By Roselyn Fauth, WuHoo Timaru History Hunt
This is the scrapbook of New Zealands first female librarian! Evelyn Culverwell, Miss Culverwell's scrapbook (1928-1929). Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 02/11/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/8585 She was appointed in 1913 and served until her death in 1936.The Timaru Public Library had opened on 4 June 1909. Between 1909 and 1913, the first librarian (likely male, name not recorded in local coverage) oversaw the early years. When that position was vacated in 1913, the Timaru Borough Council appointed Evelyn Culverwell as Chief Librarian — the first woman in New Zealand to hold that title. In 1928 Evelyn set out alone on a seven-month study tour of England and Scotland, visiting leading public and university libraries. Her scrapbook — still preserved in the Aoraki Heritage Collection — is full of tickets, pamphlets, and handwritten notes.
Who was New Zealand’s first female Chief Librarian? Sometimes a story begins with a name carved in stone, and sometimes it begins in a scrapbook. Mine began with both. I had been reading the Heritage New Zealand report about the Timaru Council Offices and Former Public Library façade when one name kept standing out: Miss Evelyn Culverwell. It described her as New Zealand’s first female Chief Librarian, appointed right here in Timaru in 1913.
The more I learned, the more I admired her. She was not just a librarian. She was a quiet reformer who helped build the foundations of modern public libraries in New Zealand...
Maud Ethel Evelyn Culverwell and her mother Helen Judith Culverwell grave in Timaru Cemetery.
When Evelyn Culverwell took charge of the Timaru Carnegie Library, she was stepping into a grand civic dream, a free public library funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, designed by Walter Panton and Son, and opened in 1909 thanks to the vision of Mayor James Craigie.
Timaru’s reading culture had already been decades in the making. The town’s first reading room opened in 1862 on Barnard Street, followed by a Mechanics’ Institute Library in 1870. That building burned down in 1880, but the books were saved. The idea of a public library endured.
Mayor Craigie wrote to Andrew Carnegie in 1905, securing a £3000 grant for a new free public library, one of only two in the South Island. When it opened on 4 June 1909, the Timaru Public Library symbolised knowledge freely shared.
In 1913, the Borough Council appointed Miss Maud Ethel Evelyn Culverwell as Chief Librarian, the first woman in New Zealand to hold such a position. She modernised the system, introducing the Dewey Decimal Classification and creating one of the country’s first children’s reading sections.
By the 1930s, she had built one of the most admired libraries in the Dominion. A 1933 Timaru Herald report on a Rotary Club address by Mr G. L. Gabites praised her efficiency, stating,
“Miss Culverwell carried out her duties efficiently, and the Timaru Library was second to none in New Zealand.”
At that time, the library had nearly 6,000 registered borrowers, including 1,000 children, and loaned about 30,000 books each month. Gabites noted that as soon as a book became torn or dilapidated, it was immediately rebound or replaced, and that “outside the four centres there was no other library so well equipped.”
CONFERENCE OF LIBRARIANS.—Delegates who this week attended the conference of librarians at Wellington, From left, Dr. G. H. Scholefield (Parliamentary Library), Mr. A. L. Low (New Plymouth), Miss E. Culverwell (Timaru), Mr. Johannes Andersen (Turnbull Library), Miss M. Blackett (Wanganui), Mr. J. Norrie (Wellington), Mr. J. Barr (Auckland), Miss E. Melville (Auckland), and Mr. E. J. Bell (Canterbury). - Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18425, 16 June 1934, Page 14 - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH19340616.2.137?items_per_page=50&phrase=2&query=+culverwell&snippet=true&type=ILLUSTRATION
She Was A Timaru woman with a world view
In 1928, after fifteen years in charge, Evelyn took a seven-month study tour of libraries across England and Scotland. She visited major public and university libraries, including those associated with the Library Association of the United Kingdom and the Carnegie Library in Edinburgh.
She returned home with fresh ideas and a scrapbook full of correspondence, admission tickets, pamphlets, and notes she collected on her travels. That very scrapbook survives today in the Aoraki Heritage Collection, a treasure of local and national importance.
