Moffat Family Collection

Item set

Title
Moffat Family Collection
Alternative Title
Portraits and Scenes Relating to the Moffat Family
Creator
Various photographers (dates/attributions vary per item)
Description
The Moffat Family Collection is a photographic and visual archive comprising 23 images documenting members of the Moffat family, a prominent missionary and settler family with historical ties to early Southern African missionary activity. The collection features multiple portraits of Robert Moffat (1795–1883), a renowned Scottish missionary to Africa, his wife, Mary Moffat (née Smith, 1795–1871), and other family members, including Jane Gardiner Moffat and Christian Wallace Price, grandchildren of Robert and Mary. The set also contains images tied to family life and places associated with the Moffats, including views of Kuruman that show the church and the pastor’s house where Robert Moffat served. Several portrait variants appear for the same individuals and sites, indicating the collection’s focus on lineage and memorialisation.

This collection serves as a resource for scholars of missionary history, colonial encounters, family histories, and visual culture in 19th-century Southern Africa and its enduring legacies. It provides insights into key figures in missionary networks and their domestic and ecclesiastical environments through portraiture and documentary photography.
Date Issued
c. mid-19th to early-20th century (as per individual items)
Type
Collection
Archival photographs
Family portrait collection
Genre
Portrait photography
Missionary history imagery
Subject
Robert Moffat (1795–1883)
Mary Moffat (1795–1871)
Price, Christian Wallace (1879–1949)
Jane Gardiner Moffat
Kuruman, South Africa
Missionary history -- South Africa
19th-century portrait photography
Extent
23 photographic items
Spatial Coverage
Kuruman (Northern Cape, South Africa)
England (family origins/portraits)
Format
Digital images (photographic scans)

Items

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