Our Collections
SOAS Library holds an important and expanding collection of archives and manuscripts relating to Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Two thirds of these comprise archives and papers documenting the activities of a number of major British missionary societies, and of individual missionaries, making SOAS the leading centre in the United Kingdom for mission studies. There are significant holdings of business archives; a substantial number of collections relating to East Asia; rich African language and literature holdings and an immense range of manuscripts and scholarly papers relating to East Asia, South and South East Asia and the Pacific.
Papers of scholars, writers, travellers, and other significant figures whose life or work is important to the study of Africa and Asia are actively acquired. Amongst figures represented in our collections are: A. J. Arkell, Jean Boyd's papers on Nana Asmaù, Robert Wellesley Cole, Thomas Fox-Pitt, J.S.Furnivall, Andrew Hake, J. T. Hardyman, James Legge, Francis Light, D.L.R. Lorimer, Solomon Plaatje, Ifor B. Powell, Charles G. Richards, William Sewell and Abraham Nahum Stencl.
An extensive range of descriptive lists and catalogues is kept in the Special Collections Reading Room. The SOAS Archive Catalogue is also available for searching online. This currently includes over 35,000 records, including collection descriptions for all of our catalogued archive collections.
Administrative & Diplomatic papers
Most of these relate to East Asia, an area of special strength in our holdings, and include papers, dated 1860-1943, of leading members of the Chinese Maritime Customs, such as Sir Robert Hart and Sir Frederick Maze. A recent development has been the acquisition of collections of former members of the China Consular Service, including Sir Chaloner Alabaster, Sir John Pratt, P. D. Coates and Sir Alwyne Ogden. The Library also holds the papers of Sir John Addis, Ambassador to China from 1972-1974.
Business archives
In 1975 the Library acquired the archive of John Swire & Sons. The company, known in the East as Butterfield and Swire, first dealt in textiles but subsequently switched to shipping, sugar refining and dockyard work. Other business interests represented include records of the Guthrie Corporation, relating to the financial administration of its Malaysian plantations, and papers of Sir William Mackinnon, co-founder of the British India Steam Navigation Company in 1862 and Chairman of the Imperial British East Africa Company from 1883 to 1895. The Library also holds an extensive collection of the papers of Sir Charles Stewart Addis, Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, 1883-1945.
Missionary archives
Following the completion of the new Library building in 1973, the School began to take in deposits of modern archives and to build up its collections of private papers. About two thirds of the holdings document the presence and work of British Protestant missionaries, in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific area. There are approximately 950,000 documents, some 19,000 photographs and, in the missionary libraries, about 20,000 published works of memoirs, histories, annual reports, missionary magazines and translations. Organisations represented include the China Inland Mission, the Council for World Mission, the Methodist Missionary Society, the Conference of British Missionary Societies and Christian Aid.
Information about the identity and location of other missionary society archives in the UK is provided by the website of the Mundus project. See also our Links page.
Language & Literature
There are rich collections on the languages and literature of Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Africa is particularly well-represented with papers of such scholars as RC.Abraham, JWT Allen, GP Bargery, WA Crabtree, MM Green, M Guthrie, P Hackett, GWB Huntingford, Sir HH Johnston, FW Parsons, AN Tucker, A Werner and WH Whiteley. Important literary collections include typescripts of works published in the Heinemann African Writers series while the Boyd Collection contains manuscript copies of the writings of the Nigerian woman poet, Nana Asma'u (1793-1865) who wrote in Fulfude, Hausa and Arabic. Collections of scholars working in other areas include papers of Sir Thomas Arnold, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the University of London, 1921-1930 and Sir Denison Ross, first Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1916-1937. In addition, the missionary archives contain many references to the compilation of dictionaries and grammars, and to the translation of the Bible, and other publications, into a large number of languages.
