Description Comments

Argosy Aerial - Taonui Street

Object type

Image

Description: This aerial is set in Palmerston North. It is believed to be of Taonui Street, the block between Cuba Street and what is now Walding Street (2026). Cuba Street is off picture at the bottom of the image.Taonui Street runs approximately through the centre, up to the top of the photo, and beyond. The large building on the centre right is the back of Barraud and Abraham, seed and grain and produce merchants. The building had its frontage on Rangitīkei street.

Argosy Studio (Argosy Industrial Photos) was a photography business owned and operated between 1950 and 1980 by Joe Greening (formerly employed by Elmar Studios). Originally located in Broadway, Argosy later moved to Cuba Street on the corner with Lombard Street.

As well as commissioned work (such as photographing the old railyards or aerial shots for the Council) Greening was known to operate as a street photographer, capturing the likenesses of passersby, offering his card with the negative number so they could buy the image if they wished. Many of these images will be in family photo albums.

A fire in 1965 destroyed many negatives in Argosy's collection but this image was one of the 400 or so survivors. Greening donated many of these surviving images to the Ian Matheson City Archives in 1989 before retiring to Kaitaia. He died in 2001.