Simon Nathan talked to FoTL members on 13 March 2013 about ‘The changing face of James Hector’. Simon has been involved in a major project of transcribing letters written by or about James Hector, and agreed to give us more information about how to access the letters.
James Hector (1834-1907) was the dominating personality in late 19th century scientific circles in New Zealand. As the first professional scientist to be employed by the government, he founded the Geological Survey (now GNS Science), the Colonial Museum (now Te Papa) and the New Zealand institute (now Royal Society of New Zealand) as well as supervising weather forecasting, the time service, and the Colonial Botanic Garden. Continue reading “Letters by or about James Hector”