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The Reginald Farrer collection comprises correspondence between Reginald Farrer and his family (his mother in particular), E.A. Bowles, John Buchan, Sir Francis Younghusband, Ernest Gye, Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour and others as detailed below. It also includes paintings, photographs, 35mm slides, glass plate negatives and lantern slides covering mainly his two plant collecting expeditions to China in 1914-15 and Burma in 1919-1920, as well as scripts for plays written by Farrer.
2 boxes of correspondence, notes & papers relating to Burma Expedition, plant identifications and information relating to colleague's expeditions in Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan.
•Correspondence begins with letter from James Keenan to Ian Fellowes-Gordon dated 18 August 1960; in which Keenan asks for any information Fellowes-Gordon might have on North Burma that would be helpful to Keenan’s proposed plant collecting expedition. •Misc. handwritten & typed correspondence from 1960 – 1973 •Dust jacket of the American edition of “The Magic War; the battle for North Burma” by Ian Fellowes-Gordon; Pub. 1972 typed cover note to James Keenan dated 22 March 1972 Handrawn map of 'Collecting areas' Hpaungdaw, Heinde, Banchaung & Tenasserim Rivers.
1 folder with Photocopy of personal journal of E.H.M. Cox 31st January - 29th December 1919. Covering the Burma Expedition with Reginald John Farrer (17 February 1880 – 17 October 1920) Remarkable account of 2 people, written between 1919 and 1920 and occasionally containing language and attitudes that would be considered offensive today; E.H.M. Cox, photographer, botanist, hunter, writer, and Reginald Farrer: botanist, painter and writer. Sail to Rangoon from Liverpool. Train and boat to Myitkyina and make base; from there they make expeditions into Kachin country with a large train of coolies, Gurkhas and Indian staff. Routine [as far as possible] seems to be gathering specimens, plants and seeds, taking photos, both glass plate and roll film, drying and pressing plants. Travelling from place to place and camping for as long as they need. Long treks in the north-east highlands climbing to 10,000 ft. and more. The diary is very closely observed and personal .The writer finds he has to do much more than the above accomplishments due to non-appearance of cooks, coolies etc. The weather plays an important part in the diary due to its erratic behaviour. Interesting that they receive pretty regular mail and both write a lot in return. British District Officers play a [generally] useful part in their plant searches. [description by SM]
