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A green pattern cover notebook handwritten possibly in Sanskrit, the title on the first page reads 'Langlol and Notes on same'. It has annotations in English and the content is possibly related to a dialect from Manipur, India.

A poem in English script copied from King Lear, Act 2 Scene 4, William Shakespeare.

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.

Information about, and evidence of engagement with the archival collections of the Society. For collections with a significant amount of material, a separate subseries was created.

Information about, and evidence of engagement with the artworks of the Society. For collections with a significant amount of material, a separate subseries was created.

Material concerned with the photographic collections held by the Society:

• List of the photographs within the Aurel Stein collections and the expeditions with which they were associated. Typed, 2 pieces, undated.
• 'Report on two rolls of film from the archives of the Royal Asiatic Society 10/12/98' by Ken Walton and Stuart Laidlaw describing the contents (Reginald Campbell Thompson's excavation in Nineveh) and the type and condition of the film. With this is a letter from J.E. Reade, British Museum, dated 18 February 1999, also giving details of the film, and an article sent by Ken Walton on the excavation.
• Programme for the visit to the Royal Asiatic Society by the Courtauld Institute of Art Summer School at which the photographs of Ajanta, Amaravati and Sanchi were investigated. The visit took place on 31 July 2008.
• Article and covering letter from Akiyoshi Tani, University of Tokyo, in which the Howell Collection of photographs were featured. The letter is dated 27 August 2013.
• Copy of the Hokkaido News, 7 December 2016 which carries an article about the Howell Collection of photographs.

Most of the Society's objects were dispersed to other collections at an early stage of its history. However a few remain. Information about them is:

• Suit of armour - correspondence about a suit of Asian armour within its collections and the likely provenance. Typed and handwritten, 9 pieces, dated 6 December 1930 - M may 1932 (see RAS COLL8/5 for more information about its conservation).
• Notes on an Arabic Celestial Globe and a Phoenician tombstone - both transferred to the British Museum, Typed, 1 piece, undated.
• Correspondence between Professor J. Ryckmans and the Royal Asiatic Society concerning South Arabian inscriptions within the collections. Typed and handwritten, 20 pieces, dated 19 July 1977 - 17 February 1978.
• The Council Room Table - two articles: 'The New Council Room Table' by Alison Ohta extracted from a Society newsletter, unknown date; and 'The Jhansi Table', article originally written 3 October 2012, archival document created in 2025.
• Bookmarks for 'Statue of Zhenwu, the Dark Warrior' and 'Arrow Vase from ritual to game', objects lent to the Society but the Horniman Museum as part of the Objects in Focus project. The statue was lent in autumn 2016 and the vase in autumn 2018.
• 'Collecting Oriental and Asiatic Arms and Armour: The Activities of British and East India Company Officers,c.1800-1850' by Malcolm Mercer - a copy of the article first published in Arms and Armour, 2018. This gives background information to our suit of armour.
• Gravestone of Sir Stamford Raffles - the Society took in this gravestone in 2018. The note, 'Provenance of the Raffles gravestone donated to the Royal Asiatic Society on 11 May 2018' (created in 2018, archival document created in 2025) give details of its provenance. 'Two Tombstones, One Man' by Rosie Llewellyn Jones, an article in the Chowkidar, Autumn 2018, the publication for the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia.
• 'Information about Japanese gravestones provided by Yang Fu, 12 October 2018' - interpretation details for the inscriptions on the gravestones. Electronic document created in 2018, archival document created in 2025.
• Black and white photographs and descriptions of the copper plate inscriptions belonging to the Society on permanent loan to the British Museum.