Correspondence of Cecil John Rhodes (2)
MSS. Afr. s. 227
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Description
From Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts
This is an extract only. For more information, see the catalogue record in Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts.
Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts contains descriptions of the Bodleian Libraries’ archival collections, including post-1500 manuscripts. Some manuscripts with records in other catalogues are also described here as part of a description of a larger archive. Learn more.
Title
Correspondence of Cecil John Rhodes (2)
Shelfmark
MSS. Afr. s. 227
Summary
Letter books, 1897-1902; telegrams, 1893-1903; index, including for collection MSS. Afr. s. 228).
Associated place
Africa, Southern -- History
Date
1893-1903
Language
English
Physical extent
9 boxes
Custodial history
The papers comprising collections MSS. Afr. s. 227 and 228 were previously known as the British South Africa Company Papers because they were housed in the Company's archives before being given to the Rhodes Trustees. They comprise the major part of Rhodes's working papers and also some personal material. Other papers belonging to the Company were sent to Rhodesia, therefore escaping the air-raid which damaged its premises in 1941.
The papers were catalogued after Rhodes's death by one of his secretaries, who inherited an existing filing system from his Principal Secretary. The ensuing catalogue of out-letters and telegrams (MSS. Afr. s. 227) was bound with a catalogue of in-letters, telegrams and related papers (MSS. Afr. s. 228). However, despite the provision of a small index, this handwritten list was complicated by the sometimes arbitrary arrangement, numbering and foliation of the papers themselves and by subsequent efforts to improve the arrangement by transferring certain items from one subject heading to another before binding. Other papers were removed during research into Rhodes by L.L. Milner and located among papers transferred to the library by his widow (MSS. Afr. s. 229/V), while some were removed, possibly for exhibition purposes, and bound in error among MSS. Afr. t. 5.
Subject
19th century
20th century
