Published in 1976 by the Africana Museum when Johannesburg celebrated its 90th birthday , this is an important commemorative small volume . It is a reproduction of an album of pencil sketches by Ida Mae Stone and her husband , architect, Harry Clayton residents of early Johannesburg . These charming almost amateur sketches give an impression of the landscape and some of the original buildings of the pioneering gold mining town of Johannesburg and the capital of the Transvaal republic , Pretoria between 1886 and 1890 . there are also some sketches of other mining ventures and locations in the country. The original sketch book is a rare survival from the thinly documented past . Johannesburg in 1888 was a hastily erected settlement of cottages, corrugated iron structures and survivals of earlier farmhouses in the veld. The small mining camp grew rapidly and by 1890 more substantial buildings appeared such as several chuches, some double storey residences , the hospital , jerry built hotels and the Palace buildings . The ornately decorated Palace building in Rissik St survived until 1957. This is a meticulously produced but unpretentious little book . It has the texture and look of an old survival or souvenir of happy days spent on the African veld . In itself the commemmorative volume is a period piece as it is unlikely that such a book reflecting early colonists and expatriates' random impressions would be of interest to what is now called Museum Africa.. The book is a tribute to the distinguished former City Librarian , Anna H Smith who edited the book and presumably researched and wrote the biographical introduction and notes. The book is a delightful addition to a Johannesburg book collection . It also reminds us that a hundred years is a short time in the history of a city but that within a century a modern city took shape . ( )