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[Source - Carolyn Hamilton for FHYA, 2019: Leibhammer made the selection for the FHYA with the following considerations in mind: objects had to have been made in the 19th or early 20th centuries and had to have come from the KwaZulu-Natal region. Leibhammer also made sure to select a range of donors that included anthropologists, female collectors, and military or colonial officials. She ensured that the selection included a range of genre, such as carved wooden objects, metal and beadwork items. She also selected objects where she knew of the existence of similar objects in other collections that were likely to throw light on the objects at MMA. She thus relied in part on information gleaned from the MAA accession records and in part on her own knowledge of the field.

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA using Nessa Leibhammer and Rachel Hand’s notes, 2017: Rachel Hand, the Collections Manager for Anthropology at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, along with Nessa Leibhammer for the FHYA, searched the MAA online database for all the items in the MAA collection that were labelled ‘Zulu’; ‘Natal’; ‘Zululand’; ‘KwaZulu-Natal’; and the term at the time for the inhabitants of southern Natal and the Northern Cape, [K-word]. Hand found the relevant material in MAA’s 3 stores. Leibhammer then manually combed through the Southern African card drawer and photographed the related catalogue cards, Accession Registers, and Annual Reports. During this process, Leibhammer narrowed the number of items for FHYA consideration from the 461 items initially identified to 75 items. The FHYA selection is co-terminus with Leibhammer’s selection.

The FHYA is also concerned with the archival material associated with historical objects, such as notes, catalogue cards, labels, accession registers, and annual reports. This material is a part of the history of both the museum and the object. MAA used catalogue cards to add additional object information from the very first accessions back in 1884 and replacement cards were made if the original was lost- usually using both different pens, and terms. Original sale or collector labels were sometimes stuck to the cards to add biographical layers of information, as well as letters, and, later, photographs. Staff and sometimes visitors, would add comments on provenances, measurements and locations over time. Reconnecting an author with their annotations can add to knowledge of the object’s history and associations. The era and author of the cards also is reflected in their physical aspects: initially details were handwritten in ink, the 1930s saw cards stamped and written on a typewriter, followed variously by handwritten details in ballpoint pen, finally moving to word-processed and laser printed texts. Like the cards the physical type of paper and pen used can suggest dates as well as authors. They can be used to confirm the identity of misplaced objects, e.g. Henry Bulwer’s collection bears distinctive long, rectangular shaped paper labels and his cursive script. Early labels were handwritten in ink, on small rectangular paper or parchment label and tied through small metal reinforced holes. Others were glued directly to the object. Smaller rectangular or square paper labels, with a printed outline, usually stuck directly to the object, usually originate in late nineteenth or early twentieth century salerooms or via a collector. Larger circular, metal-edged labels were written in the museum, probably from the 1970s onwards. The 1980s brought larger labels on thick yellow paper and remained handwritten. From c.2000, MAA has used acid-free yellowish paper labels, that are written on in light-sensitive and waterproof ink. The FHYA organized this material into ‘series’, with each series being named after the primary collector of the material.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2017, using Nessa Leibhammer’s notes; Cambridge University Library’s materials: The FHYA selection of the items in the Cambridge University Library focused specifically on material related to Alfred Cort Haddon and the 1905 Natal leg of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) tour of southern Africa. Sir David Gill, the Astronomer at the Cape until 1906, suggested the BAAS trip to South Africa, in order to inaugurate a South African Science Association modelled on the British one. Three hundred delegates from the BAAS came to South Africa, with Alfred Cort Haddon acting as the chairman of the anthropological section of the BAAS.

Haddon was a British anthropologist and ethnologist who worked extensively with the University of Cambridge as a lecturer and a Fellow of Christ’s College. In the course of the Natal leg of the 1905 visit, Haddon collected items, currently held in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, at the University of Cambridge. These items were selected by the FHYA for inclusion. Nessa Leibhammer then identified correspondences related to this visit for inclusion in the FHYA project. These correspondences and associated material can be found in the Royal Greenwich Observatory Archives collection in CUL, specifically within the Papers of the Cape Observatory. The RGO selection comprises of 4 volumes, sitting in the RGO 15 section of the archives, which houses all material from the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope. The material selected by the FHYA is specifically housed in the sections labelled RGO 15 189, RGO 15 190, RGO 15 191, and RGO 15 192. These contain bound volumes of correspondence related to the tour. Leibhammer further identified eight brown manila envelopes from the Haddon Papers in the CUL’s Department of Manuscripts and Archives, relevant to the items collected in 1905. These envelopes are: Haddon Papers 5015; Haddon Papers 5016; Haddon Papers 5065; Haddon Papers 5066; Haddon Papers 5412; Haddon Papers 5413; Haddon Papers 5414; Haddon Papers 5017; and Haddon Papers 5018.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2018, using materials provided by Nessa Leibhammer: Nessa Leibhammer was the curator of the Johannesburg Art Gallery Traditional Collections from 1994 to 1996, and 2005 to 2013. Leibhammer, for the FHYA, identified objects from the Traditional Collections that came from the FHYA target area of KwaZulu-Natal and immediately adjacent regions which she identified as probably dating to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She selected a series of items from the Brenthurst Collection (assembled by Jonathan Lowen); the Horstmann Collection (assembled by Udo Horstmann); the Maritz Collection (assembled by Nicholas Maritz); the Brodie Collection (assembled by Mordechai Brodie); the Karner Collection (assembled by Ken Karner) as well as items owned by the Jaques family, purchased by JAG in 1987. The selection includes a range of genre: carved wooden objects, metal and beadwork items, staffs, snuff boxes, headrests, vessels, baskets, pots, etc. She also purposefully selected objects where she knew there were similar examples in other, older, collections as well as notable items where no secure information is known, so as to open the possibility that such items might accrue an information context through appearing on the FHYA exemplar.

