1. The Estelle Hamilton-Welsh collection was collected between 1880 and 1940, and consists of objects from the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and the greater KwaZulu-Natal and includes Beadwork, costumes, grass work, wooden artefacts, charms, medicines, weapons, and many other small items of Xhosa, Mfengu, Thembu, Mpondo, Zulu and Ndebele origin.
2. The F.S. Malan collection dated from the mid-1930s and contains a wide range of Southern African ethnographic artefacts. It includes mainly beadwork, cloth, animal skin bags, traditional skirts dyed in red and yellow ochre for girls and women, agricultural implements, traditional hunting weapons, medicines, specimens of edible plants, indigenous divining bones and equipment, as well as carved wooden walking sticks, and reflects a wide spectrum of Southern African cultures such as those of the Xhosa, Mfengu, Thembu, Mpondo, Zulu, Shangaan, Swazi, Venda, Pedi, Sotho, Tlokwa and Ndebele. The artefacts were collected as far as Mpumalanga, the Northern Province, the North West Province and the Free State.
3. The Contemporary South African Art Collection covers a wide range of fine art disciplines such as ethcings, woodcuts, wood-blocks, linocuts, serigraphs, drawings, paintings and sculptures of more than 150 artists. It includes internationally recognised figures such as Gerard Sekoto, George Pemba, Dumile Feni, Sydney Khumalo, John Muafangejo, Lucas Sithole, Ephraim Ngatane, John Mohl, Cyprian Shilakoe, Ezrom Legae and Louis Maqhubela and many more artists.
All of the objects are described in a catalogue which is kept in the office of the Director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Fort Hare, Alice.
