Continuing our series on historical photographs of China, this week’s blog looks at John Oswald’s photographs of Foochow [Fuzhou]. His photographs document the home, work and social life of a British tea merchant living in a treaty port. John Charles Oswald (1857-1930) arrived in Foochow in the late 1880s, having worked for a tea importer in London for thirteen years. Initially working for Odell & Co. as a clerk, he
SOAS Archives are rich in the life-stories of individual women. To mark International Women’s Day 2018, we take a look at the life and work of Lilias Trotter (1853-1928), a talented artist who became a missionary in North Africa. Papers relating to Lilias Trotter can be found with the papers of the Algiers Mission Band – a new collection for SOAS Library, deposited in 2017 by Arab World Ministries. Lilias Trotter
This week’s blog looks at the personal papers of Hermann Derek Bryan (1910-2003), which have recently been catalogued. Bryan’s life and career were bound up with China, firstly as a consular official and later as a teacher and advocate of closer British-Chinese relations. The catalogue for his papers is available on the Archive Catalogue under PP MS 99. Bryan first sailed for China in 1932, aged 21. He had taken
Despite not having much to celebrate during their time in captivity, civilian inmates of Hong Kong’s Japanese-controlled internment camps during the Second World War were determined to keep up the tradition of sending each other Christmas cards. Using what little resources they had available prisoners painstakingly hand-decorated postcards with festive greetings to send to fellow inmates. The examples pictured above were sent to Charles Collingwood Roberts during his time at
To mark Black History Month 2015, this week’s blog highlights the presence of art works by two renowned Malagasy artists, Emile Ralambo and James Rainimaharosoa, in the collections at SOAS Archives, and reflects more broadly on the strength of the Madagascar collections at SOAS, which have attracted the interest of academic researchers from around the world and also the Malagasy community within Britain, through our contact with the Anglo-Malagasy Society.
In the lead-up to the SOAS Centenary in 2016, we will be taking a look at the history of the School through collections held at SOAS Archives. This week, the School’s Corporate Records Manager & Archivist, Adele Picken, looks at the papers of Ralph Lilley Turner, second Director of the School of Oriental Studies (later School of Oriental & African Studies), 1937-1957. Ralph Lilley Turner was a renowned Indologist and became the second Director
SOAS Archives is pleased to announce that the papers of the anthropologist and museum curator Dr Johanna Agthe (1940-2005) are now available to researchers at SOAS Library, University of London. The following biographical overview of Johanna Aghte and description of her papers (Ref: MS 381135) is taken from the catalogue overview authored by Elsbeth Court (SOAS Subject Lecturer in African Art). SOAS Archives would like to acknowledge Elsbeth’s excellent work
This week’s blog has been written by Mary Seeley, Subject Librarian (History & Religions, Ancient Near East, Semitics & Judaica) at SOAS. The Hebraica Libraries Group is a joint forum of libraries in the field of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, ranging from major university collections in the UK such as SOAS, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, and Southampton to specialist collections like the Wiener Library and private religious colleges and institutions such
In the lead-up to the SOAS Centenary in 2016, we will be taking a look at the history of the School through collections held at SOAS Archives. This week, the School’s Corporate Records Manager & Archivist, Adele Picken, looks at the papers of Edward Denison Ross, first Director of the School of Oriental Studies (later School of Oriental & African Studies), 1917-1938. Denison Ross was born in London on 6
To celebrate Women’s History Month 2015, the campaign to raise the profile of women’s history and to champion women of the past, we will be highlighting a number of historical collections held by SOAS Archives which reveal the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. To mark International Women’s Day, we look today at the personal papers of Diane Noakes (1911-1983), anticolonialist and labour movement activist. Mary (Diane)
