This week’s blog takes a look at the personal papers of Tom Pearson Cromwell (reference PP MS 33), a British colonial administrator interned on Christmas Island [Territory of Christmas Island, now a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean] during WW2. The name ‘Christmas Island’ dates back to the first European contact with the island on Christmas Day in 1643. Tom Pearson Cromwell was born in 1909. He joined the
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
In celebration of Women’s History Month and UNESCO World Poetry Day, we are taking a look at the life of Alice Werner, writer, poet and teacher of the Bantu language. Born in Trieste on 26 June 1859 and educated in Germany and England, Alice traveled extensively, living in New Zealand, Mexico, America and throughout Europe She is notable for her many achievements. Not only was she was one of the first women to graduate from Newnham College,
