During the first nine decades of Bloemfontein’s existence as capital of either a Boer republic or a British territory, the city received an impressive array of royal visitors from abroad, particularly from Britain. While all of them visited Bloemfontein as part of a tour of the central region or the whole country, they either insisted or were keen on visiting the city.
Almost 150 years ago, Bishop Charles Jolivet and four Sisters of the Holy Family Congregation in Pietermaritzburg arrived in Bloemfontein by ox wagon to establish a Catholic school and convent. The newly built red-brick double-story convent building, designed by the talented Bishop Jolivet, stood at the top end of Green Street behind the First Raadsaal. Entrance to the property was obtained from the nearby Eunice Road (President Brand Street).
In a remarkable contribution to science and biodiversity, six researchers at the National Museum have described 62 new species over the past five years. This is according to results published in the Five-Year Strategic Plan End Term Report for the period ending March 2025.
According to Sharon Snell, CEO of the Museum, these new species have all been described in leading international scientific journals. These discoveries highlight both the richness of our natural heritage and the importance of museum collections. Many of the new species were described following recent field expeditions, but others came to light while curating old museum specimens, some of which were collected many decades ago.
The production and exhibition of replicas of archaeological material were a very significant and serious enterprise by museums in the late nineteenth-century Europe. Replicas included plaster casts, watercolour copies, brass rubbings, paper mosaics, and from the 1850s onwards, photographs.
When one looks at a spider, many describe the creature as creepy, scary, venomous or dangerous. On the other hand, many ancient cultures associated the spider with cunning, determination and creation. While scorpions and ticks also feature in a couple of ancient myths, they are not nearly as popular as spiders, with even the scientific name of the taxonomic class that includes all arachnids, Arachnida, named after a character from an ancient Greek myth (Arachne).