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Work Experience at the RAS 2014

August 22, 2014, 6:27 am
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I was introduced to the RAS through my school two years previously on a tour and was thrilled to be doing work experience here for a week. Having studied Sanskrit, art, history and history of art for AS Level it seemed that helping at the RAS would be a priceless opportunity to increase my depth of knowledge. My first task was to take pictures of Japanese brush drawings and upload the thumbnails onto the RAS’ online catalogue. They were incredibly fine and delicate works which had great care and sensitivity in each of the illustrations; I was grateful to be trusted with such artefacts!

Faulds album 078.001/10a
I also helped with selecting books for the RAS’ first exhibition display on Sir William Jones. It was exciting to find a book of letters sent from Jones as it showed how far his wealth of knowledge stretched and how diverse his interests were.


Letters and books by Sir William Jones
I was also taken to Asia House to see the contemporary art exhibition entitled ‘Across the Border’. This excursion put into perspective how rich and colourful Asian culture is today and the works at the RAS prove that it has been this way for a long time. I also put my Sanskrit skills into practise by transliterating some titles so they could be added onto the catalogue. My favourite part of the RAS is the library itself. Standing amongst books, manuscripts and archives from centuries ago is an indescribable feeling. Overall my experience at the RAS has been invaluable and I have learnt a great deal which I am highly thankful for. I would like to thank the staff for making me feel at home and helping my time here be so enjoyable. 

Sanskrit books ready to be catalogued!
Tatyana Rutherston 
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Wedding Bells at the RAS...

September 9, 2014, 6:57 am
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Just a short note to say congratulations to Amy Riach, who was married last Saturday. Amy joined the RAS at the end of April as maternity cover for Executive Officer Camilla Larsen. We wish her all the best in her married life! 

The happy couple!
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Sir William Jones treasures on display in new library display case

October 8, 2014, 6:53 am
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During the summer we were delighted to receive our new library display case, crafted by Armour Systems. The display case provides a secure way for us to exhibit some of the treasures from our collections that would otherwise very rarely find their way out of the strongroom. Our purchase of the case was in part funded by the remainder of a conservation grant from the University of London Extra-Mural History of Art Society.  


An early translation by Jones


For the first display, we selected material relating to Sir William Jones, who founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal and played a hugely influential role in the development of modern philology. The display includes early examples of Jones’s translation work, including a second edition of Poems, consisting chiefly of translations from the Asiatick languages (1777), andThe Moallakat, or, Seven Arabian poems, which were suspended on the Temple at Mecca (1783). The latter volume includes a frontispiece of Jones, based on an engraving after a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds. 

Frontispiece based on a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds

In 1783 Jones travelled to India to serve as a judge, where he spent the rest of his life. We have on display a volume of letters that were sent by Jones from Calcutta to Samuel Davis, between 1785 and Jones’s death in 1794. The letters illustrate the wide scope of Jones’s interests, taking in everything from Sanskrit and Persian to astronomy, botany and natural history.  In 1830 the letters were donated to the Royal Asiatic Society by Davis’s son, John Davis, and were published by the Society the following year. 

Jones's letters convey the breadth of his interests

We are excited by the prospect of arranging new displays in future, so feel free to pop in during library opening hours to take a look. We also welcome suggestions for displaying material that visitors may be interested in seeing. The Library is open on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10am-5pm, and Thursdays from 2pm-5pm. 

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Article 1

October 17, 2014, 3:29 am
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The RAS began its 2014-2015 Lecture Series last Thursday, 9th October with Criminalization of Politics in India, an interesting lecture by Professor (Emeritus) Paul Brass of the University of Washington. Having spent more than 50 years studying the politics of India, Professor Brass was able to provide a wide-ranging overview of the many changes in the Indian political landscape, particularly in the Uttar Pradesh region, and regale his listeners with a number of personal anecdotes as illustrations.

Professor Paul Brass lecturing at RAS
The lecture was followed by a drinks reception. The Society was particularly pleased to welcome a visit from Susie Gordon, Programme Director of the Shanghai Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.


