This fonds contains the personal papers of William Pettigrew, including research notes connected with the Manipuri language and other local dialects, examination papers, as well as correspondence primarily relating to a monograph on archaic Manipuri on which he collaborated with Yumjao Singh.

Handwritten manuscript titled 'The Original Notes' on archaic Manipuri, taken by William Pettigrew chiefly at Harvard Library and the British Museum. Annotations are made on some pages in modern and archaic Manipuri.

Stored with the manuscript are two items:

• Letter from Roland B. Dixon (1875-1934), Harvard University, giving updates on the progress of William Pettigrew's research on archaic Manipuri inscriptions, dated 8 June 1929
• 'Rules and Regulations of The Asiatic Society of Bengal', printed by The Baptist Mission Press at Calcutta 1929, signed on the cover 'WP 27/3/39' [Pettigrew was elected Associate Member of the society in 1939]

Typed manuscript titled 'A Study made of 133 words in 29 different dialects to compare to the Archaic and Modern Manipuri', with handwritten annotations on the front page: 'by Rev W Pettigrew late of Manipur State Assam India' and 'Preparatory to a paper proposed to write on the Archaic Manipuri language'. The manuscript has been formatted into a table which has the modern Manipuri dialect on the left and the archaic dialect on the right.

In Mrs Pettigrew's letter dated 26 May 1943, the typescript is described as 'evidently based on the Comparative Vocabulary of Grierson's Linguistic Survey' and was prepared for a paper for some journals.

Typed notes entitled 'Research Work on Archaic Manipuri of the Native State of Manipur, Assam', being a typewritten copy of WP/1/3 prepared by Mrs Pettigrew in 1935, with bibliography and appendices.

Typed manuscript of Yumjao Singh's monograph on archaic Manipuri, mixed with Pettigrew's typed notes from WP/1/1. The monograph was put forward for publication by the Society but publication was not eventually undertaken.

This is likely item 3 listed In Mrs Pettigrew's letter dated 26 May 1943, being 'an arrangement of the material collected on the Archaic Manipuri in rough draft for the proposed Monograph on the subject' done by William Pettigrew and Yumjao Singh together.