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The Society's collections have always been open for researchers to come and use. This in turn has generated additional information concerning the collections both formally through articles and research papers and informally through correspondence. The Society has also sought to promote its collections through both events and articles. The papers within this series concern these activities. Though much of the administration of these activities does not create items of archival value, the ones kept were deemed to be of use for future researchers.

Records created in the early use and research of the collections. These include a ledger, correspondence and collection information.

All new researchers have to register their details before accessing the Collections. For the most part these exist only as current records and are disposed of at the end of their retention schedule. There is only one historic document that has been kept related in some way to researcher registration. This is a bound leather volume entitled "Names of Visitors to the Museum of the Royal Asiatic Society, Great Britain and Ireland, 1832". At this time the Society had in its possessions many museum objects. The majority of these have now been dispersed to other institutions.
The volume is a registration book for visitors to the Museum covering the period January 1832-January 1840 on pp.1-123, and February 1848-June 1849 on pp. 125-126. It should be noted that on the outside of the Ledger is a label which reads "Committee of Agriculture and Commerce" and on pp.151-157 is an article, "Cost of Carrying Cotton" extracted from "The Friends of India..." dated 23 July 1861. On pp. 158-159 is an extract from the Council Meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, 16 January 1871. The other pages are hand-numbered but are blank. Leather bound volume with ruled pages, handwritten. The binding is in a fragile condition and the leather has some red rot.

Correspondence concerned with information about the collections. These are:

• Letter from Michael Faraday, Royal Institution, to Sir Alexander Johnstone, Royal Asiatic Society, concerning the constitution of a bowl from Java which was made from an alloy of copper and tin. Handwritten, 1piece, dated 11 April 1827. With the letter is a sheet of information about the bowl in which it states it was in the possession of John Crawfurd, handwritten, 1 piece.
• Letter from Joseph L. Williams to the Royal Asiatic Society to ask for permission to inspect the art collection of the Society with the view to them being copied for publication in 'The Comprehensive History of India'. Handwritten, 1 piece, dated 6 September 1838.
• Letter from the East India House to accede to the request for Henry Rawlinson to remove to the Society a slab to create a facsimile of its inscription. Handwritten, 1 piece, dated 29 April 1858.
• Letter from General Jacob to James Redhouse, Secretary, Royal Asiatic Society, to send a letter from Mr Friederich concerning the Bali Purana. Unfortunately the letter is no longer enclosed. Handwritten, 4 sides, dated 27 February 1863.
• Letter from J.W. Freeland to the Royal Asiatic Society to provide the translation of a Chinese Inscription found on a stone presented to the Society by Sir Henry Parkes. Handwritten, 4 sides, dated 3 August 1863.
• Letter from John Scarth to the Royal Asiatic Society to give his and Dr Hobson's views on a manuscript, perhaps by Charles Gutzlaff, concerning Chinese philosophy. There is some doubt as to the authorship of the manuscript. Handwritten, 7 sides, dated 8 October. With the letter is the one from Hobson to Scarth expressing his views. Handwritten, 4 sides, dated 1 October.
• Letter from N. de Khonikof to the Royal Asiatic Society concerning the Tarikh namah. Handwritten in French, 1 side, dated 26 July 1868.
• Letter from Robert K. Douglas, British Museum, to Charlotte Hughes, Secretary, Royal Asiatic Society, to provide information on two volumes of Japanese poems. Handwritten, 2 sides, dated 21 December 1893.
• Correspondence between H.F. Eggeling, F.W. Thomas and Miss Lowes Dickinson concerning manuscripts belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society found among the property of Professor Eggeling, former Honorary member and Secretary of the Society, upon his death. Handwritten and typed, 9 pieces, dated 24 May - 2 December 1918.
• Correspondence from Gertrude A. Anderson to the Royal Asiatic Society concerning gift of Thomas Manning's Chinese books to the Society - information needed for her research to produce a book on Manning's letters to Charles Lamb. Handwritten, 2 pieces, dated 17 July -3 August 1919.
• Correspondence with William Foster providing information concerning the collections. Foster published the article, 'The Pictures of the Royal Asiatic Society' in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, January 1924. Handwritten, 4 letters, dated 16 November 1915 - 24 October 1923.
• Correspondence concerning Japanese pictures left at the Royal Asiatic Society by Henry Faulds of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Handwritten and typed, 6 pieces, dated 31 January 1921 - 21 April 1932.
• Correspondence concerning the reproduction and the repagination of the Shahnamah of Firdausi manuscript. Also included is information concerning annotations in the manuscript and a short history of the donor. Typed and handwritten, 30 pieces, dated 22 October 1930 - 14 February 1932.
• Correspondence concerning the identification of the Chinese books donated by Thomas Manning and the subsequent employment of Shelley Wang to catalogue the Chinese books of the Society. Typed and handwritten, 24 pieces, dated 5 November 1929 - 15 April 1937.
• Correspondence from Dr. P.E. Pieris concerning an error in the description of a watercolour by J. Stephanoof representing the High Court of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Typed, 5 pieces, dated 15 April - August 1937.
• Letter from Dr Y.D. Sharma, Assistant Superintendent, Department of Archaeology, Calcutta (Kolkata) to Mrs Davis, Secretary, Royal Asiatic Society, concerning an inscribed slab within the Collections originally from the Anantavasudeva Temple at Bhuvanesvar. He asks if a thick squeeze could be made of it. Typed, 1 piece, dated 6 August 1948.

Information collated about the collections from the early history of the Society:

• Information concerning RAS Persian Manuscript 258 Gulistan of Sa'di. Handwritten and typed, 3 pieces, undated.
• 'Memo' - index of contents of an unknown [Thai] manuscript or book about Buddhism and the Siam court. Handwritten, 1 piece, undated.
• '[Kalunelle Wieharre]' - a list of manuscripts or index for a manuscript concerning Buddhism including some of the jatakas. Handwritten, 1 piece, undated.
• 'No' - an index for a manuscript found within Raffles Malay Manuscript 3 but not pertaining to it but to a manuscript written by different hands in the Marwari dialect and chiefly of Jain poems, possibly relating to Tod Ms.106. Handwritten, 4 sides, undated.
• 'An attempt to identify the Indian artist who painted a picture of Jahangir's Court' - an article by Henry Beveridge identifying the artist and the people portrayed in a watercolour painting of Jahangir and his courtiers donated to the Royal Asiatic Society by Major Charles Stewart, 5 July 1834, having been brought to England by Colonel Champion in 1775 and cleaned and regilded by Vaux in November 1880. Handwritten, 23 pages, dated 20 June 1915. The picture is no longer in the collections. Though written about in Foster's article The Pictures, etc., of the Royal Asiatic Society, (J.R.A.S. 1924) it was recorded as missing by the 1970 in the Society's guard books.
• Translation of the full-size copy of the Inscription to the Taula of Hafiz in Shiraz - handwritten, 2 pieces, [1929].

Digitisation and reproduction requests are made by researchers, institutions and publishers. Most of these are not kept for archival purposes. The ones listed below are kept either as examples of reproduction that has been carried out historically or because of the more significant nature of the project.

1960s-1970s

• Correspondence with the British Council and British Embassy concerning the microfilming of Burmese manuscripts requested by the Burmese Historical Commission. Typed and photocopied, 3 pieces, dated 29 August - 31 October 1963.
• Correspondence with Gregg Press Limited concerning the loan of volumes from the Society's collections for facsimile reprints. Also a booklet listing the books borrowed. Typed, handwritten and printed, 16 pieces, dated 17 December 1964 - 1 January 1970.

1980s-1990s

• Correspondence with the British Library concerning supplying photocopies of Malay manuscripts for an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. Typed, 2 pieces, dated 6 - 25 January 1984.
• Correspondence with the British Council and the British Library concerning the microfilming of Javanese manuscripts for the Sultan of Yogyarta, Indonesia. Typed and copies of handwritten, 12 pieces, dated 26 May 1988 - 12 February 1990.
• Correspondence concerning the desirability for the Society to have photographic records of six Persian manuscripts on long-term loan to the British Library. Typed, 2 pieces, dated 15 January 1992.
• Correspondence with the King Fahd National Library, Saudi Arabia, concerning the microfilming of Arabic and Persian manuscripts in the Royal Asiatic Society's collections. Typed, 11 pieces, dated 17 December 1994 - 3 October 1995.
• Agreement between the Royal Asiatic Society and The Yayasan Karyawan, Malaysia, to publish a facsimile edition of Raffles Manuscript 67. Two copies of the agreement, 4 pieces, dated 15 September 1997.
• Correspondence between Florence Tran, Cafe Productions Limited, and Kit Naylor, Royal Asiatic Society, concerning the reproduction of artworks from the Society's collections to be included in the TV programme, 'The Great Wall of China'. Typed, 3 pieces, dated 2 -3 November 1998.
• Agreement between the Royal Asiatic Society and the Bridgeman Art Library, London, for production and sale of images of artworks within the Society's Collections. Typed, 4 pieces, dated 1 March 1999.

