Untold lives blog

This post provides details of digitised collections from the India Office Records and Private Papers which are available online while we recover from the cyberattack.

It builds on the previous blog posts, Interim ways of working with the India Office Records and Private Papers and IOR catalogue records added to Discovery platform. 

The focus is on collections held by the British Library, although we do mention external sites which have a content overlap with some of our currently inaccessible digitised collections.

Qatar Digital Library (free access)

Over 2 million images, primarily taken from the IOR and Private Papers, with a focus on the Gulf region, plus Arabic scientific manuscripts from the British Library.

Qatar Digital Library (qdl.qa)

British Library Research Repository (open access)

A small amount of IOR material has been made available here, including the India Office Lists, a selection of Government of India Administration Reports, and a selection of indexes for the East India Company dispatches.

Datasets from the India Office Records and Private Papers // British Library (bl.uk)

Endangered Archives Programme - Survey of East India Company and Colonial materials of Jamestown, St Helena (free access)

This project surveyed relevant archives at Jamestown and digitised a selection of materials.

https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP524

Botany and medicine resources (free access)

While the Botany in British India collection remains unavailable, you may find relevant published material online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. 

While the India Office Medical Archive collection remains unavailable, you may find relevant published material online at the National Library of Scotland Medical History of British India site.

Adam Matthew - East India Company (subscription)

Focused on the Company period (1600-1858), and divided into six modules. An overview of the records included can be found here: Nature and Scope - East India Company - Adam Matthew Digital (amdigital.co.uk) 

Adam Matthew - Area Studies: India (subscription)

Digitised from microfilm, this resource includes official and personal papers of George Curzon, Viceroy of India 1898-1905, from Mss Eur F111 and F112; Indian Newspaper Reports c1868-1942, from IOR/L/R/5; a selection of personal diaries by military and civil office holders, from across the Private Papers; and a selection of publications on India and Britain by Indian authors, from the India Office Library collections.

Adam Matthew - Area Studies: India  

Find My Past - British India Collection (subscription)

This service will let you search and view digitised military, civil service and medical personnel records, plus birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial registers, wills and probate records.

Find My Past - British India Office Collection (findmypast.co.uk) 

Gale Cengage resources (subscription)

Papers from the Public and Judicial Department (IOR/L/PJ) appear in Refugees, Relief and Resettlement: Forced Migration and WW2.

Papers from the Military Records (IOR/L/MIL), Political and Secret Department (IOR/L/PS) and Burma Office (IOR/M) appear in China and the Modern World: Diplomacy and Political Secrets, 1869-1950.