ALBANY MUSEUM COMPLEX
Established 1855. The Albany Museum Complex comprises five museums and is the second oldest museum in the country. The Museum Complex has an Education Department which provides resources and educational programmes in cultural studies, history and the natural sciences. A Mobile Museum service offers portable exhibits, resource packs and objects for curriculum-based studies. An education programme is printed yearly and is available on request. Identification services, public lectures, film shows, open days, walking tours and special events are offered throughout the year. The original Albany Museum was established in 1855 by the Graham's Town medical-Chirurgical Society (later the Literary, Scientific and medical Society). The Museum has grown into a complex of separate museums which document the full spectrum of the social and natural environment, with particular reference to the Eastern Cape. The components of the Complex are : the Natural Science Museum, the History Museum, the Observatory Museum, the Provost Prison and Fort Selwyn.
www.ru.ac.za/affiliates/am
CORY LIBRARY FOR HISTORICAL RESEARCH
The Cory Library at Rhodes University collects material of all kinds to support research into the history of Southern African and related fields in the social sciences. The aim has been to build up a strong subject collection where format and medium are secondary to the subject needs of the researcher in Southern African history and a wide range of cognate fields. Collections include manuscripts and other documents, Cape and other Government publications, rare and modern books, periodicals and newspapers, maps, pictorial materials, microforms, video and audio recordings, and digital records.
The Library's holdings are particularly strong in the fields of Southern African history and politics including Xhosa history and literature, mission and church history, the history of education and mining, commercial and agricultural history. Since the initial deposit of Sir George Cory's collections there has been a particular focus on the history of the Eastern cape and on Grahamstown itself - both crucial areas of White/Xhosa interaction - but Eastern Cape local history is only one of the strengths of the collections of the Cory Library.
Hours:
Monday - Friday 08h30-17h00
Cory Library Website: http://www.ru.ac.za/cory/library
Cory Librarian: Shirley Kabwaot, S.Kabwato@ru.ac.za
EASTERN STAR GALLERY
Established 1985. (A satellite of the National English Literary Museum).
4 Anglo African Street, Grahamstown.
Tel : (046) 622 7042
The Eastern Star gallery takes its name from a newspaper established in Grahamstown in 1871 which was the forerunner of the Argus Company's famous present-day daily, The Star of Johannesburg. Initially it was believed that the Eastern Star had been produced in the building which is now the museum, but subsequent research has shown that it dates back to the 1860's and has no direct connection with the Eastern Star. The restored 120 year-old Wharfdale printing press is a sister model to the one on which the Eastern Star was produced between 1871 and 1887. The Museum features printing machinery and other historical items related to printing, including John Fairbairn's editorial desk.
Special services offered :
Assistance to local schools and tour groups, by prior arrangement. The Museum has an exhibition showing the restoration of the building and Wharfdale press. Demonstrations are given of the press in operation.
Hours :
By appointment.
Entrance charge :
Free
Items for sale :
Books, postcards, souvenirs.
Parking :
Metered parking in High Street; limited parking in Anglo African Street.
HISTORY MUSEUM
Established 1965. (A component of the Albany Museum Complex, formerly the 1820 Settlers' Memorial Museum).
Somerset Street, Grahamstown.
Tel : (046) 622 2312
The History Museum formerly focused on the contribution of the 1820 British Settlers and their descendants to the history of Southern Africa, but it now encompasses all the peoples who live - or have lived - in the Eastern Cape. Its collections cover agricultural equipment, domestic furniture, costume and textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, toys and dolls, militaria, medals, coins, documents and genealogical information relating to the British Settlers. The ethnographic collection focuses on Southern Nguni Peoples and features the traditional dress of the amaXhosa. There is a small art collection of paintings by F T I'ons and T Baines and a classical archaeological collection which emphasises Ancient Egypt and shows a well-preserved mummy.
Special Services offered :
The Museum offers research facilities and information services; the staff Genealogist undertakes professional research in the local archives, for which a moderate fee is payable.
Hours :Tuesday-Friday 09h30-13h00, 14h00-17h00
Saturday 09h00-13h00
Closed Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Workers' Day.
www.ru.ac.za/affiliates/am/exhib.htm
INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF AFRICAN MUSIC
Established 1954.
Prince Alfred street, Grahamstown. (follow ILAM signs from gate opposite Rhodes University Theatre)
Tel : (046) 603 8557
Website : http://ilam.ru.ac.za
The International Library of African Music (ILAM), situated on the Rhodes University campus, is a research, publishing and teaching centre for African traditional music. Although not strictly a museum, it has a collection of more than two hundred traditional African musical instruments, many in playing order. These are regularly used for teaching. ILAM also has a variety or recordings of traditional African music, books and catalogues.
Special services offered :
Regular university courses are offered in African Music. Tuition also offered to other individuals or groups, by prior arrangement.
Hours :
By appointment only. Monday-Friday 08h30-12h45, 14h00-17h00.
Closed Saturday and Sunday.
