Professor Felix Driver, Research Grants - Museums, Archives and Libraries
Tales of exploration usually involve courageous explorers, but what of those people who led, guided, and supported them? This project takes a fresh look at the unique Collections of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), highlighting the role of intermediaries and indigenous peoples in the history of exploration.
In published narratives of exploration, the inhabitants of territory through which explorers travelled are often relegated to the margins. Even where their contributions have been explicitly acknowledged, there has been a tendency to accord them lower status - as ‘local’ assistants or informants, guides or porters – rather than true participants in the making of new geographical knowledge.
Building on research by Professor Felix Driver and Lowri Jones at Royal Holloway, University of London, in collaboration with the RGS-IBG, this project aims to bring these ‘hidden histories’ to light.
Beginning with a major exhibition at the RGS-IBG in South Kensington, from 15 October to 10 December 2009, Hidden Histories of Exploration will consider the ways in which these relationships are represented in the Society’s extensive Collections, offering a new perspective on standard histories of exploration.
As well as exploring the ‘hidden’ contributions of local guides, interpreters and other intermediaries, the research also considers cases where non-Europeans received explicit recognition, from the ‘pundits’ of the nineteenth century to Tenzing Norgay in the twentieth. It will highlight a wide range of materials from across the Collections, notably including original art-works and sketch-books by expedition artist Thomas Baines and documentary film of the 1922 Everest expedition.
In addition to a well-illustrated book and catalogue, the exhibition is accompanied by the launch of a new research resources section on the Society’s website, making further materials available. There will also be a series of ‘showcase’ events in the RGS-IBG’s Foyle Reading Room, featuring selected items from the Collections.
The project suggests new ways of working with well-established geographical collections, pooling the experience of researchers working with comparable materials in Britain, France, Australia and the USA. These will be the subject of an international workshop bringing together academics from history, visual culture and anthropology as well as geography.
Professor Driver hopes the project will stimulate new ways of thinking about geographical collections, which will be of significant benefit to the research and educational programmes of the RGS-IBG and other organisations.
Dr Rita Gardner, Director of the RGS-IBG, comments that “This exciting, collaborative project reflects our continued commitment to making our unique and diverse Collections available to new audiences.”
Images: © Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
Image in text: Thomas Baines, 'A Malay native from Batavia at Coepang', oil on canvas, c.1856
Banner image: Sherpas on the North Col, by J. B. L. Noel, 1922, B&W photograph