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Records created in the early use and research of the collections. These include a ledger, correspondence and collection information.

Information collated about the collections from the early history of the Society:

• Information concerning RAS Persian Manuscript 258 Gulistan of Sa'di. Handwritten and typed, 3 pieces, undated.
• 'Memo' - index of contents of an unknown [Thai] manuscript or book about Buddhism and the Siam court. Handwritten, 1 piece, undated.
• '[Kalunelle Wieharre]' - a list of manuscripts or index for a manuscript concerning Buddhism including some of the jatakas. Handwritten, 1 piece, undated.
• 'No' - an index for a manuscript found within Raffles Malay Manuscript 3 but not pertaining to it but to a manuscript written by different hands in the Marwari dialect and chiefly of Jain poems, possibly relating to Tod Ms.106. Handwritten, 4 sides, undated.
• 'An attempt to identify the Indian artist who painted a picture of Jahangir's Court' - an article by Henry Beveridge identifying the artist and the people portrayed in a watercolour painting of Jahangir and his courtiers donated to the Royal Asiatic Society by Major Charles Stewart, 5 July 1834, having been brought to England by Colonel Champion in 1775 and cleaned and regilded by Vaux in November 1880. Handwritten, 23 pages, dated 20 June 1915. The picture is no longer in the collections. Though written about in Foster's article The Pictures, etc., of the Royal Asiatic Society, (J.R.A.S. 1924) it was recorded as missing by the 1970 in the Society's guard books.
• Translation of the full-size copy of the Inscription to the Taula of Hafiz in Shiraz - handwritten, 2 pieces, [1929].

Material giving information regarding the printed material within our collections. These are:

• 'Gravures des conquêtes de l'Empereur de Chine K'ien-Long au Musée Gimet' - a printed pamphlet containing notes on the engravings of China's conquest of Turkestan, 1757. This pamphlet was produced by the Musée Gimet in 1969. With the pamphlet are photocopies of an article by Paul Pelliot from T'oung Pao, Vol XX, 1921 also describing the engravings; photocopies of portions of the book 'Guiseppe Castiglione: A Jesuit Painter at the Court of the Chinese Emperors' by Cecile and Michel Beurdeley, translated by Michael Bullock, published by Lund Humphries, 1971 again describing the engravings; a copy of Chapter 6 from the 'Peintres Jésuites en Chine au XVIII Siècle' by Michel Beurdeley; the article 'The introduction of copper-engraving into China' by Hartmut Walverens copied from the 62nd IFLA General Conference Proceedings, 1996; a copy of 'East Asian arts: Painting and pictorial arts' downloaded from Britannica, 2002; and further handwritten and typed notes on the material.
• Photocopy of the section from 'A Directory of Rare Books and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland' edited by Moelwyn J Williams (Library Association, 1985) containing information about the Society's collections.
• 'The Storey Collection' - a document by Francois de Blois concerning the types of books bequeathed by Professor C.A. Storey, typed, 2 pieces, dated January 1995.
• 'Sorting Chinese and Japanese Materials at the RAS Library' by Iside Carbone - an article about the Chinese and Japanese books in the collections. Typed, 12 pieces, dated 21 May 2003.
• Siolta 2023, the annual publication of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists with illustrations provided by the Society from its collection of the Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 28, 1929, to accompany the article 'Clare Emma Whitty (1883-1950) and the flora of central Korea' by Charles Nelson.

Two sets of postcards with illustrations from manuscripts:

• A set of 13 postcards with images from Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah of Firdausi, RAS Persian MS 239.
• Three postcards, 2 showing images from RAS Persian MS 239 and one image from the Gulistan of Sa'di, RAS Persian MS 258. These were photographed by Kevin Lovelock, British Museum. 1998.

Information about, and evidence of engagement with the artworks of the Society. For collections with a significant amount of material, a separate subseries was created.

