Maker: Rosemary Cole

Panel number: 447

Petition sheet number: Did not sign 1893 petition

Person honouring: Amy Sarah Chisholm

Relationship to maker: Model for my protestant work ethic and knitting

Amy Sarah Clark was born in 1893 and was one of the first of very few female New Zealand pharmacists. She was the only female in her pharmacy class in Wellington (possibly at Victoria University College, where she studied part time). 

As was common at the end of the 19th century, she was apprenticed to a pharmacist who had a chemist shop in Lambton Quay, Wellington. It was unusual that her mentor was another woman, which was what made her apprenticeship possible. At the time, it was frowned upon for a young woman to be apprenticed, alone, with an older man. This meant almost all pharmacy apprentices in chemist stores were male (although New Zealand’s developing hospitals were a little more accommodating). 

Amy qualified in 1904 and later married George Stanley Chisholm. She continued working as a pharmacist – the family’s essential breadwinner during the 1930s Depression. Later, she worked in chemist shops in Eastbourne, Featherston, Kelburn, and Willis St in Wellington, also as a relief pharmacist. Amy owned the pharmacy in Kelburn.

Panel materials: White cotton panel provided by Vinnies Re-Sew and knitted samples using my own wool and a Patons ‘Woolcraft’ knitting book I inherited from Grandma. I inserted an Anzac poppy I paid a donation for. This commemorates my late uncle, Alan Stanley Chisholm, RAF, KIA 1941. Also I inserted a pill bottle from a London pharmacy, which I inherited from Grandma. I wrote details about Amy on handmade paper created by a niece. These are sewn onto the panel.

Amy died in 1971, aged 88 years.