Papers of the African Association, 1788-1831, including microfilm and enlarged prints from microfilm of the Association's minute books of its Committee Meetings (1788-1809), General Meetings (1790-1831) and Meetings of the Saturday Club (from 1799 the African Club) (1788-1815) and miscellaneous correspondence: nine items of different dates (1808-1822) principally concerning John Lewis Burkhardt.

Journal of the scientific research voyage of HMS Challenger from 1872-1875. Illustrated with watercolours and line drawings. The typescript contains the text of the journal.

Correspondence and papers of Alexander von Humboldt relating to his many scientific interests, publications, and professional and social life. Most of the letters are written to French men of science, publishers, officials and others, with a smaller number to German, British and other correspondents.

Manuscript translation into English, by an unknown hand, of Petrus Martyr Anglerius, Opus epistolarum ... Cui accesserunt epistolæ Ferdinandi de Pulgar, Latinæ pariter atque Hispanicæ (in Latinum idioma conuersæ a J. Magon), cum tractatu Hispanico de viris Castellæ illustribus, edited by C. Patin, (Elsevir, Amsterdam, 1670) 'The Work of the Letters of Peter Martyr of Angleria, a Milanese...to which are added the letters of Fernandez de Pulgar....'.

Papers of Sir George Back, 1814-1878, including c. 250 letters addressed to Sir George Back by various correspondents (listed by name), 1848-1878; personal letters from Back to his family, 1813-1878; photocopies of extracts from Back's sketchbook and slides of his sketches from 1819-1822 expedition to Arctic; passports and framed letter with sketches of polar bear, 1874.

Papers of John Thomas Baines including manuscript descriptions of four lithographs of South Africa; photocopies of two letters to Thornton, one dated 1859; typed list of 288 paintings owned by the RGS; catalogue and booklet of exhibitions of 1975; topographical notes of journey west from Zambesi and diary, May 1869-April 1870, missing since 1968.

Papers of Sir Samuel White Baker including diaries (which include sketches) of expeditions to the Upper Nile between 1861 and 1873, and notes on hunting in Ceylon 1844-1853; cash book for 1869; observations taken in Central Africa, 1860-1873 and papers and letters to John Petherick (1863) and Mr Kerrison (1873).

Papers of Sir Joseph Banks, 1788-1811, comprise microfilm, and enlarged prints from the microfilm, of papers held in the Sutro Collection, State Library of California concerning subjects including the Africa Association.

Papers of William Singer Barclay, 1901-1918, comprise diaries, 1901-1918, of residence and travel in Uruguay, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina Ecuador and Colombia; reports on the Misiones region, 1904-1907 and miscellaneous notes and news cuttings from a variety of sources concerning South America.

Papers of William Barents and Jacob van Heemskerk, 1871-1877, comprise a photocopy of record left by them on the island of Novaya Zemlya, in the Artic Circle, in 1597.

MSS. 5958-5963 comprise journals of A B Barton, mainly written while he was a medical officer in the service of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P & O), 1853-1858. They cover his journeys between Bombay, Singapore and Hong Kong; to the Crimea; and to the Far East. They include descriptions of the progress of the Chinese rebellion (MS. 5959), tending to and transporting the sick and wounded from Balaclava to Scutari (MS. 5960), and his shipwreck off the coast of Ceylon, together with General Henry Havelock, on the steamer Erin (MS. 5962). Some are manuscript or typescript copies. MSS. 7589-7594 comprise journals and sketches mainly relating to the Yangtse expedition, led by Captain Thomas W Blakiston, on which Barton served as a medical officer, 1861. One journal, MS. 7591, also records the end of the expedition and Barton's journey to Ceylon via Singapore, with entries on hunting expeditions in Ceylon. The journals are all fair copies. MS. 7592 comprises a narrative of the Yangste expedition read by Barton to the Royal Geographical Society, based on his journals. MS. 7593 is a series of mainly topographical illustrations relating to the expedition, comprising sketches by Barton, plus photographs and engravings based on other sketches by Barton, some of which were used to illustrate Five Months on the Yang-Tse by Thomas W Blakiston (London: John Murray, 1862). MS. 7594 comprises later papers of Brian M Gould relating to Barton and his journals, 1967 and n.d.

Correspondence, papers and journals of Charles Tilstone Beke, 1824-1910, principally relating to Abyssinia and the Middle East, with papers of his wife Emily Beke (née Alston). The collection holds information on all aspects of Beke's career, from his early legal training to the search for employment and financial security of his final years. His intervening travels, geographical and biblical studies and resulting publications are documented by journals, notebooks and printed material. Correspondence includes that generated during Beke's secretaryship of the National Association for the Protection of Industry and Capital throughout the British Empire; and generally reflects a wide range of scholarly acquaintance and interests. Supplementary papers of Emily Beke record her championing of C.T. Beke's posthumous reputation, and her attempts to gain recompense for his occasional government service.