Enjoying after-lecture drinks and conversation


Our next main lecture will be on Thursday, November 13th when Professor Paul Bailey of the University of Durham will lecture on Chinese Workers in World War One France: An Overlooked Episode in the History of Chinese Foreign Policy and Chinese Labour. However, before that date we would like to invite you to join us for the first in the Student Lecture Series on Tuesday, October 21st at 6.30pm when Fan Yang (SOAS) will lecture on Fabsub groups in China: When independent translation meets the market and Sami Winton (Ind. researcher) will lecture on Ritual and survival amongst the Malay community in Cape Town. Please do join us for what looks set to be an interesting and informative evening.
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Student Series Started in Style

October 23, 2014, 9:36 am
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The Royal Asiatic Society Student Series began on Tuesday 21st October with two fascinating lectures. After an initial welcome by Sami de Giosa, who with Jennifer Griggs, is organizing this year's series, Fan Yang gave an illuminating talk on film translation in China from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Fan Yang presenting her lecture

Part of her research has been based around the difference in translation between two regions in China. She has found that the style used in the Northeast region was one that utilised a technical, politically correct language, the people employed in the translation being those generally given the position because of their allegiance to the Communist party. In contrast, within Shanghai, translators generally had a higher English ability, having usually spent some of their education in an English establishment. This resulted in linguistically expansive translations with allusions to traditional Chinese stories.


One of the slides from Fan Yang's talk showing differences in translation of film titles - the Shanghai region using allusions to Chinese culture, the Northeast region being more regimented in their choice.
Fan Yang was followed by Sami Winton who informed us about past and present rituals of the Cape Malays. His talk was well illustrated with film and interview of current practices including sword rituals, music, song and parades which link current Malays with their pasts.


Sami Winton talking about the Malay community in Cape Town 

We look forward to our next Student Lecture on Tuesday November 25th at 6.30pm when Simon Denham of the University of Manchester and the British Museum will inform us about Identity and Power in Neolithic stamp seals from Greater Mesopotamia.

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Introducing the Archivist...

October 30, 2014, 7:25 am
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Having been in post for a month now, I thought it was about time I introduced myself and also begin to introduce some of the 'treasures' that I am finding.


A bit of a blurry image, but this is me, Nancy Charley. I'm a newly qualified archivist having come into the profession after raising my family. I really enjoyed studying the Masters course at University College London last academic year and I am now enjoying putting all that learning into practice. I have the delightful task of working my way through all the papers that have been deposited with the Society. These are papers connected to the running of the Society throughout its lifetime (there are letters here concerned with the founding of the Society) and papers are connected with some of the many eminent members from the Society's history.

Photograph of the Coronation Banquet held by the RAS at the Hotel Metropole, London in 1902
The archive has been a little neglected, and though generally well stored down in the strongroom, it hasn't, for the most part, been organised and catalogued. So that's where I come in - I am looking to get all of the archives online in the coming months using Archives Hub as our portal to make them accessible for researchers. It is early days and currently I am opening up boxes and listing what I find, so I can then put everything in its 'right' place to make the catalogue easy to use. The photograph above is one I listed this morning. It shows the RAS entertaining Indian Princes prior to Edward VII's coronation. Here's the menu card:


Ten courses for a guinea a head - that £1.05 in modern money! It would be great if money still stretched that far.

Another celebratory item I found today was this pattern for a Gold Medal to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.


It is a real privilege to be able to work my way through all these 'treasures' and then to make them accessible for others to research and enjoy. If you have any questions about the archives please contact me on nc@royalasiaticsociety.org or leave your comments on this blog.
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Royal Asiatic Society participates in Open House 2014

October 30, 2014, 10:29 am
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At the end of September, we were delighted to participate once again in the annual Open House weekend, welcoming visitors to our building throughout the Saturday afternoon. Visitors were welcomed by RAS staff and benefited from wonderful tours and talks by Kaveh Bakhtiar and Lionel Knight. Visitors enjoyed visiting our Council Room and Library Reading Room, where they could appreciate many of the Society’s wonderful treasures on display; and members of the public also had a rare opportunity to view the top floors of our building, which are home to the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.   

 
Kaveh Bakhtiar led tours throughout the RAS building during Open House

RAS staff and volunteers on the day were struck by the interest and enthusiasm shown by visitors for the history, values, and collections of the Society. Open House provides a wonderful opportunity for us to meet people who otherwise, in the normal course of events, may not ever make a trip here. We hope to see some of our new friends back here again in future! 


