Duggan-Cronin Gallery

Description

The Duggan-Cronin Gallery in Kimberley displays over 8,000 photographs of the Northern Cape region taken by Alfred Duggan-Cronin over a period of 20 years since 1897. These photographs illustrate much of the traditional heritage of the region, and showcase its history superbly in a manner with which no other medium could have achieved.

The gallery was constructed in 1889 by JB Currey, manager of The London and South African Exploration Company, and was initially called “The Lodge”. It was consequently purchased by De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd who donated it to the Kimberley City Council on the condition that it displays the Duggan-Cronin photographs.

The photographer Alfred Duggan-Cronin came to Kimberley in 1897 and worked in the De Beers compound where he started interacting with many individuals from local tribes who were working as miners there. He recorded his interactions with these people through photography, and started making an album to record his collection. He later took an expedition, sponsored by Carnegie Trust, to the main tribal area. The goal of this expedition was explicitly to take photographs of people untouched by Western influence. He was able to capture their traditional lifestyle in camera which made his collection highly authentic.

Some of his popular collections were that of Bushman and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa. The Bantu tribe collection was extended to incorporate original items of their artwork which includes beadwork, woodcarvings, iron tools, pottery and their costumes.