The Society has a Digital Library, which features some of our most important, beautiful, and inspirational collections. The Digital Library includes:
- Three exquisite Persian manuscripts: the Shahnamah of Muhammad Juki (RAS Persian 239), the Gulistan of Sa‘di (RAS Persian 258), and the Masnavi of Zafar Khan (RAS Persian 310)
- The digitized archive of Sinologist and mathematician Thomas Manning (1772-1840), which was acquired by the Society in 2015
- A selection of Malay manuscripts from the collections of Sir Stamford Raffles, Sir William Maxwell, and William Farquhar; including a particularly important copy of the Sejarah Melayu (RAS Raffles Malay 18)
- A film of archaeological excavations at Nineveh, Iraq, ca. 1930, under the supervision of Reginald Campbell-Thompson
- The Brian Houghton Hodgson collection of architectural drawings of the Kathmandu Valley, completed by the Nepali artist Raj Man Singh Chitrakar in 1844
- Most of the Society’s oil paintings, well as a number of other important artworks from our collections
We hope to gradually add more content to the Digital Library.
Digitization Sponsorship
The Society welcomes sponsorship from members and supporters to digitize our collections so that we can make more of our treasures available for anyone from anywhere in the world.
As part of its bicentenary initiatives in 2023, the Society launched a digitization sponsorship appeal and this resulted in two important manuscripts digitized, including a richly illuminated copy of Bustan of Sa’di (Persian 251) and a volume of two texts on Indian history and legends (Tod 126). We are now continuing the appeal and invite you to take part in helping us provide wider access to the collections for a global audience. For information about the items that are still awaiting digitization, see this page.