The FHYA ordered this material into ‘series’ with each ‘series’ being named after the collector.]

[Source - Carolyn Hamilton for FHYA, 2018: The FHYA selection from the Phonogrammarchiv at the Austrian Academy of Sound (ÖAW) consists of two CDs from the Father Franz Mayr digital sound recordings created by the Phonogrammarchiv as a part of their Historical Collections in 2006, as well as the associated material from the data CD and CD booklet that were produced alongside the audio CDs. The selection of materials is arranged in two subseries (CD1 and CD2) and further arranged by separate songs, with each sound recording, the associated original protocols, and transcriptions from the accompanying booklet, housed in a separate file. The original wax cylinders, the metal negatives and epoxy resin casts are in the possession of the Phonogrammarchiv and were not included in the FHYA selection.]

[Source - Carolyn Hamilton for FHYA, 2018: The FHYA selection from the James Stuart Papers comprises the six published volumes of the James Stuart Archive, edited by Colin Webb and John Wright; one of the editor's (John Wright's) annotated photocopies used in preparation for the publications; and the Hyperlinked Archival Research Tool.

The published volumes contain an edited, annotated and in places translated selection of Stuart's notes arranged chronologically under the names of 185 main interlocutors.

The editor's annotated photocopies have been copied from the volume editors' selection of material from the full James Stuart Papers, organised in folders under the name of each of the main interlocutors. Currently the FHYA has permission from KCAL to place online only the photocopies relevant to the text of a single interlocutor.

