Rowley’s cabinet
Last weekend, Thomas travelled from Dunedin to Charleston on the West Coast to follow up on a remarkable lead. Back in 2023, Shelley Taylor – daughter of subantarctic research pioneer Rowley Taylor – had mentioned that she still had a filing cabinet “full of picture slides, photos, and research notes on the subantarctic islands” sitting at her house. She wondered what to do with it, and eventually asked whether the Tawaki Trust might like to take custody of this potential treasure trove to ensure anything valuable could find a permanent home.
When Thomas arrived and had his first look inside the cabinet, his excitement went through the roof. There were black-and-white photographs showing the extent of Erect-crested penguin colonies in the late 1960s, hand-annotated maps with penguin numbers, and hundreds – if not thousands – of slides from Rowley’s expeditions throughout the latter half of the 20th century. It exceeded all expectations.
The next step is to carefully work through this incredible archive of documents and photos – a major task, but one we’re certain will uncover some real gems of information.
