Marking half a century of the Swire Collection at SOAS
Last year marked 50 years since the Swire Archive found its home at SOAS.
Over that half century, the collection has provided a remarkable window into the history of one of Britain’s most influential trading families. From shipping and sugar to aviation and education, the Swire story reflects two centuries of global change across Europe, Australia, China, and Hong Kong.
This anniversary coincided with the launch of SOAS Digital Collections, the university’s new digital library platform designed to showcase, share, and celebrate SOAS collections in dynamic and visually engaging ways. Among its most exciting features is the exhibition tool, which enables digital assets to be curated, interpreted, and presented thematically or chronologically
To mark both milestones, we created a new digital exhibition that explores the Swire Archive at SOAS, celebrating the depth of its history and demonstrating what our new digital platform can offer: Marking half a century of the Swire Collection at SOAS.
The Swire Archive holds an extensive collection of letters, ledgers, and reports documenting the decisions, aspirations, and difficulties that influenced the company’s development over two hundred years. The digital exhibition highlights a selection of these materials, offering insight into the major achievements and challenges that transformed a once bankrupt enterprise into a global powerhouse. Through the documents readers will encounter pirates, hi-jacking, boycotts, smuggling, secret codes and much more.
This project marked a new direction for us, shifting from presenting material solely in physical spaces to offering it in a digital format. Until now, most of our engagement has centred on physical items, through exhibitions, open days, and teaching sessions. Curating an exhibition digitally requires an altogether different approach both in terms of selection of material, and the tone and content of captions.
The launch of this exhibition represents an important step in our ongoing commitment to broadening access to SOAS’s archival holdings. As well as engaging SOAS staff and students, the international nature of our collections means that there is significant global interest in the papers we hold. Providing digital access to archives widens reach by removing geographical and physical barriers, creating a more equitable way for people round the world to engage with collections. We are excited to see how this expanded access will shape future research, teaching, and engagement with our collections.
If you have any questions, or comments, please drop us a line at: special.collections@soas.ac.uk.
