Exhibiting Harold Wellman
Posted 20 August 2008 // Simon Nathan
Harold Wellman relaxing
Geologist Harold Wellman (1909–1999) is the subject of an exhibition by painter Bob Kerr, at Bowen Galleries, Ghuznee Street, Wellington (18 August to 6 September).
One of the most influential earth scientists in the 20th century, Wellman was the first to recognise New Zealand’s gigantic Alpine Fault, which bisects the South Island. The exhibition focuses on a six-week trip Wellman made to South Westland in 1941 with fellow geologist Dick Willett, to trace the fault along the western edge of the Southern Alps. (Click to preview some of the paintings on Flickr.)
A man of varied interests, Harold Wellman appears in several Te Ara entries:
- Prospecting for uranium (Radioactive minerals)
- Understanding coal rank variations (Coal and coal mining)
- Establishing the New Zealand-wide Fossil Record File (Fossils)
- Lighting a fire in the rain (The Bush)
- Carrying corrugated iron (Iron and steel)
- Exploring for copper (Mining and underground resources)
- The ‘Wellman method’ for structural analysis (Fossils)
- Discovering rare fossils (Fossils)
Harold Wellman seems to be in the spotlight at the moment, as he also features in two new publications: Atoms, dinosaurs and DNA by Veronika Meduna and Rebecca Priestley, and The Awa book of New Zealand science edited by Rebecca Priestley. Also, my biography of Wellman, Harold Wellman: a man who moved New Zealand has recently been reprinted by Victoria University Press.
I shall admire the paintings and the man from afar - as far away as Melbourne, that is.
Those books sound like really great reads, will try to hunt them down in Oz.(wish me luck!)