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This archive consists of registers, lists and correspondence concerned with the acquisitions and accessions of the Collections of the Society. The Society has not kept comprehensive records throughout its history. Further information pertaining to the Acquisitions of the Society can be found in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society and in the Minute books for the Council and General Meetings. Accessions continue in the life of the Society. More recent ones are held in the Society's records management system and will be transferred to the archive in due course.

The Royal Asiatic Society is governed by a Council who attend regular meetings to discuss the Governance of the Society. These Papers are the signed minutes for these meetings.

These Papers consist of a single document - a handwritten manuscript with label, 'Notes on China and the Chinese'. This label also reads 'Read 7th April 1847. This is inaccurate - the General Meeting Minutes of the Society record that Sir George Staunton read the paper from the Reverend George Smith at the meeting of the 17th April 1847. The manuscript relates details of geography, politics, education, religion and culture. The manuscript is dated London, April 7th 1847 in the same hand as the creator and 'Read 17 April 1847' in a different hand.

The Papers of Hartwig Hirschfeld consists of the handwritten manuscript draft for his New Researches into the Composition and Exegesis of the Koran along with some supplementary notes in English and Arabic. The manuscript bears the stamp of the Bombay's Education Society's Press, Bycella, and is dated "Received 7 Mar 1902". The book was published by the Royal Asiatic Society, as Volume III of their Asiatic Monograph Series, in 1902.

With the manuscript draft and notes is a letter from Raphael Loewe to Mrs M. Davis, Secretary, Royal Asiatic Society, to thank her for agreeing to take the manuscript. He is working through Hirschfeld's papers (his great-uncle) and also enquires whether the Society would be interested in transcripts of Arabic manuscripts. This letter is typed and dated 17 May 1962.

These Papers contain a single item entitled: "A Translation of the Standard inscription, and of the great slab, or Altar, found in the ruins of Nimrud by Captain Ormsby, Indian Navy". The translation is contained with a soft-cover notebook which gives details of the inscriptions. The notebook has a marbled cover which has come loose from the pages.

• Copy of inscriptions from the East, West and South Walls of a "large cave" in Nanaghat. This document is dated as being in Edinburgh in 1877.
• Collection of Urdu letters which have been identified as dating to around 1866 and being addressed from Punjab. They appear to be petitions from soldiers addressed to the British authorities. There are 8 letters.
• Collection of John Dowson's notebooks. They include three of Dowson's personal English-language notebooks dated to 1844, which tell the story of Drona from the first book of the Mahabharata (possibly copied from another source). There is also a fourth notebook in Urdu which seems to be a diary, journal or copies of more letters, and includes a 1 page Urdu-English dictionary.

These Papers are mainly concerned with excavations undertaken by David Stronach and John Hansman at Šahr-e Qumis in 1971 and 1976, and by David Stronach at Pasargadae in 1963. There is also the manuscript for Hansman's book, "Julfār, an Arabian Port", and more recent correspondence between Hansman and RAS Archivist, Nancy Charley.

"Journal of a Mission to the Government of some of the Lower Provinces of Siam". A handwritten unbound manuscript of 94 sides describing James Low's Mission to the Rajah of Ligor in 1824. The manuscript is dated 1824 but there is a postscript explaining the main purpose of the mission, dated 1 January 1846. The manuscript bears many alterations and annotations. These Papers are not the same as the article, "Extracts from the Journal of a Political Mission to the Raja of Ligor in Siam. By Capt. James Low, M. N. I. and M. A. T. C.", published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, July 1838.

With the manuscript are photocopies of printed articles. These are: Report on Lieutenant Low's Public Mission to His Highness the Rajah of Ligor, pp.1-11, unknown source. Journal of a Public Mission to the Rajah of Ligor, pp.12-21, incomplete, unknown source.

These Papers contain three letters from James Purefoy, a scan of a letter in a private collection, two Bills of Exchange and a note regarding their donation.

The papers of John Romer consist of:

• An untitled translation beginning: "Translation of the first fifteen verses of Col. 1 of the Behistun inscription, being done into the literal and schismatic Persian rejecting Arabic works". Romer provides a description of his translation in English and a copy of the fifteen verses in Persian. He acknowledges the work that Sir Henry Rawlinson undertook on the inscriptions. Six sheets of paper, 20 sides. The final page bears the label in a different hand, "Persian Language, J. Romer Esq."
• A letter to the Bombay Gazette found within the 1687 Complementum thesauri linguarum Orientalum by Franciszek Meninski, (1623-1698). This Thesaurus was donated to the the Royal Asiatic Society by John Romer. The letter to the Gazette takes issue with a contemporary evaluation of the Dabistan, a seventeenth century work in Persian, which is a unique study of different religious creeds. The letter gives some explanation of the Dabistan and provides some examples. It is dated 20 July 1820, handwritten, 8 sides.