Celebrating botanist and artist Nancy Adams
25 July 2026 - 25 July 2026
Region(s): Wellington
Type(s): presentations, experiences
Join Te Papa to celebrate the life and legacy of Nancy Adams (1926–2007), one of Aotearoa's most notable botanists and a talented artist.
Press and Paint: Seaweed card making and watercolour workshops
Running 1 1am to 1 pm, at Rongomaraeroa, the marae, Level 4.
Come along and join us for some creative activities inspired by Nancy Adam’s artworks with our curators. Make your own pressed seaweed cards or paint a beautiful watercolour in homage to the artist’s centennial.
Most of Adams’ life was spent in Wellington, and much of her work as a botanist was done at the museum. Many artworks she painted are of local flowers and seaweeds. Explore her connections to this place, her important research and understanding of Wellington’s plant life and beyond.
Panel Talk: Nancy Adams 100th Birthday – Her Life and Legacy
Running 2 to 3 pm, at Rongomaraeroa, the marae, Level 4.
As well as being a prolific botany collector, contributing hugely to the development of Te Papa’s herbarium, Adams drew and painted an incredible number of botanical illustrations, and wrote popular books on New Zealand seaweed, trees, and flora.
This panel discussion will gather prominent Phycologists (seaweed specialists) and other experts to reflect on Adam's work, including her extensive research and documentation of New Zealand's seaweed species, as well as the generous contributions she made to the worlds of art, botany and museology.
Before the panel begins, the birthday celebrations will be marked with a seaweed chocolate-inspired cake generously sponsored by Whittakers.
The panel will be moderated by Curator Art Dr Rebecca Rice.
Location: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 55 Cable Street, Wellington.
Related content
Seaweed
Love Rimurimu – an ocean of potential for seaweed is a year-long inquiry supported by Mountains to Sea – with exploration in the classroom and in the field. You can also dip into resources covering biodiversity, human impacts and restoration for short-term studies. Several resources are in te reo Māori, courtesy of Te Aho Tū Roa.
The citizen science project Floating Forests needs the help of citizen scientists to identify kelp forests from satellite images.
Discover the mātauranga that underpins pōhā – bags made from rimurapa, a species of bull kelp, that preserve tītī (muttonbirds) for up to 2 years.
See our Seaweed and algae Pinterest board for more resource ideas.
Botany
Explore the work of Botany and botanists. Plant specimens collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on Captain Cook’s 1769 Endeavour voyage created the first physical record of New Zealand’s natural history.
Discover more about plant collections in museums in this article and in the The value of early collections.
Find out how botany curators at Te Papa collect, describe and catalogue native plants in Documenting New Zealand’s Ferns.
Useful links
Find out more about Nancy Adams on Te Papa's website:
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