Kiwis shine at The Jewel City

New Zealand’s classic yacht fleet owes much to its early marine photographers who proved, at San Francisco in 1915, that their work was among the best in the world.

In 1915 New Zealand had the opportunity to display its products and skills to the world at the fabulous Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco. It achieved great success, especially for a small country, but its multitude of medals was ultimately overshadowed by the dramatic events of World War 1.

The PPIE opened on 20 February 1915 amidst the cautious optimism of gains on the Western Front but closed on 4 December 1915 against growing unease as the ANZAC campaign at Gallipoli dragged its way to evacuation.

Created originally to commemorate the opening of the Panama Canal in August 1914, the PPIE also celebrated the resurrection of San Francisco from the devastation of its 1906 earthquake.

Planning for the PPIE had begun in America long before there was any sniff of European conflict. Delegates from the PPIE planning committee had visited New Zealand in 1911 seeking commitment to the event. They were back to boost enthusiasm in late 1913, a fourman tour which visited all interested countries around the Pacific.

The exposition was a mind-boggling extravaganza. It covered 635 acres in the downtown marina area of San Francisco, officially nicknamed The Jewel City. It had 11 exhibition sites, each with grandiose titles such as Palace of Fine Arts, Palace of Horticulture and Palace of Machinery, built to house exhibits. Every state in the USA built its own pavilion, as did every country exhibiting there. Canada spent a reputed US$300,000 on its building; Australia was not far behind.

New Zealand’s pavilion was a more modest affair. The buildings were temporary but relatively durable, each being timber framed “…then covered in a temporary material called ‘staff’ – a combination of plaster and a burlap-type fiber, which had an easily molded and sculpted texture.”

At its centre was the tallest building at the fair: the Tower of Jewels, 435ft high (132.6m) hung with more than 100,000 cut glass ‘jewels’ that swung in the breeze, so the building shimmered in the sunlight. The effect was even more dramatic at night when lit by 54 searchlights mounted around the tower.

On 4 December 1914, the Union Steamship Co liner Marama, soon to be rebuilt as a hospital ship, discharged 250 cases of exhibits for New Zealand’s exhibition. In Wellington, the politicians had debated the wisdom of participating, now that we were at war, but they did not expect the war to last much longer, so it was decided to carry on. The crates contained the best examples of our wool, hides, dairy produce; mining, forestry and farming machinery, as well as examples of our native flora and fauna.

Also tucked away in there was a selection of photographs from

Messrs Henry Winkelmann and James H Kinnear, two of our finest marine photographers. Both were well known in their day. Winkelmann had photographed the Auckland yachting scene from the early 1890s and had been operating on his own account since 1901 from premises in the Victoria Arcade in Queen Street.

Kinnear was an amateur, albeit an extremely gifted one. He was a dentist with a passion for marine photography. As well as having many yachting images published in the New Zealand Yachtsman magazine, he had become known for his photographs of the dwindling numbers of sailing ships that entered the Waitemata Harbour. So successful were these studies that demand for prints was handled by Auckland portrait photographer Hermann Schmidt, who was also exhibiting at the PPIE.

By a stroke of good fortune, New Zealand’s competition exhibits – as distinct from those purely for display – were allowed to set up in a block within the vast Palace of Agriculture. Here they gained greater exposure than in the New Zealand Pavilion, now described as a “headquarters for New Zealanders and all interested in that country”, complete with a troupe of Maori haka and poi dancers from Rotorua.

The grand opening of The Jewel City on 20 February 1915 fulfilled all expectations. The visitor numbers, the exhibits, the night time illuminations, the money spent by exhibitors was all far greater than anything that had gone before. An estimated 250,000 visitors passed through the New Zealand Court in the first 10 days, bringing some fine praise.

Among the wool clippings, frozen lamb, butter and cheese, irrigation machinery, kauri gum, flax and hemp was a small display of photographs that attracted considerable attention.

As one report enthused: “The magnificent seascapes and yachting studies from Mr H. Winkelmann and Mr J.H. Kinnear, both of Auckland, are revelations of pictorial art and experts in photography are agreed that nothing approaching them for first class excellence has ever before been shown in American studios or exhibitions of photographic productions.”

Judging got under way in June. New Zealand did well, winning 456 awards including six Grand Prix medals – best of class; 39

Honour Medals – second prize; 116 gold medals; 156 silver and 129 bronze as well as 10 honourable mentions.

Of the coveted Grand Prix medals, five went to agriculture while the sixth, “the grand prize that New Zealand may be most proud of”, was for Henry Winkelmann’s “unusually fine collection of marine pictures”.

He certainly made an impact. It was reported that one of the jurors, in answer to a plea from the representative of another country for a grand prize in this section, made the remark “there is nothing in the Exposition in its way equal to that New Zealand man’s marine photographs”.

The Medal of Honour in the same class went to Auckland portrait photographer Hermann Schmidt, while a bronze medal went to the Auckland Harbour Board for its harbour photographs, probably taken by Winkelmann or Kinnear. Late in July the Auckland Star announced that “the judges have made an additional award of a gold medal to Mr. J.H. Kinnear of Auckland for his meritorious photographic collection”.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister, William Massey, while addressing an A and P conference, congratulated the winners of the awards and went on to say that “Australia went to much more trouble about the exhibition, but won only 165 prizes. The New Zealand result was extremely satisfactory and quite justified the considerable expenditure incurred (applause)”.

There were more awards for New Zealand. The fine arts, livestock and forage awards were to be declared in August and September but events in Europe and Turkey tended to put such reports in the shade.

News from the PPIE became scarce, almost non-existent. When the lights finally went out on the Jewel City on December 4 there was no mention in our daily newspapers. Since February 1915, the world had become a different place. The Lusitania had been sunk in May, taking the war and fear of “the savage Hun” to a new level. We had become deeply involved in the Gallipoli campaign which promised much but which in December drew towards an ignominious evacuation that would be talked up as a “triumph of stealth”, “the Turks completely bluffed”. But the casualty lists from the previous months said a lot more, just not so loudly.

One hundred years later we can look back at those war events and analyse the rights and wrongs of it all, but we can also say, with total sincerity: well done, those Kiwi photographers. B