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Papers of Arthur Cowper Raynard, 1881, comprise a letter to Mrs [Sophia] De Morgan, widow of Augustus De Morgan, offering to lend her Professor Edward Singleton Holden's biography Sir William Herschel, his life and works (London, 1881).

Observation files by Robert Lawrence Reid including two angle books, time book, astronomical observations and barometric readings, Anewimi region, 1905-1909. Journal MSS: 1902, 'Some explorations in Portuguese East Africa'.

Library Manuscripts comprise manuscript items donated to the Royal Geographical Society. They are chiefly single files or a small number of items which are not large enough to warrant forming a special collection. The papers include, astronomical and meteorological observations, diaries, correspondence, notes, conference papers, reports, articles, photographs, sketches and maps covering all aspects of geography and exploration across the globe and date from 1691 to 1994. Highlights include:

Memorandum on a map of South America, by John Arrowsmith.

Papers of Maj R A Bagnold, 1929-1933, comprising positions, routes and heights in Egypt and letters from Bagnold.

Letters from Sir John Barrow to Lord Melville, 1935-1945 and letters to Barrow from Murzuq, 1822 and J D Dundas, 1818.

Papers of Dr Heinrich Barth, 1846-1952, letters and copy of a sketch map of Timbuktu.

Notes on heights of mountains in America by Capt F W Beechey, 1826.

Letters from the King of Siam to Sir John Bowring, 1855.

Letters relating to the British Arctic Air Route Expedition, 1928-1932.

Correspondence and reports of the British Ornithologists' Union Expedition to New Guinea, 1908-1911.

Papers of G Wyman Bury, 1913-1918.

Papers of Capt R F M Crozier, 1836-1906.

Account of a journey to Lhasa and central Tibet by Sarat Chandra Das, 1902.

Papers of Lt James Barker Emery, chiefly relating to Mombassa, 1822-1835.

Plan and elevation of the Screw Yacht FRAM as reconstructed in 1898.

'Narrative of a small party of HMS LEVEN under command of Lt C W Browns sent to explore the Zambesi by one of the survivors, a native of Angola', by Antonio Jozi, 1823.

Journal of Joseph Kaye's voyage from London to Genoa.

Papers and maps relating to William Kennish's exploration in South America for a canal route.

Papers relating to the Kufara expedition led by H W C J Penderel and P A Clayton to Gilf Kebir, 1933.

Papers relating to the Livingstone Award, 1875-1970.

H B Molesworth's diary of a journey to Mokalla (Mukalla), 1893.

Letters from Sir John Morrison to Henry Dundas and others concerning Persia and trade with Persia, 1783-1792.

Narrative of a shipwreck on the southern shores of Arabia by B A R Nicholson, 1836.
Correspondence of Walter Oudney, 1821-1823.

Papers of Adm Sir W E Parry, relating to the Arctic, 1819-1823.

Papers relating to the Pitcairn Islands, 1831-1885.

Annotated 'Code of Naval Signals' belonging to Adm Sir Home Popham, 1799.

Letter from Sultan Husain Sufrari, 1708.

Account of explorations on the coast of Patagonia by B Villarino, 1782.

Travel journals of J Washington, chiefly in South America, 1822-1829.

Letters to A F R Wollaston, 1896-1926.

Papers of Francis Rodd, including typescript copies of journals and astronomical and hypsometric records on expeditions to Air and the southern Sahara, 1922 and 1927. Seven folders of notes and correspondence relating to the same expeditions: notes on the Sahara from authorities of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; journal of route in 1927, with geographical and meteorological notes; drawings, unused chapters of Rodd's book People of the veil; copies of rock drawings, drafts for book lectures; diary, 1927; correspondence concerning the planning and conclusion of the expedition; papers on special subjects arising out of the 1927 expedition including botanical, anthropological and archaeological; survey notes; notes on instruments and chronometer ratings and letters from Francis and Peter Rodd to their parents, May-Jun 1927.

