Recipes pulled out of magazines and splattered with grease spots and food, ferry tickets, clippings, maps, letters — it all speaks of a very ordinary life.
As this year would have been Frame’s 100th birthday it seemed a fitting time to recognise the heritage treasure the papers represent.
Yet Janet Frame’s life as most know it was not very ordinary. An internationally renowned author born in Dunedin, Frame was appointed to the Order of New Zealand — New Zealand’s highest honour. Her writings about her life and mental health struggles became an award-winning movie, An Angel At My Table.
But for the curators who have been working through the 25 shelves of file boxes holding the ephemera of Frame’s life, ordinary is the overwhelming impression.
Marking author Janet Frame's 100 centenary at the University of Otago's Central Library. (From left) Kirstie Ross - Hocken Head Curator of Special Collections, Anna Blackman - Hocken Head Curator Archives, and Jane Wild - UNESCO Memory of the World...
So the Hocken applied for the collection of papers to be recognised on the Memory of the World register. Last night the papers were inscribed into the New Zealand register at a ceremony at the University of Otago Library’s special collections.
