Grahamstown Museums

• Updated: November 2015
  Fort Selwyn , Gunfire Hill (Settlers' Monument)

  Used as a lookout point for the garrison in early Grahamstown years. The cannon was used as a warning signal and was fired every morning by the Royal Artillery to alert citizens of the time read from a sundial within the Fort.

  • Museums
• Updated: November 2015
  The Observatory Museum

  View the only Camera Obscura in the Southern Hemisphere. The Observatory is a unique multi-storeyed 19th century Victorian building (originally a shop and home), but is now a museum. This house had a place in the identification...

  • Museums
  • 046 622 3641
• Updated: November 2015
  International Library of African Music (ILAM)

  Founded by the late Hugh Tracey in 1954, it is the largest archive of African music in sub Saharan Africa and has a wonderful collection of traditional African musical instruments and recordings.

  • Museums
  • 046 603 8557
  • Visit Website
• Updated: November 2015
  History Museum

  The History Museum in Grahamstown reflects the 1820 Settler history and art of the Xhosa people of the Eastern Cape including bea dwork. The museum houses art galleries in which exhibitions change regularly.

  • Museums
  • 046 622 2312
• Updated: November 2015
  Eastern Star Gallery

  Named after the Eastern Star newspaper (printed in Grahamstown) which first appeared on streets in 1871. View printing machinery and other historical items related to printing, including John Fairbairn’s editorial desk at this...

  • History
  • Museums
  • 046 622 7042
• Updated: November 2015
  Selmar Schonland Herbarium

  Named after the distinguished botanist, Selmar Schonland, who did much to establish botany in South Africa, the herbarium (a pressed plant library) is affiliated to the Rhodes University Department of Botany and the Albany...

  • Museums
  • 046 622 2312
• Updated: January 2017
  National English Literary Museum (NELM)

  NELM promotes the reading and appreciation of all forms of imaginative South African literature in English.

  • Museums
  • 046 622 7042
• Updated: November 2015
  Natural Science Museum

  This museum is the second oldest museum in SA (est. 1855). The Natural Sciences Museum houses permanent collections of terrestrial insects, freshwater invertebrates, freshwater fishes, a plant herbarium, hall of birds and...

  • Museums
  • 046 622 2312
• Updated: November 2015
  SA Library for the Blind

  Founded by Miss Josie Wood in 1919, the SA Library for the Blind provides many and varied audio and Braille services for the sight impaired.

  • Museums
  • 046 622 7226
  • Visit Website
• Updated: November 2015
  South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity

  Home to the famous coelacanth fish (the second one ever found) as well as many other fish exhibits. “A few days before Christmas in 1938, a Coelacanth was caught at the mouth of the Chalumna River on the east coast of South...

  • Museums
  • 046 603 5800