Memories in mortar, the language of bank buildings : a study of the Nedbank historical collective

Abstract

Memories in Mortar, The Language of Bank Buildings: A study of the Nedbank Historical Collective examines the question of ‘To what extent do corporate archives impact broader South African history and identity-making?’. For this, the archive and architecture of the Nedbank Historical Collective, housed in the Nedbank Heritage & Archival Repository, a merged assemblage of over 20 entities which were instituted from as early as 1831 have been examined in this thesis. This research has relied on the records and corporate archives of Nedbank Group Ltd, with the predominant use of photographs (supported by documents) to explore the concept of institutional identity. My entry point into the research was through an exploration of the records around bank buildings across southern Africa that were once associated with Nedbank or other institutions now contained in the collective. The many and varied buildings, when read together, reflected material acts of corporate identity making, and through these and other components of the collection, I have explored the bank’s identity as an institution. Through this reading of the archive, the research is concerned with how the various facets of the Nedbank Historical Collective form part of social and public histories in southern Africa.