Área de identidad
Código de referencia
Título
Fecha(s)
- 1800s-2000s (Creación)
Nivel de descripción
Fondo
Volumen y soporte
199 boxes
Área de contexto
Nombre del productor
Historia biográfica
South African historian and a world authority on the history of the South African mining industry, early trade unionism, medical history and the history of Johannesburg.
She will be remembered for her two masterful works of South African historical scholarship, which were based respectively on her M.A., earned in 1974 at the University of the Witwatersrand and on her Doctoral dissertation for which she was awarded her PhD by Wits in 1990. Her first impressive study was 'A Trade Union Aristocracy: the Transvaal White Working Class and the General Strike of 1913' (1976), published by the African Studies Institute at Wits. In 1994, Wits University Press published her authoritative study, 'White Death: Silicosis on the Witwatersrand Gold Mines 1886-1918'. These two works established Elaine's reputation as a leading historian of the South African gold mining industry. She gathered international accolades and her reputation was enhanced by her journal publications and presentations to a range of international conferences on mining history.
In 1995, Elaine achieved the by no means minor distinction in academic circles of publishing a pioneering article in one of the top rated economic history journals of the time, the Economic History Review (UK) with a path-breaking critical article on a key debate of the decade, 'Outcrop and deep level mining in South Africa before the Anglo-Boer War: re-examining the Blainey thesis'. This frequently cited article brought her scholarship to the attention of an overseas audience and fostered much interest in the complexities of the South African version of mining capitalism and the links between technology, geology and labour issues.
Elaine is additionally remembered for her work, together with Eric Axelson and Edward Tabler, on the publication Baines on the Zambezi, 1858-1859, a prestige collector's limited edition published by the Brenthurst Press in 1982. This book was the eighth book in the first Brenthurst Africana series and remains one of the most sought after.
In 2008, Elaine contributed a major piece on Johannesburg to the New Encyclopaedia of Africa, published in the USA and edited by John Middleton. In her final years, her research took her into the subject of the role of American mining engineers and mining technology in the Witwatersrand gold mining industry; a recent talk on this subject at the Rand Club was received with accolades. Elaine also became interested in Jewish genealogy and in her own extensive family history, and applied her skills of careful scholarly research and data gathering to this new area of interest.
Elaine Katz taught at Wits for many years and she was an excellent, demanding yet· encouraging lecturer and teacher. She was versatile, serving successively as a lecturer and later senior lecturer in the Departments of History, Economic History and Communications Studies at Wits and, following her formal retirement, she held an honorary research fellowship in the Wits History Department from 1995 until her passing.
Extracts with permission from an Obituary, written by Kathy Munroe and published in 'Jewish Affairs', Vol. 72, No. 2.
Institución archivística
Historia archivística
Origen del ingreso o transferencia
The working papers of Elaine Katz were deposited by the family after her death in 2017.
Área de contenido y estructura
Alcance y contenido
The collection contains the research working papers of Elaine Katz, which mainly relate to gold mining on the Witwatersrand, Silicosis in miners, Labour and South African politics, particularly in the Transvaal at the turn of the 20th century.
Valorización, destrucción y programación
Acumulaciones
Sistema de arreglo
The arrangements of the files and index cards have been largely retained in the order in which they were kept by Elaine Katz in her filing cabinets and index card boxes.
Área de condiciones de acceso y uso
Condiciones de acceso
Condiciones
Idioma del material
Escritura del material
Notas sobre las lenguas y escrituras
Características físicas y requisitos técnicos
Instrumentos de descripción
Compiled by Khumbudzo Netshituni, November 2017-May 2018
Uploaded finding aid
Área de materiales relacionados
Existencia y localización de originales
Existencia y localización de copias
Unidades de descripción relacionadas
Área de notas
Notas
SECTION B - INDEX CARDS has been fully digitised and uploaded.
Identificador/es alternativo(os)
Puntos de acceso
Puntos de acceso por materia
Puntos de acceso por lugar
Puntos de acceso por autoridad
Tipo de puntos de acceso
Área de control de la descripción
Identificador de la descripción
Identificador de la institución
Reglas y/o convenciones usadas
Estado de elaboración
Nivel de detalle
Fechas de creación revisión eliminación
2019