Map of Africa annotated by Cecil John Rhodes

Map of Africa produced by Stanford with annotations made by Cecil John Rhodes indicating his projected railways.

A more detailed administrative/biographical history of Cecil John Rhodes can be found under reference GB 161 MSS.Afr.s.227.

Cecil John Rhodes was born on the 5 July 1853 at Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire and educated at Bishop's Stortford Grammar School. In 1870 he emigrated to Natal and made a fortune in the Kimberley diamond mines. In 1880 he founded the De Beers Mining Company. Rhodes dreamed of building a British Empire in Africa that stretched from the Cape to Cairo. In 1885 he persuaded the British government to form a protectorate over Bechuanaland (now Botswana). In 1889 he founded the British South Africa Company, which occupied Mashonaland and Matabeleland, thus forming Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe). Rhodes was prime minister of Cape Colony (1890-1896). The discovery of his role in Leander Starr Jameson's attempt to overthrow Paul Kruger in the Transvaal (Jameson's Raid, 1895-1896) led to his resignation. He died on the 26 March 1902 in Muizenberg, Cape Colony. By his will he established the Rhodes scholarships at Oxford University.

Bodleian reader's ticket required.

A more detailed administrative/biographical history of Cecil John Rhodes can be found under reference GB 161 MSS.Afr.s.227.

Collection level description created by Marion Lowman, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.

Administrative/Biographical History compiled with reference to Philip's Encyclopedia (1999).

The library holds a card index of all manuscript collections in its reading room.

Listed as no. 36 in Manuscript Collections of Africana in Rhodes House Library, Oxford, compiled by Louis B. Frewer (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1968).

No reproduction or publication of personal papers without permission. Contact the library in the first instance.