The Special Collections Book of the Week this week is:

The Centenary Celebrations of the University of Pretoria: 1908-2008 Compiled by Somarie V. Grey.

This commemorative album was compiled to establish a record of the University of Pretoria’s Centenary Celebrations in 2008. The University took its first breath in 1908 with a mere 32 students and four professors in the Kya Rosa house. When General Jan Christiaan Smuts, as Minister of Education of the Transvaal Colony, laid the cornerstone of what was later called the Old Arts Building on 3 August 1910 he said quite prophetically:

“Maybe the day will come when the Transvaal University College will be for our country what Oxford University is for England. Maybe we shall have to watch the grass grow on the field for another 100 years before we see this happen, but a good start has been made.”

Catalogue Access: https://univofpretoria.on.worldcat.org/oclc/857706781

This book is available at Special Collections, housed on level 5 of the Merensky 2 Library. There copies in both our Africana (ZA) Collection and our Tukkiana (TUK) Collection.

The Special Collections unit of the Department of Library Services plays a stewardship role in the acquisition and preservation of the Library's rare and valuable information resources, making them accessible to students, staff and researchers, as well as safeguarding them for future generations.