In the second half of the nineteenth century, a number of young, single British women made the long journey to New Zealand to seek employment as governesses. Their numbers were small, but their unique socio-economic status and preoccupation with social class make them compelling subjects for understanding how Victorian notions of class were tested, stretched, and recomposed in colonial settings at the edge of empire.

This exhibition surfaces historical records that reveal something of women’s experiences of migration to New Zealand through the long Victorian era (1840-1914). It includes accounts of ambition and adventure, and of success and struggle; pulling ordinary women’s stories out of the archives and into a reflection on our social history. 

ENTER EXHIBITION →

I: Status and Struggle in the Victorian Home

II: Saftey Nets and Escape Routes

III: Navigating Class at Sea

IV: English Ladies and Wild Colonial Girls

V: “Their Friends Are My Friends”

VI: Beyond the Exhibition