RAS Hon. Treasurer Lionel Knight talks about some of the artworks on display in the Library

The Society provides free public access to its collections, and our Library is open Tuesdays and Fridays 10am-5pm, and Thursdays 2pm-5pm. We also host regular free public lectures: highlights this year include “Chinese Workers in World War One France” and “Sir William Jones and the Gods of Greece, Italy and India”. We encourage applications for Fellowship from anyone with an interest in the history, languages and cultures of Asia—more details are available on our website (http://www.royalasiaticsociety.org/site/?q=taxonomy/term/6). 


RAS Director Alison Ohta provides an introduction to the Society for visitors during Open House

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Chinese Workers in World War One France

November 6, 2014, 9:00 am
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Thursday 13th November sees the next in the Royal Asiatic Society's Lecture Series. Professor Paul Bailey will speak on:

Chinese Workers in World War One France: An Overlooked Episode in the History of Chinese Foreign Policy and Chinese Labour

Entrance to the Chinese Cemetery in Noyelles-sur-Mer (northwest France), where nearly 900 World War One Chinese workers are buried

Paul Bailey, of Durham University, is a specialist in the social and cultural history of modern China.


His research interests cover gender in twentieth century China, educational thought and practice in twentieth century China, Sino-French interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, and cinema and Chinese modernity. Professor Bailey has a forthcoming book, Chinese Overseas Labour and Globalisation in the Early Twentieth Century: Migrant Workers, Globalisation and the Sino-French Connection.  We can therefore look forward to an informative talk.

Please join us at 6pm on Thursday 13th November for the lecture and following reception.
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Explore Your Archive

November 11, 2014, 3:29 am
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Archive I've remembered


This week marks the second year of the Explore Your Archive Campaign - an initiative run by The National Archives and The Archives and Records Association. It aims to encourage people to discover the breadth and depth of material that is available in the many kinds of archives that we have in this country - from The National Archives themselves, to Local County Archives, from business archives to university Special Collections, from heritage sites to small community archives. Such a wealth, some of which is now online, but much more is carefully housed and cared for by archivists up and down the country.

And that, of course, includes the Royal Asiatic Society. Though I haven't been in post long enough to organise anything official for this year's Campaign, I would still encourage you to take the plunge and enquire what we have, come and visit, think about the possibilities of using our material in courses, modules, research projects, or for your own interest.

We are easy to contact via email:

Ed Weech, Librarian:  ew@royalasiaticsociety.org

Nancy Charley, Archivist: nc@royalasiaticsociety.org

Or phone:  +44 (0)20 7388 4539

We are open Tuesdays and Fridays, 10-5 and Thursdays 2-5. Email or phone us to come for a visit.

The website for the society http://www.royalasiaticsociety.org/site/ gives a taste of some of our treasures, but particularly in the archives, at present, I am discovering new things every week. Here are a couple of pictures to whet your appetite:

Genealogy of the Nausherwanis of Kharan and Makran

Geealogical Tree of Kakar Tribe
 Both of these genealogies were found in a box marked RAS Archives - in the coming weeks I will be researching their provenance.



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RAS Main Lecture Series - Chinese Workers in World War One France

November 14, 2014, 3:33 am
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On Thursday 13 November we were delighted to welcome Professor Paul Bailey (University of Durham) who gave a lecture titled Chinese Workers in World War One France: an Overlooked Episode in the History of Chinese Foreign Policy and Chinese Labour. Indeed, this aspect of the history of the First World War was largely unknown to many in the audience, and listeners greatly appreciated Professor Bailey’s efforts to bring this chapter to light. Hopefully Professor Bailey’s endeavours will inspire other scholars—from France, China, the British Isles, and elsewhere—to pursue further research into this important episode. The lecture was followed by a lively discussion and a drinks reception.