2000s-2010s

• Correspondence and agreement with the National Galleries of Scotland concerning the digitisation of two artworks for an online exhibition in connection with their 'The Tiger and the Thistle' Festival exhibitions. Typed, 3 pieces, dated 30 December 1999 - 20 January 2000.
• 'Microfilm of R.A.S. Oriental Manuscripts' - list of the manuscripts for which the Society has microfilms. Typed, 8 pieces, dated January 2000.
• 'Royal Asiatic Society Titles Microfilmed by Microform Academic Publishers' - list of the Society's publications reproduced. Typed, 5 pieces, undated.
• Memorandum of Agreement with the Folio Society for the publication of a Folio Society edition of the 'Life of Muhammad: Ibn Ishaq' translated by Edward Rehatsek. Typed, 1 piece, dated 6 March 2003.
• Correspondence with Prometheus Books concerning the right to publish Edward Rehatsek's 'Life of Muhammad'. Typed and copies of emails, 8 pieces, dated 14 April - 1 November 2005.
• Correspondence with the Institute of Oriental Philosophy concerning the publication of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra Manuscript in the Society's Collections. Typed, 6 pieces, dated 3 June - 24 July 2007.
• 'Microfilm of R.A.S. Oriental Manuscripts' - list of the manuscripts microfilmed. Typed, 18 pieces, dated 29 June 2009.
• License Agreement with Cross Street Films for reproducing a miniature of Rana Jai Singh (Head Cat. No. 063.034) in the television documentary Sex, Death and the Gods. Typed, 2 pieces, dated 13 December 2010.
• Correspondence with Max Communications concerning the digitisation of material in the Society's collections and the creation of a digital library. With this material is the text of a talk given by Edward Weech, Royal Asiatic Society Librarian, at the Max Communications Archives and Heritage Conference 2018. Typed, 15 pieces, dated 2018.

2020s

• Signed digitisation agreement between the Society and the Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia, regarding the digitisation of 11 Malay manuscripts (mostly from the Maxwell collection) held by the Society. Typed, 7 pieces, undated but the signing ceremony was conducted via Zoom on 29 July 2025.

Material that reflects engagement with the Collections of the Society as a whole. These are:

• 'Our Learned Societies: The Royal Asiatic' - an illustrated article from The Graphic describing the Society and its collections. Printed, two copies, dated 26 November 1910.
• Copy of an article on the Royal Asiatic Society from the Allgemeine Press Zeitung, 1841. With the copy is a transcription of the article and a working translation into English. Copy and typed, 9 pieces, undated.
• 'Eastern Treasures Come West' by Raymond Head, an article about the Society's collections found within Antiques and Art, October 3-9, 1980, Volume 42, Number 8.
• 'The Library of the Royal Asiatic Society' - article by T.V. Finnerty written as part of his coursework for his qualification in Library and Information Studies, University College, London. Typed, 11 pieces, dated 22 April 1998.
• 'The Library of the Royal Asiatic Society and Its Collections Relating to Southeast Asia' - proof copy of an article written by Michael Pollock, Royal Asiatic Society Librarian, published in the journal Libraries and Culture, University of Texas Press, 1998. With the article is a covering letter requesting a quick return of corrections. Typed, 12 pieces, dated 17 June 1998.
• 'Nurturing the Roots for Oriental Studies: the development of the Libraries of the Royal Asiatic Society's Branches and Affiliates in the Nineteenth Century' - an article written by Harold Otness published in the Bulletin of the International Association of Orientalist Librarians, 1998, p.9-17. This is a copy, 9 pieces, computer printed in January 2007.
• 'R.A.S. Inventory - February 1999' - an inventory on pictures and objects and their location in the Society's premises at Queen's Gardens, London. Typed, 8 pieces, dated February 1999.
• 'R.A.S. Portrait Inventory - October 2001' - an inventory of portraits, photographs and busts on display in the Society's premises. Typed, 2 pieces.
• 'The Royal Asiatic Society' by Xenobe Purvis. Copy of an article from Asian Art, March 2018 concerning the Society's collections and the launching of its Digital Library.
• Publicity Poster for 'Systems of religion and morality in the collections of the Royal Asiatic Society' by Edward Weech, Royal Asiatic Society, a talk given at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, 15 October 2018.
• Programme for the spring gathering of the South Asia Archive and Library Group, held at the Royal Asiatic Society, at which Edward Weech, Royal Asiatic Society Librarian spoke on 'The Royal Asiatic Society Bicentenary: reflecting on two centuries of collecting and scholarly exchange' Typed, 1 piece, gathering held on 15 May 2023.

