Historic Brendel Plant Models: Robert Brendel (d. 1898) began making models of botanical specimens in the late 1860s in Breslau in what is now Poland. The models are made from various materials including papier-mâché, wood, plaster, gelatin, cotton, rattan, glass beads and feathers. Each model was made from a mould and painted by hand. Brendel models became known for their large size, their accuracy, and their detachable parts to enable further investigation. They became an essential part of the resources of any institution teaching botany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These are just a small selection of the models owned by the Botany Department at Otago which were procured for the university by T.J. Parker (1850-97), the first Professor of Biology.]]> [James Stewart]]]> Books]]> ]]> A Toupapow with a Corpse on it: Attended by the Chief Mourner in his Habit of Ceremony. Plate no. XLIV by William Hodges in James Cook's A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World…in the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. Vol. 1, facing p.185.]]> James Cook]]> ]]> Man of New Zealand. Plate, by William Hodges, from James Cook's A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World...in the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. Volume I.]]> James Cook]]> ]]> Poe-Bird, New-Zeeland. Plate no. LII in James Cook's A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World…in the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. Vol. 1, facing p. 97.]]> James Cook]]> ]]> A View in the Island of Rotterdam. Plate no. XLIII by William Hodges in James Cook's, A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World…in the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. Vol. 2, facing p.9]]> James Cook]]> ]]> Landing at Middleburgh one of the Friendly Isles. Plate no. LIV by William Hodges in James Cook's A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World…in the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. Vol. 1, facing p.193.]]> James Cook]]> ]]> The Fleet of Otaheite assembled at Oparee. Plate no. LXI by William Hodges in James Cook's A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World…in the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. Vol. 1, facing p.342.]]> James Cook]]> ]]> A View of Murderers' Bay, as You Are at Anchor There in 15 Fathom. From Abel Janszoon Tasman's Journal of His Discovery of Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand in 1642.]]> Abel Janszoon Tasman]]> Religione Mohammedica was a seminal work, the first objective survey of Islamic beliefs and practices. This engraving of ‘S. Sophiae’ (Hagia Sophia) in Constantinople (Istanbul) is from the 1717 edition. The Church is now a museum.]]> [Adriaan Reland]]]> Books]]> Marie de Rabutin-Chantal Sévigné]]> Books]]> Frederick Marryat]]> Books]]> Botany--Dictionaries]]> Gardening--Dictionaries]]> Miller, Philip]]> Text]]> Illustrations]]> ]]> Dance of the Females in the Sandwich Islands. Plate no. XXXII from Otto von Kotzebue's Voyage of Discovery in the South Sea....Undertaken in the Years 1815, 16, 17, and 18. Part I, page 101.]]> Otto von Kotzebue]]> ]]> Interior of the residence of the Prince of the Sandwich Islands. Plate no. XXXII in Otto von Kotzebue's Voyage of Discovery in the South Sea...Undertaken in the Years 1815, 16, 17, and 18.]]> Otto von Kotzebue]]> ]]> Voyage of Discovery in the South Sea...Undertaken in the Years 1815, 16, 17, and 18. Part I, opposite page 62]]> Otto von Kotzebue]]> P. Wood and E. Nye]]> Troilus and Criseyde (1927). This engraving, ‘Approaching Dawn’,  may have been one of them.]]> ___]]> Engravings]]> Art-Nonsense and Other Essays (1929) and was his main model for his Twenty-Five Nudes (1938). This portrait engraving (second state) was completed in 1926.]]> ___]]> Engravings]]> Barberini]]> Armorial bookplate]]> William Rayment, Steve Dawson and Trudi Webster]]> Journal article]]> T. Shephard]]> Books]]> Over the Reefs, is a memoir of Gibbings’s time in the South Pacific from 1945 until 1947. Along with Patience Empson, his wife’s sister, he visited Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tokelau, Tahiti and the Cook Islands. The last six months of the trip were spent in Wellington typing up the text.]]> Robert Gibbings]]> Engravings]]> Phocarctos hookeri) and the New Zealand fur seal (Arctocephalus fosteri), were used by Chris Lalas and Dr Trudi Webster from the Marine Science Department at the University of Otago to determine seal dietary habits. This article is the culmination of their research.]]> Chris Lalas and Trudi Webster]]> Journal article]]> Lovely is the Lee, gave Gibbings the chance to catch up with old friends and family and he was there, on and off, for a year.]]> Robert Gibbings]]> Engraving]]>