Judge Farlam and Professor Phillips came to visit our resident archivist and school historian, Dr. Paul Murray this month to talk about Bishops' hidden gem in our museum. This is a very valuable collection of close to 100 volumes, brought out annually by the Historical Publications South Africa (HISPA) which is a treasure for historians wanting to research aspects of South Africa's historiography - as in these apt words:

the words spoken and written by a range of men and women from southern Africa’s past 

(Taken from the HISPA website:  https://hipsa.org.za/)

Judge Farlam is a Member of the Council, and Prof. Howard Phillips the Cairman of the Council, who has written extensively about HISPA and the role it has played in preserving historical accounts of the past.  To find out more about the interesting work of HISPA, CLICK HERE or on the icon below.

Historical Publications Southern Africa (formerly the Van Riebeeck Society) was founded in 1918 with the purpose of making primary sources available in a readable and enjoyable form to anyone interested in southern African history.

(Taken from the HISPA website:  https://hipsa.org.za/)

Bishops's Archives and Museum, has been asked to become a member of the society.  There is already an account of a former student from the school, John Xavier Merriman, in four volumes that is in the Bishops collection.  For a more detailed account of these  CLICK HERE.

The society usually produces one major publication per year which makes it very special.  Dr. Murray has been invited to collaborate on one such publication that will be released in 2026.   The exact topic of the publication is still to be finalised.  How exciting to be involved in history making and recording!

If you would like to visit the museum and see the collection or use any part of it for research purposes, please contact Dr. Paul Murray at [email protected] 

If anyone has any spare volumes in their possession that they would like to donate to our archives, and that would supplement the collection, please also get in touch.  We would be honoured to house and preserve them with the current collection with an acknowledgement of the donor (unless she / he wish to remain anonymous).