Cory Library and Historical Archives

Item sets

• 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.
• Chris McGregor Jazz Collection
  Chris McGregor was born the son of a Scottish missionary, brought up on church hymns and Xhosa dances. He studied at the Cape Town College of Music and discovered the black jazz scene. His septet played in the 1962 National Jazz Festival, and after founding the Blue Notes in 1963, he led a big band. Harassed by the authorities, they escaped the country through an invitation to the 1964 Antibes Jazz Festival. Fellow expatriate Abdullah Ibrahim helped them find work in Zurich, then at Ronnie Scott's in London and the Café Montmartre in Copenhagen. The Blue Notes mixed South African rhythms with free improvisation, an unprecedented fusion that created a completely original, unmistakable style (In Concert, Vols. 1 & 2, Ogun 1978). McGregor's big band, Brotherhood of Breath, enlarged the Blue Notes with free improvisers (Evan Parker, Trevor Watts, Paul Rutherford).
• 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 Finding Aids & Selected Inventories
• Cory Library's miscellaneous images
• 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.
• D B Farrel Collection
• 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
• East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa
• Family Trees and Genealogy
• Forced Removals and Evictions
• The Frontier Wars
• 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.
• Glasgow Missionary Society
• Gold Fields Photographs
• Gold Fields : African Magnates
  The "African Magnates" series is a set of portraits taken from the publication "African World", published in London in 1903
• Gold Fields : Braamfontein Dynamite Explosion (1896)
• Gold Fields : British scenes
• Gold Fields : Jameson Raid (1895-1896)
  The Jameson’s Raid, 1895–1896 — Photograph Collection comprises photographs relating to events surrounding the Jameson Raid, a late nineteenth-century military expedition in southern Africa. The raid occurred between 29 December 1895 and 2 January 1896 and was led by Dr Leander Starr Jameson, who entered the South African Republic (Transvaal) with a force drawn from British colonial territories. The expedition was intended to support an anticipated uprising by British expatriate residents (Uitlanders) against the government of President Paul Kruger. The uprising did not take place, and Jameson and his men were captured by Boer commandos near Doornkop. The photographs provide visual documentation of people, places, and circumstances associated with the raid and its aftermath, and form part of the historical record of political and military tensions in southern Africa during the period preceding the South African (Anglo-Boer) War of 1899–1902. The collection is owned by Goldfields and is held by the Cory Library for Humanities Research, Rhodes University.
• Gold Fields : Mines and family views