Africana Library
The Africana Library, located on Dutoitspan Road, is housed in what was originally the Kimberley Public Library. The public library first opened on 23rd July 1887 in a building designed by the architect JR Elton.
The Public Library and the Africana Library were inextricably linked until 1984, when the public and Africana sections of the Library were separated, and the Kimberley Africana Library was opened to the public in 1986.
It was the exceptional collections of Africana and rare books that distinguished the Kimberley Public Library, and this was the main factor that bound the history of these two institutions.
The Public Library and the Africana Library were inextricably linked until 1984, when the public and Africana sections of the Library were separated, and the Kimberley Africana Library was opened to the public in 1986.
It was the exceptional collections of Africana and rare books that distinguished the Kimberley Public Library, and this was the main factor that bound the history of these two institutions.
Bronze bust of Bernard Klisser. (Photo by Richard Jones)
Today, the library houses about 14,000 books, 640 manuscripts and 12,000 photographs. Included in the collection are early printed editions of African indigenous languages (San, Tswana, Zulu, Xhosa), early books related to diamond mining and records dating back to the first diamond rush in the 1870s, newspapers from the 1870s and books by early European travellers in the region, and books and maps from the South African War (also known as the Anglo-Boer War).
An intriguing collection of photographs is also available for viewing, featuring early diamond discoveries, the South African War, the social history of the inhabitants of southern Africa, the siege of Kimberley and Northern Cape architecture.
An intriguing collection of photographs is also available for viewing, featuring early diamond discoveries, the South African War, the social history of the inhabitants of southern Africa, the siege of Kimberley and Northern Cape architecture.
The Public Library opened in 1887
The building now houses the Africana Library. (Photo by Richard Jones)
From: The history and the development of Kimberly Africana Library and its relationship with the Kimberly Public Library by Rosemary Jean Holloway
Having commenced operations in 1882 in a building which they shared with the Municipality and which drastically limited the ability of the Library to serve the public, the Library Committee, with the Hon Mr Justice PM Laurence at the helm, set about collecting from the public the necessary funds to erect ‘a large and commodious public library’ on a site in Dutoitspan Road acquired previously at an auction for £600.
£ 6,000 was collected; a remarkable achievement, bearing in mind the economic depression prevailing on the Diamond Fields at the time.
David Yuill, in his unpublished dissertation on the architecture of Kimberley from 1871 to 1914, describes the new library building as having both American and Second Empire style influences. Yet, despite this, early photographs showing the Library with its contrasting horizontally banded brickwork suggest that it would not have been totally out of place in a mid-Victorian English industrial landscape.
Yuill goes on to explain the reason for the use of material that had previously not been utilised in this part of the world as follows: the arrival of the railway in Kimberley in 1885 made available many materials, including cast iron, that had hitherto been used only on a tiny scale. “New” types of buildings, such as the Library, were thus inevitable.
The interior of the building reveals Kimberley’s first use of McFarlane’s cast iron in the construction of the gallery. The Mansard roof over the main library space is covered with Welsh slate, a material that was not commonly used in the pre-Railway era. Joinery work displays stencilled decoration of which few other examples survive in Kimberley, and the various colours of facebrick work externally were produced in the Kimberley Public Works Department brickyards.
R. E. Wright, the District Inspector of Works of the Public Works Department in Kimberley, was appointed a member of the Library Committee’s Building Subcommittee and was authorised by the Civil Commissioner, an ex officio Trustee of the Kimberley Public Library, to render his services as architect for this project. At a meeting of the Kimberley Public Library Committee held on 6 May 1886, Wright produced a rough sketch prepared by a member of his staff, J R Elton, of the proposed new Library. Wright is given due recognition for the role he played during the construction of the Library when the Chairman, Mr Justice Laurence, said during his address to Subscribers that it would be a significant omission not to make a special acknowledgement of the very valuable services they had received from Mr Wright. It was one thing to be authorised to do specific work, but it was quite another to carry out that work with the same enthusiasm and zeal that Mr Wright had displayed in his capacity as architect.
The tender for the new Kimberley Public Library building was awarded jointly to Messrs Westlake and Coles and Messrs Smith and Bull. The entire cost of the building had been defrayed by public donations; the building itself had cost £ 5,533.15s 11d. The new Library building was officially opened on 23 July 1887.
