Cornelis Jacobus Swierstra

Cornelis Jacobus Swierstra, son of Johannes N. Swierstra and his wife, Joukje Meyer, studied entomology at the University of Amsterdam and gained some museum experience in the Netherlands before he came to the South African Republic (Transvaal) early in 1897 and settled in Pretoria. Around May that year he was appointed as entomological assistant at the Staatsmuseum (later the Transvaal Museum, now the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History) under its first full-time director, Dr J.W.B. Gunning . He was also put in charge of the museum's ethnographic collection. In 1899 he became a citizen of the South African Republic and at the start of the Anglo-Boer War in October that year was called up for military duty in the Hollander Corps. After the British occupation of Pretoria, at Gunning's request, he was re-appointed to his post at the museum in September 1900, with responsibility for the entomological, ethnographical and historical collections. He spent his entire career at the museum, progressing to the rank of first assistant (assistant director) in 1906 and serving as director from 1922 to his retirement in 1946. He was married in 1900 or 1901 to Niesje Swierstra , born Kwak, with whom he had a son and a daughter. After her death in July 1911 he married (in 1912) Antonia Johanna Franken, with whom he also had a son and a daughter. Dippenaar, N.J. (ed.) Staatsmuseum 100 . Pretoria: National Cultural History Museum, 1992. National Archives Repository (TAB), Source MHG, Vol. 0, Ref. 1758/52: death notice, Cornelis Jacobus Swierstra. National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). Documents relating to Swierstra, Cornelis Jacobus / Swierstra, C.J. South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Report , 1905/6, 1918: Lists of members. Transvaal [Colony]. Transvaal Administration Reports for 1902 , pp. I.1-3: Pretoria Museum and Zoological Gardens.