SAALG winter conference: British Library, 22 January 2016 - do come!

BL Qatar Project

We are pleased to announce the next SAALG conference, which will take place at the British Library on Friday 22nd January 2016. The theme of the conference is metadata, and we have invited curators from a range of institutions to tell us how, through metadata, they have made their collections accessible. Kolkata cemetery records, Arabic manuscripts, and colonial films all feature in the day. There will also be an introduction to the British Library’s Qatar project and a tour of the digitisation studios. See programme below.

SOUTH ASIA ARCHIVE AND LIBRARY GROUP
93rd CONFERENCE

To be held at the British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB on Friday 22nd January 2016 in the Conference Centre (Eliot Room)

A map is available online at http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/quickinfo/loc/stp/


PROGRAMME

Arrival and coffee: 10.30 – 11.00

11.00 – 11.10
Introduction and welcome

11.10 – 11.50
Clare Sorensen, Historic Environment Scotland, 'Scotland in India, India in Scotland : an unexpected archive’

11.50 – 12.30
Yasmin Faghihi, Cambridge University Library, ‘FIHRIST: metadata, collaboration and sustainability’

12.30 – 1.50
Lunch (provided) and networking

1.50 – 2.30
Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge, ‘Old media and new digital literacy: the Colonial Film Database’

2.30 – 3.30
Introduction to the Qatar Project at the British Library and tour of Qatar digitisation studio

3.30 – 4.00   
Tea

4.00 – 4.30
Business meeting

Conference ends

The fee for the day is £20.00, which includes lunch and refreshments. To make your booking, please email Antonia Moon at the British Library by Friday 8th January.

If you have to cancel your place after Friday 8th January 2016, you may be asked to pay an administrative charge.

Sir Frederick Tymms: the flying civil servant

Frederick Tymms (on the left), with Rod Doucla [sic]
whilst working on the Cape to Cairo Air Route in 1929
Cambridge University Library RCMS 20/2/9/30

Frederick Tymms (2nd from left), camera in hand,
with Wolley Dod, Lindup, and Francis, whilst planning the Cape to Cairo Air Route, 1929
Cambridge University Library RCMS 20/2/9/10

Frederick Tymms (2nd from left) in Allahabad in 1934
with T. Campbell Black and C.W. Scott for the England-Australia Race
Cambridge University Library RCMS 20/2/15/1

'Imperial Airways - Delhi Flying Club - handing over',  January 1932
Cambridge University Library RCMS 20/2/10/139

The Royal Commonwealth Society collections in Cambridge University Library hold the archives of Sir Frederick Tymms,  RCMS 20, one of the most significant figures in the development of civil aviation, referred to by his biographer, E.A. Johnston, as the 'Flying Civil Servant'.

Tymms served as an Observer in the Royal Flying Corps during WW1, then joined the civil aviation department of the Air Ministry 1920-1927 where he became involved in the development of air routes across Africa and India in the 1920s and 30s.  His archives document the difficulties of locating suitable landing strips at regular distances across each continent and the excitement at the opening of new aerodromes. 

During the 1930s and much of the 1940s Tymms was in India where he was appointed Director of Civil Aviation 1931-1942. For a brief period in 1942-1943 he became Managing Director of Tata Aircraft Ltd, Bombay, and from 1945-1947 was Director General of Civil Aviation in India.  The Tymms archive is rich in photographs from this period - see: RCMS 20/2/ 10-19.  There are views of the grand Secretariat buildings in New Delhi, in which Tymms had an office, of the Delhi Flying Club which he joined, and of his travels all over South Asia looking for viable air routes and opening aerodromes.  Early air races are documented, such as the MacRobertson England-Australia Race in 1934, as are numerous air stations and aeroplanes.  Tymms took photographs in Burma and the collection has fine aerial photography of the Arakan Coast. He also  took many photographs in Simla, the hill station to which the government moved for relief from the searing heat of Delhi, as well as in Kashmir where he holidayed with his wife. 

Tymms, a keen photographer , also captured on cinefilm some events associated with his work in civil aviation, as well as social occasions and holidays he enjoyed with family and friends.  His earliest film dates from 1925 and records the First African [aviation] Survey (Film 12).  There are three short black and white silent films made in South Asia in the early to mid-1930s - Films 16, 17 and 19.

Film 16 (the film can is labelled: Hyderabad. Jaipur. Simla. Delhi) includes busy street scenes, farming scenes, elephant rides, coastal scenes and a view of the Himalayas. There are several scenes of Qutub Minar, Delhi, of road trips, street vendors, shikar and fly fishing. 

Film 17 (the film can is labelled: North West Frontier Province. Kashmir. Palampur.  Simla) opens with views of the Khyber Pass and then moves to Dal Lake and Srinagar in Kashmir, and onto hill stations in  Himachal Pradesh.  It focuses on travel and landscape scenes, as well as local crafts.

Film 19 (the film can is labelled: Bombay. Ceylon. Burma. Singapore. Karachi) includes fishing boats, street vendors, temples, shoreline, a flower market, ball games, traditional Burmese dance, aircraft and airport buildings. It includes shots of the Shwedagon Pagoda and Buddhist monks in Rangoon, a paddle-steamer transporting railway wagons, sea-planes, Kallang airport in Singapore, and Karachi airport.

Tymms and his wife Millie had become great friends with J.R.D.(Jeh) Tata and his wife Thelly during their time in India, and they returned in October1962 to participate in Air India celebrations in Bombay on the occasion of J.R.D. Tata's reenactment of the first Karachi-Bombay flight, via Ahmedabad in 1932. Sir Frederick filmed some of the celebrations in colour.   Film 8  opens on 15th October 1962 in an Air India marquee at Bombay airport and includes footage of a Burmah-Shell Aviation Service bullock cart, a De Havilland Leopard Moth dating from the 1930s and a Boeing 707. The film also includes hugely contrasting scenes of Indian women carrying heavy stone on a building site, busy street scenes, and grand buildings in Delhi.

Tymms went on to represent the UK on the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (I.C.A.O.), led missions to New Zealand and the West Indies as a trouble-shooter to promote civil aviation, and was a founding member of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators. He was elected Master of the Guild in 1957.    His wide interests embraced communication technologies, satellites and space travel, and the sovereignty of space.

The Tymms collection on civil aviation was donated to Cambridge University Library by Group Captain E.A. Johnston in 1994.  Johnston's biography of Tymms, To organise the air: the evolution of civil aviation and the role of Sir Frederick Tymms, the Flying Civil Servant, was published  by Cranfield University Press in 1995, ISBN 1871315468.

Exploring South Asian history using visual research methods

The Centre of South Asian Studies and CRASSH are organising the first international conference on 'Exploring modern South Asian history with visual research methods: theories and practices', 15-16 March 2013. The call for papers is now open, see http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2066/

“We’re Indian and African” : lecture and films on the Sidis of India

Still from the film 'Voices of the Sidis: Ancestral Links' produced by Beheroze Shroff (University of California, Irvine, USA).

 “We’re Indian and African”: Sidis of India

Dr Shihan de Silva (Senior Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and Member of the Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Slave Route Project)

Date: 9 March 2012 Time: 5:30 PM
Finishes: 9 March 2012 Time: 7:30 PM

Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings Room: Khalili Lecture Theatre

Type of Event: Lecture
Series: CSAS Seminar Programme

The diverse circumstances of African migration to India, their roles and achievements, their current status, issues of identity and belonging will be addressed.
The Lecture will be followed by the screening of two documentary films:

“We’re Indian and African”: Voices of the Sidis   (22 minutes)

Produced by Beheroze Shroff (University of California, Irvine, USA)
This film explores the lives of the Sidis in Gujarat. Sidi men and women speak about the challenges they face as caretakers of the shrine of their ancestral saint Bava Gor. The Sidis also discuss their sacred Goma-Dhammal dance performed for devotees and spectators. The film also gives a glimpse into the spiritual legacy of the Sidis through the Parsi devotees of Bava Gor in Bombay.

