Hocken Digital Collections

Royal New Zealand Plunket Society, Headquarters : Records

Details

Reference NumberARC-0004CreatorRoyal New Zealand Plunket Society, HeadquartersDescriptionThe collection consists of the main administrative records of the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society, which trades as Whānau Āwhina Plunket. It contains a full set of Council and Executive minutes and annual reports up to 2005, and a partial set of branch annual reports. It contains the files of the Secretary (later Director of Administration), which include information on areas such as staff appointments, finances, nurse training and service, branches, liaison with the Department of Health, and details on mothers' clubs and Plunket rooms. The collection also contains the records of nursing directors and nursing advisers and medical directors, and the papers of Dr Truby King and Mary Truby King. Other material includes plans and proposals for Plunket rooms, photographs, negatives, scrapbooks, newspaper cuttings, reel-to-reel tapes, film, audio cassette tapes, video cassette tapes and published and printed material such as brochures, pamphlets and information booklets.
Only a small part of this collection is digitised and available through Digital Collections. Information about other items can be found on the Hākena catalogue, through the Library Catalogues link above.History / BiographyThe New Zealand Society for the Preservation of the Health of Women and Children, later the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children, then the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society, and now the Royal New Zealand Plunket Trust, operating as Whānau Āwhina Plunket.
Founded in 1907 by Dr Frederic Truby King and other concerned citizens of Dunedin, the society became the most influential mother and child society in the country. The society aimed to educate mothers in the proper feeding and care of their babies through the establishment of Plunket rooms throughout the country staffed by specially trained nurses, and also by the establishment of Karitane Hospitals, specifically for the care of mothers and babies. The society spread throughout New Zealand and had related organisations around the world. Most Karitane Hospitals closed in 1978, with Invercargill finally closing in 1980. They were replaced by Plunket Karitane Family Centres which provided daytime support to mothers.

Photograph

Babies being put outside

Depicts Or Relates To

SubjectsChildrenChild welfare Child health servicesMaternal and infant welfare

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Royal New Zealand Plunket Society, Headquarters : Records

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