Papers of Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, 1905-1924, comprises twelve notebooks containing archaeological notes, plans of churches and other sites; records of inscriptions including those from Turkey, Iraq, and Syria; one notebook and folders containing astronomical observations from Arabia, 1913-1914 and a notebook by Lesley Gordon for an exhibition at the University of Newcastle, 1994.

Papers of Louis Charles Bernacchi, 1901-1925, including private diary covering the voyage of the DISCOVERY, 14 Feb-5 Nov [1901-1904], including sketch maps and photographs and folder containing a synopsis of the Antarctic expedition of 1925.

Papers of James Berry, 1879-1926 comprise a journal of a world tour via the Suez Canal, Colombo, Austrailia, New Zealand, Canada and include photographs of illustrations and text from the original manuscript. The collection also includes diaries, including one entitled 'My Journal 1892' and others dated 1879 and 1918-1926 and two annotated copies of the journal of a world tour.

Papers of G C Binsteed, 1913, comprise five journals of travel in Inner Mongolia with Captain Holme and in the Mongolian Republic, 1913. Translation by G C Binsteed of extracts from 'Report on a summer excursion into Mongolia in 1911'.

Papers of Vero Louis Bosazza, 1942-1980, comprise papers relating to his work as a geoglogist and include 'The identification of Daka na Moio island in the Shire river', 1969; 'Notes on the journal of Thomas Baines... April 3rd to September 17th 1858', 1970; 'Dr Livingstone's geological description omitted from the published version of Livingstone's African Journals, 1853-1856' (annotated transcipt, prepared from the original held by the National Archives of Rhodesia, 1973); 'David Livingstone, pilot and navigator', 1972 (two vols, typescript, fully annotated, maps, diagrams, tables, photographs and bibliography); 'The magnetic variations along the east coast of Africa, 1822-1969', 1972; ' Discussion on David Livingstone: a Mid-Victorian scientist by Dr D J Siddle', 1974; 'The Pioneer surveys in the Zambesi and Shire valleys and the mapping of Malawi', 1974; 'David Livingstone and his modern critics', 1975 (illustrated with maps, diagrams and photographs); 'Thomas Baines on the Zambesi', 1975. (Illustrated with maps and photograpghs); edited transcripts of: Antonio Jozi's 'Narrative of the proceedings of a small party ... July 1823 ... to explore the course of the river Zambesi' (Archives Library MSS.); and a letter from Thomas Maclear to David Livingstone, 11 July 1865 (Archives Special Collections: David Livingstone), 1976. Papers relating to southern Africa including: 'The Rev Robert Moffat's sextant', 1978; 'The grave of Herbert Rhodes on the Shire river, Malawi'; 1978.

Papers, 1963-1971 and undated, of and relating to Edward William Bovill, comprising notebooks and files and research material for the book Missions to the Niger, Vols I-IV (Hakluyt Society, 1962-1966). The papers are mainly xerox copies of correspondence in the Public Record Office relating to the explorations of Friedrich Hornemann, Mungo Park, Dixon Denham, Hugh Clapperton, Alexander Gordon Laing and Walter Oudney in Africa during the period c1800-1829. There are also several notebooks, which contain notes of the progress of Bovill's work.

Papers of James Brant comprising a report of a journey through part of Armenia and Asia Minor, 1836, published in the Journal of the Royal Georgraphical Society vol 6; ten letters from Captain Washington and Colonel Jackson, (secretaries of the Royal Geographical Society) to Brant 1829-43; sketch map of disputed territory between 'Ghuriel' and 'Adjarah'. The collection also includes an impression of an RGS wax seal on an envelope, the only example of such a seal held within the archives.

Papers, mainly accounts, concerning the British Antarctic expedition (1910-1913).

Papers of Clarence Dalrymple Bruce, 1901-1907, comprise a diary of a journey across Asia in 1907; copies of an article for the London Evening Standard, 1902-1903; account of a ride from Peking to Lake Baikal; and two volumes of a route report from Tibet to Peking.

Papers of James Bruce, 1750-1779, comprise seven letters, various dates, 1758-1789, which refer to personal affairs, except for the letter to Mr. Mackenzie from Tunis, 9 May 1766, which describes a journey in the hinterland of Tunis.

The main part of these manuscripts is a translation into English of part of the published account of de Bruin's travels. There is also a transcription of a small portion of Sir John Chardin's travels. The first volume is signed by Joseph Smith, probably Joseph Smith whose biographical details are noted under the appropriate heading, and some of the manuscripts are in his hand.