This was one of the earliest overseas professional tours by a New Zealand librarian, and it confirmed her status as a leading professional woman in her field.
Evelyn Culverwell was the first female chief librarian in New Zealand and was appointed to the role at Timaru Public Library in 1913. In 1928 Miss Culverwell was granted a leave of absence for approximately seven months to travel to the United Kingdom. During this time she visited libraries in England and Scotland. She created a scrapbook full of correspondence, admission tickets, pamphlets and other ephemera she collected on her travels. Miss Culverwell held this position for nearly twenty three years until ill health forced her resignation in late 1935. She passed away soon after on January 3 1936. Evelyn Culverwell, Miss Culverwell's scrapbook (1928-1929). Aoraki Heritage Collection https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/8585
Picture postcard entitled "The Public Library Timaru. NZ", circa 1915. The public library on the corner of George and Latter Street was possibly built soon after the building was finished. The postcard is addressed, on the verso, to "Miss Kate Sherlock Russell Sqr Timaru" and has a half penny New Zealand stamp. South Canterbury Museum 1999/144.1 https://timdc.pastperfectonline.com/photo/27AC74A9-51E4-46BF-83B0-418596148628
The family behind the librarian
Evelyn was born Maud Ethel Evelyn Culverwell in Timaru in 1878. Her mother, Helen Judith Culverwell, died in 1924 at their home on Elizabeth Street, where Evelyn also lived. An obituary that year described Helen as “the beloved mother of Evelyn Culverwell, Public Library, Timaru.”
Evelyn’s only sibling, Eliza Florence Gertrude Culverwell, died in infancy. She never married, dedicating her life to public service and learning. She resigned in late 1935 due to ill health and died only a few months later, on 3 January 1936, aged 56. She is buried in the Timaru Cemetery, General Section, Row 41, Plot 16.
IHE STAFF OF THE DUNEDIN FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. Back row: Miss Beatrice Howes,. Miss E. I). Bryant. Miss Violet Morrison. Middle row: Mr A. Dean (caretaker). Miss L. Mesrgef, Mr W. B. M'Ewan (librarian). Miss E. Culverwell (whose appointment to take charge of the Timaxu Public Library caused the first break in the staff), Mr Arthur Mueller (caretaker). Sitting: Miss E. Tiirnbuil, and Miss F. Mowat. . —Esqui'aiU, photd.
Otago Witness, Issue 3079, 19 March 1913, Page 46 (Supplement) https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19130319.2.146.13.12?items_per_page=50&phrase=2&query=+culverwell&snippet=true&type=ILLUSTRATION
The librarian and her marinade of steak
While researching her story, I came across a recipe by Miss E. Culverwell of Elizabeth Street in an old community cookbook. Her “Marinade of Steak” called for vinegar, mushroom ketchup, sugar, salt, and white pepper. “Steak treated in this manner,” she wrote, “will keep for several days in the warmest of weather.”
Trinity Jubilee Fancy Fair 1914 Cookery Book. Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 02/11/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/74 Everlyn Culverwell was New Zealand’s first female chief librarian, who was at the helm of the library for 23 years from 1913 and was held in very high regard in the community and national library circles. - https://www.heritage.org.nz/list-details/2075/Timaru%20Council%20Offices%20and%20Former%20Public%20Library%20(Fa%C3%A7ade)
How she was remembered
When the Timaru Library turned fifty in 1959, the jubilee report named Miss M. E. E. Culverwell and her successor Miss A. K. Elliot as the two “outstanding personalities” of its first half-century. It noted that the Carnegie Corporation of New York had praised Timaru as serving “its residents more adequately than any other place in New Zealand.”
That success was built on the foundation Evelyn laid, her systems, her training, and her belief that knowledge should be freely available to everyone. Her influence continued through Miss Elliot, who carried on the same professional standards and community focus for many years after Evelyn’s death.
