This 1849 supplementary catalogue of new acquisitions to the South African Public Library was compiled by the librarian Fredrick Maskew and printed by Saul Solomon, Cape Town. It is appended to a transcription of speeches given at the annual meeting of subscribers. The annual report notes that the library has changed its London agent in 1849 from James Malcott Richardson to the scientific writer and librarian of the London Institution Edward William Brayley .
The annual report records that 284 volumes were acquired by the library in 1848-9 and the breakdown by classification is as follows. Theology (12); political economy, jurisprudence and economics (12); medicine (6); natural history (6); belles lettres, education and criticism (54); science and arts (6); biography (33); history (43); voyages and travels (41); works of amusement (69) and miscellaneous (14). Notable acquisitions include volume one of Thomas Babbington Macaulay’s History of England and another volume of Dr. Andrew Smith’s Zoology of South Africa . Novels acquired include Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre; William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair ; Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton and Charles Dickens’s Christmas story The Haunted Man .
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