Manuscripts

The items in the manuscript collection, reflecting experiences in southern Africa from the late seventeenth century, are diverse in content, medium and extent.

There are letters - from royalty, statesmen, missionaries, explorers, officers and soldiers. There are diaries and journals, personal accounts of exploration travels, military dispatches. There are title deeds, photographs of early mining activities, manuscripts of books, company records, books of minutes of organizations and charitable associations, reports made by governors at the Cape.
Besides written accounts, the collection includes scrapbooks, press cuttings, telegrams, maps, sketches, photographs, glass and lantern slides and stereographs. And, in extent, the collection ranges from a single fragment on one page to boxes of material.