Ugandan Society and the National Museum

I visited the ‘Uganda Society’ whilst searching for some historical maps to assist my study of the development of Kampala with particular focus on areas of industry, commerce and trade. The Uganda Society is a literary, cultural and scientific society that was founded in 1923. They have a library hosted in one of the rooms of the Uganda National Museum; it has a range of historical information in the form of maps, photographs, journals, newspaper articles and more. I spent some time looking through their maps and picking out pieces to study in further detail.

Whilst at the society library, I visited the National Museum, one of the oldest standing buildings in Kampala ( built 1952-1954). The building displays a number of collections of Uganda's cultural heritage. It was designed by German architect and city planner, Ernst May, who was invited to Uganda in 1945 by British protectorate authorities to develop a plan for the expansion of the Kampala. Ernst May's planning strategies featured significantly in my reading before coming to Kampala, though I was not as aware of his architectural projects. Visiting this museum allowed me to see his influence on the city and the architectural forms within it from a different angle. I was particularly interested in the variety of roofing strategies which used a range of materials and controlled the amount of natural light coming into the exhibition spaces. I took a number of photographs to record these qualities: