THE THINGS THEY HAVE MADE WILL LIVE FOREVER - THE ESTELLE-HAMILTON-WELSH COLLECTION IN THE F.S.-MALAN-MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY-OF-FORT-HARE

Recent changes have given particular significance to portrayals of Afr ican cultures in South African museums and to the relationship between collectors and those front whom they collect. This article examines t he history of a collection of artefacts, mainly from the Eastern Cape in South Africa, gathered from the 1880s to the 1940s by Estelle Hamil ton Welsh and her mother, and now housed in the F.S. Malan Museum, Uni versity of Fort Hare. The collector used her links with authority and her economic resources to build the collection. However, to ease conta ct with and gather material from Africans she also turned to advantage the social and political marginality that characterised white women.. .a marginality that enabled a limited transgression of accepted roles. Changing perceptions of the collection in terms of scholarly recognit ion and popular display are also examined. The article concludes that in a society marked by profound divisions of class, race and wealth, c ollecting of this type is inevitably a deeply ambiguous activity.