Series 1 - Family and personal

2.86 m of textual records and sound discs

This series contains material relating to the le Riche family generally, to specific members of it – Harding le Riche’s, mother, siblings, wife, children, and grandchildren, personal information about le Riche himself, and his scrapbooks. The files on Professor le Riche contain biographical information, curriculum vitae, and press coverage of his activities, along with files on honours bestowed, memorabilia, a riding accident, and his trip to South Africa in 1964. B2006-0004/004 contains several certificates of awards both loose and in a large album. This series also includes family documents from 1888-1930s. (B2006-0004/001)

The largest single component of this series is the scrapbooks. They contain press clipping of items of family, academic, and political interest, programmes for and invitations to social and professional events, some photographs, the occasional letter, a large number of first day covers, and memorabilia relating to Professor le Riche’s travels and other activities. The first scrapbook (1945-1946) is filed in B2003-0012/001; the later scrapbooks (1964-1966, 1967-1973, 1973-1978, and 1978-1986) are filed in B2003-0012/002 to /005. Scrapbook for 1966-1968 is filed in B2006-0004/004. Loose items associated with scrapbooks dating from 1967 to 1986 are filed in folders in B2003-0012/ 001, /004 and /005, as appropriate.

The series concludes with an album of 9 records, titled “Beyond Antiquity: A series of lectures on the origins of man by Professor Raymond Dart, Professor Emeritus, University of the Witswatersrand, Johnannesburg, South Africa”, with an accompanying printed outline of the lectures. The series was produced by the South African Broadcasting Corporation in 1966, and le Riche was a contributor to it. Raymond Dart had been a professor of anatomy at Wits when le Riche was a student there, and was just beginning his career as an anthropologist. Le Riche was already interested in the subject and some of his friends visited the Sterkfontein caves in August 1936 with Robert Broom, the country’s leading paleontologist, who, a few days later, discovered the first Australopithecus at the site. Dart became famous for his description of the Taung skull, Australopithecus africannus.

1938-2001: B2003-0012/001(01)-(30)
1964-1966: B2003-0012/002
1967-1973: B2003-0012/003
1973-1978: B2003-0012/004(01) – (04)
1978-1986: B2003-0012/005(01)–(02)
1966: B2003-0012/001S
1888-1999: B2006-0004/001(01)-(06)
[193-]-2001: B2006-0004/004

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