MUSEUM STUDIES
The museum services of the Heritage Foundation are responsible for the collection, care and exhibition of museum objects from the Voortrekker Monument Site, as well as the Blood River Site. On the Voortrekker Monument site, there are objects on display within the Voortrekker Monument, the Heritage Centre, the Pioneer Centre and Fort Schanskop. Inside the Heritage Centre is a museum store where heritage treasures are conserved. The space in which the objects are stored and exhibited must meet international museum standards and maintain a certain temperature and humidity. Conservation is an extremely important function of the museum services, where these objects are preserved for future generations.
The museum collection consists of objects dating from the Great Trek, the Anglo-Boer War and the pioneer period. There is also a lot of memorabilia related to the laying of the Voortrekker Monument’s cornerstone during the 1938 Symbolic Ox-wagon Trek, as well as the inauguration of the Voortrekker Monument in 1949. Besides the objects owned by the Heritage Foundation and Voortrekker Monument, there are also loan agreements with other institutions to look after their treasures. It includes art objects such as Pierneef paintings and sculptures by Anton van Wouw and Phil Minnaar.
The Heritage Foundation also often works with other Afrikaner museums to make objects available on loan for some time and set up exhibitions. When special exhibitions are set up that do not date from the above periods, a special collection is established. Research is completed to establish the context of the objects and messages conveyed by the exhibition.
The museum services have an educational responsibility to stimulate the visitor’s curiosity, to make information accessible, and to help communities formulate positions on a subject through interpretation and establishing context for each collection that is put on display.
