Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 28 April 2010 (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
4 pages
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Historical Papers research archive, situated in the William Cullen Library, was established in 1966. Its first holdings were the Jan Hofmeyr collection and the Gubbins collection as well as other manuscripts which were transferred from the Africana section in the William Cullen Library.
It has since become one of the largest and most comprehensive independent archives in Southern Africa. We house over 3400 collections of historical, political and cultural importance, encompassing the mid-17th Century to the Present.
Archival history
The interview was led by Michele Pickover, then Curator of Historical Papers, in conversation with Joel Joffe, during his visit to Historical Papers, which took place on the 28 April 2010, together with George Bizos and Arthur Chaskalson.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
In the conversation Joel Joffe related the provenance and background of the Mandela Papers, the road which these documents had traveled after the Rivonia Trial, and their return and handover to Nelson Mandela during the Bram Fischer Memorial Lecturer in 1996, who in turn handed them to Geoff Budlender, then Director at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), at the very same ceremony.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Permission to publish has to be obtained from the Historical Papers Research Archive.