Lee, Neil

History of the collection

The Neil Lee Collection is an important collection of 20 000 slides of South African rock art and was presented to the wits Rock Art Research Unit on 17 August 1995. Many of the slides depict art works which have either deteriorated seriously or have disappeared completely. Importance also lies in the thoroughness of the recordings. The sites visited were meticulously covered and the photographs annotated in detail. The collection was built up by Neil Lee during 40 years of loving research conducted when his position as technical director at Lascon Lighting Industries would allow. In a sense, the collection was born in the Middle East during the Second World War when Neil -then a member of RAF- became passionately interested in archaeological sites in which he was surrounded. When he moved to Durban with his South African wife, his enthusiasm for archaeology was channeled into rock art and his first studies took place in Natal under the guidance of Robby Steel, then a Giants Castle ranger and later an archaeological technician at Wits. Over the years, Neil has written articles for archaeological and popular magazines, has lectured in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States and with Bert Woodhouse, has published a book called "Art on the Rocks". The Neil Lee Collection augments what is probably the largest archive of Bushman painting records in the world and will be invaluable in the further understanding of this art form. Read Less
Background of the Recorder

Neil Lee was born on February 9th 1921 in Sidmouth, Devon, England. Neil schooled in England and excelled in history. At the start of World War II he joined the Royal Air Force. He served much of the war in Egypt and Libya where he developed a keen interest in archaeology as he was able to visit many of the famous sites. He married Elaine in 1947 and, after the war, he moved to Elaine's homeland of South Africa. Their first house was on the outskirts of Durban and Neil worked for Barlo, in the electrical department. Before the war, Elaine had been a teacher in Vryheid and one of her students had been Robbie Steel. After schooling, Robbie was appointed as a Game ranger in the Giant's Castle area of the central Drakensberg. He encouraged Neil and Elaine to visit him and asked Neil to help him to start photographing rock art sites in the area. Neil's first photographs were taken in Njuba shelter and he was soon hooked. He realised that close-up photography was the only way to photograph San rock art and therefore bought a good camera and a series of inter-connecting close-up lenses. In this way he pioneered close-up photography of rock art in South Africa. In 1952 Neil was headhunted to be the technical manager for African Lamps and Thorn Electrical Industries in Johannesburg. At a party in 1953 he was approached by a man called Bert Woodhouse who asked to accompany Neil on his next field trip. This was the start of a partnership that would last for more than three decades and which saw Neil and Bert recording rock art in many areas, but particularly in the Free State. They spent every holiday and free weekend surveying for and recording rock art, often accompanied by their wives. Their base for eight years was an empty farmhouse near Slabberts, kindly made available to them by a local farmer. But, as time went on, they found themselves having to travel further and further away to find new sites and eventually they had to leave this base. Most of their work was privately funded, for a few years the work was supported by the CSIR and by Anglo American who eventually paid for the collection to be donated to the University of the Witwatersrand. The decades of recording rock art culminated in the publication of a book called Art on the Rocks of South Africa in 1970