Shortly after the new Kimberley Public Library building was opened in July 1887, the library's book stock totalled 5,022 volumes. By 1892, the number of volumes held by the library had risen to 15,539, a figure exceeded in South Africa only by libraries in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth (KPL Minutes, 13 October 1892), institutions that had been established many years before the Public Library in Kimberley. The pace at which the Committee of the new Library expanded its bookstock can be measured by the fact that, in 1902, after only 15 years since its inception, the number of volumes housed in the Library had increased by 21,529. The majority of these had been purchased, and a relatively small number of volumes donated to the institution. Roughly 65% of the book stock was nonfiction, and 35% was fiction.
Having commenced operations in 1882 in a building which they shared with the Municipality and which drastically limited the ability of the Library to serve the public, the Library Committee, with the Hon Mr Justice PM Laurence at the helm, set about collecting from the public the necessary funds to erect ‘a large and commodious public library’ on a site in Dutoitspan Road acquired previously at an auction for £600.
£ 6,000 was collected; a remarkable achievement, bearing in mind the economic depression prevailing on the Diamond Fields at the time.
David Yuill, in his unpublished dissertation on the architecture of Kimberley from 1871 to 1914, describes the new library building as having both American and Second Empire style influences. Yet, despite this, early photographs showing the Library with its contrasting horizontally banded brickwork suggest that it would not have been totally out of place in a mid-Victorian English industrial landscape.
Yuill goes on to explain the reason for the use of material that had previously not been utilised in this part of the world as follows: the arrival of the railway in Kimberley in 1885 made available many materials, including cast iron, that had hitherto been used only on a tiny scale. “New” types of buildings, such as the Library, were thus inevitable.
The interior of the building reveals Kimberley’s first use of McFarlane’s cast iron in the construction of the gallery. The Mansard roof over the main library space is covered with Welsh slate, a material that was not commonly used in the pre-Railway era. Joinery work displays stencilled decoration of which few other examples survive in Kimberley, and the various colours of facebrick work externally were produced in the Kimberley Public Works Department brickyards.
R. E. Wright, the District Inspector of Works of the Public Works Department in Kimberley, was appointed a member of the Library Committee’s Building Subcommittee and was authorised by the Civil Commissioner, an ex officio Trustee of the Kimberley Public Library, to render his services as architect for this project. At a meeting of the Kimberley Public Library Committee held on 6 May 1886, Wright produced a rough sketch prepared by a member of his staff, J R Elton, of the proposed new Library. Wright is given due recognition for the role he played during the construction of the Library when the Chairman, Mr Justice Laurence, said during his address to Subscribers that it would be a significant omission not to make a special acknowledgement of the very valuable services they had received from Mr Wright. It was one thing to be authorised to do specific work, but it was quite another to carry out that work with the same enthusiasm and zeal that Mr Wright had displayed in his capacity as architect.
The tender for the new Kimberley Public Library building was awarded jointly to Messrs Westlake and Coles and Messrs Smith and Bull. The entire cost of the building had been defrayed by public donations; the building itself had cost £ 5,533.15s 11d. The new Library building was officially opened on 23 July 1887.
Shortly after the new Kimberley Public Library building was opened in July 1887, the library's book stock totalled 5,022 volumes. By 1892, the number of volumes held by the library had risen to 15,539, a figure exceeded in South Africa only by libraries in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth (KPL Minutes, 13 October 1892), institutions that had been established many years before the Public Library in Kimberley. The pace at which the Committee of the new Library expanded its bookstock can be measured by the fact that, in 1902, after only 15 years since its inception, the number of volumes housed in the Library had increased by 21,529. The majority of these had been purchased, and a relatively small number of volumes donated to the institution. Roughly 65% of the book stock was nonfiction, and 35% was fiction.
Academic Thesis
THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE KIMBERLEY
AFRICANA LIBRARY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE
KIMBERLEY PUBLIC LIBRARY
This 327-page thesis (click on the page icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the Scribd menu) addresses a vast subject. It embraces more than 100 years of the history of two exceptional institutions in Kimberley, the origins of which correspond with the genesis of industrial South Africa. The study traces the development of the Kimberley Public Library, the mother institution of the present-day Africana Library, within the context of its environment – geographic, economic, political, and social- and assesses its contribution to the development of the library movement in South Africa.
THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE KIMBERLEY
AFRICANA LIBRARY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE
KIMBERLEY PUBLIC LIBRARY
This 327-page thesis (click on the page icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the Scribd menu) addresses a vast subject. It embraces more than 100 years of the history of two exceptional institutions in Kimberley, the origins of which correspond with the genesis of industrial South Africa. The study traces the development of the Kimberley Public Library, the mother institution of the present-day Africana Library, within the context of its environment – geographic, economic, political, and social- and assesses its contribution to the development of the library movement in South Africa.
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