Entrance fee :
By donation.
Parking :
Limited parking on site, but ample nearby. No facility for buses.
NATIONAL ENGLISH LITERARY MUSEUM
Established 1974.
87 Beaufort Street, Grahamstown.
Tel : (046) 622 7042
Website : www.rhodes.ac.za/nelm
NELM News: www.ru.ac.za/affiliates/nelm
The Museum's mission is to promote the reading and appreciation of all forms of creative South African literature written in English. For this purpose it collects and conserves material evidence of this literature, publicises and popularises it, and makes it accessible to all sections of the reading public, locally and abroad. Outstanding items include the Thomas Pringle Papers, the personal archive of Sir Percy FitzPatrick, manuscripts of Roy Campbell, papers of Athol Fugard and literary material by Hohannes Meintjes.
Special services offered :
Tours arranged for small groups, by prior appointment only. A small display gallery presents temporary exhibitions focusing on a particular writer, literary period or theme.
Hours :
Monday-Friday 09h00-12h30, 14h30-16h30
Closed Saturday & Sunday
Entrance fee :
Free, donations welcome.
Parking :
Street parking in Beaufort Street.
NATURAL SCIENCE MUSEUM
Established 1855. (A component of the Albany Museum Complex).
Somerset Street, Grahamstown.
Tel : (046) 622 2312
The Natural Science Museum is the oldest component of the Albany Museum Complex with a theme covering natural science and the natural history of the Eastern Cape. Earth sciences, archaeology, insects, birds, mammals, and plants are included. Notable items in the collection include a portion of the Gibeon meteorite, a working Foucault pendulum and a reconstruction of the first dinosaur discovered in South Africa, stegosaur paranthodon africanus. Research conducted at the Museum embraces the earlylife histories of freshwater fishes, water quality and management, wasp behaviour, late Stone-age and early iron-age peoples and their life-styles. The Range and Forage Institute operates in the Museum.
Hours :Tuesday - Friday 09h30-13h00,14h00-17h00
Saturday 09h00-13h00
Closed Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday and Workers' Day.
www.ru.ac.za/affiliates/am/exhib.htm
OBSERVATORY MUSEUM
Established 1982. (A component of the Albany Museum Complex).
10 Bathurst Street, Grahamstown.
Tel : (046) 622 2312
This building was originally a 19th Century jeweller's shop and family home. Its connection with the identification of the Eureka, South Africa's first authenticated diamond, in 1867, prompted De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited to purchase the building and restore it in 1981-1982, to commemorate the beginnings of the country's diamond industry. It was opened on 2 February 1982 by Mr H F Oppenheimer of De Beers, and was formally presented to the Museum Trustees to become part of the Albany Museum's Cultural History division. The original owner-designer of the Observatory, Henry Carter Galpin, was a watchmaker and jeweller who lived in Grahamstown from 1850 until his death in 1886. His special interests - optics, astronomy and the measuring of time - are impressively reflected in this gracious multi-storeyed building. In the topmost tower is the only Victorian Camera Obscura in the Southern Hemisphere. Through the system of lenses and mirror in the revolving turret in its roof, this ingenious device projects an enchanting full colour live panorama of the town and its activities onto a flat viewing surface in a darkened room. Beneath it, Galpin built a Meridian Room where he could ascertain the precise time of local noon - 14 minutes behind South African standard time. The nearby Telescope Room contains his 8-inch reflector telescope which was initially installed in the rooftop observatory, from which the house got its name. On the Victorian Floor, five rooms of fine furnishings recapture the atmosphere of an upper middle class home of the time. Display panels detail the award-winning restoration project which returned the building to Galpin's original plan. The Diamond Story display tells the story of the identification of South Africa's first authenticate diamond and a full-size replica of the Eureka diamond is its sparkling focal point. In the basement a Victorian kitchen and dining room have been restored and a herb garden adds interest out-of-doors.
Hours :
Monday-Friday 09h30-13h00, 14h00-17h00
Saturday 09h00-13h00
Closed Sundays, Good Friday, Workers' Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day.
www.ru.ac.za/affiliates/am/exhib.htm
THE PROVOST PRISON
Established 1983. (A satellite of the Albany Museum Complex).
Lucas Avenue, Grahamstown
Tel : (046) 622 2312
In 1835, after the Sixth Frontier War, the Governor of the Cape, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, ordered the building of a fortified barracks and military prison on the Drostdy grounds. The Provost Prison, a Bentham design called a 'panopticon', was completed in 1838. The first and only prisoners it ever housed were mutineers from Frazer's Camp. Use of the Provost declined with the removal of the military headquarters to King William's Town in the mid-1870's, but it was again in use during the Anglo-Boer War.a In 1904 it was transferred to the newly established Rhodes University. Mr F L Sturrock carried out a major restoration in 1982 when the building was handed over to the Trustees of the Albany Museum. The outstanding feature of the building is its architecture.
www.ru.ac.za/affiliates/am/exhib.htm |
