The Anglo American Corporation of South Africa was incorporated on 25 September 1917, with an original capital of £1 million. Its purpose was to exploit the gold resources of the East Rand, and to secure the assets of the Consolidated Mines Selection Company, of which William L. Honnold had been managing director, and which because of its German connections had been subject to a bitter press campaign. Co-founders of the enterprise were Mr. (later Sir) Ernest Oppenheimer and Honnold. Honnold was instrumental in securing American financing for the enterprise (primarily through Charles H. Sabin of Guaranty Trust Company and the mining and engineering financier William Boyce Thompson), and in recognition of his services he, together with Oppenheimer, was made a permanent director, with rights of participation to 2.5% (subsequently reduced to 1.5%) of the profits. Honnold's position as permanent director did not require active participation, and although he remained very interested in the affairs of the corporation and often expressed an opinion and offered advice he did not attend board meetings or otherwise participate in its administration. The records in this series fall into four divisions: (1) chronological files, (2) Board of Directors minutes, (3) correspondence with Julius S. Wetzlar, director in London, and William Westrup and his successor Harold Ross Lewin, assistant secretaries in Johannesburg, and (4) printed materials. The chronological files for the early years document in particular the circumstances immediately leading to the founding of the company, and its development in the first critical years. They are not a complete record of Honnold's involvement with the foundation and early administration of the company, but comprise only those letters and telegrams he considered important enough to retain in his safe deposit box. Although the minutes for the Board of Directors meetings prior to 1922 are missing, and those for later years are incomplete, they are an important source for information on the management of the corporation, in particular for the period of the world-wide economic depression of the 1930s, World War II, and the recovery years immediately following. The correspondence with Westrup and Lewin in Johannesburg primarily addresses financial and investment matters. On the other hand, Honnold and Wetzlar, who in 1934 became Deputy-Chairman of Anglo American, had known each other since the former's earliest years in South Africa, and while their letters invariably address financial matters they are couched in the language of friends, and contain much personal anecodatal information beyond the scope of the usual letter between business associates. The correspondence with Wetzlar diminishes considerably after 1934, the last year his letters form a separate file (later correspondence from Wetzlar can be found in the general correspondence files). The decreasing frequency of correspondence may be an indication of a change in Wetzlar's duties or an indication of declining health (he died in 1938). The series also contains considerable printed materials, in particular annual reports, meeting minutes, and circulars, for Anglo American Corporation and its subsidiaries, including Brakpan Mines, Consolidated Diamond Mines of South-West Africa, Daggafontein Mines, New Era Consolidated, Rand Selection Corporation, Springs Mines, and West Springs Mines, expanded by 1949 to include 21 separate corporations. The files also include materials for a number of Southern African corporations with no apparent connection to Anglo American Corporation.