In 2008, Dr. H.L. and Mrs. Pamel Sussmann donated a superb collection of books and pamphlets – 221 items in total – on South Africa. From the second (and best) edition of John Barrow’s Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa (London, 1806) to centennial issues of newspapers from the 1970s, this is a collection unrivalled in Canada that will enhance the Fisher Library’s rapidly expanding holdings of travel literature. Other notable items are William Burchell’s Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa (London, 1822–1824); Reverend John Campbell’s Travels in Africa (London, 1815) and Travels in South Africa: a second journey (London, 1822). The earliest item in the donation is Sir Thomas Herbert’s A Relation of Some Yeares Travaile into Afrique, here in the first edition printed in London in 1634. There are also French, Dutch, and German explorers’ accounts, including an edition of François Le Vaillant’s Voyage…dans l’ interieur de l’Afrique in two volumes with the suppressed plates appended.
Images from the collection can be seen below.
