MARY DONNAN - one of Ōtautau's extraordinary personalities:
Born 1st Sept 1886 at High Mark, Wigtownshire, Scotland, Mary Robson Donnan was the only child of Martha Biggart (nee Hogarth) and William Donnan. Although her parents had married in Glasgow, William went out to Australia, before going on to New Zealand, where Martha and Mary joined him. The family eventually came to Ōtautau, moving there in 1897 when Mary was still a child, living at Woodside Farm, shown below:
From here, Mary attended Ōtautau School, and it was there she met with Ina Shaw; they grew up as best friends and went on to share a lot of their lives together, even moving together when their respective parents died. After leaving school, then going to Otago Girls High School, also doing teachers training at Dunedin Training College, Miss Donnan was the “infant class” school teacher at Ōtautau School from 1908 - for over 30 years! Mary Donnan kept such meticulous records of her classes and students, including many old photos, and this has proved a great help in family and history research. Miss Donnan and Miss Shaw were often seen together in photos like this one below, especially at sporting events - something they were both particularly keen on.
Donnan was also an amateur photographer and the local museum has a vast collection of her photos. She also took many photos while touring NZ during 1920s -1940’s; these photos are a great record of life in Aotearoa during these times.
The Ōtautau Museum has over 1,000 photos believed to be taken by Mary Donnan in their photographic collection, these had been inherited by her life-long friend Miss Catherine (known as Ina) Shaw, then donated to the Museum after Ina’s death. These photos form the basis of the Ōtautau Museum’s photographic collection, with many of them capturing not only the buildings and streets of the small rural town, but the daily lives of its people and events which were participated in by the community. The collection of historic Ōtautau School photos also form a significant picture of many students at the local school over many decades.
The museum is anticipating seeking funding to get this collection fully digitised and available to the public over the next few years, so watch this space.
In the meantime, a couple of Mary Donnan’s most socially interesting shots of life in a bygone era, are available on the Ōtautau Museum’s snapshot of their online collection at: https://www.nzmuseums.co.nz/collections/3370/otautau-museum
Miss Donnan was hugely involved in the Presbyterian Church, WCTU (Temperance Union) and the Guides groups. She died on 22nd August 1961, at Ōtautau, aged 75 years old, having had a huge influence on the lives of many children from the Ōtautau area and leaving an enduring legacy for us all, from her amateur photographs of local life, plus tourism in Aotearoa NZ in the first half of the 20th Century. For this, we believe that Mary Donnan is a person that we can claim to have been extraordinary in Ōtautau's past.
Compiled by Suzie Best - Researcher/Historian, ph: 027-211-4675
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The content within this blog is Copyright: Photos - to Ōtautau Museum and Heritage Trust (contact on: otautau.museum@gmail.com) unless stipulated otherwise; Research/text - to the author, unless stipulated otherwise (contact on: riverstream@xtra.co.nz)
From here, Mary attended Ōtautau School, and it was there she met with Ina Shaw; they grew up as best friends and went on to share a lot of their lives together, even moving together when their respective parents died. After leaving school, then going to Otago Girls High School, also doing teachers training at Dunedin Training College, Miss Donnan was the “infant class” school teacher at Ōtautau School from 1908 - for over 30 years! Mary Donnan kept such meticulous records of her classes and students, including many old photos, and this has proved a great help in family and history research. Miss Donnan and Miss Shaw were often seen together in photos like this one below, especially at sporting events - something they were both particularly keen on.
Donnan was also an amateur photographer and the local museum has a vast collection of her photos. She also took many photos while touring NZ during 1920s -1940’s; these photos are a great record of life in Aotearoa during these times.
The Ōtautau Museum has over 1,000 photos believed to be taken by Mary Donnan in their photographic collection, these had been inherited by her life-long friend Miss Catherine (known as Ina) Shaw, then donated to the Museum after Ina’s death. These photos form the basis of the Ōtautau Museum’s photographic collection, with many of them capturing not only the buildings and streets of the small rural town, but the daily lives of its people and events which were participated in by the community. The collection of historic Ōtautau School photos also form a significant picture of many students at the local school over many decades.
The museum is anticipating seeking funding to get this collection fully digitised and available to the public over the next few years, so watch this space.
In the meantime, a couple of Mary Donnan’s most socially interesting shots of life in a bygone era, are available on the Ōtautau Museum’s snapshot of their online collection at: https://www.nzmuseums.co.nz/collections/3370/otautau-museum
Miss Donnan was hugely involved in the Presbyterian Church, WCTU (Temperance Union) and the Guides groups. She died on 22nd August 1961, at Ōtautau, aged 75 years old, having had a huge influence on the lives of many children from the Ōtautau area and leaving an enduring legacy for us all, from her amateur photographs of local life, plus tourism in Aotearoa NZ in the first half of the 20th Century. For this, we believe that Mary Donnan is a person that we can claim to have been extraordinary in Ōtautau's past.
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