Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
School of Oriental Studies
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The School of Oriental Studies (later the School of Oriental and African Studies) was founded as part of the University of London to address inadequacy of teaching in Asian languages in London, and to cater for the study of Asian cultures. It opened in 1917. Its library received substantial collections of books transferred from other London institutions.
The philologist Sir George Abraham Grierson (1851-1941) joined the Indian Civil Service in 1873 and was in charge of the Linguistic Survey of India from 1898. He was a Fellow of the British Academy and member of several Asiatic, Oriental and linguistic societies. His numerous publications on the languages of India included The Linguistic Survey of India.