 Professor Bailey addresses the audience

The next instalment in our lecture programme is at 6pm on 11 December, when Dr Susan Babaie (Courtauld Institute) will lecture on A nān-o halvā (Bread and Sweets) in the V&A: Thoughts on the Aesthetics of 'taste'. We also have several lectures coming up as part of our Student Lecture Series. On 25 November, Simon Denham (University of Manchester and British Museum) will lecture on Identity and Power in Neolithic stamp seals from Greater Mesopotamia; and on 3 December, we have talks from Angela Becher (SOAS) on A Look Behind the Façade: Critical Inquiries into China’s Monumental Architecture in Contemporary Chinese Art, and Cleo Roberts (University of Liverpool) on Waterscapes in Indian Cities. Our lectures are free and open to all, and we very much hope to see you there.  
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Identity and Power in Neolithic Stamp Seals from Greater Mesopotamia

November 18, 2014, 3:22 am
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Tuesday, 25th November sees the next in the RAS Student Lecture Series. We are delighted to have Simon Denham from the University of Manchester and British Museum to lecture on Identity and Power in Neolithic stamp seals from Greater Mesopotamia.

Denham's research focuses on Middle Eastern prehistory during the late Neolithic (much of the 7th to 5th millennium BC). In particular he is interested in studying the nature of the imagined communities across North Mesopotamia during the late Neolithic and how the links between real communities may have been substantiated.





This photograph shows just one of the objects that will feature in the lecture. To find out more about it, please come to the lecture at RAS, 14 Stephenson Way, NW1 2HD, at 6.30 on November 25th. The lecture is free to all and will be followed by a reception.
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Before we had Blogs!!

November 27, 2014, 4:27 am
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We often use this blog to advertise, record and comment on the various lectures given at the Society. This week, as I was sorting through a box of RAS Archives, I came across the 1930s equivalent. Somebody has created a scrapbook of the lectures with biographies of the speakers, abstracts of the talks and newspaper reports. Here are a few of the pages:

For those interested in dolmans and cairns, Mr Hunt lectured on Megalithic burials in South India in 1932
Sir Reginald Johnston, Professor of Chinese at the University of London, lectured to a packed audience on the imprisonment of Emperor Kuang-Hsu by the Dowager Empress.
 A photograph of the Dowager Empress, found in a different box, was featured on a previous Tweet.

Jeanne Cuisinier, in 1934, spoke on her research into, and experiences of, Malay magic.

Anyone for afternoon tea? The reception at Lancaster House marked the 1000th Anniversary of Al-Mutanabbi in 1936
Al-Mutanabbi is considered as one of the greatest poets in the Arabic language. Much of his poetry revolves around praising the kings he visited during his lifetime. Some consider his 326 poems to be a great representation of his life story. He started writing poetry when he was nine years old. He is well known for his sharp intelligence and wittiness. Al-Mutanabbi had a great pride in himself through his poetry. Among the topics he discussed were courage, the philosophy of life, and the description of battles. Many of his poems were and still are widely spread in today's Arab world and are considered to be proverbial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mutanabbi). We have copies of some of his works here in the RAS collection.
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From Stamp Seals of Mesopotamia to China's Monumental Architecture via Indian Ciy Waterscapes

November 28, 2014, 2:56 am
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Such is the range of subjects addressed in our Student Lecture Series. On Tuesday 25th November we were delighted to welcome Simon Denham from the University of Manchester and British Museum. His lecture, a glimpse into his recent PhD thesis, provided an interesting theory around the patterning and use of stone seals in Greater Mesopotamia in the late Neolithic period.



Simon Denham presents his lecture


Fast on the heels of Tuesday's lecture is our next Student Series event. Brought forward to avoid the Christmas period, on Wednesday 3rd December, Angela Becher and Cleo Roberts will be coming to lecture at the RAS.

Angela Becher from SOAS will be speaking on "A Look Behind the Facade: Critical Inquiries into China's Monumental Architecture in Contemporary Chinese Art". She sent this picture as a taster:


 Cleo Roberts from the University of Liverpool will lecture on "Waterscapes in Indian Cities" 

'William Ward Baptising a Hindoo in the Ganges'.


We look forward to welcoming you all this coming Wednesday - 3rd December at 6.30 for these intriguing lectures to be followed by a drinks reception.
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Final RAS Student Series Lecture of 2014

December 4, 2014, 3:32 am
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Yesterday evening (Wednesday 3 December) we were delighted to hold the last RAS Student Series lecture of 2014. Angela Becher (SOAS) and Cleo Roberts (University of Liverpool) addressed the audience, respectively, on A Look Behind the Façade: Critical Inquiries into China’s Monumental Architecture in Contemporary Chinese Art, and Waterscapes in Indian Cities. Both lectures revealed fascinating insights into the speakers’ research and sparked numerous questions and observations from the audience. Attendees also enjoyed the presentation of striking images both speakers used to illustrate their lectures. The lectures were followed by a highly enjoyable wine reception. 

