BASAS Conference

The British Association for South Asian Studies Conference 2009 will be held at the University of Edinburgh, March 30th - April 1st.

For further information please contact Dr Crispin Bates at BASASconf2009@ed.ac.uk

India, Raj & Empire

Adam Matthew Digital have a new portal, "India, Raj & Empire", which features just a few of the manuscript collections relating to South Asia in the National Library off Scotland. This is planned to be a 10 year project, adding more material from other collections in the UK. You can get a free 4-week trial as a taster.

Wellcome Images

I'm really looking forward to visiting the Wellcome Collection again for the SAALG conference. The Collection contains some amazing images and many are now available free to view online here. As part of the Medical History of British India Project I have discovered some fascinating pioneers of early medical science and due to this resource have been able to see their faces.
This photograph (credit: Wellcome Images) shows S.R. Christophers, lifelong malaria scientist, on board the ship Elphinstone surrounded by his equipment, including an insect-catching net hung on the door. Christophers lived to be 104 years old and "had the qualities of scientific honesty and integrity."
Russian W.M. Haffkine, who did much vital work in India on cholera and plague, is pictured in Calcutta, 1894, giving anti-cholera inoculations. There is also a super portrait of the Indian Medical Service cholera and snake venom researcher D.D. Cunningham, who I have long admired because he wasn’t afraid to express his opinions.
It’s easy to search, so have fun and you never know who you might meet!

WWI Indian Army medals

On the National Archives website you can now search and download the medal index cards of more than 20,000 soldiers who served in the Indian Army during World War One. The cards record the soldiers who were entitled to, or made a claim for, campaign medals - in particular the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

SAALG conference, February 2009.

Our 80th CONFERENCE will be on Friday 20th February 2009 at the
Wellcome Collection Conference Centre, in Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE

Speakers:
Francine Millard (National Library of Scotland)
"Rum barrels and rabid badgers - discover the medical history of British India."

Henry Noltie (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh)
“Robert Wight and the botanical drawings of Rungiah & Govindoo”.

Eleanor Lanyon (Outreach Officer) and Dr Nikolai Serikoff (Asian Collection Librarian, Wellcome Collection)
Tour and exhibition of the Wellcome’s South Asian collections.

Nicholas Martland (Faculty Librarian Arts & Humanities/South and Southeast Asia and Pacific, SOAS)
"Sago, nutmeg and camphor: growing plants from the Malay Archipelago in the Calcutta Botanic Garden".

Attendance at the conference costs £10, payable on the day.
If you will attend the 80th conference, please contact:

Rachel M. Rowe
Email: rmr29@cam.ac.uk Phone: 01223 338094
OR
Jan Usher
j.usher@nls.uk 0131 623 3802

by 4th February.