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The Sir Richard Burton Medal – On 12 April 1921 the Council of the RAS agreed to found a Richard Burton memorial lecture in commemoration, that year, of the 100th anniversary of Burton's birth. A fund was established to finance the lecture and by 1923, £60 had been subscribed. It was decided in March 1923 that part of this would be used to fund the Burton Medal. This would be awarded to the person chosen to deliver the lecture, which was to deal with Burton, his travels or some suitable subject of exploration. The presentation and the lecture would take place triennially. The medal was designed in 1924 by Pinches, to be cast in silver and gilded. In practice those chosen to give the Burton lecture were expected to have undertaken exploration and research in the East, and more particularly in close association with local people, or in difficult circumstances.

This archive contains papers pertaining to the inauguration and awarding of the Sir Richard Burton Medal. The Papers includes:

• Correspondence
• Administrative documents
• Printed materials including newspaper articles
• Examples of the Medal
• Photographs

Personal papers of William Pettigrew connected with the Manipuri language and other local dialects.

Correspondence and Papers written by Captain Thomas John Newbold between 1842 and 1849. The majority of the correspondence is from Newbold to Richard Clarke, the Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society. The Papers were mainly sent by Newbold to be read at the Society or published in its Journal.

The collection spans Henry Miers Elliot's career working for the Indian Civil Service from 1827 to 1853, and includes:

• Manuscripts mainly concerned with administration. These are in English and local Indian languages.
• Correspondence to Henry Miers Elliot
• Printed Material
• Visual Material, including copper-plate rubbings, agricultural drawings and a map of Baiswara.

Some of the material had previously been identified by Professor Simon Digby, Honorary Librarian to the Royal Asiatic Society (1970-1984). The information provided by him has been kept with the Henry Miers Elliot Papers.

This is a set of Indian Religious Songs collected, transcribed and translated into English by Ram Gharib Chaube, probably for the use of William Crooke.

Personal Papers of Major General Sir Frederic John Goldsmid

The papers of Lieutenant Chalmers consist of two hardbound volumes of handwritten text, being the 'Akbar Nameh of Abul Fazl Allami' translated by him. The Akbar Nameh ('History of Akbar' or 'Book of Akbar') was the official history of Akbar's reign, commissioned by Akbar and written by his court historian and biographer Abul Fazl in Persian. Chalmers's translation is an abridged version of the original text.

Volume I has the following additional items pasted into it:

• a letter from Henry Beveridge to Miss Latimer, Assistant Librarian at the Royal Asiatic Society, returning Chalmers's translations which the Library has lent to him and saying it is a pity that his translation is little known, dated 21 February 1923
• two sheets of notes signed G. O. [Gore Ouseley], commenting on the translation
• two slips recording borrowing of the volumes by two readers in 1877, 1880 and 1885

Volume II has the following additional items pasted or inserted into it:

• a note stating that this book has been entered in the Society’s catalogue in September 1877
• a small slip of paper containing an extract from the volume and further notes by an unidentified author. This was found in the Society's Institutional records in 2024 and was therefore inserted into the volume
• a letter from J. C. Morris, Secretary to the Madras Literary Society, to the Secretary of the Oriental Translation Committee, requesting to submit Chalmers’s two volumes of translation. The letter goes on to state although the translation is not accompanied by the original as required by the rules of the committee, Mr Lushington (English Tory Politician and Governor of Madras from 1827-1832) will on application provide the loan of the original work in his possession from which Chalmers's translation was prepared. Dated 30 May 1833.
• a pressed fern on page 157

"On the Discovery of the Buddha's Birthplace by L.A. Waddell". A notebook with black cover into which Waddell has pasted several articles concerning his attempts to find the birthplace of Buddha. These are entitled and annotated by him by hand. The articles included are:

• "The Discovery of the Birthplace of the Buddha" from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1897, pp.644-651
• "Where is the Birthplace of Buddha?" from the Englishman, 1 June 1896
• "A Tibetan Guide-book to the lost Sites of the Buddha's Birth and Death" from the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1896, pp. 275-279
• Editorial Note from the Englishman, 1 June 1896
• "Who found Buddha's Birthplace?" from The Pioneer Mail, 29 October 1897
• "Who Found Buddha's Birthplace?" - a reply to Dr Führer's letter, from the Englishman, 30 November 1897
• "Christian Tombs in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh" from The Pioneer, 22 September 1897
• "The Birthplace of the Buddha" by Sir George Birdwood, from The Times, 9 September 1897
  It appears from the title page of the book that Waddell prepared this volume especially for the Royal Asiatic Society in February 1898.

There is a single item in these Papers - this is a partial translation of Lubb ut-Tawarikh Hind undertaken by Prichard. This is a handwritten manuscript of 44 foolscap sides plus a front cover with the titles "Lubbu-t Táwáríkh Hind" "Translated by Lieut Prichard 15th N.I.", "See Catalogue No.202 From p 284 to 305". A different hand has added "(Khander)" and a further hand has made a comment about the text and the translation. The manuscript is incomplete.

The Papers of Horace Geoffrey Quaritch Wales contain papers relating to his archaeological work in southeast Asia including expedition notes, personal notebooks, diaries, manuscript proofs, correspondence, newspaper cuttings and maps. Listed within this catalogue are objects and items of furniture which were also part of the bequest of Quaritch Wales' wife, Dorothy, to the Royal Asiatic Society.