The Preservation of the Nancy Bannick Collection at the Hawai‘i State Archives

Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, in partnership with the Hawai‘i State Archives, will offer a free webinar showcasing a new digitized collection of photographs from the 1950s-1970s by community advocate Nancy Bannick.

Featuring Architectural Historian Dr. Don Hibbard,
Hawai‘i State Archivist Dr. Adam Jansen & Filmmaker Robin Lung

Held on Thursday, April 7, 2022

VIEW THE RECORDING

View below a slideshow of images from the Nancy Bannick Collection at the Hawaii State Archives with renowned architectural historian Don Hibbard.*

*This is a re-record of Don Hibbard’s presentation on April 7th which had audio issues.

View below a short documentary created by filmmaker Robin Lung that beautifully articulates the significance of preserving the Bannick Collection.

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for this webinar!!!

It was fascinating and I LOVED seeing pictures of “old” Hawai‘i.  The work you are doing with the Nancy Bannick Collection is wonderful and is a gift to everyone who grew up or lived in Hawai‘i during that time period!!!

Thanks again!

Cara Lowrey Takamori

The webinar will include:

  • a slideshow presentation of photographs from the Bannick collection

  • a short film about digitizing the collection

  • a brief tour of the collection on the Archives’ website, followed by

  • Q&A with the speakers

The Preservation of the Nancy Bannick Collection at the Hawai‘i State Archives
Date: Thursday, April 7, 2022
Time: 5:30-6:30 p.m. HST
Via Zoom

Steps to access the HHF Nancy Bannick Archives:

  • Go to: https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/
  • Type Bannick in the search box and click search
  • Scroll down and click on Nancy Bannick Manuscript Collection
  • Scroll down and click on Slides and Negatives from Historic Hawai‘i Foundation
  • Slides are organized into individual boxes as received from HHF.  Labels are included when available.
  • Click on each individual box to access photos.

The Preservation of the Nancy Bannick Collection at the Hawai‘i State Archives

Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, in partnership with the Hawai‘i State Archives, will offer a free webinar showcasing a new digitized collection of photographs from the 1950s-1970s by community advocate Nancy Bannick.

Featuring Architectural Historian Dr. Don Hibbard, Hawai‘i State Archivist Dr. Adam Jansen & Filmmaker Robin Lung

Date: Thursday, April 7, 2022
Time: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Free Admission

Virtual Webinar via Zoom

Nancy Bannick: Journalist, Preservationist and Advocate

Nancy Bannick is remembered as a fierce advocate for the arts and as an activist who helped preserve Hawai‘i’s sense of place, even before the phrase came into use. Though she may not have been able to save everything she fought for–and her brusque, no-time-to-waste MO did not make her universally beloved–nonetheless, she was a heroic doer, and her accomplishments are worthy of respect and deeper contemplation.

As the Hawai‘i editor for Sunset Magazine from 1952 to 1974, Bannick traveled the Islands and around the Pacific taking photographs of people, places and events with a particular focus on scenic, historic, cultural and natural resources. While her early photographs had a commercialized tilt, portraying an idealized view of the Islands, her later work focused on capturing images of every day gathering places, street scenes and ordinary life in post-war Hawai‘i in order to show its true richness and significance. Her images are an honest reflection of humanity–something which has become increasingly undervalued.

The trajectory of Bannick’s experiences compelled her towards community activism. Witnessing the wave of change of the 1950s-1970s as Hawai‘i’s landscape shifted from the rural towns of the plantation era to tourism and high rises, Bannick became an outspoken voice in preserving places through organizations like the Friends of the Natatorium, the Kapi‘olani Park Preservation Society and Historic Hawai‘i Foundation. Her photographs became part of her toolbox–or arsenal, depending on the audience. Slideshows were the new technology of the day and Bannick adeptly made use of them to showcase her message and remind people of the beauty of Hawai‘i’s unique places and people that was worth fighting for.

“All we have now is persuasion to save the buildings.”

– Nancy Bannick
(Honolulu Advertiser, May 15, 1966, page 32).

About The Bannick Collection At The Hawai‘i State Archives

Over the years, Nancy Bannick donated hundreds of photographs and other items to the Hawai‘i State Archives. After her passing in 2008, Bannick’s estate executors offered Historic Hawai‘i Foundation a collection of slides and photographs and informed HHF that Bannick wished the remaining images to be archived and made available for research, public education and advocacy for historic preservation.

Historic Hawai‘i Foundation is pleased to honor her request by making her photographs available to the public through the State Archives. Preparing this collection for digitization required a tremendous amount of intensive labor to clean and process approximately 3,200 images. An additional batch will be released at a later date.

