny Griffith, a library staff member, has completed her work on the dating of Whitcombe and Tombs’s publications and the results of her research will appear in the Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand later this year. The article, based on an examination of copies held by the Turnbull, establishes standard forms of the imprint from which the publication date of undated items can be ascertained. A table of job numbers used during the period is appended.