Thomas P. Andrew
Thomas Andrew (19 January 1855 – 7 August 1939) was a New Zealand photographer who lived in Samoa from 1891 until his death in 1939. Andrew took photographs that are of significant historical and cultural value including the recording on camera of key events in Samoa's colonial era such as the Mau movement, the volcanic eruption of Mt Matavanu (1905–1911) and the funeral of writer Robert Louis Stevenson. Many of his surviving images are held in the collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and include landscapes and studio portraits of Samoans that went beyond the colonial stereotypes of the time.
Also recorded as Thomas Andrew
Thomas P. Andrew

Thomas Andrew (1855 - 1939) · Public domain
- Name
- Thomas Andrew
- Born
- 19 January 1855
- Birthplace
- Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand
- Died
- 7 August 1939
- Place of death
- Apia, Samoa
- Field
- Photography
- Nationality
- New Zealand.
- Occupation
- photographer.
- Fields
- photography.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Thomas Andrew (19 January 1855 – 7 August 1939) was a New Zealand photographer who lived in Samoa from 1891 until his death in 1939. Andrew took photographs that are of significant historical and cultural value including the recording on camera of key events in Samoa's colonial era such as the Mau movement, the volcanic eruption of Mt Matavanu (1905–1911) and the funeral of writer Robert Louis Stevenson. Many of his surviving images are held in the collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and include landscapes and studio portraits of Samoans that went beyond the colonial stereotypes of the time.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Thomas P. Andrew (1855–1939) was a photographer, of New Zealand nationality. The photographer was born in Takapuna and died in Apia. Activity centred on photography. Works are held at Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Thomas P. Andrew. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q3495371
In this article
Biography
Biography
Andrew was born in Takapuna, a suburb in Auckland on the North Island of New Zealand. He worked as a photographer in Napier. He later opened a studio in Auckland which was destroyed by fire. In 1891, he went to Samoa where he worked with two other New Zealand photographers, Alfred James Tattersall and John Davis.
The field of work recorded is photography. Work by Thomas P. Andrew is recorded in the collections of Auckland Art Gallery, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, National Museum of World Cultures and Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira.

A Manaia, the son of a Samoan chief (Matai) wearing a tuiga head dress.
Thomas Andrew (1855 - 1939) · http: collections.tepapa.govt.nz/

Interior of traditional church in Alofi, Niue.
Thomas Andrew (1855–1939) · Museum of New Zealand: Registration Number O.001246. Gift of Alison Beckett and Robert McPherson, 1996.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Thomas Andrew • Born — 19 January 1855 • Birthplace — Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand • Died — 7 August 1939 • Place of death — Apia, Samoa • Field — Photography
Gallery
Gallery
• Illustration — Seumanutafa Pogai, a high chief (matai) of Apia, taken 1890-1910 • Illustration — Young man dressed as a manaia, son of a Samoan matai, taken 1890-1910 • Illustration — Burial and grave of Robert Louis Stevenson on Mount Vaea, Samoa, 1894 • Illustration — Exiled Samoan leader Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe (died 1915) • Illustration — Two men in a canoe (paopao, va'a) fishing in Samoa, c. 1914 • Illustration — Samoan male with traditional tattoo (pe'a), taken 1890s • Illustration — Samoan traditional tattooist (tufuga ta tatau), c 1895 • Illustration — Interior of church building in Niue, 1896. • Illustration — Two leaf-clad women, 1905.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1855
Thomas P. Andrew was born on 19 January 1855.
1939
Thomas P. Andrew died on 7 August 1939.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Takapuna.
Birth place
Apia.
Death place
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Thomas Andrew. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
- 2.Maxwell, Anne. Colonial Photography and Exhibitions: Representations of the Native and the Making of European Identities. Continuum International Publishing Group. 166. 2000. 0-7185-0229-9.
- 3.ATL: Unpublished Collections. tiaki.natlib.govt.nz.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
General reference
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
The identifiers under which Thomas P. Andrew may be traced in institutional catalogues.
Recognition and collections
Work by Thomas P. Andrew is
Auckland Art Gallery, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, National Museum of World Cultures and Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Photography
11,392 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Thomas McDonellPhotographer
- Thomas McMahonPhotographer
- Thomas Milville RavenPhotographer
- Thomas NöllePhotographer
- Thomas PesquetPhotographer
- Thomas Pollock AnshutzPhotographer
- Thomas ReaPhotographer
- Thomas Richard WilliamsPhotographer
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Thomas P. Andrew?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.