HERITAGE and HISTORY WESTERN EASTERN NORTHERN CAPE SOUTH AFRICA
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A B O U T
S A N S I T E S F A R M S M I S S I O N S T A T I O N S P L A C E S o f W O R S H I P T O W N S & V I L L A G E S B A S I C V E R N A C U L A R W O R L D H E R I T A G E C A P E D U T C H C E M E T E R I E S a n d G R A V E Y A R D S M E M O R I A L S R A I L J U N C T I O N S N E W S & I S S U E S P R O J E C T S N E W S L E T T E R S H E R I T A G E G U I D E S R O U T E S L I N K S C O N T A C T h e r i t a g e c h r o n i c l e s a e: [email protected] Click image to download a PDF copy
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This project has essentially been inspired by two photographers, without whom we would not have the references that are now so essential in heritage conservation circles. Elliott's apparent reason to document has not in any way altered in the 21st century*.
Thomas Daniel Ravenscroft 1851 (Swellendam) - 1948 (Hermanus) He started taking photographs in the late 1800s. In the first decade of the 20th century he was commissioned to take pictures in South Africa and Rhodesia. He later opened a studio in Van Riebeeck Street, Malmesbury before moving to Hermanuspieterusfontein (Hermanus) in the 1930s, where he spent the remainder of his life. Arthur Elliott 1870 (New York) - 1938 (Cape Town) He left a legacy of some 10,000 photographs of the early 20th century Cape. Orphaned at the age of 12 he relocated to Scotland, then at 20 left for South Africa. He arrived in Cape Town from Johannesburg in 1900 as a war refugee, and lived at 134 Long Street. He practised as a photographer, holding major exhibitions in 1910, 1913, 1926, 1930 and 1938, which enabled him to make a living through sales. *Elliott seems to have been determined to record as much as he was able of the old farmhouses, buildings and streets that were rapidly disappearing with the ever-growing pressure to modernise.
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