The Ditsong National Museum of Natural History used to be the Transvaal Museum of Natural History, which in turn developed from the 1892 Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek’s Staatsmuseum. Gauteng’s only natural history museum, it is one of the largest of its kind in South Africa. The Ditsong National Cultural History Museum lies on Visagie Street, in the Old Mint, vacated for newer premises in Midrand. It is without doubt one of the most dynamic museums in Pretoria. Home to one of the largest Natural History Collections in South Africa, exhibits at the museum include hominid fossils from the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, skeletons, skins including Mrs Ples which is about 2.1 million years old. ‘Mrs Ples’ is on display at the museum, popularly nicknamed “Mrs Ples” by Dr. Robert Broom, who discovered the skull in 1947 just outside Pretoria, the skull is a world-famous fossil and a favourite among visitors to the museum.
The museum is also home to the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History Library, a science reference library that has been in existence in Pretoria for over a hundred years.
The Museum includes a restaurant that always spoils their clients with a delicious breakfast selection, great lunch with a relax atmosphere and a variety of cuisine from our ala carte menu for dinner. The restaurant also provides catering for group meetings, office functions, special events, outside catering, special lunches and weddings to not less than 120 people.
The National Cultural History Museum consistently displays new and exciting exhibitions alongside its rather appealing permanent exhibitions, which include an exploration of space through the ages, called ‘reach for the stars’, and a rock art exhibition, known as the ‘rainbow collection’. The museum is regarded as a centre for living culture and it focuses on the diversity of the country’s cultures and history of its people. It includes objects, manuscripts, documents, records, photographs and publications on cultural history in all areas in South Africa. Some of the highlights include a Stone Age exhibit, an Iron Age exhibit and historic archaeology sites. There are collections of San rock engravings, Cape Dutch furniture, and of silver and archaeological material. The museum also has an art gallery that displays a rich array of paintings and sculptures from the various cultures of South Africa.
The African Window has a rather creative approach to its displays, and its main intention is to promote living culture through song, dance, drama and visual arts festivals, and to celebrate all South Africans’ heritage through permanent and temporary exhibitions. It has no fewer that five million objects stored in its facilities and the museum has huge collected works of archaeological material. Past exhibitions have included the archaeology and anthropology of the Sotho-Tswana and Venda peoples, Mapungubwe, and the Rain Queen of Modjadji.