Evelyn modernised Timaru’s library by introducing the Dewey Decimal Classification — a revolutionary system that turned chaos into order. She also created one of New Zealand’s first children’s reading rooms, believing that young minds deserved their own space to explore.
Next time you walk past the Council building façade on King George Place, look for the word “Library” up the top in Ōamaru stone. Behind that facade once stood the first woman in New Zealand to lead a public library. She was methodical, creative, and practical, a woman who saw books as tools of empowerment, not privilege.
Over the first 70 years since the Timaru Public Library opened (June, 1909), it had had only three full-time chief librarians. The first was the late Miss Culverwell, who assumed the position, it is understood, from a male acting-incumbent, about 1910. Miss A. K. Elliot, formerly of the Dunedin Public Library staff, was appointed in 1936, and she served until her retirement in 1962, when the following chief librarian, Miss M. Morgan, took charge.
SideQuest: What was the Dewey Decimal Classification
When Miss Evelyn Culverwell took charge of the Timaru Carnegie Free Public Library in 1913, she inherited a civic treasure — one of only two Carnegie libraries in the South Island. Funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie’s £3000 grant and designed by architect Walter Panton, the library had officially opened on 4 June 1909. It stood proudly on the corner of George and Latter Streets — the same building whose façade remains part of the Timaru District Council complex today. Built on the belief that knowledge should be “free to all,” the library symbolised progress, community, and civic pride. Yet a library is only as strong as the systems that hold it together, and Evelyn brought order where there had been none.
She introduced the Dewey Decimal Classification, a revolutionary system devised by American librarian Melvil Dewey in 1876. Before Dewey, books were often shelved by size or date of purchase, making it nearly impossible to locate a topic without insider knowledge. Dewey’s numbered categories created a universal “map of knowledge,” allowing new books to slip seamlessly into place. By applying this system in Timaru, Evelyn transformed confusion into clarity. Every number became a thread in a vast web of ideas — a local library quietly aligning itself with the modern world.
But Evelyn’s vision stretched beyond catalogues and shelving. She believed the library belonged not only to scholars and businessmen but to children — those just beginning to discover the joy of reading. At a time when few New Zealand libraries provided for young readers, she established one of the country’s first children’s reading rooms, a warm and welcoming space designed to spark curiosity. It offered the freedom to choose, explore, and imagine — a small revolution in a corner of South Canterbury.
Her work placed Timaru at the forefront of public librarianship long before children’s services became standard elsewhere. In fact, New Zealand wouldn’t see formal recognition of children’s librarianship until the 1930s, with pioneers like Dorothy Neal White in Dunedin and the establishment of the School Library Service in 1942. Evelyn’s early innovations show that Timaru’s “free library” was not only keeping pace with the world — it was helping to lead it.
By bringing Dewey’s numbered order to the shelves and carving out a room of wonder for young readers, Miss Culverwell ensured that Timaru’s library became more than a building. It became a living map of ideas — a place where knowledge was no longer the privilege of the few, but the shared inheritance of all.
Sources and Acknowledgements
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, Timaru Council Offices and Former Public Library (Façade), List No. 2075, 2023–2024.
Aoraki Heritage Collection, Scrapbook compiled by Miss E. Culverwell, 1928–1929.
Timaru Herald, “Timaru Public Library: Early History Recalled,” 22 May 1933.
Timaru Herald, “Timaru Library Is 50,” 4 June 1959.
Timaru District Council Cemetery Records.
Successful Recipes, community cookbook (early 1900s).
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19241101.2.38
Cemetery Plot: Maud Ethel Culverwell
Evelyn Culverwell, Miss Culverwell's scrapbook (1928-1929). Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 02/11/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/8585
Transcription
HIGH PRAISE FOR LIBRARY A MODEL FOR NEW ZEALAND VISIT OF MR RALPH MUNN
“I should be proud to see the Timaru Public Library in one of our best American States,” said Mr Ralph Munn, director of the Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, and library adviser to the Carnegie Corporation of New York, who is at present visiting New Zealand to report on library development.
