The Special Collections Book of the Week this week is:

The Face of the Country – a South African family album 1860 – 1910 selected and introduced by Karel Schoeman.

From the collections of the South African Library, Cape Town, Karel Schoeman has selected 273 photographs to provide an overview of South Africa and its people during half a century in the recent history of the country. Accompanying the photographs is an extensive text in which the images are discussed and events placed in their historical context.

This fascinating book highlights the iconographic holdings of the South African Library. It is subtitled ‘a South African family album’ because it resembles most family photograph albums in containing a great variety of items, both identified and unidentified, from different periods and of varying quality, held together in this case by the fact that they are all linked not to one family but to a single nation: our South African family.

Access: https://univofpretoria.on.worldcat.org/oclc/36350053

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