A guide to the sources of the extraordinary India Office collections of the British Library.
The India Office Records in the British Library document the activities of the English East India Company and the British administration of India from 1600 to 1947. This guide makes a great part of this material relating to science and the environment material newly accessible via sign-posted routes into the archives and detailed lists of the principal records. It also gives the historical and archival context of the documents, outlining the British involvement in science in India and explaining how the records are organised.
The guide is arranged into the following sections: plant and botanic gardens; agriculture; forests and forestry; animals and animal husbandry; geology; meteorology; health and disease; irrigation and water control; communications and the built environment; ethnography; landscape and topography.
"...we are indebted to the compliers for producing such a splendid resource". M. Satish Kumar, Archives of Natural History
Richard Axelby is a social scientist who has published on the subject of common property and natural resource management.
Savithri Preetha Nair has published on collecting, museums and shaping of the sciences in India.