The Norm Hatch Collection of over 1494 black and white photographs includes: U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to New Zealand in 1943 and shows her touring Whakarewarewa with Guide Rangi Dennan. It also shows Māori kapahaka at huge events in Gisborne and Kāpiti.
Other highlights are: rugby games, hospital scenes, dancing in the Cecil Club in Wellington, farm visits and extraordinary footage of the Marines’ beach-landing exercises under fire at Paekākāriki.
Here is a selection of low resolution versions of some of those photographs.
The 1494 Stills comprise: 747 Tiffs and 74 7Jpgs, catalogued in 34 themed title records and now available to view online, visit Ngā Taonga Sound & Film Archive.
Each photograph has a low and a high resolution copy. The low-resolution copies show the photographer's hand-written captions. About a third of the photographs were taken by Norm Hatch and the rest by members of his team.
Marinesnz.com is the website of The Kāpiti US Marines Trust and part of a major project to collect, preserve and promote World War II US Armed Forces history from 1942-1944 in the Kāpiti district, north of the capital city Wellington, New Zealand. While our focus is the history surrounding Camps Russell, MacKay and Paekākāriki’ we also have an interest in Marines camps in other parts of the Wellington region and in the social history and friendships between Kiwis and Americans during this brief but all-important encounter.
KUSMT 1 Grange Park Avenue Raumati South, Paraparaumu 5032 New Zealand
Email: info@marinesnz.com