The collection consists of approximately 100 items on alchemy and early chemistry, the most notable item being De Secretis Mulierum. The collection also includes manuscripts of lectures given by Sir Henry Roscoe; his notes on solar chemistry work; letters written to him by a number of his peers and his notebook from 1849. The many volumes of letters in the collection includes correspondence with contemporaries such as Robert Bunsen, Michael Faraday, Dmitri Mendeleeff and Louis Pasteur as well as with a number of Presidents of the Chemical Society and the Royal Institute of Chemistry.

The collection contains correspondence related to the theme 'Scholars and Learned Ladies', including letter from Anna Gurney to Sir William Hooker, c. 1850. Correspondence dealing with the election of Miss Mary A Blagg as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Extract from Professor Turner's introduction to Miss Blagg's 'Collated List of Lunar Formations'. Letters from Professor Turner. Letter from Frank Dyson. A short account of the life and work of Mary Blagg produced by her nieces, 1968. Correspondence in 1962 about the late Miss Pernel Strachey's typescript edition of the Emmanuel College manuscript. Admission of women Fellows to the Royal Society. Correspondence between Royal Society, Society for Women's Service, Mrs Hutton and Miss P Strachey, 1954. Correspondence between Lucy Norton, John Carter and Joan Bennett about some George Eliot letters and an article on them by Joan Bennett, 1968. Copy of a letter from Mrs Baines (Bedford College) to Miss Pernel Strachey about a tapestry for Newnham College, 1945. Letter from Myra Curtis (Newnham) to Pernel Strachey, 1945. Letter from Hertha Ayrton to Dr Gorthon, 1911. Autograph signatures of Margaret McNair Stokes, Mrs Agnata Frances Butle, Jane Ellen Harrison.

Manuscript of a paper 'Astronomical Experiment on the Peak of Tenerife, carried out under the sanction of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. By Professor C. Piazzi Smyth. Communicated by G.B.Airy, Esq., Astronomer Royal' in 'Philosophical Transactions' Volume 148 (1858) pages 465-534. Folder of drawings and watercolours, including tipped-in stereoscopic cards. Received 2 June 1857, read 18 June 1857. Last two pages in the manuscript provide an explanatory account of the photographs, how they were taken and developed, and what materials were used.

Papers of Bertram Sidney Thomas, 1930-1940, including lists and notes on observations made during his expedition to southern Arabia, 1930: appendices to article by Thomas, 'A Journey into Rub' Al Khali: The Southern Arabian Desert', The Geographical Journal, Vol. 77, No. 1 (Jan, 1931), pp. 1-31; and astronomical observations, Arabia, 1930-1931.

Papers of Professor William Cawthorne Unwin, 1856-1952, comprising correspondence, principally concerning engineering matters, 1856-1931, 1950,1952, notably with Edward Dean Adams, including the Niagra Falls Scheme, 1890-1929, Sir Benjamin Baker, including the Forth Bridge, dam schemes, 1882-1898, Sir William Fairbairn, including experiments, appointments, 1856-1874, Thomas Hardy, concerning astronomy, 1881, Imperial College, 1910-1926 (as representative of the Institution of Civil Engineers);
research papers, 1859-1924, notably Fay and Newall brakes, 1859, observations on the Thames, 1882-1883, Nile Project Committee, 1919, dam schemes, 1899-1905;
speeches and addresses to various institutions, including presidential addresses to the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1912, and Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1916; engineering drawings, 1875-1906, of apparatus, machinery, sections of the Thames, Telok Ayer key wall, Singapore; two portraits of Unwin, undated;
additional material, comprising papers relating to Windsor Water Works arbitration, 1884; reports on compression gauges, 1886-1887; Birmingham dams, 1895; notes on dam theory, 1905; papers relating to Stockport water supply and Kinder Dam, 1905; notes relating to schemes for Niagra and central London.

'Leçons sur l'astronomie sphérique', illustrated by numerous pen-drawn diagrams and figures. The MS. is written with very wide margins, and contains the complete course of 54 lessons.

Notes of lectures delivered in Cambridge by Nicholas Sanderson. Subjects covered include hydrostatics, tides, sounds, optics, mechanics and astronomy.

Papers of Thomas Wilson, mid to late 18th century, comprising a volume containing notes by Wilson, of lectures given by John Hunter. Including notes on astronomical and mathematical topics, c 1854.