The Medicine Chest

Items

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  Page 175 of the Curiosity CLXXV catalogue

  "The page presents a curated collection of images: a map from the Avian Demography Unit illustrating the distribution of the bataleur Terathopius ecaudatus along the political border, though the bateleur is more frequently found where there is no formal farming; a Ngwato child’s oxhide sandals collected by Isaac Schapera (a British social anthropologist who worked in South Africa and Botswana); a compass; the identification documents of Paula Ensor (previous dean and Professor of Education), who spent time in exile in Botswana; and a Certificate of Registration necessary for movement across borders, all of which are overlaid on top of a large map from the Afrikaans Atlas provided by Rajend Mesthrie of the Department of Linguistics and Southern African Languages that shows the Afrikaans language’s distribution. Contextualising all of these objects in relation to the large map cuts across disciplinary boundaries and illustrates the scope and impact of the colonial and apartheid regimes and their influence on immigration laws, language studies, ornithology and anthropology" (Liebenberg 2021: 193).
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  Quinine and Cinnamon/Quinine en Kaneel

  Bottle of a local remedy bought by Walter Floyd to include with the contents of the chest. The torn label makes it hard to read where it was purchased, but its bi-lingual text suggests that it was used by the Afrikaans speaking population at the time, most probably as part of their ‘Huis Apotheek’. The legible part of the lable states that it is "an instantaneous cold cure" and "invaluable for influenza".