The history is in the details
“Museums are not just places with cultural items, but also places of documents and reseach centre. Documents and research support facts, helping us understand history.”
NEWCASTLE – A museum is more than a stuffy building that houses old artefacts.
Hidden behind the walls of any museum are stories of progress and struggles.
Related article: Hiking in the name of history
For Curator of Fort Amiel Museum, Louis Eksteen, archives bring history back to life.
“Museums are not just places with cultural items, but also places of documents and reseach centre. Documents and research support facts, helping us understand history.”
Presently, there are 320 boxes in Fort Amiel’s archives.
Mr Eksteen said it was unfortunate that people often unwittingly threw away historical documents.
“People will often throw away old documentation, pamphlets, books and even old newspapers without realising their historical meaning.”
Mr Eksteen invites residents to donate any form of documentation, prior to the year 2000.
“We are looking for legal books, historical books, magazines and periodicals, maps and plans and photographs.”
Also read: Museum, church targets of vandalism
Previously, similar donations to the museum include Acts of the Natal Colonial Government from the 1860s, the Group Areas Acts and copies of the 1913 Land Commision Act.
The museum even sports magazines from the era of World War I, as well as the plans for the Newcastle water works system of 1882.
Photographs in care of the museum range from 1800s to present day Newcastle.
Personal papers, letters and diaries are also welcome, as they give an account of specific people’s view of the happenings of that period.
To donate items to the museum, contact Louis Eksteen on 034 312 8952 or 072 238 1983, and help keep history alive.
