Peter Genge Collection

Peter Genge worked as a National Monuments Inspector in Bulawayo from 1980 into the 1990s. As well his interest in all forms of archaeology and history, he had a particular fascination with rock art. He visited hundreds of rock art sites across Zimbabwe. His official site records were all lodged within the archive of the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ). This collections comprises his own private recordings, many made during his retirement.

The Peter Genge Collection contains a minimum record of 1,100 rock art sites. He recorded the sites in a series of field notebooks with sketches, notes, and geographic locations in UTM. Photographs were taken on either 35mm negative or slide film with film numbers and dates noted in the relevant notebook pages. All entries had a corresponding site card that listed the respective notebook pages and image references.

The entire Peter Genge collection has been digitised by the Digitisation Centre of Western Australia to preservation standard, thanks to funding support from the Research Office of the University of Western Australia. The digital collection comprises 3,744 field notebook pages, 4,203 slides and 1,545 photographs/negatives. The collection is still in the process of being organised and made searchable.

Collection summary: A collection of recordings of Zimbabwean rock art made by Peter Genge