Thomas Baines, the explorer and artist, is buried in the city of Durban. KZN Literary Tourism project leader Lindy Stiebel, a Baines aficionado, co-ordinated the development of a collaborative, CD-Rom project on his ‘Great Map’ of the Northern Goldfields.
This CD, Thomas Baines and the ‘Great Map’ is the result of a joint project comprising South African and Australian scholars working on Thomas Baines’s “Map of the Gold Fields of South Africa" . In 1875, Baines made two trips up to modern day Zimbabwe in search of gold bearing sites for the Natal Land and Colonisation Company at the time of the Lobengula succession crisis. One of the large maps which he drew on this trip is the subject of study for this interdisciplinary team coordinated by Dr Lindy Stiebel (English Studies, University of KwaZulu- Natal, Durban). The other team members are Dr.Jane Carruthers (History, UNISA), Prof. Vivian Forbes (chief cartographer, University of Western Australia), Prof. Norman Etherington (History, University of Western Australia) and the Campbell Collections staff (University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban).
The CD aims to make Baines’s manuscript map of 1872 which is owned by the Campbell Collections, more accessible to scholars and the general public alike. By virtue of its very large size, the map is at present unwieldy for scholars to work with, and, furthermore, because of its valuable and fragile nature, its preservation is threatened by frequent handling. The CD reproduces the map in digital form, plus accompanies the map with three essays which situate the map historically (Carruthers), cartographically (Forbes) and discursively (Stiebel).
The foreword, highlighting the potential for South-South dialogue, which is a feature of this project, is written by Prof. Norman Etherington whose workshop entitled “Mapping the Conquest” in Perth (2000) sparked the thought that led to Dr Stiebel pulling this eminent group together. Four of Baines’s paintings relevant to the Gold Fields expedition also appear in the CD. All legible place names on the map have been bookmarked for easy click-and-find access and the accompanying essays extensively hyperlinked such that movement between text, map, and paintings is only a click away. Thanks to cutting edge technology, scholars will, for the first time, be able to access this map in Perth, London or Johannesburg plus have the benefit of multi-disciplinary scholarly commentary and illustrations on hand.
Thomas Baines and the ‘Great Map’ is the first electronic publication by Campbell Collections and is intended to be the first in a series of CDs which will showcase significant holdings in this prestigious Africana collection. The Australian launch of the CD took place at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (AFSAAP) held 4-6 October 2001 at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Initial response at the conference was most enthusiastic and the major universities represented at the conference purchased the CD for their libraries and archives.
Did you know?
Thomas Baines is buried in the old cemetery in central Durban
Did you know?
Thomas Baines died at his aunt’s boarding house (now a student residence ‘Walsingham’) in Currie Road.
Copies of Thomas Baines and the ‘Great Map’ are available through KZN Literary Tourism.
