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The Library and Archives has had a busy November and December to close 2008. Two
interesting series we would like to highlight are the Eelco Boswijk Collection (Eelco
celebrates his 80th birthday this year) and the records for the Women's Christian
Temperance Union.
The Eelco Boswijk Collection
This large and important collection was donated early in 2008 and is comprised of
120 original boxes of documents. These are a mix of business records for the Chez
Eelco Coffee House and Chez Gallery and personal papers collected and originating
from Eelco Boswijk. The documents are correspondence, work diaries, account books,
ephemera, in particular cards, posters and programmes, publications and photographs.
Appraising the collection is two-thirds completed, it is hoped to complete the remainder
during February/March.
Eelco was born in Den Dolder, Zeist in The Netherlands, on the 18th February 1929.
Eelco immigrated to New Zealand in March, 1951, aged 21. He worked and travelled
around New Zealand settling in Nelson where he opened the Chez Eelco Coffee House
in September 1961.
He married Christine Lynn McDowell in 1962. They had three children; Eelco Alexander,
Kirsten Jane and Ingrid Gretel. The family lived at ‘Ronaki’ the historic home in
14 Endeavour Street, Nelson for many years.
Eelco was involved in promoting arts, crafts, performance in the Chez Gallery particularly
of the Wearable Art Awards, from the William Higgins Gallery which hosted the show,
with Suzie Moncrieff from 1987 onwards. His interests were very wide particularly
focussing on Nelson history and natural history, as well as environmental issues.
From his café he made friends with a huge number of people around the world as this
collection illustrates.
Eelco was awarded 2 service medals in 1990 from Queen Beatrix and Queen Elizabeth.
Eelco was the treasurer for the Dutch Connection Nelson Committee in 1992 that was
involved with Queen Beatrix’s visit to Nelson to commemorate the 350th anniversary
of Abel Tasman’s discovery of New Zealand.
The Chez Eelco Coffee House's most famous dish was the mussel chowder which Eelco
had canned. In June 2000 Eelco retired and his daughter Kirsten took over the business.
She ran it until November 2002. The business then closed.
Women's Christian Temperance Union records
Another interesting series donated was the records for the Women’s Christian Temperance
Union based in Nelson. This important collection has begun to be arranged and described.
These two collections will not be available for public use until they have been
fully catalogued.
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