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The collection comprises diaries, notebooks, correspondence, photographs, slides, negatives, and articles relating to Sykes’ 1952 and 1954 expeditions to Nepal, organised by the British Museum and the Royal Horticultural Society. Also includes slides, correspondence, articles, maps, and other material from the 1980s to 2018.

Note on slides and photographs: slides are labelled on the mount (except for metal mounts) with details of date, locale, a descriptive caption, and, sometimes, elevation. Sykes’s handwritten notes (in pocket preceding each group of slides) supply more details. Photographs are labelled on the verso with details of date, locale, a descriptive caption, and, sometimes, elevation.

Aside from the expected botanical images and mountain views and scenery, the subjects of Sykes’s slides and photographs are wide-ranging, including villages and villagers, village houses, street scenes, bazaars, markets, festivals, porters, camp sites, camp activities, nomadic people, Hindu and Buddhist temples, shrines, monks, nuns, and monasteries, Buddhist statues, plant processing, seed drying, animals, cultivation and crops, activities such as wool processing, making ropes and mats, spinning and weaving, and brick making.

2 folders, each containing around 40 specimens, the first being the collection curated by Great Aunt Lou - Louisa Hoby nee Russell in around 1862. The second seems to have been put together at least partly by 'DR' and includes seaweed specimens from Cumbrae.

•Papers regarding setting up the garden and a visit by Professor H.R. Fletcher, (1965-1970)

•1 box of miscellaneous papers and references
•1 box of miscellaneous papers from the School of Rural Economy Establishment (1893-1902)
•1 box of miscellaneous papers from the School of Rural Economy Classes (1891-1897)
Temporary Summary (M.R.);
3 boxes
Box 1 of 3
• GB 235 UOE/1 Papers and correspondence, including statistics on the Botanical Class in the University of Edinburgh, 1777–1859 and 1860–1871, 2 pp. and ms. in J.H. Balfour’s hand, 4 pp.; request for Prof Balfour to prepare questions for a botany exam, 1 p., 1892; typescript copy of Town Council Proceedings on Dr Balfour’s proposal for the University Herbarium, 1 p., 1849; typescript, photocopies, and ms. papers and correspondence on the Museum of the University and on university bursaries, 1874–1946.
• GB 235 UOE/2 Papers and correspondence on university teaching staff appointments, financial records (e.g., class expenses, the Fee Fund), and research facilities. Includes reprints of course syllabuses for Edinburgh University and Edinburgh University Lecture-Extension Association; correspondence with I. B. Balfour (originals in Balfour, I. Bayley correspondence), 1879–1922.
• GB 235 UOE/3 Papers, including reprint of “Interlocutor and Opinion by Lord Wellwood … against The University of Edinburgh” (the Presbytery of Edinburgh sought to recover from the university 3 volumes that were said to contain the original records of the Presbytery between 1586 and 1603), 1890; “Address to the Students of Medicine,” 1780(?); “Record of Students Who Studied in the Edinburgh University Department of Agriculture (1885–86 to 1900–01), 1902.
• GB 235 UOE/4 Abstracts of reports on University Library, 1906–1911, 5 printed reports; general regulations regarding class or departmental libraries, 1911; typescript list of books bequeathed by Captain R. Chapman Davie to the university, 1919. [removed from here in March 2022, and placed with Chapman Davie's papers as they include correspondence relating to the bequest and an excerpt of his will.]
• GB 235 UOE/5 Correspondence on the teaching of botany to women, typescript and ms., 1892–1906, including copies of letters to I. B. Balfour and photocopy of one letter (in French) to J. H. Balfour from V. Duray (1869). Correspondents include J. Kirkpatrick, A. Crum Brown, Prof Simpson, Louisa Stevenson.
• GB 235 UOE/6 Correspondence regarding the Scottish Arboricultural Society and the teaching of forestry in the university, typescript and ms., 1890–1920.

