Photograph of a painting of Robert Holt Carpenter sitting with a book in his hand.
The armed Chartist's book shop
Sketch of Robert Carpenter’s bookshop as it appeared in 1875.
The eccentric bookseller
Well-read settlers often complained that colonial New Zealand was a cultural desert, but numerous small public lending libraries, mechanics' institutes and commercial 'circulating' libraries served the voracious demand for books. Wrigglesworth's Circulating Library in Wellington offered 'Upwards of 500 volumes, All standard works'. Chapman's, established in Auckland in 1855, was the largest circulating library in the country, with more than 4000 volumes.
