Letter from Richard Cobden to Dr W C Taylor, 2 Aug 1842. Thanking him for the gift of 'your little vol' [possibly Notes on a Tour in the Manufacturing Districts of Lancashire]. 'The best thing that could happen wd be to see it well abused in the Morning Post and Standard.'

Autograph, with signature.

Minutes of the Executive Council and other committees; accounts; central memoranda and correspondence; projects and reports on subjects including the Ethnographic Survey of Africa, Industrialisation, Pan African Exchange, Food Supply in Gambia, West African Museums and Somali Refugees; papers concerning seminars; research works submitted to the IAI for consideration, some smaller research projects, and Nigerian intelligence reports, some of which touch on Cameroon; proofs and correspondence relating to IAI publications; printed publications; material relating to other organisations such as UNESCO, the Ford Foundation, and the United Nations Organisation; and general correspondence.

Papers, 1977-1988, relating to the Club de Dakar, comprising correspondence, research papers and publications. Includes lists of members; press cuttings; conference and discussion papers; minutes of meetings; reports; accounts and publications.

Records of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, 1849-2002, comprising minutes of the Commission, 1850-1993; minutes of the Board of Management, 1872-2002; minutes of Science Scholarships Committee, 1890-2002; reports of the Commissioners to Parliament, 1850s-1960; annual reports of the Board of Management and committees, 1880s-2002;

correspondence, 1850-1855, relating to the Exhibition, including transport and reception of exhibits, site for the building, organisation of activities and visits for overseas visitors, medal design, music for the opening ceremony, appointment of jurors, negotiations with the contractors Fox & Henderson, award of gratuities, removal of the Crystal Palace to Sydenham, use and disposal of the surplus funds, purchase of the South Kensington Estate;

correspondence concerning the South Kensington estate, 1851-2002, including the establishment, building and subsequent development of institutions such as the Royal Albert Hall, Royal College of Music, Royal College of Art, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal College of Organists, Imperial Institute (later Commonwealth Institute), Queen Alexandra's House, Royal Horticultural Society and Imperial College; correspondence concerning private properties on the estate, such as Queen's Gate; correspondence with the Royal Geographical Society, 1913-2001;

files relating to science research scholars, research fellows, overseas scholars, industrial fellows, industrial bursars, industrial design students and naval architecture scholars, including some research papers, 1891-2002;

maps, plans, drawings, photographs, including ground plans of the Exhibition, 1851; architectural drawings of the proposed estate, 1850s;

Windsor Archive concerning the 1851 exhibition, 1849-1886.

Letter from William Longson of 2 Garnet Street, Hillgate, Stockport to [Joseph Hume], 9 Nov 1825. Congratulating him 'for not receiving the presents offered to you in Scotland', which will 'repress the ... enthusiastic impetuosity of several Bodies of Workmen'. Agreeing with the views of [John Ramsay] McCulloch on the influence of the use of machinery on workmen's wages and the price of the commodities produced. Proposing to publish supporting this view.

Autograph, with signature.