Maker: Sue Griffiths

Panel number: 131

Petition Sheet Number: 146

Person honouring: Ada Hardman

Relationship to makers: N/A

Ada Hardman was reported as ‘Belle of the ball’ at the 1892 Leap Year ball which she helped organise. 

Ada was born in 1871 at Waikaia, Southland, the fourth of eight children. Her parents were Margaret, nee Smith, (born 1848) from Edinburgh and James Richard Hardman (born 1842) from Launceston, Tasmania. 

Carrying a bouquet of white flowers and wearing a dress of white cashmere, trimmed with brocade, chiffon and orange blossoms, with a long tulle veil, she married Douglas Charles Stewart in the Presbyterian Church in Waikaia, 1897. Ada and her husband, a Mine Manager of the Argyle Company, had four children; two boys and two girls. 

Ada died in 1933 aged 61 in Patarange, Otago and her husband in 1941 aged 70.

Panel materials: Recycled silk scarves, doilies, fabric offcuts, silk buttons, beads, tablecloth.