 Angela Becher (SOAS) presents her lecture A Look Behind the Façade: Critical Inquiries into China’s Monumental Architecture in Contemporary Chinese Art
 
 Cleo Roberts (University of Liverpool) addresses the audience on Waterscapes in Indian Cities

Although 2015 is fast approaching, we still have more lectures for you before this year is out. Thursday 11 December will see Dr Sussan Babaie (Courtauld Institute) speak on A nān-o halvā (Bread and Sweets) in the V&A: Thoughts on the Aesthetics of Taste. The lecture is open to all and we hope to see you there.
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Two Months In...

December 4, 2014, 9:47 am
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...And I am really enjoying working my way through the boxes down in the strong room here at the RAS. I have been unpacking and sorting Box 109 today which contains correspondence concerning applications for membership from the 1940s to 1970s. It did mean that I came across one of the less happy sides of sorting archives - a multitude of rusty staples and paper clips! So, if you have papers that you want to keep for a long time, I would suggest that you don't use either to keep the papers together (or for that matter, leave them in plastic wallets).

I also came across an unusual filing system...





Well, maybe not unusual if you are around Bank of England Archives, but this file was full of membership application forms for 1954-1962. If anybody knows, I would be interested to know if these folders were in common use in that era.

One of my passions, apart from getting this archive sorted, is to write poetry. Since starting as archivist, I have been meaning to write a series of poems about my experience. Finally this week, I got round to drafting the first poem. I thought I would share them on the blog - I must reiterate that they will only be drafts which will change over the coming months with further edits. But I thought that it might be of interest to some readers of the blog to follow my journey...

So here is:



Early Days

Learning codes and keys, how to enter and leave,
the places in the stacks
where boxes of archives should be,

learning passwords for pc,
for email, Facebook, blog,
how to talk with the twittering flock,

learning names, not just of colleagues
but of eminent predecessors –
William Jones, Brian Houghton Hodgson,

Henry Colebrooke (who’s our alias on Facebook)
and that Richard Burton, in this context,
was explorer, linguist, eccentric.


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The Society’s Prizes and Awards

December 11, 2014, 6:09 am
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The Approach of the Emperor of China to his Tent in Tartary to receive the British Ambassador, William Alexander, 1799.

The Barwis Holliday Award

On 13th November a panel appointed by the Royal Asiatic Society’s Publications Committee decided that the Barwis Holliday Award for an article on an East Asian topic should be given to Dr George Mak for his article ‘Without Note or Comment’ Principle in Late Qing China’.   

Judges made the following comments about Dr Mak’s paper, “It is meticulously researched, based on interesting and relevant sources and written from both a Chinese and a Western-Protestant angle”,“This article will not only be interesting to historians but also to many people who pay attention to the status of Christian communities in China today”, “(this article) throws light on a key aspect of religio-cultural interaction in 19thcentury China.   It displays confident use of archival sources”, “Mak’s paper, in addition to philological acumen, has an archival ‘capture’ that seems outstanding”.

Staunton Prize

The Staunton Prize, which the Society awards to an article by an early career scholar, is to be awarded to Fozia Bora for her article ‘Did Salah-al-Din destroy the Fatimid’s Books?’ Judges made the following comments about Dr Bora’s article, “this is a remarkable piece of scholarship for a young scholar. However, not only is the scholarship remarkable, it also makes an argument which will have to be noted in the field”, “Bora is a master of the sources and makes a very strong case for her argument”, “First class and promises to make a significant contribution to existing debates by challenging accepted understanding about historical developments”.

The Boyce Prize

The deadline for submissions for the Boyce Prize is 31st December, 2014. This will be awarded to the author of a previously unpublished article on a topic related to Asian religion. 

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Dr Sussan Babaie - "A nān-o halvā (Bread and Sweets) in the V&A: thoughts on the aesthetics of ‘taste’"

December 12, 2014, 4:04 am
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The last Royal Asiatic Society Lecture of 2014 saw Dr Sussan Babaie deliver an address on A nān-o halvā (Bread and Sweets) in the V&A: thoughts on the aesthetics of ‘taste’. Dr Babaie used the beautiful Nān-o halvā manuscript in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection as a springboard to take a wider look at imagery and the aesthetics of food and ‘taste’ in a variety of depictions in sixteenth and seventeenth century Persian art. Further to enjoying a marvellous and stimulating lecture, the audience was also grateful for Dr Babaie’s presentation of several beautiful images of Persian manuscripts, frescoes and ceramics. The lecture was followed by a question and answer session with Dr Babaie, as well as a drinks reception. 

