Useful links

Useful links in Cambridge University Library, beyond the Library, sites about the Commonwealth, Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific, Canada and the Caribbean

• Papers of Sir Harry Parkes (1828-1885) who spent much of his career working for the government in the Far East. The collection includes printed and manuscript material collected in Hong Kong, China and Japan throughout his career.
• Collections of F.H.H. Guillemard (1852-1933), traveller, writer and naturalist, including photographs (MS Add.7957) and journals and notes (MS Add.7783) made by Guillemard as part of the crew of the 'Marchesa' during its voyage to Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia during 1882-1884.
• Jardine Matheson Archive This includes papers of colonial governments and their officers and agencies, mainly regarding trade and commercial matters (JM/L1), but also maps and plans of cities, properties and regions in South-east Asia, as well as plans of steamships (JM/L7); and a wide range of photographs from China and Hong Kong (JM/L8).
• LibGuide to official publications collections held within the Cambridge University Libraries.

and beyond ...

• Derek Ingram papers at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (reference: ICS 192).Derek Ingram was a British journalist and author, who was widely acknowledged as a leading authority on issues related to the Commonwealth of Nations.  He co-founded the Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA) in 1978, and served as President of the CJA from 1980. 118 boxes, catalogued to file level.
• Empire through the lens: pictures from the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection at Bristol archives.
• Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire - over 150 films are available for viewing online.
• A glimpse of India - moving footage from home movies of India taken 1911-1956, held at the Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
• The National Archives of Singapore photograph database enables you to search for pictures of Singapore and Malaysia from collections around the world. It provides low resolution images and names which collections hold the original images.
• Africa through a lens provides access to thousands of images taken from a broader photographic collection of Foreign and Commonwealth Office images, held at The National Archives. The images date from the 1860s and span over 100 years of African history.
• The British Diplomatic Oral History Programme (BDOHP) provides research material for the study of British diplomatic history. From its website at Churchill Archives Centre you can access to the transcripts of interviews with British diplomats.
• Migration to New Worlds - online access to selected Colonial Office files on emigration and remigration, including diaries and travel journals, ship logs and plans, printed literature, objects, watercolours, and oral histories. Access from this link for University of Cambridge students and staff.
• Dutch Colonial Maps Digital maps of the Dutch East Indies, the Dutch Antilles and Suriname from the former library of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam, dating back to the time that KIT operated as a 'Colonial Institute'. About 15,000 maps and 150 atlases from the period 1850-1950.

A selection of URLs for locating information on Commonwealth countries:

Information on the Commonwealth:

• British Empire & Commonwealth Collection (Bristol Archives) - New catalogue (October 2020) Explore archives and objects collected from people who lived and worked in the British Empire, and Commonwealth, including digitised films, sound archives and photographs.
• Commonwealth Secretariat
• Royal Commonwealth Society (includes links to RCS essay & film competitions)
• Cabinet papers from the National Archives Core records of the British Cabinet from 1915 to 1982 have been digitised, and their full text searchable online from these web pages. Includes a substantial section on Empire, Commonwealth and De-colonisation
• The British Diplomatic Oral History Programme (BDOHP). Indexed access to transcripts of interviews with British diplomats, held in Churchill Archives Centre
• Empire Online digitised documents, images (maps, paintings, drawings) and essays relating to Empire Studies, sourced from libraries and archives around the world. Includes literature from Africa and South Asia, women's writing and stories for children. (Access via library subscription in cam domain, Raven password)

For information on Africa:

• Centre of African Studies Library, Cambridge – contains many useful links
• Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide (Henry Martyn Trust) – for mission archives and photographs from Egypt and Sub-Saharan Africa
• Africa through a lens. Access to images in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office photographic collection at The National Archives.
• Felice Beato in Sudan. In 1884 the Anglo-Italian photographer Felice Beato (1832-1909) was appointed official photographer on an expedition for the relief of Khartoum in Sudan. A collection of photos from this expedition held in the National Archives.
• Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium: archives relate to exploration, colonial expansion, and the Congo post Independence in 1960. Includes Henry Morton Stanley archives, photographs of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, films, maps, artwork and historical objects.
• UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa (SCOLMA) includes news and links to collections in libraries and archives
• The Africa Desk a portal for Africanist scholars in the UK and Africa