There are also a number of electronic documents. These were all created into archival documents in 2025:

• 'The Royal Asiatic Society's Museum', from The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Vol 10, 1841, describing the collections on display in the Society's premises at Grafton Street, London. This is an electronic document, originally created in 2015 from the Internet.
• 'Report on the Explore Your Archive Tea and Testimony Creative Writing Event, 20th November, 2015' - report created by Nancy Charley, Royal Asiatic Society Archivist, after using the collections for a creative writing event as part of Explore Your Archive 2015. Originally created in November 2015.
• 'Creativity and the Collections' - a report prepared by Nancy Charley, Archivist, concerning possible ways in which the Collections could be used to encourage creativity. Originally created in September 2016.
• 'Creative Writing Event, 23 November 2016' - a report created by Nancy Charley, Archivist, concerning a second creative writing event, Writ in Water. Document originally created in November 2016.
• 'Sorting the Miscellaneous Box' - an article created by Nancy Charley, Archivist, following a talk on the same topic to the South Asian Archives and Library Group in 2017. The document was originally created in October 2017.

Material giving information regarding the printed material within our collections. These are:

• 'Gravures des conquêtes de l'Empereur de Chine K'ien-Long au Musée Gimet' - a printed pamphlet containing notes on the engravings of China's conquest of Turkestan, 1757. This pamphlet was produced by the Musée Gimet in 1969. With the pamphlet are photocopies of an article by Paul Pelliot from T'oung Pao, Vol XX, 1921 also describing the engravings; photocopies of portions of the book 'Guiseppe Castiglione: A Jesuit Painter at the Court of the Chinese Emperors' by Cecile and Michel Beurdeley, translated by Michael Bullock, published by Lund Humphries, 1971 again describing the engravings; a copy of Chapter 6 from the 'Peintres Jésuites en Chine au XVIII Siècle' by Michel Beurdeley; the article 'The introduction of copper-engraving into China' by Hartmut Walverens copied from the 62nd IFLA General Conference Proceedings, 1996; a copy of 'East Asian arts: Painting and pictorial arts' downloaded from Britannica, 2002; and further handwritten and typed notes on the material.
• Photocopy of the section from 'A Directory of Rare Books and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland' edited by Moelwyn J Williams (Library Association, 1985) containing information about the Society's collections.
• 'The Storey Collection' - a document by Francois de Blois concerning the types of books bequeathed by Professor C.A. Storey, typed, 2 pieces, dated January 1995.
• 'Sorting Chinese and Japanese Materials at the RAS Library' by Iside Carbone - an article about the Chinese and Japanese books in the collections. Typed, 12 pieces, dated 21 May 2003.
• Siolta 2023, the annual publication of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists with illustrations provided by the Society from its collection of the Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 28, 1929, to accompany the article 'Clare Emma Whitty (1883-1950) and the flora of central Korea' by Charles Nelson.

Collections information and engagement connected to our Manuscripts collections.

Correspondence, articles, engagement with and research information about the Manuscript collections:

