The Caversham Project was a research project initiated in the mid-1970s by Erik Olssen and Tom Brooking of the Department of History at Otago University. The study gathered data on adults living in Caversham and other southern suburbs of Dunedin, New Zealand from 1893–1940 to explore the development of modern New Zealand urban society. Caversham and the other suburbs were chosen because at the time they were one of the largest industrial districts in New Zealand. The project was carried out in several phases: investigating social and geographical mobility, the analysis of paid work, and gender and social structure. The project was funded initially by the University of Otago and later by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Publications analysing the data have been produced after the project ceased.[1] Jock Phillips noted in Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, that the project "pioneered serious labour history...[drawing]...on a large database of information about Caversham in South Dunedin for important books analyzing work and social hierarchy."[2]