 Dr. Sussan Babaie (Courtauld Institute) addresses the audience

2014 has been a hugely successful year for our lecture programme, featuring many wonderful speakers. We are very grateful to all of them, as well as to everyone who attended. We look forward to welcoming you again in 2015, when our Lecture Series recommences on 15 January with Dr Santanu Das (King’s College, University of London) speaking on British India and the First World War: words, objects and images.

Until then, we send our best wishes to all our blog readers for the upcoming holidays.
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Happy Christmas to all our readers

December 16, 2014, 3:31 am
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The Royal Asiatic Society will be closing on Thursday 18th December for the Christmas and New Year period. It will reopen on Monday 5th January and the library will be open as usual from Tuesday 6th January, 2015.


Bust of Henry Colebrooke - he acts as our alias on Facebook so you can follow more of our activities by 'friending' him.

In the meantime we just wanted to take this opportunity of wishing a very happy festive season to all our readers and a peaceful and prosperous 2015. Here at the RAS we are looking forward to good things in 2015 with more work to make our collections accessible both online and here at the RAS. We are always pleased to see old faces and meet new researchers both in the library and at our Lecture Series.
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Happy New Year

January 6, 2015, 6:36 am
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As the RAS reopens for 2015 we would like to wish our readers a happy and successful 2015. We are excited about forthcoming events at the Society and also about our ongoing work in the library and archives to make them increasingly more accessible.

The first lecture of 2015 takes place on Thursday 15th January when Dr. Santanu Das of King's College, London, will speak on British India and the First World War: Words, Objects and Images. 
  
Dr. Das' profile for King's College reveals his extensive research into World War One literature and culture:

Dr Santanu Das"I work on early twentieth-century literature and culture, with a focus on the First World War. My first book Touch and Intimacy in First World War Literature (Cambridge, 2006), based on my doctoral thesis, recovered and analysed the sensuous world of the trenches and the war hospitals, and explored the relation between war experience, art and emotion. I have edited Race, Empire and First World War Writing (Cambridge, 2011) and The Cambridge Companion to the Poetry of the First World War (2013). I have strong interests in early twentieth-century British literature; in theories of body, gender, sexuality and affect; and in the relationship between modernism and colonial/postcolonial cultures, with a particular focus on South Asia. I am very interested in poetry and in 2010, I gave the British Academy Chatterton lecture on the poetry of D.H. Lawrence. I have published in journals such as Modernism/Modernity, Textual Practice and Essays in Criticism.

For the last several years, I have been working on the cultural and literary history of South Asia and the First World War. This has involved extensive archival work, in India as well as across Europe. Given that many of the actual participants were non-literate, it forced me to go beyond the strictly literary and delve into the material, visual and oral legacies of the war. The work has now developed into three inter-related projects: a monograph titled India, Empire and the First World War: Words, Objects, Images and Songs, to be published by Cambridge University Press; a visual source-book Indians on the Western Front / L’Inde dans la Grande Guerre, les Cipayes sur le front de l'ouest (commissioned jointly by Gallimard and the French Ministry of Defence) which came out in November 2014; and a series of academic articles. In 2014, I also presented a series on ‘India and the First World War’ for BBC Radio 4 and wrote a few short pieces on the subject for the British Library website.

From 2013-16, I am leading a major collaborative research project on ‘Cultural Exchange in a Time of Global Conflict: Colonials, Neutrals and Belligerents in the First World War’ (CEGC) funded by Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA), with partners from academic and cultural institutions from across Europe (http://www.cegcproject.eu)."http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/english/people/academic/das.aspx

 We look forward to hearing the lecture. It starts at 6pm and will be followed by a drinks reception.

And while we are on a literary theme, during the Christmas period, I drafted another poem about my early experiences with the RAS Archive:



RAS Archives 19th Century

Archive creed: arrange
as befits original
order, provenance.

