Stellenbosch University Museum to open 100 artefacts for 100 years exhibition

The “100 artefacts for a 100 years” exhibition that will be held at the Stellenbosch University Museum in October aims to give people a visual experience of the past through the objects on display.

Professor Matilde Burden, the museum’s senior curator and researcher, explained that the exhibition’s aim is also to tell interesting stories that could be found in Stellenbosch University’s (SU) 100 year history through the displays.

Although there will not be one object per year for the exhibition, it will be able to give visitors a view of objects

that have frequently been used at the university.

“What we are trying to do is to give people an overview of objects that have been used at the university that are interesting; things with interesting stories,” Burden said. “Some stories are beautiful and some quite sad.”

The displays at the exhibition have been donated by different faculties, residences, sporting clubs from SU, and families whose past generations were students and staff at the university.

Burden explained that during the collection of artefacts, there were many opportunities for rare ones to be discovered because different societies have come and gone as the years progressed in the university’s history.

For the senior curator, the biggest challenge lies in evenly distributing the artefacts on display throughout the years during collection and getting donations from residences on the SU campus as there is little response from them.

“The hostels are very difficult to work with because the students just don’t react. If they do, they are very overprotective of their objects and they don’t want to give them to the museum even though it’s on loan.”

Burden explained that what makes it harder to work with the student residences is the fact that they need to keep the donated objects for the duration of the exhibition which is two years.

Some of the donated artefacts include an old undergraduate degree certificate from the year 1923, and a vinyl from the late 1940s that was used for the old tradition of “Songfees” which was very similar to the Ser group performances although the performing groups were larger.

Sumarie Ellis, the research assistant at the museum, explained the hopes that she has in terms of the exhibition’s impact.

“I hope that the people will see that everything tells a story. Sometimes we don’t realise something as simple as a hat or cassette could tell a story and it plays a part in history,” she said.

Ellis explained her challenges in tracing some of the artefacts that have been donated to the exhibition.

“It gets very difficult tracing these objects because some don’t have a name or date on them so you have to search for it and at times you don’t know where to begin,” she said. “Sometimes we find some really interesting stories. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

The upcoming exhibition has been widely anticipated especially among students interested in history. For example, Setshaba Aaron (23), a BA Honours student in History, explained the importance of exhibitions such as this one.

“Artefacts are primary sources and with a lot of components of history, things can be manipulated to tell a different story,” he said. “But an artefact is one of the closest ways you can connect with the past because they are a physical representation of a theme or idea you could be looking at.”

Aaron also said that artefacts offer a glimpse into the ideologies of the past as their preservation could point to a bigger issue.

“You get an impression of what people held closest to their hearts. Obviously, a lot of things got destroyed over time but you should ask yourself, ‘why was this object not destroyed?’”

“So, such an exhibition can show what people really cared about all these years,” he added.