Box 2 of 3
Papers and correspondence regarding the establishment of the School of Rural Economy (founded 1894).
• GB 235 UOE/7 Ms. correspondence with I. B. Balfour, 1894. Correspondents include A. Mackenzie and Robert Laird, Scottish Horticultural Association; ms. of class list for Horticulture Class, 1 p., 1895; typescript of prizes awarded by Scottish Horticultural Association, 1 p., 1895; Syllabus for course of lectures on the Vegetable Garden, 1893; “Constitution and Bye-Laws, Syllabus for Session 1896 and 19th Annual Report,” Trans. Scottish Horticultural Association, 73 pp., Edinburgh, 1896; “Royal (Dick) Veterinary College Prospectus”, 103 pp., 1893–94.
• GB 235 UOE/8 Ms. and typescript correspondence with I. B. Balfour, 1893–1894. Correspondents include Prof Taylor, Sir William Turner, R. Stewart McDougall, James Macdonald, A. P. Aitken, and Mackenzie and Moneur (Hothouse Builders); typescript “Report to the Board of Agriculture for the Session 1894–95,” 6 pp., 1893–1895; ms., James Macdonald’s scheme for day and evening agricultural classes; misc. ads for lecture series, 5 pp., 1895; misc. drafts of proposed syllabus and curriculum schemes, 6 pp.
• GB 235 UOE/9 Correspondence, including ms. letter from the Subeditor, Journal of Horticulture, to I.B. Balfour, 1902; typescript memorandum, 7 pp., 1895; printed drafts with ms. annotations regarding curricula for day and evening classes, 1895–1896.

Box 3 of 3
Papers and correspondence regarding the establishment of the School of Rural Economy.
• GB 235 UOE/10 Papers and correspondence regarding vacation courses in agriculture for schoolmasters, 1891–1895. Includes reprints and typescript drafts of memorandums with ms. annotations by Professor Robert Wallace; ms., typescript, and copies of correspondence, 1894–1895. Correspondents include I. B. Balfour, Robert Wallace, and James Macdonald; printed prospectuses and syllabuses of classes for students of agriculture, 1885–1891.
• GB 235 UOE/11 Papers and correspondence, 1894–1896. Ms. and copies of correspondence between I. B. Balfour and James Macdonald; printed notices: lectures, examinations, regulations, prospectus and syllabus; ms. and typescript class lists and examination results; ms. financial records, 1896.
• GB 235 UOE/12 Papers and correspondence regarding vacation courses in agriculture for schoolmasters, 1896–1897. Ms. and copies of correspondence between I. B. Balfour, R. Stewart McDougall, and Robert Wallace; printed time-tables of vacation classes, copies of examination papers; typescript report on vacation classes, 1897.

Name access points:
Isaac Bayley Balfour
John Hutton Balfour
A. Crum Brown
J. Kirkpatrick,
Robert Laird
James Macdonald
A. Mackenzie
R. Stewart McDougall
The Presbytery of Edinburgh (Church of Scotland)
Royal (Dick) Veterinary College
Scottish Arboricultural Society
Scottish Horticultural Association
Prof. Simpson
Louisa Stevenson
Prof. Taylor
Sir William Turner
Robert Wallace

•Copy of ‘Quasi cursores; portraits of the high officers and professors of the University of Edinburgh at its tercentenary festival, drawn and etched by William Hole’ (1884)

•6 notebooks of sketches (South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland) donated to D. Henderson and RBGE.

7 boxes containing -
•Photographic notes (1965-1966)
•Trek diaries
•Field notes
•correspondence
•Immigration papers and trekking permits
•Notes on living plants and herbarium material sent to Royal Botanic Garden Kew (1965-1966)
•List of publications and papers
•Folders of articles
•Bowl made from leaves
•2 ceremonial Ghurkha knives (access restrictions apply - the scabbards are in poor condition, and in one case has split, making the knives extremely dangerous to handle)

The collection dates between 1769 and c2003 and comprises:

• 3 notebooks including financial records, language studies and diaries;
• 17 pieces of correspondence and handwritten notes;
• a printed compendium of Swiss flora;
• a copy of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress;
• 4 prints of notable 18th century French figures; and
• two photographs of items which belonged to Blaikie's family.

•Notebook containing manuscript essay on ‘The Fiographical Distribution of Algae’
•Copy of 'A Manual of Botany' by Le Maout and Decaisne, translated by Mrs Hooker and with an Appendix by Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1876, awarded to James Adam Terras by Prof. Alexander Dickson in July 1886 as a Special Prize for High Proficiency in the Class of Advanced Practical Botany (ELWU2) (seems likely Terras eventually donated the book to the Botanical Society Library?) (book in state of disrepair now)

•1 file of miscellaneous correspondence with Dr. Harold R. Fletcher (1958-71)
•Copy of a letter to Taylor from H.R. Fletcher (15 Dec 1965) and an article by Taylor titled ‘Himalayan Plants in the Field’ from The Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, (1948)
•Two boxes of index cards to N. Douglas Simpson’s Index (a gift from Taylor to Royal Botanic Garden Trust)