Item sets
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Butler Family Collection
The Butler Family Collection (also known as the Butler Family Photograph Collection) is a digital archive curated by the Cory Library and Historical Archives. It consists of 346 items, primarily photographs and related ephemera. The collection provides a visual record of the Butler family and their social circles, including significant historical and cultural markers in the Eastern Cape. Highlights of the collection include: * Family History: Portraits, wedding photos (such as the 1920 wedding of Harold Butler and Ruth Brown), and candid images of children and relatives. * Community & Organisations: Documentation of youth movements like the Wayfarers, Sunbeams, and Pathfinders in Cradock during the 1930s. *Historical Landscapes: Photographs of regional landmarks, such as the Karel Landman Monument in the Sundays River Valley and views of the Fish River. * Social Documentation: The collection includes photograph albums compiled by Mary Butler, featuring figures like Rev. James Arthur Calata. -
Cape Town Tour, 1891
The Cape Town Tour, 1891 collection comprises 19 digitised photographic views capturing scenes from Cape Town and its environs in 1891. These images record urban and landscape views of the city during the late colonial period, including iconic landmarks such as Table Mountain and Lion’s Head, Parliament House, the Botanical Gardens, and street scenes on Adderley Street. Other subjects include docks, Simon’s Town, bridges over the Liesbeeck River in Mowbray, and dwellings in the Cape Colony. Many of the photographs bear a personal inscription: “To dear Ethel, from Joe, Xmas 1891”, suggesting the album was compiled as a memento of a tour of Cape Town at the close of the 19th century. This collection provides valuable visual documentation of Cape Town’s built environment and social life on the eve of major 20th-century transformations. It illustrates colonial-era photographic practices and offers rich source material for researchers in urban history, visual culture, colonial studies, and South African heritage. -
Cathcart, Eastern Cape, South Africa
The Cathcart collection is part of The Frontier Collection held and made accessible by the Cory Library and Historical Archives within the Rhodes University Digital Archives. It documents historical resources relating to Cathcart, a small town in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, within the broader scope of frontier history and the development of settler towns. As part of the Development of Settler Towns series, the collection presents images and archival materials that reflect the town’s historical character and its place in the colonial frontier landscape of the Eastern Cape. Through photographs and other items, researchers gain insight into local built heritage, settlement patterns, and social life. This collection supports historical, social, and cultural research on frontier towns established during the 19th century and contributes to preserving local heritage. -
Cathedral of St Michael and St George, Grahamstown
The Cathedral of St Michael and St George, Grahamstown collection is a digitised archival set from the Cory Library and Historical Archives at Rhodes University documenting important visual records of the Cathedral of St Michael and St George in Grahamstown (Makhanda), Eastern Cape, South Africa. This collection, housed within the Cory Churches Collections, comprises 11 historical images—including aerial views of Grahamstown with the cathedral, architectural details of the cathedral’s chancel, and views of High Street and Church Square with the cathedral as focal point. Several photographs capture significant moments in the cathedral’s development, such as the laying of the foundation stone of the chancel by the Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Henry Loch, in 1890, as well as earlier views of the surrounding urban context. The items reflect the cathedral’s religious, architectural, and civic significance in the colonial and early modern history of Grahamstown, and support research into church history, built heritage, urban development, and social life in the Eastern Cape. -
Church of the Province of Southern Africa, Bathurst
The Church of the Province of Southern Africa, Bathurst collection is a digitised archival set from the Cory Library and Historical Archives at Rhodes University, focusing on ecclesiastical heritage in Bathurst, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is part of the Cory Churches Collections, situated under the broader categorisation of Anglican and Church of the Province of Southern Africa materials. This small but focused collection comprises three digitised items, each depicting or documenting an old plan of the graveyard of St John’s Anglican Church in Bathurst. Through these historical plans, the collection provides insight into the layout, organisation, and spatial history of church burial grounds, reflecting aspects of religious practice, community memory, and local heritage tied to one of Bathurst’s longstanding ecclesiastical institutions. -
Clans, Tribes and Nations
