The Harold and Eda Steafel Collection of music instruments has been housed in the Unisa Library since 1993. It forms the core of the Unisa Music Instrument Collection and comprises 350 music instruments.
Mr Steafel combined his profession of mechanical engineer and his hobbies of music and model building by constructing models of musical instruments. He started to buy the real instruments in order to build accurate models. He transferred his interest to full scale instruments and he collected musical instruments for nearly 50 years.
Mr Steafel restored some of the instruments as well as building others. His expertise contributed greatly to the restoration of musical instruments in South Africa. The collection includes instruments from Asia, Europe and Africa. There are, for example, a Chinese funeral gong, a Japanese koto, and violins, spinets and harps from Europe. The African instruments are predominantly drums, sansa, ivory horns and musical bows. The Unisa Music Instrument Collection also includes some pianos. The Collection may be viewed in the Archives by appointment.
Last modified: 2023/08/07