The McGregor Museum’s archaeology collection dates back to 1908 when Maria Wilman, first museum director, accessioned the first items.
In the first three decades of the museum’s history, acquisitions were typically one or two items per accession entry, for example a handaxe here, a bored stone there. They came mainly from sites around Kimberley and Koffiefontein. Amateur archaeologists J.A. Swan, J.H. Power and W. Fowler were responsible for 24% of the collections. Members of the public, about 200 in number, were the donors of the remainder of the collections in this period. A sharp decline in donations occurred in the years of the Great Depression.
In the decades 1938-1957, the war years were a lean period. Geographical representation in the acquisition of new collections shrinks to the area around Kimberley. J.A. Swan, W. Fowler and H. Breuil and 63 others brought material to the museum.
A decade of expansion and the first systematic work followed from 1958, coinciding with the tenure of Dr G.J. Fock, who was the first professional archaeologist to be appointed as such at a museum in South Africa. Accessions include the excavated material from Rooidam 1 and Doornlaagte. G.J. Fock and J.H. Power and another 85 individuals were responsible for the collections at this period.
In the decades from 1968 large-scale projects were initiated by A.J.B. Humphreys and his successor P.B. Beaumont (from 1978). Research was focused along the Riet River, the Ghaap Escarpment, Kuruman Hills (including Wonderwerk Cave where F. & A. Thackeray joined P. Beaumont in renewed research there) and in the Upper Karoo. Gerhard Fock and his wife Dora embarked on their survey of rock engravings in the Northern Cape after he retired in 1967 (see below). Contributions from the lay public dropped to 48 individuals, a reflection of an increasingly professionalized discipline, and the operation of the National Monuments Act that prohibited removal of material without a permit. Since 1994 there has been an increasing interest by researchers from outside the country and one of the most important developments has been the burgeoning of collaborative projects.
Rock Art Collection
Our rock art collection was started about 1908 by Maria Wilman, first museum director, and has grown steadily since then. Representing the rock art of the Cape interior, now mainly within the Northern Cape Province, the collection contains some 23 000 items. These include a small number of engraved rocks, latex moulds and casts, and large numbers of rubbings, tracings, photographs and slides.
The Wilman Years
Maria Wilman, Cambridge educated daughter of the Karoo, produced a paper on the rock paintings at Ntlo-Kholo, Lesotho, as the museums first publication in 1911. Alongside her active pursuits in other fields, she continued to amass data on rock engravings around Kimberley, in the Karoo and as far afield as Botswana. These records, with photographs and rubbings she made, were published in 1933 in a book that was the standard text on this art for more than four decades.
Stow's Copies
In 1944 Dorothea Bleek – daughter of the renowned Dr W.H.I. Bleek of watercolours and pencil drawings of rock engravings, made by George William Stow when he was on the Diamond Fields in the early 1870s. The set includes seven copies of engravings from Riverton, a site which was submerged when the present weir was built in 1906.
Power and Swan
John Power became director of the museum after Miss Wilman’s retirement in 1946. His fine watercolours and rubbings of rock art supplemented the collection. He published remarks on the Driekopseiland rock engraving site. His contribution to the museum’s archaeological collections in general, from the days of his youth in Kimberley, was enormous. James Swan, a noted amateur archaeologist and collector, recorded rock paintings along the Ghaap Escarpment. He left a bequest in the form of the Swan Fund, administered by Oxford University, which continues to support archaeological research in South Africa.
Gerhard and Dora Fock
Dr G.J. Fock came to the McGregor Museum in 1958 as South he and his wife, Dora Fock, spent weekends recording local rock engravings – carrying on where Wilman had left off. Following Fock’s retirement in 1967, their quest for recording rock art became a full-time project. Between them they produced more than 120 publications, lectures and exhibits on the art – including three books in their Felsbilder in Südafrika series. Their collection was donated to the McGregor Museum in 1987.
Northern Cape Rock Art Trust
In 2001 the McGregor Museum, along with colleagues in the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and other stakeholders in the Northern Cape, contributed to a project funded by the national Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism, to develop sustainable public access to rock art in the Kimberley area. One of the express conditions was that the development should generate jobs as part of poverty alleviation. The first phase has seen the opening of the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre. Furtherance of the project and its overall aims is now ensured by the formation of the Northern Cape Rock Art Trust, with trustees including representatives of Khoe-San communities and organisations, and experts on rock art.