Voices of the Sidis: Ancestral Links (26 minutes)

Produced by Beheroze Shroff (University of California, Irvine, USA)
In this engaging portrait of an urban Sidi family in Bombay (Maharashtra), Babubhai traces his ancestry to Zanzibar. He also reminisces about his work as a stuntman in Bollywood films. Babubhai’s wife, Fatimaben, narrates her grandmother’s work in a Hindu royal court. Their daughter, Heena, speaks about issues of identity in contemporary India.

Discussion/Q & A Session  

Chair:  Dr David Taylor (SOAS & Institute of Commonwealth Studies
All Welcome

Organiser: Centres & Programmes Office
Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk
Contact Tel: 020 7898 4892/3

War Horse, Army Donkey, Military Mule

I was pleased to be alerted to this blog entry which features a National Library of Scotland photograph.

The photograph, taken during World War I, shows a man with his arm around a mule . On the back he has written about his animal companion: "She is very stupid but I am very fond of her."

Michael Morpurgo's 2007 moving book War Horse is due out as a Steven Spielberg film this month. It tells the story of farm horse Joey's journey through the battlefields of the First World War.

Morpurgo was inspired to write the book after reading that millions of horses perished on the Western Front. Used in the thick of battle in cavalry charges and for pulling artillery, horses, mules and donkeys were seen as more reliable than
mechanised means.

Horses were very important in British India for the same reasons. The National Library's Medical History of British India website contains many digitised reports dedicated to the procurement of suitable breeding horses for serving the army. Horses imported from England often sickened and died en route. Those which survived were found to be unable to stand hard work in a tropical climate. In 1892 it was recorded that Indian-bred horses were hardier, with greater powers of endurance. Arab and Persian breeds had the same sought-after traits.

Horses, donkeys and mules who served in India, like their human counterparts perished from a variety of ailments and afflictions as this page shows.

Perhaps Michael Morpurgo would consider writing a book about one of these animals?

(Photograph is from the National Library of Scotland's Digital Gallery, First World War Official Photographs collection, image number 74549584)

Festival of Ideas

The University of Cambridge Festival of Ideas celebrates the arts, humanities and social sciences, and is the only free festival of its kind in the UK.  Festival events are extremely popular, and booking without delay is essential to avoid disappointment.  Visit the Festival of Ideas website for full details on how to secure a place by phone or online: www.cam.ac.uk/festivalofideas.

Events likely to interest readers of the SAALG blog include:

Laying the topmost stone of New Delhi (one of two)
 on 30th September 1927

Moving Pictures, Moving Stories: photographs, films and interviews from the end of the Raj - on Saturday 29 October 2011, 15.00-16.30, Mill Lane Lecture Room 5. 
Dr Annamaria Motrescu and Dr Kevin Greenbank  (Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge) will discuss the use of these unique archival resources in online projects and classrooms. To book your place, email: admin@s-asian.cam.ac.uk or phone: 01223 338094.

Submitted as a cover for a tourist brochure
by Heather Balfour in 1959

Essays of Empire - on Thursday 27 October 17:00-18:00,  Morison Room, Cambridge University Library, West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DR. 

Dr Seán Lang (Senior Lecturer in History, Anglia Ruskin University,  and Chair of the Better History Group) will present a glimpse of how school children across the globe responded to the pressures for change within the British Empire through their entries to the Royal Commonwealth Society essay competition.
To book:  telephone 0845 271 3333 or online at: www.angliaruskincommunity.eventbrite.com/ 

Links to digital resources:

Films from the archives, Centre of South Asian Studies: http://www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/films.html and interviews:  http://www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/audio.html

Royal Commonwealth Society Essay Competition archive: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/repository/item_of_the_term/

Freemasonry and the Indian Parsi Community

Some readers of this blog may be interested in a two day conference taking place in London on 22nd and 23rd October 2011, Freemasonry and Empire.

The Saturday programme includes:

Susan Snell, Archivist at the Library and Museum of Freemasonry speaking about the masonic relationship between Umdat ul Umrah (future Nawab of the Carnatic) and the Prince of Wales (future King George IV), Grand Master in 'Western ideology meets Eastern promise: an archival view';
Simon Deschamps, University of Bordeaux III, on 'Freemasonry and the Indian Parsi community: a late meeting on the level'; and Dr Annamaria Motrescu, Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, on 'Uncharted masonic identities in British colonial amateur films, 1920-1940'.