Papers of Sir Richard Francis Burton, 1852-1880, comprise 'Proposed Somali expedition' 1855; Field notebook, east coast to Ujiji, 1858; Observations made at Ujiji, 1858; 'The Ukara or Ukerewe Lake', 1872; Log book containing entries made at Santos, Brazil, March to October 1868 and RGS Correspondence files: 61 letters written to the Society by Burton,1852-1880.

Papers Verney Lovett Cameron, 1872-1886, relate to the Livingstone Relief Expedition of 1873 and notably include: account books from 1872; correspondence about the preparation and progress of the Expedition, 1873-1875; a diary for October - December 1874; correspondence on funding the exhibition 1873-1881.

Papers of Arthur Douglas Carey, 1884-1935, comprise a diary of a journey in Ladak, Tibet, and Sinkiang, 25 May 1885 to 19 May 1886; two letters from John Biddulph to (H E M) James (who travelled part way with Carey), 2 June and 24 June 1884, giving advice on travel in Central Asia; four letters from Ney Elias to Carey 27 Sept 1885, 13 Nov 1885, 3 Sept 1886, 20 March 1886 and official correspondence to and from Carey concerning his journey.

Papers of Alexander Douglas Mitchell Carruthers, 1904-1957, comprise travel diaries and notebooks from Syria and Lebanon, Central Africa, Turkestan and Arabia; correspondence, notes, published articles and cuttings about birds, mammals and other natural history topics.

Papers of Vice-Consul Chaillet, comprise 'Observations on the western coast of the Morocco state during my journey from Mogador to Tangier in July and August, 1830; memorandum respecting the foundation of Mogador, its trade, descriptions of the bay...' , bound with copy of a letter to Consul-General Douglas, 21 Aug. 1828, concerning the death of Major Laing.

Papers of Paul Belloni du Chaillu, 1864, comprise route notes, astronomical observations and calculations, Gabon, 1864; letter from Acra, 25 Aug 1863 and letter from Fernand-Vaz, 7 April 1864 reporting on journey to, and residence on, Fernand-Vaz river and library MSS letters, chiefly of a personal nature, to Sir George Black during the years 1848-1878.

Papers of M A Chambers, 1912-1913, comprise 'The lure of the Caucasus': sketches in prose and paint of travels under the old regime.

Papers of Bouverie F Clark, 1882, comprise a report on a visit to Easter Island and to Sala-y-Gomez Island, June 1882, in HMS SAPPHO, with a watercolour sketch, by Captain F P Doughty, of images on the slopes of Mount Topaz, Easter Island.

Papers of J M Clayton, 1910-1911, comprise a diary (not complete) of journey to Addis Ababa, 1910-1911; report and route report on the Anuak country; notes on routes from Addis to Dire Dawa; sketch maps of the Aronsie country and Lake Hora Abiata.

Papers of Lt E C Coleman, 1991, comprise an account of an expedition to King William Island to search for traces of the Franklin Expedition.

Manuscript, c1760, entitled 'Directions for sailing from the harbour of Halifax to Quebec, by James Cook, Master of His Majesty's Ship Northumberland'. The text is written in Cook's hand throughout. Pasted into the manuscript are a table showing latitude and longitude of capes etc (f 17r) and a list of names, mostly of native chiefs encountered in the Pacific on Cook's first and second voyages (f 18r).

Papers of James Cook, 1774-1971, comprise a photograph of a letter to Captain John Walter of Whitby, 13 Sept 1774, describing his discoveries in the South Seas; photocopy of accounts for food purchased, headed 'Captain Cook on board the Resolution at Long Reach', June 8 1776 and correspondence, 1899-1937, relating to the Tahiti Memorial to Captain Cook.

These include photographs of letters of Lord Nelson, 1794 to 1797; of his journal of the AGAMEMNON, 1794; two letters written by Captain Cook, 1772; and some papers of Nevil Maskelyne (1732-1813), Astronomer Royal, 1761 to 1793.

These include two early works on shipbuilding: Matthew Baker's 'Fragments of English Shipwrightry', c 1586, and Sir Anthony Deane's 'Doctrine of Naval Architecture', 1670, held in the Pepysian Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Other examples include copies of two letters written by Sir Francis Drake, ([1540]-1596) 1587 and 1589, a copy of his will, 1595, and one of his 'Pilot of the Caribbean and Azores', 1596; copies of the will of Captain Cook, made in 1776, and of fifty-six letters by or about Lord Nelson, 1780 to 1805, and the personal papers of Nevil Maskelyne (1732-1813), Astronomer Royal.

These include transcripts of documents dating from the sixteenth century: the earliest is a description of Drake's preparations for his expedition in 1585. There are also transcripts of official letters, 1718 to 1720 to Admiral Sir George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington (1663-1733), when he was in command of the British fleet in the Mediterranean; a copy of a letter describing the sinking of the GREAT BRITAIN in the St Lawrence River, 1842; and transcripts of letters from the Duke of Windsor and Prince Albert (later King George VI) to Admiral Sir Campbell Tait (1886-1946), 1913 to 1919.

