James Ring’s West Coast

James Ring (1856-1939) was born in Camberwell, Surrey, and trained as a photographer in the 1870s with Allen & Rowell in Boston, Massachusetts.

Ring arrived in Wellington New Zealand on the ‘Pleione' on 1 April 1879. He established a photography studio in Greymouth in November 1879. The West Coast afforded him many subjects, including spectacular scenery, the gold and coal mining industries, and the development of the area, especially the building of railways.

This selection of Ring’s photographs samples from these topics, including images of the Franz Josef glacier, the Dillmanstown gold settlement, and the construction and opening of several railway lines.

You can see more of Ring’s photographs by searching the Timeframes website, using ‘james ring’ as your search term and selecting as ‘exact phrase’ as your search type.

These images were added to The Commons on Flickr in November 2008.