Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1895 - 1961 (Creation)
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and medium
Records and photographs
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, previously known as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province of the Anglican Communion in Southern Africa. Its primate is the Archbishop of Cape Town. The church includes dioceses in present day South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland and St. Helena.
An agreement was signed in 1937 between the Church of the Province of South Africa (CPSA) - now known as the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) - and the University of the Witwatersrand, whereby the church's central record library was places on loan with the University. The library consisted of books, pamphlets, periodicals and manuscripts. The richness of the Anglican Church's manuscript collection is due to the efforts of the provincial archivists appointed by the church to collect material and transfer it to the university. The first, 1937-1957, was Father Osmund Victor, followed by Canon Cecil Thomas Wood from 1958-1979. Mrs AR Kotze then took over from 1979-2000, until Carol Archibald was appointed as Provincial Archivist in 2001.
Archival history
Records collected and deposited by Miss Elsa Witt, who lived and nursed on Robben Island.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The records mainly relate to the Leper Colony on Robben Island. The nurses came from St. Albans in England to work in the Diocese of Cape Town at the invitation of West Jones in 1876. Their head-quarters when working among the Leper children on Robben Island was St. Michaels Home in Kloof St. There is a Jubilee Booklet of their work in the diocese 1876-1926 in folder of their correspondence.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
The Robben Island Registers are deposited with the Government Archives (Cape Province) in Queen Victoria St., Cape Town.
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Biographical and administrative history: There was a small Museum on the Island from which some of the exhibits in this collection come. They were preserved by Miss Witt when the Museum was disbanded in 1958 when the Royal Navy left and the Island became a Penal Settlement.