Elizabeth Cox
Elizabeth Cox is a Wellington historian who specialises in New Zealand social and architectural history. Her latest book, Mr Ward’s Maps, Victorian Wellington Street by Street won the BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Elizabeth is also the author of Making Space: A History of New Zealand Women in Architecture, published by Massey University Press, which made a major contribution to the field of New Zealand architectural history. Elizabeth received a President’s Award from Te Kāhui Waihanga, the New Zealand Institute of Architects, for her efforts on behalf of New Zealand architecture in the same year. Elizabeth has worked as the content lead for Te Ara Encyclopedia for Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, and for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and the National Trust in the United Kingdom. Her first book, A Friend Indeed: The Saving of Old St Paul’s, was published in 2018. She runs a heritage consultancy business exploring the history of New Zealand’s heritage buildings.
2026 festival sessions
Mr Ward’s Maps
Elizabeth Cox in conversation with Liz Ward
10am-11am, Sunday 26 July, Whitehaven Theatre Marlborough, $25
Step into the bustling, layered world of 1890s Wellington with Elizabeth Cox, as she shares stories from her captivating book, Mr Ward’s Maps. Surveyor Thomas Ward captured the capital in 88 detailed maps, noting grand commercial buildings, humble homes, sheds, stables, and even outdoor loos. He also made a record of materials, room counts, and the number of street lights. Using this meticulous record, Elizabeth uncovered the social fabric of a rapidly growing city at the turn of the century. Elizabeth shares the story of researching and writing the book along with captivating human stories of our capital’s past.
Buy Tickets Here
Finding Florence: Researching New Zealand's first women architectsLecture by Elizabeth Cox2pm-3pm, Friday 24 July, Te Kahu o Waipuna - Marlborough Library, $15 Historian Elizabeth Cox presents a lecture that unfolds like a detective story, tracing the life of early Nelson architect Florence Field. Elizabeth researched Field for her groundbreaking book Making Space: A History of New Zealand Women in Architecture, and shares how a range of historical sources and happy discoveries helped her piece together Field’s life and work to recognise her contribution to New Zealand’s architecture story, particularly in Nelson. Plus, while Florence Field became one of New Zealand's first qualified women architects when she qualified in the 1910s, there is, against all the odds, an even earlier woman-designed building in the top of the south. Elizabeth will also talk about her research into early colonist Marianne Reay and the lovely church at Wakefield she designed in the 1840s. Buy Tickets Here
|