The Clans, Tribes and Nations collection is a digitised archival set from the Cory Library and Historical Archives at Rhodes University, located in Grahamstown (Makhanda), Eastern Cape, South Africa. This collection is part of the African Heritage Collections and comprises items that document records, histories, and genealogical accounts of Xhosa clans and related traditional communities, including materials on groups such as the amaCirha and amaJobe. The items include historical narratives and genealogical texts in both English and Xhosa, reflecting the longstanding cultural traditions, lineage information, and oral histories of these communities. This collection contributes to understanding pre-colonial and historical social structures, clan genealogies, traditional authority, and Indigenous heritage in the Eastern Cape and broader southern African context. It supports research into African ethnography, indigenous history, Xhosa social organisation, and cultural continuity. -
Coloured Methodist School Churches
The Coloured Methodist School Churches collection is a digitised archival collection from the Cory Library and Historical Archives at Rhodes University documenting Methodist church-related schools and community institutions historically associated with the Coloured Methodist community in South Africa. This collection is part of the Cory Churches Collections under the Methodist Church of Southern Africa category and comprises approximately 46 items, predominantly historical photographs and related materials. The images depict a range of church school buildings, activities, and community life including school openings and extensions, mission and church-school structures in locations such as Bellville, Parow, Goodwood, Maitland, Pinelands, and other areas with significant Coloured Methodist educational and religious engagement. Many items document church-school infrastructure from the 1920s through the 1930s, with visual evidence of church-community relations, the role of Methodist education among Coloured populations, and aspects of social life and support networks within the Methodist Church. Items also include community events, youth organisations such as the Boys’ Brigade, and contextual insights into welfare and social conditions. The collection supports research in religious history, education history, Methodist Church activities, and Coloured community heritage in South Africa. -
Coloured National Convention Collection, Malmesbury 1961
The Coloured National Convention Collection, Malmesbury 1961 is a digitised archival collection from the Cory Library and Historical Archives at Rhodes University documenting key materials related to the South African Coloured National Convention held in 1961. This collection comprises seven items—including official correspondence, minutes, attendance registers, programmes, committee documents, policy statements, and explanatory texts—that collectively shed light on the organisation, goals, and internal deliberations of the Convention, which brought together Coloured political organisations during the apartheid era. The materials reflect the strategies, ideological discussions, and social context of the Coloured political movement as it sought to articulate its position within the broader struggle against racial discrimination in South Africa. Held in Malmesbury (with connections to the Claremont Civic Centre, Cape Town), the Convention represents an important moment in the history of anti-apartheid political action by Coloured activists. This collection supports research into South African political history, race relations under apartheid, and the organisational history of Coloured political movements. -
Cory Church Collections
Collection Overview: The Cory Church Collections The Cory Church Collections represent a significant visual and historical record of the ecclesiastical landscape of the Eastern Cape and broader Southern Africa. Housed within the Cory Library for Historical Research, this archival assemblage documents the architectural, social, and missionary footprint of various Christian denominations from the 19th century through the mid-20th century. The collection is primarily composed of photographic prints, negatives, and sketches depicting church buildings—ranging from humble frontier chapels to grand colonial cathedrals—as well as portraits of clergy, missionaries, and congregants who shaped the region's religious history. -
Cory Finding Aids & Selected Inventories
The Cory Finding Aids & Selected Inventories item set brings together a curated group of archival finding aids and collection inventories from the Cory Library for Humanities Research at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. These resources provide structured overviews, context, and descriptive information for numerous archival collections held within the Cory Library, ranging from personal papers and family records to institutional archives and specialised collections. These finding aids and inventories help researchers identify and navigate the primary source materials available for study by detailing the scope, content, and organisation of specific collections and archival groupings. -
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Cory Map Collections
The Cory Map Collections form one of the most comprehensive cartographic repositories in Southern Africa. Curated by the Cory Library for Historical Research at Rhodes University, the collection is a vital resource for understanding the evolving spatial, political, and social boundaries of the Eastern Cape and the broader subcontinent. The maps range from early 16th-century European depictions of the African continent to highly detailed 19th-century military surveys of the Eastern Cape frontier. They document the progress of colonial settlement, the demarcation of mission stations, the layout of frontier forts, and the development of early South African infrastructure like post offices and post-war schools. -
Cradock, Eastern Cape, South Africa
