Post Marks: The Way We Were – Early New Zealand Postcards, 1897–1922 reveals the pioneer roots of New Zealand culture, the importance society placed on industry and infrastructure and the rapidly changing shape of our landscapes. Collectively, the postcards present an informal, personal and often humorous illustration of the way we were – tokens of a visit, well wishes from family or missives of romance. Post Marks includes reproductions of more than 500 New Zealand postcards, many of them so rare they may be the only surviving examples of this early and formative period of the nation's history. Drawn to the tactile and ubiquitous nature of the postcard which had developed parallel with photography in the 1860s, Haks ferociously gathered and refined a large collection of early New Zealand cards that in the book has been complimented by the involvement of other collectors, providing a stimulating introduction to the depth and richness of this historical period. Images have been broadly arranged in four sections: The Way We Were, The Great Outdoors, The Fat of The Land and The Building of A Nation. Post Marks will have wide appeal because it offers a rare sampling of images that record New Zealand's economic and social history from a period now beyond the living memory of most New Zealanders.

Author Biography: LEO HAKS always liked to find things and discover their place in history. He has been collecting items of artistic and cultural significance all of his life, particularly items for which there was little professional or even general interest. He has published books relating to several of these collections, including one on early Indonesian postcards which preceded and provided the stimulus for this book. After making his home in New Zealand with co-author, Colleen Dallimore in 2008, Haks began collecting early New Zealand postcards and the resulting comprehensive collection, supported by images from other collectors, deserves to be documented and shared. COLLEEN NEWTON DALLIMORE was raised in the hills of Banks Peninsula, a fifth-generation descendant of French settlers at Akaroa and great-granddaughter of an English immigrant photographer who exhibited in the 1906 Christchurch Exhibition. After graduating in Fine Arts from Canterbury University, Colleen pursued a teaching career in Art and Art History and remains a practising artist with a special interest in photography. She and her partner Leo Haks continue to explore what constitutes our New Zealand identity. ALAN JACKSON has been an inveterate collector since childhood. As a boy, he began collecting postage stamps, and when his interest in these waned, the collecting bug persisted. He has since formed extensive collections of ephemera, all connected in some way with the post: New Zealand and other postal markings, pictorial postcards, Cinderella stamps of the world, especially those relating to World War I. He has also written extensively on these subjects.