For information on Asia:

• Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge (includes digital film & oral history archives)
• Archives of Economic Life in South Asia : sources on the history of economic life in South Asia, based on recent work of scholars within and outside South Asia. Includes government archives (national, state, and local), private papers, legal sources,and archives of architecture and photography. It is a growing resource with an excellent research blog, interviews with archivists and academics, and plenty of collection links. It includes interviews with Rachel Rowe on the Royal Commonwealth Society archives and Kevin Greenbank on Centre of South Asian Studies archives.
• Burma Star Memorial Fund Archive: resources for genealogy and research related to the 1941-1945 Burma Campaign, including membership records, its magazine Dekho!, maps, propaganda and personal stories
• Asia through a lens: images from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office photographic collection (CO 1069). The full collection can be seen on Flickr, and includes scenes from across the Asian continent, including China, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
• Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide (Henry Martyn Trust) – for mission archives and photographs from India
• South Asia Archives and Library Group blog
• British Library's new collection guides for South Asia (include its Delhi collection of 3,500+ volumes of manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and miscellaneous languages, India Office collections of records, papers, photographs, prints,  paintings and drawings, 60,000 European and South Asian languages periodicals and 500,000+ printed books)
• Royal Asiatic Society
• Digital Himalaya collection
• The National Archives of Singapore photograph database Search for pictures of Singapore and Malaysia from collections around the world. Now includes superb collection of aerial photographs. Provides low resolution images with details of archives holding the originals.
• Visualising China This portal now provides access to over 18,000 digitised images of photographs of China taken between 1850 and 1950, including Joseph Needham's photographs of wartime China (1942-1946).
• Vietnam Virtual Archive at the Vietnam Center, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-1045. A documentary record of the Vietnam War, including photographs, slides, maps, periodicals, audio, moving images and books related to the Vietnam War, Indochina, and the impact of the war on the United States and South Asia.
• Digital South Asia Library
• Kalakriti Archives - Prshant Lahoti Collection of Indian maps - select 'Explore everything' to browse these digitised maps
• Digital Colonial Documents (India) Project
• Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) Access via library subscription in cam domain on EBSCOHost platform
• Eastern Art Online - online access to the Ashmolean Museum's Eastern Art department collections.
• Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)
• South Asia Archives and Library Group
• Mapping Asia in UK libraries
• South Asia Through Official Eyes: mapping the national collection of South Asian official publications

For information on Australasia and Pacific:

• SA Memory: multi media resources for the study of South Australia
• Australasia through a lens. Photographs and drawings from Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific Islands dating back to the mid-19th century from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (CO 1069) on Flickr.
• Southern Cross Resource Finder: Australian and New Zealand collections in Europe
• Picture Australia in Trove – digital images of Australasia
• Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
• PAMBU - Pacific Manuscripts Bureau for copies of archives, manuscripts and rare printed material relating to the Pacific Islands

For information on the South Atlantic:

• Dictionary of Falklands Biography - describes people concerned with the history of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia from the first discoverers in the sixteenth century up to the eve of the Falklands Conflict of 1982.

For information on Canada and the Caribbean:

• Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Republic of Guyana - photographs of Guyana from a number of museums
• Access Canada: the UK gateway to information on Canada
• Americas and island territories through a lens: images from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office photographic collection (CO 1069). They capture scenes from Canada to Belize, Trinidad to the South Shetland Isles, and span more than 100 years.
• ICCS links to databases and resources International Council for Canadian Studies portal which aims to give international Canadianists access to important and relevant scholarly resources on Canada
• CASBAH: Caribbean Studies, Black and Asian History (archived website)