This week we have selected a small sample of images from a number of different collections of archives at SOAS, on a seasonal theme. The Ceylon Christmas Annual produced by the National Christian Council of Ceylon in 1952, contains a series of articles on Christian subjects, photographs of British missionaries and indigenous teachers working in Ceylon [Sri Lanka] missions, prayers and advertisements for domestic products. The annual for this year
Our guest blog this week looks at how research using business archives at SOAS is helping to uncover the hidden history of Chinese merchant seamen serving on British ships and living in British ports during the First and Second World Wars, and the changing nature of their relationship with British authorities and shipping companies in the post war period. Our blogger is Yvonne Foley from the Half and Half memorial project.
This week’s guest blog is written by Graeme Gardiner ACR, Director of Preservation Solutions, and takes a fascinating behind the scenes look at the professional conservation work currently being undertaken on the archives of John Swire & Sons, held here at SOAS Archives. The conservation of the Swire archive has been ongoing since 2011, and is scheduled for completion in 2019. In 25 years of working as a conservator of archival material, this
On 8th October 2014, SOAS Archives opened its’ doors to all SOAS staff and students for the second Open Day of this year. Aimed particularly at reaching out to those who are new to SOAS, the Open Day followed fast on the heels of Welcome Week and saw 60 visitors who came on behind-the-scenes tours of the archive store rooms and took the opportunity to see the extensive display of
As SOAS marks Black History Month we continue to highlight historical collections held by SOAS Archives, which reveal the long-standing Black presence in the UK, as well as the contributions and achievements of Black peoples in local, national and international arenas. This week we look at the archives of africa95, a registered company with charitable status founded in 1992 to organise a nationwide season of the arts of Africa to be held in the UK in the last
As SOAS marks Black History Month we continue to hi-light historical collections held by SOAS Archives, which reveal the long-standing Black presence in the UK, as well as the contributions and achievements of Black peoples in local, national and international arenas. This week we look at the papers of Sol Plaatje, South African writer, linguist, politician and activist . Born on 9 October 1876, Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje was a descendant of the Barolong royal house. His
Today we continue our celebration of Black History Month 2014 by taking a closer look at some of the manuscripts by the leading Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, which are available at SOAS Archives as part of the Heinemann Educational Books Ltd collection. These include prepublication annotated typescripts of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s famous novels ‘Weep Not, Child’, ‘A Grain of Wheat’, ‘Devil on the Cross’ [translated version of Caitaani mũtharaba-Inĩ],
As SOAS marks Black History Month we will be highlighting a number of historical collections held by SOAS Archives, and which reveal the long-standing Black presence in the UK, as well as the contributions and achievements of Black peoples in local, national and international arenas. This week we look at the papers of Dr Robert Wellesley Cole, surgeon, author and advocate for the rights of African peoples in the UK, West Africa, and across the Global African
This weeks guest blog has been written by Rosemary Seton, formerly head of archives at SOAS and now a Research Associate in the Department of History, and uncovers a new collection of personal papers held at SOAS Archives, which have been recently catalogued and made available to researchers. The papers of Eva Spicer (reference: PP MS 92), who taught at Ginling College in Nanjing, China for twenty-eight years and then went on to
Okay, so we are going back in time a little bit by blogging about this exhibition which we created in October 2012, but it is International ‘Talk Like a Pirate Day’! We included some of these items in our recent display of material as part of our Annual Open Day and they went down a storm (maritime related punning purely accidental!), so we thought you might like to hear more
