Endangered archives blog

Four new projects have recently been made available on the EAP website that can now be viewed in full. Three of these projects are from the African continent:

• a collection of medical records from Mengo Hospital, Uganda [EAP617];
• Ajami manuscripts and other records from Senegal [EAP1042];
• photographs from the Nairobi Railway Museum showing areas of Kenya and Uganda before the railway development [EAP1143].

Finally, we have a collection of administrative records from Nevis Island in the Caribbean [EAP794]. 

EAP617

This project digitised a collection of patient medical records from Mengo Hospital in Uganda, held at the Albert Cook Library, College of Health Sciences at Makerere University. Sir Albert Cook arrived in Uganda as a missionary doctor in 1897 and founded the Mengo Hospital shortly after. These records dating from 1897-1944 are a valuable source of information about the rich history of modern medicine in Uganda. They also show the value of preserving archives and how they can be used for research in ways other than their intended use. For example, these records are currently being used by academics to study socioeconomic history of Uganda and also missionary views of sexuality, morals and sin.

Sample cover sheet from Mengo Hospital patient record

EAP794

Building on the work of pilot project EAP093, this major project digitised records from the Caribbean island of Nevis spanning three centuries of history, from 1705-1974. This collection contains a rich source of material for historians and genealogists alike. It includes:

• Common Deed Record Books, 1707-1956 (49 volumes)
• Court of King’s/Queen’s Bench and Common Pleas, 1705-1873 (39 volumes)
• Supreme Court, 1874-1962 (9 volumes)
• Other Courts, 1815-1943 (8 volumes)
• Wills, 1763-1880 (7 volumes)
• Ships Bonds, 1847-1867 (7 volumes)
• Provost Marshal’s Sales, 1847-1935 (9 volumes)
• Land Title Register Books, 1887-1922 (3 volumes)
• Miscellaneous Records, 1840-1940 (23 volumes)
• Maps and plans, 1888-1974 (205 individual maps/plans, or montages of plans)

Plan of Paradise Estate in Nevis

EAP1042

Ajami is a modified Arabic script used for writing some African languages, including Mande languages (such as Bamanankan, Eastern Maninka, Western Mandinka (or Mandinka), Jakhanke, Jula, and Susu). These Mandinka Ajami manuscripts are particularly valuable as Ajami texts in Mande languages are some of the least documented. 

Though the project initially focused on digitising Mandinka Ajami texts they soon found many important manuscripts in other languages that help to document the preoccupations and intellectual traditions of the Mandinka people of Senegambia and beyond. This includes multilingual manuscripts written in Arabic, Mandinka, and Soninke, and a few written in Wolof and Fula.

The manuscripts cover a wide range of topics including astrology, divination, Islamic education, poetry, jurisprudence, and many other subjects.

Page from a manuscript digitised in the EAP1042 project

EAP1143

This pilot project produced a detailed survey of all the material held at the Nairobi Railway Museum’s archive and digitised a small sample of photographs. The sample images were taken circa 1901 before and during the construction of the Uganda railway, which runs through present day Kenya and Uganda. They depict the landscape and daily life of the region’s local inhabitants.

Kisumu crowd at P. Florence