This drawing entitled 'Education in the early days at the Cape' shows a school room set up by the missionaries in South Africa.

John Frederick William Herschel and his wife Margaret Brodie Herschel (nee Stewart) took a keen interest in the work of the missionaries while in South Africa (1834-1838) and in particular their educational work. Writing to her mother, Margaret enthused about one tribe who had been 'brought to a very advanced state of civilisation by the Missionaries, for they clothe in the English fashion & have built many brick Houses for themselves'. Back in England, John campaigned to improve provisions for education at the Cape.