He was interviewed yesterday at the Timaru Public Library by a representative of The Timaru Herald before leaving for Christchurch.
“Timaru is the first free library I have seen,” said Mr Munn. “I have seen libraries of all sizes, in every type of population, but this is the best library I have seen.” He remarked that the library was a fine example of public enterprise, advanced policy, and excellent standards.
“Your librarian, Miss Culverwell, has plans for steady development which should ensure this fine building and its service are used to the utmost.”
Mr Munn said that the people of Timaru should appreciate how fortunate they were in having librarians whose book knowledge and devotion to their duty placed them so far up on New Zealand standards.
He was also impressed that the library was entirely locally supported, with no subscription fee and no reliance on Government subsidy.
“If all towns in New Zealand followed Timaru’s example,” said Mr Munn, “New Zealand would have the best library system outside America.”
Mr Munn also expressed admiration for the system of replacing old or worn-out books and maintaining high standards of service.
“Advanced policy,” he said, “followed intelligent understanding of the educational and cultural value of the public library.”
(Adjacent article:)
A FICTION READING PUBLIC NEW ZEALAND AND AMERICA MR RALPH MUNN’S OPINION
“New Zealanders are not as great readers as the Americans,” said Mr Ralph Munn, director of the Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh. “They have not quite the same enthusiasm for reading fiction, but they have an excellent sense of the educational and cultural importance of libraries.”
“Timaru is one of the finest examples of civic library work I have seen in any country. The people here have every reason to be proud.”
Description and Context
This clipping comes from a Timaru Public Library scrapbook, kept during the 1920s–30s, and documents international recognition for the library under Miss M. E. E. Culverwell’s leadership.
Ralph Munn (1899–1975) was one of the world’s foremost librarians of his era. He served as Director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and as a senior consultant to the Carnegie Corporation of New York. During his 1934 visit to New Zealand, he was tasked with evaluating the state of library services across the Dominion. His report, co-authored with E. R. Sands, led to the establishment of the Country Library Service (1938) and shaped the development of New Zealand’s national library system.
In this Timaru interview, Munn personally commended Evelyn Culverwell, praising her “advanced policy,” “steady development plans,” and “devotion to duty.” He called Timaru “the best library I have seen” and said if all towns in New Zealand followed its model, the country would have “the best library system outside America.”
This endorsement placed Timaru’s public library at the forefront of New Zealand’s library movement, confirming that Miss Culverwell’s leadership had created an institution recognised internationally as a model of excellence.
In summary
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The clipping is from The Timaru Herald (likely 1934).
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It records Ralph Munn’s professional visit and his praise of Evelyn Culverwell’s management.
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It confirms the international status of the Timaru Public Library under her direction.
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It serves as primary evidence of her influence and reputation within both the Carnegie network and early New Zealand library reform.
Timaru Public Library: Early History Recalled, Mr G L Gabites Addresses Rotary Club (22 May 1933). Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 02/11/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/7754
1880 Interior view of people reading in the Mechanics Institute's library, circa 1887. The image depicts a woman and two men seated around a table in the library. Bookshelves line the walls, only broken by a doorway and a fireplace. 'T' shaped piping hangs from the high ceilings above the tables (sprinklers?). The verso bears hand-written notation that identifies the name of the building and location. South Canterbury Museum 1057
- 1862 The first reading room opened in Timaru in a schoolhouse on Barnard Street. A Mechanics’ Institute was founded that year, and the Provincial Council voted £100 to support the new library.
- 1870 Due to growth in population, the original building became inadequate and was extended.
- 1880 The Mechanics’ Institute building was destroyed by fire during a bazaar. The books were saved. At the annual meeting soon after, it was decided to rebuild on the same site. The foundation stone was laid by Sir Arthur Gordon, Governor of New Zealand.
- 1880s–1900s Despite assistance, the Institute declined and was near collapse until Mayor James Craigie proposed a new scheme for a free public library.
