Māori Mystery.

In the University Special Collection is a photograph of a young man, a St Andrews student identified only as part-Māori. As recently reported by Radio New Zealand Dr Luke Gartlan has been working with Prof Aileen Fyfe (Modern History) trying to establish the identity of the student photographed in the 1860s by Thomas Rodger, the first commercial photographer in St Andrews. 

Prof Fyfe and her team have searched through the University's archival lists of students as well as researching the legacies of empire at the University in the 18th and 19th century, but no name has yet emerged to match the student photograph. While a few students of Indian ethnicity and one from West Africa were recorded at the University in the 1850s and 60s, no other has been found from New Zealand before 1900.

Dr Gartlan said, "For me, this is important in many ways, both to return this photograph to Māori descendants and communities and to Pākehā, but also to rethink the university itself and who its students have been in the past in the Victorian era". 

Any information as to the identity of the student would be gratefully received.

[Image caption: Image courtesy of University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums, ID ALB-1-65.]