The Cradock, Eastern Cape, South Africa collection is a substantial digitised archival resource from the Cory Library and Historical Archives at Rhodes University documenting the history and material culture of Cradock, a key town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. This collection forms part of The Frontier Collection—specifically under The Development of Settler Towns—and includes approximately 197 digitised items comprising historical photographs, maps, plans, engravings, and manuscript images that capture a wide range of social, economic, and built environments in Cradock’s past. The collection contains visual records of early town plans, colonial-era illustrations such as a drawing of an ox-wagon ascending Cradock Pass, scenes of historic events like the aftermath of the Victoria Hotel fire (1904), photographs of local businesses and railway engines, community activities and groups (including Pathfinders and Wayfarers), and mission and church life at St James Mission. These items document urban development, infrastructure, community life, religious and social organisations, and transportation history in Cradock from the 19th century through the early 20th century. -
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Daantjie Oosthuizen Memorial Lectures
An annual lecture series established in memory of Daniel Charl Stephanus "Daantjie" Oosthuizen (1926–1969), Professor of Philosophy at Rhodes University. The lectures focus on philosophy, ethics, and liberal thought in South Africa. -
The Development of Settler Towns
The Development of Settler Towns is a major digitised archival collection from the Cory Library and Historical Archives at Rhodes University, forming part of The Frontier Collection. It brings together nearly 468 digitised resources documenting the historical emergence, expansion, and material culture of settler towns across the Eastern Cape, South Africa during the colonial and frontier period. The collection includes sub-sets on towns such as Alice, Bathurst, Bedford, Cathcart, Cradock, East London, Grahamstown, King William’s Town, Port Alfred, Port Elizabeth, Queenstown and others, illustrating a range of urban development patterns, community activities, built environments, maps, plans, and visual materials that reflect the social, economic, and geographic histories of these settlements. As an overarching thematic grouping within the Cory Library’s frontier history holdings, this item set supports comparative and place-based research into settler town origins, colonial infrastructure, demographic change, and regional interactions in the Eastern Cape. -
E.C. Workman Rhodes University Collection -- 1922-1925
This item set comprises a digitised collection of photographs documenting aspects of student life, staff, sporting activities, and the built environment at Rhodes University College during the period 1922-1925. Known as the E.C. Workman Rhodes University Collection, the materials provide visual evidence of the early institutional history of Rhodes University and reflect the social and cultural milieu of the university community in the early twentieth century. The collection includes group portraits of academic staff and students, images of university residences such as College House and Botha House, and photographs of student sporting teams, including cricket and tennis teams. Together, these images offer valuable insight into campus life, leisure activities, and institutional identity during a formative period in the university’s development. -
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Forced Removals and Evictions
The “Forced Removals and Evictions” item set is a thematic archival grouping within the Cory Library and Historical Archives’ digital collections that focuses on the documentation of forced removals, evictions, and apartheid-era spatial and social displacements in South Africa. This item set forms part of the broader subject area Apartheid, the Struggle and the People, which highlights primary sources related to the socio-political impacts of apartheid policies and resistance movements. -
Frontier Wars Collection
The “The Frontier Wars” item set is a significant thematic collection within the Cory Library and Historical Archives’ digital holdings, documenting the series of conflicts along the Eastern Cape frontier between Indigenous Xhosa groups and colonial forces during the 18th and 19th centuries. These wars — often referred to as the Xhosa Wars in historical literature — were a defining feature of colonial expansion in southern Africa, significantly shaping the region's political, social, and geographic landscape. The collection brings together archival images, maps, and textual records that illuminate aspects of military engagements, frontier settlements, and the broader human experience of conflict on the Eastern Cape frontier. -
Gail Eagle Oriel House Collection
Rhodes University Gail Eagle Collection -- ca. 1960s -
George and Dorothy Randell Collection
The George and Dorothy Randell Collection comprises personal photographs, including materials related to their time at Rhodes University College in the late 1920s. -
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Gold Fields of South Africa Ltd. Collection
The Gold Fields of South Africa Ltd. Collection is one of the most substantial corporate gifts ever received by the Cory Library. Donated in 1976, this vast archive documents the history of the company, which was founded in 1887. The collection is a critical resource for researching the "Randlords," the industrialisation of South Africa, and the development of the Witwatersrand gold mines, including the extensive photographic records that capture the transition of South Africa from an agrarian society to a global mining powerhouse.