The things they have made will live forever

The Estelle Hamilton‐Welsh collection in the F.S. Malan museum, university of Fort Hare

Bibliographic Data

ID7861669
AuthorsSeán Morrow (0000-0002-2411-3793, University of Fort Hare, corresponding author)
Year1996
Volume22
Issue2
Pages271-285
Publication date1996-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03057079608708491
OpenAlexW2033894447
LanguageEN
References cited12

Recent changes have given particular significance to portrayals of African cultures in South African museums, and to the relationship between collectors and those from whom they collect. This article examines the history of a collection of artefacts, mainly from the Eastern Cape in South Africa, gathered from the 1880s to the 1940s by Estelle Hamilton‐Welsh and her mother, and now housed in the F.S. Malan Museum, University of Fort Hare. The collector used her links with authority and her economic resources to build the collection. However, to ease contact with and gather material from Africans, she also turned to advantage the social and political marginality that characterised white women...a marginality that enabled a limited transgression of accepted roles. Changing perceptions of the collection in terms of scholarly recognition and popular display are also examined. The article concludes that in a society marked by profound divisions of class, race and wealth, collecting of this type is inevitably a deeply ambiguous activity

Archaeology · Cape · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Welsh · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Art and Culture Studies · History · Law · South African History and Culture

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