One of the things I really enjoy, is looking through the Sarjeant Gallery archive at Whanganui District Council. This is where the information regarding the origins of the Gallery is held, including the original plans and blueprints, and all the various bureaucratic communications from early last century.
The archive contains telegrams from Mayor Charles Mackay, letters about financial matters from councillors and legal documents, including of course a copy of Henry Sarjeant's Will. The Will sets out his generous bequest of £32,000 and his wishes for a gallery for Whanganui to be built "for the inspiration of ourselves, and all those who follow".
The design competition booklet created by Samuel Hurst Seager is there too. This outlined the many design requirements for the Sarjeant Gallery. It was distributed to New Zealand and Australian architects in 1915/16 and ultimately thirty three of the architects who read it submitted an entry. Four of those were shortlisted, and in late 1916 a neoclassical Greek cross design by a young employee of the well-known Dunedin architect Edward Anscombe was announced as the winner. That young man was Donald Hosie and he was just twenty one. In one letter Samuel Hurst Seager described Hosie as "undoubtedly an architectural genius". Sadly Donald died the following year, killed in action at Passchendaele, just weeks after the Gallery's foundation stone was laid.
Of course all of the documents kept in the archive are "official". They deal with governance issues, financial matters, building regulations and council business – and while they are incredibly important - personally I absolutely love it when a handwritten note or letter when pops up among the heavy black inked typewritten documents. A letter from Henry Sarjeant's widow Ellen, written in her own hand from the South of France, is a treasure for example. The Sarjeant Gallery's builders' ledger is another – full of names, prices and completed jobs large and small.
