From its early years, Canterbury attracted a range of settlers interested in scientific investigation. Both Canterbury Museum and the University of Canterbury were central institutions in these endeavours. Macmillan Brown, a Professor at the University of Canterbury, and William Henry Symes, a local doctor, were both members of the Philosophical Institute. They became great friends and spent many hours together discussing philosophical and scientific problems. In 1921 they went on a trip to the Pacific together – Macmillan Brown for health and Symes for study
From Obscenity to Science
05 November 2023
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Title page with author's signature
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Author’s edition
(Camden, NJ: Walt Whitman, 1882)
University of Canterbury Library
When John Macmillan Brown, Canterbury’s founding professor of English and Classics, visited Walt Whitman at his home in New Jersey in 1885, the American poet gave a reading of what is now perhaps his most famous work, O Captain! My Captain!. Macmillan Brown also acquired this signed copy of Leaves of Grass, the collection in which the poem appears. Although the text this copy contains should have been a new, popularly available edition of Leaves, the Boston District Attorney deemed the book obscene. Whitman was given the choice of either censoring or withdrawing it. This ‘author’s edition’ is consequently both a reminder of a connection between Canterbury and one of America’s best-loved authors, and is unusually rare.
William Henry Symes arrived in Christchurch in 1872 and these microscope slides, together with their wooden box, were passed down to his descendants. For many years, Dr Symes was Medical Officer of Health in the new colony, as well as police surgeon and President of the Philosophical Institute. Although he was a practicing doctor, Symes’ true interests appeared to lie in scientific exploration. For years he made a study of parasitic invertebrates, particularly hook worm, and also took an interest in tropical diseases.
Want to know more?
Jennifer Clement 'Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass', in Treasures of the University of Canterbury Library, ed. by Chris Jones & Bronwyn Matthews with Jennifer Clement (Christchurch: CUP, 2011)
Wooden box and microscope slides used by William Henry Symes in the late nineteenth century
Canterbury Museum, 2003.96.1, 41-62