Material concerned with the photographic collections held by the Society:

• List of the photographs within the Aurel Stein collections and the expeditions with which they were associated. Typed, 2 pieces, undated.
• 'Report on two rolls of film from the archives of the Royal Asiatic Society 10/12/98' by Ken Walton and Stuart Laidlaw describing the contents (Reginald Campbell Thompson's excavation in Nineveh) and the type and condition of the film. With this is a letter from J.E. Reade, British Museum, dated 18 February 1999, also giving details of the film, and an article sent by Ken Walton on the excavation.
• Programme for the visit to the Royal Asiatic Society by the Courtauld Institute of Art Summer School at which the photographs of Ajanta, Amaravati and Sanchi were investigated. The visit took place on 31 July 2008.
• Article and covering letter from Akiyoshi Tani, University of Tokyo, in which the Howell Collection of photographs were featured. The letter is dated 27 August 2013.
• Copy of the Hokkaido News, 7 December 2016 which carries an article about the Howell Collection of photographs.

Material for general or limited engagement with the archival collections. These are:

• Correspondence concerning the Papers of John Hansman and David Stronach. Two letters between Michael Pollcok, Royal Asiatic Society Librarian and John Hansman concerning a suitcase of material left by Hansman at the Society. Typed, 2 pieces, dated 28 November 1996-14 January 1997. Further correspondence between Nancy Charley, Royal Asiatic Society Archivist and John Hansman concerning the same material. Two electronic documents, dated 6 February 2018 -14 December 2018. (Archival documents made in 2025).
• Papers of Sir Aurel Stein - Letter from Helen Wang, British Museum to Michael Pollock, Royal Asiatic Society Librarian to send him a copt of the Society's entry into the Handbook to the Stein Collections in the UK. The copy is with the letter. Typed, 2 pieces, dated 14 August 1998. A further letter from A.D.H. Bivar to the Librarian, Royal Asiatic Society requesting a photographic copy of the portrait of Sir Aurel Stein. Typed, 1 piece, dated 16 January 2004.
• List of bound archives - list of minute books and other bound historic archival material. Electronic document, created in 2001; archival document created in 2025.
• Papers of William Claxton Peppé - Correspondence and the draft of a talk concerning the items in these papers and their discovery. Typed, 11 pieces, dated 2003.
• Papers of Brian Houghton Hodgson - An article from the Kantipur Daily, 14 November 2007 concerning some of the discoveries made by Dr Ramesh Dhungal on his initial listing of the Hodgson Papers; an article,'Hodgson's Legacy' which includes brief details of the collections at the Royal Asiatic Society. Typed and scanned, 6 pieces.
• 'Tackling Highly Original Order' by Nancy Charley, Royal Asiatic Society Archivist. concerning the initial sorting of the archival collections. Published in ARC magazine, Archives and Records Association, October 2015.
• 'Opium, Silk and the Missionaries in China' - exhibition brochure for exhibition at the Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 2021 in which the letter from Thomas Weeding (East India Company Agent and Independent Merchant) to Captain Harkness, Secretary to Royal Asiatic Society, concerning the gift of the "Grand Chop" or clearance document for the Sarah, the first ship to arrive in England directly from China after the East India Company relinquished its commercial character. was exhibited.

Digitisation and reproduction requests are made by researchers, institutions and publishers. Most of these are not kept for archival purposes. The ones listed below are kept either as examples of reproduction that has been carried out historically or because of the more significant nature of the project.

1960s-1970s

• Correspondence with the British Council and British Embassy concerning the microfilming of Burmese manuscripts requested by the Burmese Historical Commission. Typed and photocopied, 3 pieces, dated 29 August - 31 October 1963.
• Correspondence with Gregg Press Limited concerning the loan of volumes from the Society's collections for facsimile reprints. Also a booklet listing the books borrowed. Typed, handwritten and printed, 16 pieces, dated 17 December 1964 - 1 January 1970.

