The Special Collections Book of the Week this week is:

Travels in the interior of Southern Africa, Volume 2 by William J. Burchell.

William John Burchell (1781 – 1863), of Burchell’s Zebra fame, was an English explorer, naturalist, traveller, artist, and author. He travelled in South Africa through 1815, collecting over 50,000 specimens, and covering more than 7000 km, much over unexplored terrain. Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa is a two-volume work describing his travels, this second volume appearing in 1824.

Burchell is known for making numerous, detailed notes for every specimen he collected, as well as the numerous drawings and paintings of landscapes, portraits, costumes, people, animals and plants. His thousands of plant specimens, as well as the field journals from his South African expedition, are held by Kew Gardens, and his insect collection by the Oxford University Museum.

UPSpace Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/17283

This book is available at Special Collections, housed on level 5 of the Merensky 2 Library, and is part of our Old Africana (ZA OUV) 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.