Tuhinga 16: 21-31, doi: 10.3897/tuhinga.16.e34155
The democratic politician does not trouble himself with science': class and professionalisation in the New Zealand Institute, 1867-1903
expand article infoFrancis Lucian Reid
© Francis Reid.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Reid F (2005) The democratic politician does not trouble himself with science': class and professionalisation in the New Zealand Institute, 1867-1903. Tuhinga 16: 21-31. https://doi.org/10.3897/tuhinga.16.e34155
Open Access
Abstract
Drawing upon a wide range of printed primary sources and manuscripts held in the archive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, this paper argues that the New Zealand Institute during the period 1867–1903 should be understood as a class-based and a class-defining institution, and that efforts during the early 1880s to reform the Institute were in part an attempt to replace a social elite with a professionalised one. Furthermore, this paper argues that this class-based system helped to support scientific institutions by solidifying links between New Zealand’s tiny band of professional men of science and the colonial political elite.
Keywords
Class, professionalisation, reform, New Zealand Institute, Colonial Museum, James Hector.