A collection of dry glass plate negatives, with some printed photographs from the negatives. The images are of boaters in canoes and rowboats from the Antigua Boat Sheds, Christchurch buildings and scenes, and some images of a North Island tour. Some photograph subjects are named in a handwritten caption on the plate but many are unidentified.

The plates record groups such as visiting theatrical companies (or, in one series, the Reefton Fire Brigade). Included are images of the theatrical companies of Harry Rickards, John Fuller, George Stephenson, Janet Waldorf, Van Biene, Mr Hawtrey, Percy Reginald Dix, Nance O’Neil, Lionel Robert Brough, Knight-Jeffries and Tom Pollard, Musgrove’s Grand Opera, and Christchurch Theatre Royal owner J.C. Williamson. Occasionally the theatre company subjects are identified by the production name, such as The Admirable Crichton, San Toy or Sherlock Holmes.

The plates cover a number of other subjects. There are images of the old Christchurch Hospital, Canterbury College, the Municipal Chambers, Provincial Council Chambers, the Canterbury Museum and St Barnabas Church, Christchurch dwellings, the Botanic Gardens, and the building of a new Antigua Bridge in 1902. North Island scenes include an unidentified house and family in Hamilton, The Spa near Lake Taupo, the Wellington Botanic Gardens, Glenalvon Private Hotel in Auckland and various other locations in Nelson, Napier and Auckland.