The RSAA’s library reflects the interests of the Society both geographically and chronologically.

The library, consisting of some 7.000 volumes is focussed on the period after 1800, although it includes a small number of items from earlier centuries. The early holdings of the Library reflected the interests of the founder members. Today the Library has books that cover Asia, from Turkey to Japan. The collection is shelved according to country and covers historical, political, economic, cultural and artistic subjects. In addition, there are sections on languages, travel guides, biographies and a complete set of the Society’s journal Asian Affairs.

The Hugh Leach Library is a separate collection from the RSAA main library. It was the personal library of Hugh Leach OBE, a respected soldier and diplomat. Leach was the Historian of the RSAA and the collection reflects the interests of its creator, with a particular emphasis on the Middle East.

The RSAA Library is held at Haileybury, housed in William Wilkin’s revolutionary building for the East India College. Members, academics, students and anyone with a serious interest are welcome to visit. Those wishing to visit the Library must make a request in advance to view the material.

The RSAA Archive, also held at Haileybury, is a unique and varied collection from the mid-19th century to the present day including a number of personal papers, notably from the explorer Colonel Reginald Schomberg; thirty-four unpublished letters from Sir Aurel Stein and the Shakespear family archive with their Central Asian and Indian connections.  The original decree from the Khan of Khiva releasing 416 Russian prisoners into the care of Sir Richmond Shakespear in 1840 is of particular interest.

There are over 1,000 maps in the collection covering the Middle East, Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula, Transcaspia and Russia.  General Sir Samuel Browne’s own annotated map of Afghanistan used at the start of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878) is one of collection’s highlights.

The RSAA’s photographic collection contains images ranging from late-nineteenth century views of Bokhara; Sir Francis Younghusband’s expedition to Tibet (1904); St John Philby’s pictures of Mecca and Medina in the 1930s; pioneering overland car journeys to Baghdad, as well as rare photographs of Yezidi and Assyrian tribes in the twentieth century.

The Michael Stokes Postcard Collection contains over 6,000 cards of Indian scenes that would have been familiar to ‘Tommy Atkins’ the private soldier serving during the British Raj – cantonments, railway stations, barracks, camps, bazaars, docks, churches, church parades and cemeteries.

A small but select number of Indian miniatures include paintings from Rajputana (present day Rajasthan) and part of a Ragmala series.

Our library and archive catalogue is available here:

To arrange to visit the library or archive in person, please contact us:

Help us to repair, conserve and develop the RSAA Library: