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John Massey Stewart is a photographer, writer, lecturer, and environmental activist with a special interest in Russia and the Russian far East. This collection primarily documents his visit to Mongolia in 1964 as part of a visiting British delegation before the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Marc Aurel Stein was born in Budapest in 1862. He first studied Sanskrit with Roth and Geldner in Tübingen and subsequently came to London in 1883 to continue his study of oriental languages. He went as Registrar to Lahore University in 1887 and became Principal of the Oriental College in 1888. He was interested in Central Asia both in its geography, archaeology and strategic position. Stein is renowned for his archaeological exploration in Eastern Central Asia (1900-01, 1906-08, 1913-16, 1930-31), India, Iran, Iraq and Jordan, and for his pioneering work on the early civilizations of the Silk Road. He is especially famous for the discovery of the hidden library of documents and Buddhist paintings at the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas (Qianfodong) at Dunhuang, Gansu province, China.
He became a British national in 1904. Stein received a number of honours throughout his career. This Collection reveals some of them. He was conferred with the Gold Medal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1943. Stein wrote extensively about his travels and within the RAS Collections are original photographs from which the plates were taken for his many publications. Stein died in Kabul on 26 October 1943 and is buried in Kabul's British Cemetery.

George Thomas Staunton was born at Milford House near Salisbury. When 12 years old he accompanied his father on Macartney's mission to China. He had begun to learn Chinese prior to the mission and as such was able to converse in Chinese. In 1798 he was appointed a writer in the British East India Company's factory at Canton, and subsequently its chief. In 1805 he translated a work of Dr George Pearson into Chinese. Five years later, he published an English translation of a significant part of the Chinese legal code.

In 1816 Staunton acted as second commissioner on a special mission to Beijing with Lord Amherst and Sir Henry Ellis but the embassy was unsuccessful and shortly after it departed back to Britain Staunton decided to leave China permanently. In 1820 he purchased the Leigh estate in Hampshire. He was a founder member of the Royal Asiatic Society.