First box, pleasingly, is archival quality, papers placed in Melinex sleeves and labelled:

Journal of the Mission Team from the Supreme Government of India to the Court of Siam

Notes on the Chinese Game of Chess

An Effort to Identify the Artist who drew the Picture of Jehangir Court, Beveridge, 1915

A letter from Brian H. Hodgson concerning Buddhist works, Nepal, 1835

The Peninsula of India showing Marches of the British Armies, 1790-1792, drawn chiefly from Major Connell’s map, presented by Colonel Doyle – in need of conservation

Next box, more confusion – the Society’s Post Book, 1984-1987, housed with a map of Formosa, postcard from Shanghai, 1930s correspondence relating to Asian suit of armour.
 
Appraisal requires
knowing contents: choose to list
on Excel spreadsheet.
 

This poem is in the form of a haibun, a literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku, first used by the 17th century poet Matsuo Basho. A haibun may record a scene, or a special moment, in a highly descriptive and objective manner or may occupy a wholly fictional or dream-like space.The accompanying haiku may have a direct or subtle relationship with the prose and encompass or hint at the gist of what is recorded in the prose sections. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haibun). For more information on haibun there is the Journal of Contemporary Haibun Online at http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/

 
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RAS awarded £15,000 grant for conservation of Latin-Chinese manuscript dictionaries

January 8, 2015, 3:53 am
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We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant of £15,000 from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust (www.nmct.co.uk) towards the conservation of a rare two-volume Latin-Chinese manuscript dictionary. Donated to the Royal Asiatic Society by Sir George Staunton in 1824, the dictionary is in very poor condition and is almost impossible to handle without causing severe damage. The NMCT grant will ensure that the manuscript receives top-quality conservation treatment from professional conservators and can be made available to scholars and researchers for generations to come. 

The dictionary was created in Beijing in 1745, and was given to Sir George Staunton by the Catholic missionary Padre Adeodato di Agostino, who worked in China for almost 30 years. The volumes include 1200 pages, with Latin terms arranged alphabetically and followed by their translation in Chinese. Volumes such as these are particularly interesting because they were created before a universal system of Romanization of Chinese had been developed, and the translations relied on the compiler’s personal knowledge of local dialects and his preferred system of transliteration. As such, the volumes are a fascinating example of early cultural and intellectual interaction between Europeans and China, an area which seems to be experiencing increasing scholarly interest. 

The dictionaries were working volumes, used to assist ongoing translation work in the eighteenth century, and were clearly well-used. They must have experienced some wear and tear in their early years as there is extensive evidence of historical repair work which aimed to reinforce the pages by adding strips of paper along the edges. Unfortunately, over time the added strips of paper created a sharp edge along which the pages have split, and continue to do so, resulting in knife-like cuts to the page. One of the goals of the conservation project will be to remove all these pieces of paper and repair the damage. The volumes will also be re-bound and re-covered, and kept in custom-made archival boxes. 

Below are some images of the manuscripts in their current state. We look forward to sharing new images of the manuscripts later in the year to demonstrate the progress of the conservation project. 

The volumes will have new coverings and bindings
The original binding structure has failed and the volumes will be rebound
Razor-like tears in the page will be repaired
Sir George Staunton was, in effect, the first sinologist from the British Isles, having accompanied the 1792 embassy of Lord Macartney to China at the age of 12. He later entered the employ of the East India Company where he was a pioneer translator most notably of the Qing legal code. After his return to England he became involved in the Royal Asiatic Society and donated a number of manuscripts and books to the Society which form a core part of the collection.

We are extremely grateful to the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust for their generous grant. We are currently in the process of raising the remaining funds (£5,285) for the project. [This has now been secured thanks to the generosity of the Sino-British Fellowship Trust--please see below.]

The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust helps preserve important manuscript and archive collections by awarding grants for their conservation. Since the NMCT was founded in 1990 it has awarded grants of nearly £2.5m which have enabled the conservation of hundreds of musical, literary, architectural and other vital historical documents that would otherwise have been lost or faced an uncertain future. The NMCT is the only UK grant-giver that focuses solely on the care and conservation of manuscripts in the UK.

UPDATE: since this blog was first published, we have learned that the Sino-British Fellowship Trust (www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/intl/sbft.cfm) have awarded us a grant for the remaining £5,285, for which we are most grateful.
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