97th SAALG Conference, the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, Friday 6th July 2018

** NB Booking for this event has now closed **

The 2018 South Asia Archive and Library Group conference, will take place at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, on Friday 6^th July, from 1pm to 7pm. 

The Queen’s Gallery upcoming summer exhibitions both relate to South Asia (Splendours of the subcontinent: four centuries of South Asian paintings and manuscripts and Splendours of the subcontinent: a prince's tour of India, 1875-6) and we are very pleased to be able to hold our conference at the gallery to coincide with them. Naturally, there will be a chance to see the exhibitions and the talks will all focus on South Asian material in the Royal Collection.

The detailed programme is as follows:

13.00-14.00   Arrival and lunch

14.00-14.45   Emily Hannam (Royal Collection)

                        The South Asian collections of the Royal Library, Windsor Castle

14.45-15.30   Rachael Smith (Royal Collection)

                        Conserving South Asian art on paper at the Royal Collection

15.30-15.50   Tea/coffee

15.50-16.30   Saqib Baburi (British Library)

                        Distant friends: correspondence of the Nawabs of Arcot with George III

16.30-17.15   Kajal Meghani (Royal Collection)

                        Revisiting the 1875-76 royal tour of India

17.15-18.00   SAALG business meeting or visit to the exhibition Splendours of the subcontinent: a prince’s tour of India, 1875-76

18.00-19.00   Private view of the exhibition Splendours of the subcontinent: four centuries of South Asian paintings and manuscripts

The conference fee, due on the day, will be £25.

Please confirm your attendance by emailing Emma Mathieson (emma.mathieson AT bodleian.ox.ac.uk). Please advise us of any dietary requirements in your message.

The closing date for booking will be Thursday 14^th June. 

Unfortunately, any cancellations after that date will incur a catering charge, for which we will have to invoice you.

We look forward to seeing many of you in July!

Forestry in Sri Lanka

The eight books given by William Martin McNeill to the Archives of the Centre of South Asian Studies are one of the smaller donations to the Centre but cover forestry, plant biology and the economic background in Ceylon in the 1920s. Five of the books are only located in the Centre but directories such as The Times of Ceylon Green Book and L.J.B. Turner’s Hand book of commercial and general information for Ceylon are also held in the Cambridge University Library, and an edition of H.W. Codrington’s Short history of Ceylon is held in the History Faculty Library.

William Martin McNeill worked for Colonial Forest Service between 1922 and 1938. He served as Assistant Conservator of Forests at Kurunegala, and was acting Captain and A.D.C. to the Acting Governor Mr (later Sir) Bernard Bourdillon, serving twice: April 1930 - September 1930 and again February - March 1931. Various boxes of his papers and photographs are also held in the Archives.
One of the books unique to the Centre is Ceylon trees by T.B. Worthington, with photographs by the author. Colombo [Ceylon] : Colombo Apothecaries' Co., 1959 given to W.M. McNeill MBE TD with the author’s compliments (Archive McN 2). Each tree image has names in different languages and the use that can be made of the timber.

Archive McN 2

Other unique books are :

The butterflies of Ceylon by W Ormiston. Columbo : H.W. Cave, 1924. (Archive McN 5) and
Cooly Tamil as understood by labourers on tea & rubber estates : specially arranged for planters and planting students  by W.G. B. Wells. Columbo :  Ceylon Observer, 1921. (Archive McN 8).

The Royal Commonwealth Society in the Cambridge University Library Digital Library Sri Lanka collection has material which predates the McNeill collection. Notably the Photograph collection of John Abercromby Alexander (Y303E)

https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PH-Y-00303-E/171

John Abercromby Alexander (b. 1854) was appointed Acting Forester in Ceylon's North-Central Province in 1886. He may have been resident in Ceylon earlier, possibly engaged in a planting enterprise. Alexander served as Forester, North-Central Province, 1887-88 and then as Assistant Conservator of Forests, Central and Southern Provinces, from 1889 until 1893, when he left the forestry department. He appears to have remained on the island until around 1896. He joined the Royal Colonial Institute in 1892. Abercromby lived at Venture Estates, Kalthuritty, Travancore, India, 1896-1898.

A Burmese collection

Christopher Lorimer was employed with Steel Brothers at their rice-mills in Rangoon from 1926 to 1942. He left Burma during the evacuation in 1942, using the Tamu route into India.

The papers Christopher Lorimer donated to the Archives of the Centre of South Asian Studies consist of eight boxes covering the period 1695-1944.  They include letters to his mother (1929-30) and his diaries which cover the whole of his service in Burma (1925-42) and give an insight into the social and business life of contemporary Burma ;  historical documents - the nine army commissions of the East India CO., conferred on Colonel John Crow (1779-1813 and a distant relative) which cover his career from Ensign to Colonel ; and, relating to the Mutiny period in India, the papers of Major Laughton, Chief Engineer at the siege of Delhi until 22 June 1857. He also gave 57 photographs relating to Burma.
He gave twenty seven books to the Archives, the earliest is An account of an embassy to the kingdom of Ava : sent by the Governor General of India in the year 1795 by Michael Symes. London : Printed by W. Bulmer and Co.; and sold by Messrs G.&W. Nicol and J. Wright, 1800 (Archive LOR 22)

Plant descriptions in appendix to
Embassy to Ava. Archive LOR 22

and, printed in 1828, Charles D'Oyly, Tom Raw, the griffin : a burlesque poem, in twelve cantos illustrated by twenty-five engravings. London : R. Ackermann. (Archive LOR 24).

In addition to books on the history of Burma and Steel Brothers and the Bombay Burmah trading company he also gave a book by B.E. Smythies, Birds of Burma containing 31 coloured plates from paintings by A.M. Hughes. Rangoon : American Baptist Mission, 1940 (Archive LOR 19) with a note on the fly leaf that it has been kept safe for him during the occupation of Burma and his name erased.

He continued to collect books in his retirement including India and British portraiture, 1770-1825 by  Mildred Archer. London ; Karachi : Philip Wilson for Sotheby Parke Bernet : Oxford University Press, 1979, (Archive LOR 1)

Annotations in his books give additional background to his work and family history :

I bought this book when I was on leave from the army ..
a "refugee" from Burma staying in Calcutta.

At the Officers' dance one night at the club
I had the good fortune to catch the Princes
 of  Berar in a "Paul Jones"

Archive LOR 11

Paul Chater, Assemblage of Indian army soldiers and uniforms. London : Perpetua Press, 1973 with a note "Christopher Lorimer, grand nephew of William Wyld, 4th Bengal Light Cavalry (Lancers). Their uniform was pale blue with yellow facings.