Hi Bernard,

Interesting sounding project, having the Burroughs Collection here, and having read William S. Burroughs' books, including Junkie to Naked Lunch, while I was in college, I often wondered about him and his corporate family. Yes, Burroughs Corporation was quite active in South Africa. CBI has the Burroughs Corporate Records Collection which details a tremendous number of aspects of the company, a really extensive corporate collection, from the 1880s American Arithmometer days in St. Louis, to the move of HQ to Detroit and renaming as Burrough Adding Machine and later Burroughs Corporation (and expanding around the world including South Africa and elsewhere in Global South as well as Europe...). The collection is over 600 boxes, spans all functional areas, and is divided into 111 Series or Sub Collections. There are collections on International, on Plants, etc. The general statement on the collection and links to the 111 Sub Collections is below. We had a digitization project a quarter century ago and did detailed cataloguing of 500 select Burroughs images and put them online on University Libraries UMedia of UMN, but I don't think there are any of Burroughs' South Africa among those 500, actually I think it came to 520.  UMedia is Univ. of Minnesota wide, the 520 Burroughs images (by keyword searching the combo of Burrough and Still Images) are here  UMedia Burroughs Corporation photos

We have many, many thousands of additional Burroughs photos so we might have some in the sub series that are relevant in either print or negatives. While not digitized, the Finding Aid for each sub series is processed down to the folder level, so it should list if photos exist based on subject area.  There are also many illustrations of corporate facilities, line drawings on letterhead and other material.

One thing regarding potential cultural influences you might find interesting is Burroughs Farms, which was a large recreation wooded area with lakes West of Detroit, hundreds of acres of land where the corporation rewarded workers and their families--swimming, hiking, horseback riding....probably archery as well (all in corporate paternalistic fashion). I've wondered if William S. Burroughs spent any time there? (William S. Burroughs killed his wife Joan Vollner in Mexico City in 1951 in an archery "accident.")

Also, feel free to contact the CBI Archivist and Curator Amanda Wick if wanting additional info on anything. Amanda's email is abwick@umn.edu

Best, Jeff