B.

Richard Wolfe has long had a fascination for the ‘Sure to Rise’ label on the tin of Edmonds baking powder, an essential ingredient once found in every New Zealand home. He included this universal symbol of the rising sun in his first book, on the history of New Zealand trademarks in 1987. Two years later when he and fellow author Stephen Barnett identified and compiled the first book on Kiwiana, they naturally included the Edmonds tin along with other so-called icons of our popular culture. Since then Richard has taken every opportunity to research and write about what is arguably this country’s most recognisable and durable trademark. In 2023 this culminated in the lavish volume, Sure to Rise: The Edmonds Story, co-written with Peter Alsop and Kate Parsonson and published by Canterbury University Press. Richard will talk about the label, now nearly a century and a half old, the company behind the product and its contribution to New Zealand social and culinary history.

Richard Wolfe has a BFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts and a PhD in Art History from the University of Auckland. He was display artist at Canterbury Museum and, from 1978-97, curator of display at Auckland War Memorial Museum. He has written or co-authored over 40 books, on aspects of New Zealand art, history and popular culture, and is a regular contributor to the quarterly Art New Zealand magazine.