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A handwritten manuscript of Yādgār-i Cishtī by Noor Ahmad Chishti with an English colophon which states: 'Yādgār-i Chishti by Nur Ahmad Chishti Lahori. Autograph presented by the author in 1858 to Robert Eyles Egerton, then Deputy Commissioner of Lahore. A description of trades and castes in the Punjab.' The manuscript is written in Urdu with annotations. It has a leather binding decorated with flower patterns. However these are much faded and the general condition of the volume is poor.

A single loose leaf is found within the volume. This bears an inscription in Urdu, entitled, in English, 'Inscription on one of the guns in the Castle' and a further sentence identifying the date to 16 February 1754.

A handwritten copy of the Mémoire sur l'histoire ancienne du Japon : d'après le Ouen Hien Tong Kao de Ma-Touan-Lin written by the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys, President of the Society of Ethnographie, originally published in 1872. This version was copied for Ernest Mason Satow by the 'Ph. [Society] Japaniste' in 1876.

It is a small bound volume with red cover and bearing the bookplate for Ernest Mason Satow, Yedo, on the inside cover.

The O.W. Samson Award was set up in memory of Dr Otto William Samson, ethnographer and curator of the Horniman Museum. His wife, Elizabeth Samson, donated £10,000 to the Royal Asiatic Society with the wish that the annual income from the invested money be used to either enable a scholar to pursue their research in the fields of anthropology or archaeology relating to Asia; or to enable the Society to mount a study group or seminar on some aspect of these fields. In its initial years the award helped to fund a publication following the Islamic Fundamentalist Conference and 'The legacy of the House of Timur' Seminar. In 1992 it was awarded to Richard Rudgley, St Cross College, Oxford, to visit the rural areas of Xinjiang to document surviving traditional technology, and in 1993 to Lilla Russell-Smith to research Chinese Buddhist painting at Dunhuang.

The material related to this award includes initial correspondence, administrative documents, advertising leaflet, and later correspondence including the news of Elizabeth Samson's death.

Notebook containing catalogue entries of the Assyrian letters inscribed on clay tablets that were found at the excavations led by Max Mallowan, archaeologist and academic, at Nimrud, Iraq in 1952. Each entry records the measurements of the clay tablet, number of lines on it and the location at which it is found, running from the reference numbers ND 2350 to ND 2499, and from ND2601 to ND 2803. The writing is in several different hands so was probably compiled by the members on the excavation team led by Mallowan.

Advertising card of Kung Cheong, dealer in jewels, ancient Chinese curios, chinaware, etc. The shop was established in 1871 and the card lists two shop locations, one at No 62, Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong and the other at Tai Sun Street Central, Canton (now known as Guangzhou). Some pencil annotations on the reverse reading: 'Nic[k] Chang, Kwong Sung, Tuck [illegible] - Photo men under Powells' and the address of 'Wing Hing [China] shop' on Queen's Road.

The papers consist of correspondence mainly concerned with Pankhurst's interest and research into Ethiopia, a small amount of printed material, photographs, and Abstracts and Papers from the First International Conference on the History of Ethiopian Art which was convened by Pankhurst in 1986.

Two copies of Imperially Commissioned Illustrations of Tilling and Weaving (Yuzhi gengzhi tu 御製耕織圖), a book illustrating the processes of rice growing and silk production which was first printed in 1696 by order of the Qing emperor Kangxi. The two copies are both woodblock-printed, but are different editions.

Copy 1

This copy is in a concertina format. It includes a preface, followed by a section on rice and the other on silk. Each section contains woodcut prints facing each other, each containing an inscription in it and accompanied by poetry composed by Kangxi in the upper margin, with seals in black. There are 44 prints in total, including 23 from the rice section and 21 from the silk section.

This copy has disintegrated into several parts and no covers are present. The opening page of the preface is missing, and two prints from the silk section (for steps of ‘warming the screens’ 炙箔 and ‘demounting’ 下簇) appear to be also missing. Page size measures 37cm high and 28cm wide.

Copy 2

This copy is in traditional Chinese thread binding. It includes a complete preface and one section on rice and the other on silk. Each woodcut print also contains an inscription and is followed by poetry on the verso. For each print the poetry composed by Kangxi is followed by additional poetry, including that composed by the Emperors Yungzheng and Qianlong, the latter in honour of the original poetry composed by Kangxi. This suggests that this copy is a later edition and is datable to the reign of the Emperor Qianlong (1735–1796). There are no seals accompanying the prints. There are 46 prints in total, including 23 from each section.

Annotation in pencil on the cover reads: ‘Pictorial Representation of Rice-growing + Silk [?] with preface by Kiang Hei, dated 1696’. A label on the cover bears the reference number ‘RAS 50’. Annotation in ink on the bottom edge reads: ‘御製耕織圖’. Page size measures 28.5cm high and 29.5cm wide.

Stored together with this copy is a photocopy of an article on the book, possibly taken from an auction catalogue (reference number 14921), made in October 2002.

• 'Identifications of Copies of Paintings in the Ajanta Caves Completed by Robert Gill in the Period 1845-1863' by Colmán McLaughlin. The manuscript is dated as 'Final Draft 1/21/2010'. Computer printed, 36 pieces.
• Copies of emails between Colmán McLaughlin and the Royal Asiatic Society concerning obtaining documents for this research. He also includes a transcript of a submission by the Royal Asiatic Society to the East India Company Honourable Court of Directors concerning the appointment of Robert Gill as artist and photographer at the Ajanta Caves and subsequent correspondence, computer printed, 11 pieces, dated 19 July 2004 - 10 July 2009.

Established as the Shanghai Literary and Scientific Society, in 1857, the Society became affiliated to the Royal Asiatic Society the following year, becoming the Royal Asiatic Society (North China Branch). This material was collated in the interaction of the two Societies; the closure of the North China Branch and subsequent questions regarding it closure; and in its reopening and re-establishing links with the Royal Asiatic Society.

Hodgson used much of his time in both Nepal and Darjeeling in research, wanting to discover and understand about the architecture, languages, ethnography, religion, zoology and botany. He collected specimens and manuscripts, and had many drawings made, which he donated to many collections throughout Europe. He was also politically involved during his Residency in Nepal, and also later in England, when he continued to show an active interest in the Indian subcontinent, particularly regarding trade and vernacular education. These Personal Papers reflect these interests and are a record of much of his activity - Hodgson and his wives seemed to have a need to record all his successes. He was also a keen annotator of material, so that most of the printed material also bears his handwritten comments.