• Letter concerning the identification of Tamil, Singhalese and other manuscripts and Copper plate inscriptions. The author of the letter had been involved in creating handlists after L.D. Barnett and others had completed much of the identification. The letter explains the process and some of what was discovered but the signature is unreadable. Handwritten, 3 pieces, undated [1950s].
• Correspondence between Charles Bawden, School of Oriental and African Studies, and Miss Jill Davies, Assistant Librarian, Royal Asiatic Society concerning the Tibetan manuscripts donated to the Society by Robert Yuille. The letters give provenance of their arrival at the Society and identification of what they are. Typed, 11 pieces, dated 7 March 1977 - 18 April 1978.
• Context information for the Society's manuscript of the Dictionnaire Tartare-Mantchou François by Father Joseph Amyot. Typed, 2 pieces, undated.
• Context information for some of the Society's Chinese manuscripts. Typed, 2 pieces, dated 28 July 1977.
• 'Bustan as-salatin' - information concerning this document in printed and manuscript forms. These include Raffles Malay 8 and Raffles Malay 42. Typed in Indonesian and English, 2 pieces, undated.
• 'A Qur'an from the East African Coast' by Simon Digby, Honorary Librarian, Royal Asiatic Society - a copy of an article from Art and Archaeology Research papers, June 1975, giving details of a Qur'an (RAS Arabic 12a) presented to the Society by F.F. Arbuthnot c.1900. Photocopy, 8 pieces, dated June 1975.
• 'Paper and Gold: Illuminated Manuscripts from the Indonesian Archipelago - An exhibition in The British Library, 11 July to 27 October 1990' - pamphlet produced in connexion with the exhibition to explain about Malay and Javanese manuscripts. The Society lent some manuscripts for the exhibition. Printed pamphlet, dated 1990.
• Correspondence and articles by Jacqueline Filliozat concerning the Society's Pali manuscripts. The articles are entitled, 'Survey of the Pali manuscript collection in the Royal Asiatic Society, December 1993', 'Survey of the Pali manuscript collection in the Royal Asiatic Society, December 1993- July 1994', `Projet d'exposition ou de présentation des plus beaux mss. en Pali de la RAS', 'Trois nouveaux fragments manuscrits du Dasavatthuppakarana, Trois recensions indochinoises échelonnées sur Trois siècles (1648-1948 A.D.)' and 'Transcriptions des fragments concernant le Dasavatthu d'après les manuscrits FEMC PALI A 20, RAS BURMESE 64, SA. KHMER 16 & 18 avec les concordances à notre précédente édition: J. Ver Eecke, Le Dasavatthuppakarana, PEFEO CVIII, Paris 1976'. Three handwritten letters in French, dated 3 January 1994 - 15 February 1995. Computer printed manuscripts, 98 pieces.
• Correspondence between Dr J.D. Smith, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, J. Clifford Wright, School of Oriental and African Studies, Paul Dundas, Department of Sanskrit, University of Edinburgh, and information concerning some of the Society's Sanskrit manuscripts. Typed, 5 pieces, dated 9 December 1996 - 21 March 1997.
• Letter from Toshihito Kimura, Professor of International Buddhist University, Kyoto, Japan, to the President of the Royal Asiatic Society to thank the Society for use of Sanskrit Manuscript 61 and to send his article, 'The Sanskrit Manuscript of Sitatapatra-Dharani in the Royal Asiatic Society'. The articles is with the letter. Typed, 10 pieces, dated 29 January 2001.
• Letter from Michael Pollock, Royal Asiatic Society Librarian, to Colleen Schafroth, Director, Maryhill Museum of Art, concerning the manuscript, RAS Persian 211, a Treatise on Chess. With the letter is information about the manuscript. Four pieces, typed and copied, dated 20 May 2001.
• 'The Jaipur-Related Documents deposited with the Royal Asiatic Society by Dr Michael Willis' by Rima Hooja - list and description of Jaipur manuscripts. Typed, 5 pieces, dated 16 - 18 June 2003.
• Descriptions of the manuscripts Raffles Java 17 and Raffles Java 18 in the Society's collections. Typed in French, 4 pieces, dated November 2008.
• 'Report on the Turkish manuscript collection in the Royal Asaitic Society' by Dr Evrim Binbas, Royal Holloway University of London. Typed description of these manuscripts, 5 pieces, prepared for the Library Committee Meeting, 30 September 2010.
• Copies of emails between Kathy Lazenbatt, Royal Asiatic Society Librarian, and Dr Edeltraud Harzer, Department of Asian Studies, University of Texas, concerning identification of Sanskrit manuscripts. Typed, 2 pieces, dated 8 April 2011.
• Publicity Material concerned with the 'Tales of the Malay World' Exhibition held at the National Library Building from 18 August 2017 - 25 February 2018 in which manuscripts from the Royal Asiatic Society were shown. These are a programme of events, exhibition guides in English and Malay - all printed pamphlets; a copy of Muse SG, No.36, Vol.10, Iss.0; with the article 'Tales of the Malay World' about the exhibition; and a copy of biblioasia, Jan-March 2018, with the article, 'Manuscripts from our Global Past' about the exhibition.
• Copy of email from Peter Carey to Annabel Gallop concerning Javanese names, typed, 1 piece, dated 22 July 2022.
• Letter from Devashan Kunasingham to Nancy Charley, Royal Asiatic Society Archivist, concerning the name and description of RAS Tamil MS. 14. Typed, 1 piece, dated 21 March 2024.