Early 1900s Craigie corresponded with Andrew Carnegie, the philanthropist, who offered a £3000 subsidy for a new library building, on the condition that the municipality undertook its maintenance. - 1908 (June) Foundation stone laid by Mayor James Craigie for the new Timaru Public Library. The building cost £2951, with proceeds from the sale of the old Institute and land spent on books.
- 1909 (June) The new Carnegie Library building was officially opened.
- 1933 (May) At a Rotary Club meeting, Mr G. L. Gabites delivered an address recounting the library’s history and praising librarian Miss M. E. E. Culverwell. He reported nearly 6000 total borrowers, including 400 free, 1000 child, and
- 2000–3000 student borrowers, with around 3000 books circulated monthly. He also noted Timaru was one of only two free libraries in New Zealand at the time.
TIMARU PUBLIC LIBRARY EARLY HISTORY RECALLED.
MR G. L. GABITES ADDRESSES ROTARY CLUB.
22–5–33
Timaru Public Library: Early History Recalled, Mr G L Gabites Addresses Rotary Club (22 May 1933). Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 02/11/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/7754
Interesting reference to the early history of Timaru Public Library and its present day activities was made by Mr G. L. Gabites yesterday in the course of an address to members of the Timaru Rotary Club at their weekly luncheon, over which Rotarian President W. D. Campbell presided.
Mr Gabites prefaced his address with a review of the early history of the Library. When the pioneers settled in the district, he said, many brought with them the gleanings of culture and learning from their home country, and many, despite their arduous lives, were erudite students of literature. These men formed the Mechanics’ Institute, of which the present Public Library was its successor. It was just 71 years last April since the first reading room was opened in Timaru, in a schoolhouse in Barnard Street.
In that year, 1862, it was decided to establish a public library, and a Mechanics’ Institute was founded. A reading room was opened, and the Provincial Council voted £100 to the library. Despite the fact that the population in those days was very small, by 1870 the room proved inadequate and the building was added to.
In 1880 the Institute was destroyed by fire during the progress of a bazaar, but luckily the books were saved. At the annual meeting immediately after it was decided to rebuild the Institute on the same site. The foundation stone was laid by Sir Arthur Gordon, then Governor of New Zealand. In spite of generous assistance, the Mechanics’ Institute languished, and would, more than likely, have died, had not Mr James Craigie, Mayor of Timaru at that time, put forward a suggestion which eventually materialised in the present commodious building.
Previous to that Mr Craigie had had correspondence with Andrew Carnegie, the Pittsburg millionaire, and had interested him in a scheme which he had outlined for the establishment of a free library in Timaru. Through Mr Craigie’s efforts and those of other gentlemen, Carnegie promised to give a subsidy of £3000 for the erection of a suitable building, conditional on the municipality undertaking certain responsibilities. The Council accepted the conditions, and after the necessary Act of Parliament was passed, the borough was free to proceed. The Library was built 23 years ago at a cost of £2951, and the proceeds of the sale of the old Mechanics’ Institute and its land were spent on books. Mr Craigie laid the foundation stone in June, 1908, and the new building was opened in June of the following year.
Mr Gabites went on to speak in praise of the librarian (Miss M. E. E. Culverwell) for the efficient way in which she carried out her duties, adding that the Timaru Library was second to none in New Zealand. To give an idea of the work entailed, the speaker said that there were 400 free borrowers, 1000 children borrowers, and between 2000 and 3000 student borrowers, while those outside the borough were catered for as subscribers. In all there were nearly 6000 borrowers.
He quoted the April report of the Library Committee of the Borough Council, which showed that during the month approximately 3000 books were handled by the staff. Timaru, he said, was extremely fortunate in being the possessor of one of the only two free libraries in the Dominion. In no other library in the South Island, and he thought he had been in most, had he seen such well cared for books. As soon as a book became torn or dilapidated it was immediately reconditioned and replaced on the shelves, while most of the important books were bound in special covers.
