Then a small stipend was offered and the position was taken by Mary Glanville until 1888 when S. Mundy, a temporary curator took over and was replaced by Selmar Schonland in 1889.
Sir Basil Schonland, son of Selmar Schonland, became the first Chancellor of his alma mater, and Dr Thomas Alty the first Vice-Chancellor.
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Selmar Schonland, founder of the Botany Department and curator of the Albany Museum
His father-in-law, Peter MacOwan, had been its honorary curator from 1862 to 1869 before moving to Somerset East.
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Professor Selmar Schonland (15 August 1860 Frankenhausen, Germany as Selmar Schönland – 22 April 1940 Grahamstown, Cape Province), the founder of the Botany Department at Rhodes University, was a German immigrant, who came to the Eastern Cape in 1889 to take up an appointment as curator of the Albany Museum.