Papers of Bolton Glanville Corney, 1903-1924, comprise manuscripts and corrected proofs for volumes edited by Corney for the Hakluyt Society; unpublished, edited transcripts of documents and articles including 'Sidelights on Captain Cook's call at Rio de Janeiro in HMS Endeavour' , 'The narrative of Te-ehe-te-Atua-o-noa', 'The career of the Harrington snow', notebook containing a Fijian vocabulary for medical officers; notes copied from a variety of sources relating to islands inlcuding Easter Island and the Falkland Islands.

Papers of Augustine Courtauld, 1930-1931, comprise two angle books, from the British Arctic Air Route Expedition to Greenland.

Papers of Sir Percy Zachariah Cox, 1894-1906, comprise two journals describing expeditions to Somaliland in 1894 and 1898-1899; the folder contains correspondence on the later journey; two journals describing visits to Persian Gulf sites and routes into the interior of Oman (1902-1907).

Papers of Dr Richard Julius Cyriax, 1864-1969, comprise notes on Noel Wright, New light on Franklin (Ipswich, 1949) and Quest for Franklin (London, 1959) and notably include a critique on the book, in two volumes dated 17 July 1954 and photostat and MS copies of notebooks of Captain C F Hall's second Franklin Search Expedition, 1864-1869.

Papers of Henry Rudolph Davies, 1887-1899, comprise five diaries covering travels in Western China, 1887-1899 and work of the Siam Boundary Commission (1892-1894); letters describing boundary commission, 1894, Journal of expedition with the Chinese Deputies 17 November 1893 to 26 January 1894; Journal of expedition along Chinese frontier and in the Kachen Hills 11 Feb 1894 to 22 March 1894; 'Journal of [...] expedition to Myitkyina... and to Chinese frontier', 7 April 1894 to 2 May 1894; papers concerning his marriage in Burma including two copies of marriage certificate, baptismal certificate of his daughter; a lawyer's letter about his marriage and a framed Chinese passport.

Travel journals of John Davy, 1816-1847. The 3 later volumes in this collection of journals deal with a period as a medical inspector in the West Indies, while the earlier ones cover a voyage to Ceylon and a period based in the Mediterranean. In all these places Davy records the local economy, geology, wildlife and attitudes, occasionally illustrating the journals with his own drawings.

Notebooks of William Dawes, one dated 1790, comprising grammatical forms and vocabularies of the language spoken in the neighbourhood of Sydney, New South Wales; short vocabularies of the language of natives of Van Diemen's Land, collected by the officers of the French frigates La Recherche and L'Espérance in 1793.

Papers of Maj Henry Hugh Peter Deasy, including astronomical observations, Lucknow, 1896-1897; route book Baltit to Sinkiang, 1897-1898; meteorological notebook, Sinkiang, 1897-1899 and meteorological notebook with entries by Arnold Pike, Deasy's companion, on journey from Leh to Lanak La, 1896.

Notebooks and letter book of Lionel Decle concerning his travels in Central and East Africa, 1893-1900.

Journals, notebooks, papers and letters of Maj Dixon Denham, 1815-1827, chiefly relating to the Denham / Clapperton / Oudney expedition from Tripoli to Bornu 1821-1825; also including diaries kept during the Waterloo campaign and subsequent travels around Europe; papers relating to Ensign Tootle and to the Sahara expedition of 1822-1824.

Papers of Ney Elias, 1857-1890, chiefly referring to Elias' career in China, Kashmir, Chinese Turkestan and with the Siamese Boundary Commission together with personal journals and drafts and the manuscripts and proofs of his book Tarikh-I-Rashidi. Nos. 1-12, 1873-1890; Nos. 13-23, drafts of letters and reports to the Government of India; Nos. 24-35, personal journals while at school in Dresden 1857-1860, 1867 and 1868 in China, 1880 Yarkand, 1885-1886 Pamir journey, and 1889-1890 as a member of the Siamese Boundary Commission; Nos. 36-48, miscellaneous notes and drafts; Nos. 48-54, rough notes and correspondence; Nos. 55-56, drafts and notes relating to a book The History of the Khojas of Eastern Turkistan; calculations of altitudes, Sinkiang, 1887 and reductions of observations made in the Mongolian Republic, 1872-1873.

Logbooks of the schooner ELIZA SCOTT on the discovery of the Balleny Islands and the first sighting of Antarctica comprising logbook of Captain John Balleney, Jul 1838-May 1839 and logbook of Balleny's chief mate, William Moore, 1838-1839. The voyage went from London to New Zealand, sighted Antarctica and then on to Madagascar.