A NELM Satellite Museum

NELM owns two small satellite museums, one devoted to the life and works of Olive Schreiner in Cradock and the other the Eastern Star Press Museum in Grahamstown which houses 19th-Century printing equipment.

The Schreiner House Museum

One of the "jewels in the crown" of the National English Literary Museum, the Schreiner House in Cradock was bought by AA Mutual Life and restored with funds provided by the company and by the Cradock Municipality. The house was donated to NELM on 7 November 1986.

Olive Schreiner went to Cradock in 1867 when she was 12, in the wake of the collapse of her parental home after her father's insolvency. Her brother Theo (23 in 1867), who had become headmaster of the local public school after teaching for four years in Grahamstown, was head of the household, with their sister Ettie (17) as housekeeper. In the following year their younger brother Will, then 11, joined them. The four remained together until 1870, when Theo and Will went to seek their fortune at the diamond fields. Ettie stayed in Cradock to run the small school; Olive, at the age of 15, left to become a governess with the Orpen family in Barkly East.

Olive returned to the Cradock area some years later when she worked as a governess on some farms in the district, during which time she started to write The Story of an African Farm. Her ties with Cradock were strengthened in 1894 when she married Samuel "Cron" Cronwright, who at the time farmed Krantzplaas. Her attachment to the district is evidenced by her desire to be buried on Buffelskop, south of Cradock, where in 1921 she was re-interred.

The house, at 9 Cross Street, Cradock, may be visited between 08h00 and 12h45 and 14h00 and 16h30 on weekdays only. There is a small bookshop in the house focussing on Schreiner's works, and other writers of the Karoo. The Curator, Brian Wilmot, may be contacted during work hours at (048) 881 5251.