Archive

Mussoorie Water History

The most basic necessity of a township

  Water is the most basic necessity of us humans. Many Civilizations have risen and vanished due to the changes in the water geography.  The present Landour and Mussoorie, the twin towns which later merged, saw their inception in circa 1825. Primarily a British town where most of the Houses were built near a Spring. Water was in abundance, but the terrains were tough for agriculture. Hence prior to the British occupancy, the region was used by the adjoining Villages for livestock grazing in the hot Summer months. The early residents obtained their water manually from the various springs that were to be found usually at a level somewhat below that on which the houses were built. The water was carried to the houses on Mule back...

Sir Frederick Tymms

The Flying Civil Servant

Rachel Rowe,  is Librarian of the Centre of South Asian Studies and the Royal Commonwealth Society collections in the University of Cambridge Library.  Rachel writes here on the archives of Sir Frederick Tymms,  RCMS 20, one of the most significant figures in the development of civil aviation, referred to by his biographer, E.A. Johnston, as the ‘Flying Civil Servant’. Tymms served as an Observer in the Royal Flying Corps during WW1, then joined the civil aviation department of the Air Ministry 1920-1927 where he became involved in the development of air routes across Africa and India in the 1920s and 30s.  His archives document the difficulties of locating suitable landing strips at regular distances across each continent and the excitement at the opening of new aerodromes.  ...

British Photography in Tibet

An amazing resource for the study of Tibet

Rachel Rowe,  is Librarian of the Centre of South Asian Studies and the Royal Commonwealth Society collections in the University of Cambridge Library.  Rachel recently discovered an amazing resource for the study of Tibet and reviews here some of the links and content available. The Tibet Album : British photography in Central Tibet, 1920-1950 provides online access to over 6000 digital images of Tibet, together with biographical information on the photographers, maps and access to the collection by date and place. The original photographs are held in the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford) and the British Museum (London) and digitisation project was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/ Tibetan musician     (Cambridge University Library, Y3039A/55)   The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University holds the Frederick Williamson Collection.  Frederick Williamson was...