1980s-1990s

• Correspondence with the British Library concerning supplying photocopies of Malay manuscripts for an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. Typed, 2 pieces, dated 6 - 25 January 1984.
• Correspondence with the British Council and the British Library concerning the microfilming of Javanese manuscripts for the Sultan of Yogyarta, Indonesia. Typed and copies of handwritten, 12 pieces, dated 26 May 1988 - 12 February 1990.
• Correspondence concerning the desirability for the Society to have photographic records of six Persian manuscripts on long-term loan to the British Library. Typed, 2 pieces, dated 15 January 1992.
• Correspondence with the King Fahd National Library, Saudi Arabia, concerning the microfilming of Arabic and Persian manuscripts in the Royal Asiatic Society's collections. Typed, 11 pieces, dated 17 December 1994 - 3 October 1995.
• Agreement between the Royal Asiatic Society and The Yayasan Karyawan, Malaysia, to publish a facsimile edition of Raffles Manuscript 67. Two copies of the agreement, 4 pieces, dated 15 September 1997.
• Correspondence between Florence Tran, Cafe Productions Limited, and Kit Naylor, Royal Asiatic Society, concerning the reproduction of artworks from the Society's collections to be included in the TV programme, 'The Great Wall of China'. Typed, 3 pieces, dated 2 -3 November 1998.
• Agreement between the Royal Asiatic Society and the Bridgeman Art Library, London, for production and sale of images of artworks within the Society's Collections. Typed, 4 pieces, dated 1 March 1999.

2000s-2010s

• Correspondence and agreement with the National Galleries of Scotland concerning the digitisation of two artworks for an online exhibition in connection with their 'The Tiger and the Thistle' Festival exhibitions. Typed, 3 pieces, dated 30 December 1999 - 20 January 2000.
• 'Microfilm of R.A.S. Oriental Manuscripts' - list of the manuscripts for which the Society has microfilms. Typed, 8 pieces, dated January 2000.
• 'Royal Asiatic Society Titles Microfilmed by Microform Academic Publishers' - list of the Society's publications reproduced. Typed, 5 pieces, undated.
• Memorandum of Agreement with the Folio Society for the publication of a Folio Society edition of the 'Life of Muhammad: Ibn Ishaq' translated by Edward Rehatsek. Typed, 1 piece, dated 6 March 2003.
• Correspondence with Prometheus Books concerning the right to publish Edward Rehatsek's 'Life of Muhammad'. Typed and copies of emails, 8 pieces, dated 14 April - 1 November 2005.
• Correspondence with the Institute of Oriental Philosophy concerning the publication of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra Manuscript in the Society's Collections. Typed, 6 pieces, dated 3 June - 24 July 2007.
• 'Microfilm of R.A.S. Oriental Manuscripts' - list of the manuscripts microfilmed. Typed, 18 pieces, dated 29 June 2009.
• License Agreement with Cross Street Films for reproducing a miniature of Rana Jai Singh (Head Cat. No. 063.034) in the television documentary Sex, Death and the Gods. Typed, 2 pieces, dated 13 December 2010.
• Correspondence with Max Communications concerning the digitisation of material in the Society's collections and the creation of a digital library. With this material is the text of a talk given by Edward Weech, Royal Asiatic Society Librarian, at the Max Communications Archives and Heritage Conference 2018. Typed, 15 pieces, dated 2018.

2020s

• Signed digitisation agreement between the Society and the Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia, regarding the digitisation of 11 Malay manuscripts (mostly from the Maxwell collection) held by the Society. Typed, 7 pieces, undated but the signing ceremony was conducted via Zoom on 29 July 2025.

The Society's collections have always been open for researchers to come and use. This in turn has generated additional information concerning the collections both formally through articles and research papers and informally through correspondence. The Society has also sought to promote its collections through both events and articles. The papers within this series concern these activities. Though much of the administration of these activities does not create items of archival value, the ones kept were deemed to be of use for future researchers.

All new researchers have to register their details before accessing the Collections. For the most part these exist only as current records and are disposed of at the end of their retention schedule. There is only one historic document that has been kept related in some way to researcher registration. This is a bound leather volume entitled "Names of Visitors to the Museum of the Royal Asiatic Society, Great Britain and Ireland, 1832". At this time the Society had in its possessions many museum objects. The majority of these have now been dispersed to other institutions.
The volume is a registration book for visitors to the Museum covering the period January 1832-January 1840 on pp.1-123, and February 1848-June 1849 on pp. 125-126. It should be noted that on the outside of the Ledger is a label which reads "Committee of Agriculture and Commerce" and on pp.151-157 is an article, "Cost of Carrying Cotton" extracted from "The Friends of India..." dated 23 July 1861. On pp. 158-159 is an extract from the Council Meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, 16 January 1871. The other pages are hand-numbered but are blank. Leather bound volume with ruled pages, handwritten. The binding is in a fragile condition and the leather has some red rot.