Splendours of Civilisation: The John Money Collection at the Eastern Southland Gallery

Author(s): Michael King

New Zealand

In September 2004, John Money, Emeritus Professor of Medical Psychology and Paediatrics at Johns Hopkins University, concluded a research career that spanned 50 years. He cleared his office at the university in Baltimore, USA and returned to his near empty house. In preparation for retirement, his massive book collection and many archives had been deposited with major academic institutions throughout the world. Many of these same institutions had honoured him over the years for his ground-breaking and often controversial work in the field of sexology. However, his remarkable art collection, one that encroached upon almost every surface and corner of his Baltimore house, was to find a very unlikely home... Splendours of Civilisation not only tells the heroic story of how the John Money Collection came to be housed at the Eastern Southland Gallery in Gore, it also shows the collection in all its magnificence. The late Michael King re-acquainted himself with John Money while carrying out research for his biography of Janet Frame. This in turn led him to explore the patronage of this extraordinary New Zealander. In this, his last published work, Michael King documents Money's life and places him within the generation of twentieth century artists, writers, composers and academics who helped weave the cultural fabric of New Zealand. Beautifully illustrated throughout, Splendours of Civilisation is a dazzling portal into Money's, and Eastern Southland's, extraordinary national treasure. First published July 2006.


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9780473107895
  • : Eastern Southland Gallery
  • : January 1900
  • : 230x210mm
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Michael King
  • : Paperback
  • : near fine
  • : 96
  • : Colour photographs