Full details of the conference programme are available online at: http://www.canonbury.ac.uk/conferences/programme11.pdf  

The Himalayan Film Festival 2011

The Himalaya Film and Cultural Festival is on from 13th October. It will celebrate the rich and varied culture of the mightiest mountain range with film, music, art and photography.

The festival will showcase at various venues across the capital through the month of October. You can find more details below:

http://www.himalayafest.org.uk/

The Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge - updated film catalogue

The Centre of South Asian Studies (CSAS), University of Cambridge, has recently made available an updated version of its online film catalogue. It is now possible to research each of the 285 films as part of a cross-archival database that enables the viewer to access in greater detail the CSAS’ photographic, paper and oral history collections. This new and comprehensive online film catalogue, and the current digitization of another 80 films, is part of an on-going educational programme run by Dr Kevin Greenbank and Dr Annamaria Motrescu that uses the Centre’s visual collections in teaching about colonial India.

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire

The completed Colonial Film catalogue brings together films from three collections - the British Film Institute (BFI), the Imperial War Museum (IWM), and the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum (BECM). The catalogue uses various tools to enhance the apparatus for researchers consulting these collections. Most important of these are two extra fields of context and analysis, which position and examine a selection of the films in relation to the history of the British Empire. There are approximately seventy-five countries within the Empire represented within this collection.

The BFI collection contains approximately 1,200 films relating to Colonial Africa. There are over 1,100 titles covering India, South East Asia and the Middle East, with approximately 500 of these titles relating to India. The earliest titles within this collection include 70 from the turn of the century concerning the Boer War, as well as footage from India – for example Panorama of Calcutta – from 1899. There are films from local production units - for example, the Malayan Film Unit, the Jamaican Film Unit, and the Gold Coast Film Unit – and from established British producers, such as the Colonial Film Unit, and British Instructional Film - which produced the Empire Series between 1925 and 1928. These films were exhibited and distributed in a variety of contexts. There are instructional films made for African audiences – for example, Anti-Plague Operations in Lagos (1937) and the three BEKE films made in the 1930s; films intended for prospective British immigrants – for example Southern Rhodesia: is this Your Country? (1948); sponsored films for British schools - for example From Cane to Cube (1950); fundraising films for missionary work – for example Salvation Army Work in India, Burma and Ceylon (1925); films for children’s cinema clubs – for example Basuto Boy (1947) and Trek to Mashomba (1950) as well a large number intended for cinemas and non-theatrical sites at home and abroad. The collection includes documentary films, amateur footage, newsreels, actualities, travelogues, and missionary films, as well as over 200 fiction films.

The Imperial War Museum collection contains footage relating to pivotal moments in colonial history; for example the Malayan Emergency - Proudly presenting Yong Peng (1955); Voices of Malaya (1948); The Knife (1955); the British mandate in Palestine - Jewish Colonies in Palestine (1917); Allenby meets Weizmann (1918); Palestine Police (1946); and most notably the experiences of colonial troops in two World Wars. This footage includes extensive material filmed by Army and RAF photographic units during the Second World War, particularly in India, Burma and the Far East, much of which is still to be catalogued. The collection also includes newsreels from the War – most notably 138 editions of Indian News Parade, which ran weekly from 1943 to 1946 – as well as fiction titles, documentaries and unique amateur collections.

The British Empire and Commonwealth’s Film Archive contains approximately 1,700 films dating from the 1920s onwards which were shot mainly by British people living and working within the Empire. In addition, the archive contains government produced information and travel films, commercial documentary and news films, and television material.

Other similar projects include the Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, online archive http://www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/films.html, and Images of Empire http://www.imagesofempire.com 

Annamaria Motrescu, Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge.

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire

This website holds detailed information on over 6000 films showing images of life in the British colonies. Over 150 films are available for viewing online. You can search or browse for films by country, date, topic, or keyword. Over 350 of the most important films in the catalogue are presented with extensive critical notes written by our academic research team.

The resource covers among others: India, Seychelles, Mauritius, Burma, Ceylon and The Maldives

Web link: http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/home