Established in 1977, Simon's Town Museum is a community

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

situated in

Simon's Town Simon's Town (), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of Simon's Bay in False Bay, on the eastern s ...

, a coastal town in the

Western Cape Province The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabi ...

of the Republic of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is a province-aided museum which receives support from the

Government of the Western Cape The Western Cape province of South Africa is governed in a parliamentary system in which the people elect the Provincial Parliament, and the parliament elects the Premier as head of the executive. The Premier leads a cabinet of provincial mini ...

Province.

History

The Simon's Town Museum was established in 1977 by a group of enthusiastic volunteers, the MOTHS (War veterans of the

Memorable Order of Tin Hats The Memorable Order of Tin Hats (M.O.T.H.) was founded in 1927 by Charles Evenden as a brotherhood of South African former front-line soldiers. The ideal is to help comrades in need, either financially or physically; and to remember all service ...

) of the “Snoekie Shellhole” and the Simon's Town Historical Society. At first, the Simon's Town Museum was located in the old Headmaster's house, but its rapid expansion led the board of trustees to look for new premises. They bought and renovated The Residency, an historical building erected by Governor Joachim van Plettenberg in 1777, to serve as the winter residence of the Dutch East India Company Governor at the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

, when on official business at Simon's Bay. To date, it remains the home of the Simon's Town Museum.

Function and themes

The Simon's Town Museum records and preserves all aspects of the history of the Simon's Town community and portrays the vibrant past of this small, maritime port, whose position on The Cape Sea Route, resulted in a history which is intertwined with that of many nations around the world.

Development of Simon's Town

From its earliest days Simon's Town was very cosmopolitan in nature. Consequently, the museum depicts pre-colonial history, the establishment of the refreshment station at Simon's Bay by the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

in 1743 and the First and Second British Occupations, from 1795 to 1803 and 1806 to 1957 respectively. The

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

established a permanent base at Simon's Town in 1813 and remained for 144 years.

Apartheid

The greatest tragedy to befall the people of Simon's Town, was the Forced Removals under the

Group Areas Act Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a syste ...

by the ''

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

'' government in 1967. It led to the devastation of the Simon's Town community. One of the Simon's Town Museum's most important undertakings has been Project Phoenix. It was launched in 1996 to record and preserve the history of the former residents of Simon's Town and added much new material to the museum's collection. Former residents, museum staff and volunteers meet regularly and work together to ensure that the museum's collections become more representative of the Simon's Town community.

Other activities

In addition to its exhibitions and projects, Simon's Town Museum undertakes a number of education and outreach programmes and regularly provides activities linked to South Africa's national days.

References

Citations

External links

* {{official website, http://simonstown.org/ 1977 establishments in South Africa Museums established in 1977 Museums in Cape Town