The Special Collections Book of the Week this week is:

The Life and Work of Thomas Baines by Jane Carruthers and Marion Arnold

“The desire of travel once roused within my heart was not so easily to be lulled to rest.”

Born on the 27th of November 1820, Baines left England at the age of 21. He travelled extensively in Africa and Australia before he died in Durban in 1875. The name of Thomas Baines is well known today, but this is the first comprehensive evaluation of his life and work. His journals meticulously his encounters with the people and landscape of South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. From the perspective of the late twentieth century, Baines emerges as a talented and interesting Victorian artist conditioned by his British heritage, but influenced by the spacious African continent. His work is the confluence of his cultural values and the way he translated his experiences into visual language.

This interpretation provides a deeper understanding of the man and his art.

Access: https://univofpretoria.on.worldcat.org/oclc/34996308

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 t hem accessible to students, staff and researchers, as well as safeguarding them for future generations.