Ben Schrader was a Wellington historian specialising in urban history and historic preservation. He was Senior Researcher of the award-winning New Zealand Historical Atlas (1997) and wrote extensively for Te Ara, the online encyclopedia of New Zealand, for which he co-edited the City and Economy theme.
Ben's writing and publications included two acclaimed and influential books We Call it Home: A History of State Housing in New Zealand (Reed Publishing, 2005) and The Big Smoke: New Zealand Cities, 1840–1920 (BWB, 2016).
A forthcoming chapter from Ben on urban history appears in Urban Aotearoa: The Future for Our Cities (BWB Texts, 2024).
Photograph © Bridget Williams Books (photographer Bruce Foster), licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0