The Hyperlinked Archival Research Tool takes the form of interactive PDF's which make possible a switch from a particular point in the on-line version of the published text to the relevant page of the photocopies of the handwritten text to check a particular detail. The FHYA has further added links wherever possible to other works mentioned by the editors in the end notes. The FHYA has also provided links from the superscript end note numbers in the main text to the relevant endnotes. Users are further able to click on the note number in the endnotes to return directly to the relevant point in the main text.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA using Wits materials, 2017: The inventory of Swaziland Oral History Project material at the Wits Historical Papers was re-compiled by Ruth Muller in 2015 as part of the Five Hundred Year Archive Project, with funding from the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the National Research Foundation. In 2014 the Five Hundred Year Archive commissioned Patricia Liebetrau to undertake the digitization of a selection of the handwritten and typed transcripts from the recordings made by Isaac Dlamini for the Royal House of Dlamini, Dumisa Dlamini for the Swaziland Broadcasting Services, Philip Bonner, and Carolyn Hamilton. The transcripts selected were those for which a typed-up summary or typed edited typescript already existed. The rationale for this was that the typed version, unlike the handwritten versions could be subjected to optical character recognition and are thus searchable. The linked typed texts therefore act as a kind of index to the handwritten texts and the recorded audio. This selection of transcripts, as well as the already digitized audio, and associated materials such as collection boxes, index cards, folders, audio tape cassettes and case labels, and notebooks, formed the FHYA selection from the Swaziland Oral History Project at the Wits Historical Papers. The selection also includes the experimental edited typescripts made by Carolyn Hamilton and Ronette Engela in the late 1980s to early 1990s. The FHYA organized this material into ‘series’, with each series being named after the primary interviewer or interviewing body, of the work.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA using material provided by eThembeni Cultural Heritage Management, 2018: The Five Hundred Year Archive aims to research and lead enquiries into aspects of the southern African past, in the periods predating the existence of European imperial and colonial archives. The uMgungundlovu site (meaning ‘The secret conclave of the elephant ‘) served as the capital of the Zulu Kingdom between 1829 and 1839. When Dingane kaSenzangakhona succeeded Shaka to the Zulu Kingship in 1828 he followed his predecessor’s custom of building a number of large military amakhanda in the heart of the kingdom. Located within the eMakhosini uMgungundlovu was the largest of these amakhanda. Fully established by 1829, it served as the royal residence of Dingane and his isigodlo, his principal advisors and a large garrison of his favoured regiments. Umgungundlovu is the best preserved of all the capital amakhanda established during the height of the Zulu Kingdom. As an archaeological archive it has, and can still, shed light on both the physical layout and the social dynamics of 19th Century aristocratic society. The FHYA appointed the eThembeni Cultural Heritage to compile a comprehensive database relating to the uMgungundlovu archaeological site, including collating descriptions of collections in curation; associated and peripheral materials such as museum documentation, accession information, registers, individual items; and historical notes pertaining to the site. The FHYA selection from the Archaeological Collections at the Amafa/Heritage KwaZulu Natali provincial heritage conservation agency consists of material identified by eThembeni Cultural Heritage as having been excavated at uMgungundlovu. Specifically, this material has been excavated by John Parkington, Mike Cronin, Oliver Davies, Rob Rawlinson, and Frans Roodt. The FHYA arranged this material into ‘series’ which are named after the primary excavator, and then into further ‘subseries’ which are named after the year in which the material was accessioned. Within these ‘subseries’ are ‘files’ containing digital ‘items’ which consist of collection boxes and their contents.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2018, using material provided by eThembeni Cultural Heritage Management: The FHYA appointed eThembeni Cultural Heritage to compile a comprehensive database relating to the uMgungundlovu archaeological site, including collating descriptions of collections in curation; associated and peripheral materials such as museum documentation, accession information, registers, individual items; and historical notes pertaining to the site. eThembeni identified the Ds. Stander collection at the Msunduzi Museum incorporating the Voortrekker Complex as being relevant to this brief, as the collection consists of material collected in the eMakhosini region and the uMgungundlovu archaeological site is situated in this region. The museum agreed to allow the FHYA to put the digital images of 9 objects, as well as their associated metadata which were individually catalogued on a two-sided A4 paper record held by the museum, with artefact and provenance details listed in Afrikaans.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2018, using material provided by eThembeni Cultural Heritage Management: The items in the Archaeological Collections at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum relate to excavations at the uMgungundlovu archaeological site by Tim Maggs in 1973; by Martin Hall in 1975 and 1978; by John Parkington, Cedric Poggenpoel and Mike Cronin in 1975; and by Oliver Davies in 1978.

eThembeni Cultural Heritage Management used record cards held at the museum, which they checked against the contents of each box and supplied the FHYA with a full inventory. The FHYA then made a selection of items for digitisation from this inventory and commissioned eThembeni to: digitise the full paper-based archive including all museum record cards; photograph all small finds and all notable items not classified as small finds; as well as to provide photographs of single sorting tray of the contents of each box classified as “diagnostic material”; and one photograph of a single sorting tray from one box out of the series of boxes containing each type of undiagnostic material. They were also commissioned to photograph all the museum boxes and labels pertinent to the above selection.

The FHYA has arranged this material into ‘series’ which are named after the primary excavator, and then into further ‘subseries’ which are named after the year in which the material was accessioned. Within these ‘subseries’ are ‘files’ containing digital ‘items’ which consist of collection boxes and their contents.]

[Source - Carolyn Hamilton and Chloe Rushovich for the FHYA, 2018: The FHYA selected items identified by Nessa Leibhammer, Linda Ireland, Rosemary Lombard, Gavin Whitelaw, and Thingahangwi Tshivhase as definitely having been collected by Mayr, as well as all the associated labels and institutional materials]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2018: The FHYA selection from Richard Patrick’s material consists of material specifically related to his work on Swazi lineages and his time in Swaziland, as well as a biography of Richard Patrick written by Bob Forrester. Patrick began interviewing people in Swaziland in the early 80s after having read James Matsebula’s ‘History of Swaziland’. He worked as a photo archivist at the ‘Times of Swaziland’. He published Swazi lineages in the paper and wrote articles on history. He joined a regiment and was given the name Mdvumowencwala. He then worked as a researcher in the National Museum in Lobamba. This material has been uploaded by the FHYA with the permission of the Patrick family.]

[Source - Chloe Rushovich for FHYA, 2018: The FHYA selection from Carolyn Hamilton’s Research Material consists of maps of the Swazi area that were discarded by the Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland’s Surveyor General and given to the Swaziland National Archives in Lobamba. The Swaziland National Archives did not want to maintain custody of the maps, and offered them to Carolyn Hamilton who was working in the Swazi National Archives on the Swaziland Oral History Project. These maps relate to the Five Hundred Year Archive project owing to the fact that they come from the FHYA target area and provide context for the Swaziland Oral History Project.]