Abstract
DR. G. ARNOLD, director of the National Museum of Southern Rhodesia, Bulawayo, writes to point out that some confusion would appear to have arisen in reference to the proposal to establish a museum for Zimbabwe, reported incorrectly to be intended as a 'National' museum (see NATURE, July 9, p. 65). The proposed museum, Dr. Arnold states, is to be a small one-roomed building, in which will be exhibited some of the original antiquities which have been found in that neighbourhood, and also plaster casts of finds which are now the property of the British Museum and of other museums in Southern Rhodesia and Cape Town. The National Museum of Southern Rhodesia, already in existence at Bulawayo, was formerly the Rhodesian Museum, which was founded in 1901 by the Rhodesia Scientific Association and the Rhodesia Chamber of Mines jointly. From 1902 the Government of Southern Rhodesia contributed to maintenance an annual grant equal in amount to the subscriptions guaranteed by the founding bodies and an annual contribution from the Bulawayo Muni cipality ; but in 1936 the Government, acting on a recommendation made by the Museums Commission, of which Sir Henry Miers was chairman, took over the Museum under an Act of Parliament of Southern Rhodesia, and constituted it the National Museum of Southern Rhodesia. The control is vested in a Board of Trustees appointed by the Governor. It includes departments of zoology, entomology, geology, and ethnology, prehistory and national history. Under the provisions of the Act, the Board is also empowered, subject to the approval of the Governor, to acquire by agreement any existing museum in the Colony, and also, if directed by the Governor, to establish and maintain any new museum in the Colony. The number of visitors in the first year under the Board of Trustees was 24,585, excluding natives, and in the year ending December 31, 1937, 23,501.
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National Museum of Southern Rhodesia. Nature 142, 505–506 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142505c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142505c0