For the Genadendal Mission Museum to review
This page is waiting for the Genadendal Mission Museum to check it. It is published now so that they can see how it fits with the rest of the site. Until they have approved the text, it may change. Questions for them:
- Is this description of the museum correct? What would you like to change?
- Is the Friends of the Genadendal Mission Museum described correctly, and how can people join?
- Are the tours and school programmes listed still offered?
- How does the museum plan to mark the 300th anniversary in 2038, and may this page say so?
- Should readers reach you through the moderators, or would you like a public contact listed?
The Genadendal Mission Museum is on Moravian Church Square in Genadendal [MS]. Georg Schmidt, a Moravian missionary, started the mission here in 1738. It was the first Moravian mission in South Africa [IC]. The museum preserves the history and culture of the people of the mission station, and their ties with the rest of South Africa and the world [MS]. The museum’s collection was declared a National Cultural Treasure on 8 March 1991 [MS].
Balie’s history of Genadendal, by the museum’s former director, says a museum first opened at Genadendal in 1963, and that the present museum opened in 1987 in the building of 1838 that housed South Africa’s first teachers’ training college [MS]. It says the collection held about 3,000 objects when it was declared a National Cultural Treasure, and grew by about 5,000 more over the next 22 years [MS]. In 2000 the South African Heritage Resources Agency changed the collection’s status, and that of the monuments on Church Square, from national to provincial [MS]. In 2015 the Department of Cultural Affairs named it the best museum in the Cape Province [MS]. Its collections are shown in five buildings: the main museum, a cottage museum, the printing museum, a medical museum, and the wagon house [MS].
The museum has 25 exhibition rooms [MS]. Most of the objects were made and used at the mission station: household equipment, musical instruments, medical equipment, tools, books, printing presses, and Genadendal-made furniture and knives [MS]. The collection includes the oldest fire engine and the oldest pipe organ in South Africa [MS]. Visitors can also see a water mill that is still used to grind flour, and a reconstructed Khoikhoi kraal [MS]. Balie’s history says the mill was restored and began milling again in 1992 [MS].
The museum is one of the main archives of the Moravian Church in South Africa, and holds some of the country’s oldest documents [MS].
Needs
- Donations to the Genadendal Mission Museum Restoration Fund, which supports preservation work and local programmes [MS]
- Members for the Friends of the Genadendal Mission Museum, a group of supporters who give to the museum over time [MS]
Offers
- Guided tours for adults, children, schools, businesses, and retirement groups. Staff can shape a tour to suit the group [MS].
- Free education programmes for schools, linked to the school curriculum: archaeology, local history, medicinal plants, San and Khoikhoi history, and national symbols [MS]
- Community outreach on Mandela Day and Human Rights Day, and a speech contest for International Museums Day [MS]
- Access to the archive for researchers, by request [MS]
- Books for sale at the museum [MS]
How to get involved
Book a tour or a school programme, ask about research, or give to the museum through the museum’s website. For anything else, contact the moderators via How to Submit.
Related
- Forum inaugural meeting, which the museum attended
- Genadendal: A Long Walk, a history of Genadendal by the museum’s former director
- National Heritage Resources Act