Talk: Horses, Bicycles, Everyday life and War and Society in Christchurch

Katie Pickles, Associate Professor in History, University of Canterbury

2pm 12 October 2014 Air Force Museum (45 Harvard Avenue)

This lecture juxtaposes the impact of the horses and bicycles on everyday life in Canterbury, and connects them to the First World War. Horses were symbols of 'the old' and vital to colonial settler society and the rural way of life. New technology, bicycles appeared in Canterbury as tools of freedom, social emancipation, commerce and practical assistance. The important place of horses and bicycles in Canterbury reveals much about how the city of Christchurch and the province connected to the First World War. Heroine Ettie Rout's medical work is one example that will be used to illuminate this lecture.