'Kimberley - where Cecil Rhodes was besieged - looking northwest from the famous DeBeers Diamond Mine', 1899

Stereoscopic photograph, Boer War, 1899.

Diamonds were discovered in South Africa in 1867. The De Beers mining company was founded in 1888 by Cecil Rhodes. He went to South Africa in 1870 hoping to become a farmer, but instead mined diamonds. By 1891 De Beers controlled around 90 per cent of the world's diamond mines, the most important of which was at Kimberley in the northern Cape.

From a box of 89 stereoscopic cards entitled, 'South African War through the Stereoscope Pt 2 Vol 1', published by Underwood and Underwood and produced by Works and Sun Sculpture Studios, 1901 (c).