Mr Gabites made reference to the books in the Library, dealing with them in sections, and stated that careful consideration was given to lists of all books published in England and abroad. Books, nowadays, came out with such startling rapidity and most of them created only a passing interest that if care were not taken in selection the shelves would be littered with “dated junk.” History, travel and biography were splendidly represented—in fact, the travel and biography sections were a feature of the Library. “Outside the four centres there is not another library so well equipped with books on these subjects,” remarked the speaker, who concluded his address with an extensive reference to the fiction contained in the Library.
On the motion of Rotarian G. D. White, Mr Gabites was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.
Four unidentified women at a reading desk in the Timaru Library, circa 1951. Depicts the four women seated and reading at a sloped wooden desk at the Carnegie Library built on the corner of King George Place and Latter Street, now part of the Timaru District Council buildings. Verso bears notations in three hands which read "Old library" eading table, 1951" and "6985". South Canterbury Musuem - 2009/070.029
New York State Library 1900 - Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_State_Library_1900.jpg
When Evelyn Culverwell took the helm of the Timaru Carnegie Free Public Library in 1913, she walked into a world already shaped by the intellectual legacy of Melvil Dewey. Dewey had, back in the late 19th century, transformed libraries in the United States by introducing a systematic, decimal-based method of classifying books—the now-familiar Dewey Decimal Classification. His work at places such as the New York State Library (for which the late 19th-century interior stands as a visual testament) established libraries as ordered repositories of knowledge, accessible through a logical scheme rather than haphazard shelving.
Culverwell recognised the promise of that order. At Timaru she set about introducing the Dewey system: shelves aligned to subject numbers, young readers invited into purpose-designed spaces, and a library no longer simply a collection of books but a map of knowledge. In doing so she translated Dewey’s theoretical reform into the rooms of a South Canterbury town— proving that his ideas about classification, access and public service could travel across oceans and take root in the far reaches of the British Empire.
From Dewey’s lofty vision of libraries as democratic engines of learning emerged Culverwell’s local enactment at Timaru... one librarian, one room, one scheme at a time. In the reorder of Timaru’s shelves and the creation of a children’s reading section, Culverwell became a part of the global movement Dewey had initiated: making knowledge free, organised, and available to every citizen.
Side Quest: Who was her father James, b c.1828, he and Helen arrived on the Lady Jocelyn in 1874 to Christchurch.
James Culverwell’s life traces a familiar arc of 19th-century migration, work, and aspiration in colonial New Zealand. Born around 1828, he came from a generation of British labourers whose skills were sought to build the colony’s agricultural base. He and his wife, Hellen Judith Culverwell, arrived in Canterbury between November 1874 and January 1875 on an assisted-immigrant voyage. Listed on the passenger roll as a shepherd aged 41, James was part of the wave of rural workers who left the tight confines of English farm life to pursue steadier prospects in the South Island’s growing pastoral economy.
By the 1880s the Culverwells had established themselves in Christchurch, at the corner of Hereford and Montreal Streets—an address that placed them near the heart of the developing city. Newspaper snippets from the Star show the family as settled and industrious: Mrs Culverwell advertising for a nurse-girl to help in the household, and James named in a court notice after a trespass incident on his property. These small fragments reveal a couple who had advanced from immigrant labourers to homeowners or leaseholders in a respectable urban district. Their home likely served as both domestic space and a modest source of income, perhaps through lodgers or boarders.
James’s occupation remained that of a labourer, a term that could encompass general building or public-works employment as Christchurch expanded. He died in 1898 at about seventy, buried in Linwood Cemetery (Block 23, Plot 164). His death record marks the end of a solid working life that bridged the transition from Canterbury’s frontier decades to its consolidation as a provincial centre. His widow Hellen lived on at least into the 1890s, recorded on the 1893 Dunedin electoral roll—one of the first women in the world to vote.
Taken together, these records sketch the quiet legacy of a settler couple whose perseverance allowed their children to rise into new professions. It is likely that one of them, Miss Culverwell, carried that legacy forward as the first full-time chief librarian of the Timaru Public Library around 1910, transforming the family’s story from manual labour to public service and education within a single generation.
Thank you Carmen Haymen for joining the hunt and finding these document online.