The collection is a reminder not only of the person behind the lens, but of the message she wished to convey. Historic Hawai‘i Foundation is grateful that many of Hawai‘i’s significant places stand today because of Bannick’s efforts. However, much of the ordinary suburban landscape has changed. Bannick managed to not only document this time of rapid change, she also continues to remind us how much work there is to do and how the actions of one individual can have tremendous impact.

“While researching materials on Princess Ka’iulani and developing  my walking tour of Waikīkī, I met with Nancy several times.  What a gift she has been to Hawai‘i.  Thanks to those students who helped prepare Nancy’s research for presentation.  Hurrah!  Nancy was a gift to all of us.” – Marilyn Stassen-McLaughlin, retired teacher and historian

“If you saw Nancy Bannick bearing down on you like a Viking raider carrying a petition, it was time to look for a tree to climb or a hole to duck into — but there really was no escaping this determined, dedicated crusader.

Nancy was simply a great doer. The Honolulu community should raise a statue in her honor.

She protected the integrity of Chinatown, setting up a legal wall around the core of downtown to prevent it from being torn down. She worked for the limited widening of Nuuanu Avenue to save facing buildings from being destroyed by developers.

She put her body in front of anyone trying to touch the Waikiki Natatorium or any one of a number of Honolulu’s historic buildings.” ~ John McDermott, February 28, 2008

This preservation project is generously supported by the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The program received additional support from the Hawai‘i State Archives and the University of Hawai‘i Community Design Center.

PRESENTERS

Don Hibbard worked for twenty-four years in the Hawai‘i State Historic Preservation Office, first as an architectural historian and then as division administrator and Deputy SHPO. Two of his books, The View from Diamond Head, (Honolulu: Editions Limited, 1986), and Designing Paradise (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006); consider the development of Hawai‘i’s visitor industry and architecture as a conveyor of history and a sense of place. He has also co-authored a book on Honolulu architect Hart Wood (2010), and authored Buildings of Hawai‘i (2011). He holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Hawai‘i, and Prentice Hall published his dissertation, The Role of Rock (1983), which examines the social function of rock music. He has taught courses at the University of Hawai‘i and Hawai‘i Pacific University in the fields of historic preservation and architectural history. For the past twenty years he has provided heritage specialist services for various architectural firms, governmental agencies, and individuals in Hawai‘i.

Adam Jansen is the state archivist for the Hawai‘i State Archives, where he works on digital records and accessibility. He was previously the digital archivist for the State of Washington, where he managed the Washington State Digital Archives, a digital archive for both state and local government. Jansen also worked for the Praxeum Group providing consulting archival services for the Hawai‘i State Digital Archives. The State Archives’ mission is to ensure open government by preserving and making accessible the historic records of state government and to partner with state agencies to manage their active and inactive records. Jansen is a published author and international speaker on the topic of Emerging technologies and Electronic records management issues. Jansen has a background in records management and archival strategies. Jansen holds certifications, including Certified Records Manager, Microsoft Certified Professional, Master of Information Technology, and Certified Document Imaging Architect. He also served on the board of directors for the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators. Jansen previously worked at Microsoft to design the process of data archiving from the ingestion of the data, storage of the data, and presentation of the data. This allowed for a record processing system for the digital archives to adapt to the various types and formats of incoming records while at the same time recording metadata to facilitate document searches.

Robin Lung is a fourth-generation Chinese American from Hawaiʻi with an 18-year history of bringing untold minority and women’s stories to film. A Stanford University and Hunter College graduate, she became a filmmaker after successful careers in book publishing and higher education. Lung made her directorial debut with Washington Place: Hawai‘i’s First Home, a 30-minute documentary for PBS Hawai‘i about the legacy of Hawaiʻi’s Queen Lili‘uokalani and her personal home. She was the associate producer for the national PBS documentary Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority, and producer/director of the feature documentary Finding KUKAN, which was selected to be broadcast nationally on PBS World’s America ReFramed series and has won multiple awards at film festivals across America. She has produced numerous short documentaries for the Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation and is a proud member of the renowned filmmaker distribution cooperative New Day Films, serving on New Day’s Steering Committee from 2019-2021.

Beth Iwata is Historic Hawai‘i Foundation’s director of development and is responsible for HHF’s fundraising, operations and administration. She manages HHF’s membership, fundraising, data management, grants and communications. She also contributes to planning HHF’s educational programs and leads the planning of HHF’s annual Kama‘āina of the Year benefit.