LibGuides: Special Collections: Black History Resources: Empire and Enslavement

Collections of The Imperial Institute

The Imperial Institute was an educational and cultural organisation founded in London in 1887, which promoted and collected information about industrial and commercial developments in the British Empire.

Glass plate negatives and photographs from the Library of the Imperial Institute, London (EUL MS 61)

This collection of photographs was primarily used for teaching purposes by the staff of the Imperial Institute, and were mainly taken by amateur photographers during the 1920s to 1930s. The photographs cover an extensive range of subjects and activities from all parts of the Empire, with an emphasis on India and the African continent. A number of photographs feature scenes of everyday life, but many more relate specifically to work, industry and the exploitation of regional resources.

Find out more about this collection on the online catalogue

Imperial institute: sets of photographic cards and leaflets about products and industry of the British Empire (EUL MS 61 add. 1)

This collection comprises sets of photographic cards and leaflets about products and industry of former British colonies, including Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), Trinidad, British Malaya, British Guiana (present-day Guyana), British East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Zanzibar, Tanganyika), British West Africa (present day The Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone), Jamaica, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

A small selection of items from this collection have been digitised and are available to browse via the Open Research Exeter Portal. View digital copies of items from this collection.

Find out more about this collection on the online catalogue

The Reserve Collection of post-1700 rare books includes books relating to the enslavement of people of African and Caribbean descent, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and the Abolition of Slavery. These books can be used to discover the contemporary views of the Slave Trade.

See the next tab for a list of items

An Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade by Thomas Clarkson (1788) [Reserve 326 CLA]
Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahádee King of Dahomy: An Inland Country of Guiney to which are added the Author's Journey to Abomey, the Capital and a Short Account of the African Slave Trade by Robert Norris (1789) [Reserve 966.83 NOR]
The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies (in four volumes) by Bryan Edwards (1807-1819) [Reserve 972.9 EDW]
Poems on the Abolition of the Slave Trade by James Montgomery (1809) [Reserve 828.7/MON-4 X]
Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves in the British Colonies with a View to their Ultimate Emancipation by Thomas Clarkson (1823) [Reserve 326.1 CLA]
Journal of a West India Proprietor: kept during a residence in the island of Jamaica by M.G. Lewis (1834) [Reserve 972.9204 LEW]
Slavery in the United States by James Kirke Paulding (1836) [Reserve 326.973 PAU]
The West Indies: The Natural and Physical History of the Windward and Leeward Colonies (1837) [Reserve 972.904 HAL]
Observations on the Present Condition of the Island of Trinidad, and the Actual State of the Experiment of Negro Emancipation by William Hardin Burnley (1842) [Reserve 972.98303 BUR]
A brief history of the Wesleyan Missions on the Western Coast of Africa: including biographical sketches of all the missionaries who have died in that important field of labour, with some account of the European settlements and of the slave-trade by William Fox (1851) [Reserve 276.6 FOX]
Proceedings in Relation to the Presentation of the Address of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends on the Slave-Trade and Slavery (1854) [Soc. of Friends Coll. Pamphlet 1854/SOC]
The Spanish Conquest in America: and its relation to the history of slavery and to the government of colonies (4 volumes) by Arthur Helps (1855-1861) [Reserve 972.02 HEL]
Ismailia: a Narrative of the Expedition to Central Africa for the Suppression of the Slave Trade Organised by Ismail, Khedive of Egypt by Samuel W.Baker (1874) [Reserve 967 BAK]
The Water Highways of the Interior of Africa: with notes on slave hunting and the means of its suppression by James Stevenson (1883) [Reserve Pamphlet 916.7 STE]
The Rise, Progress and Phases of Human Slavery: how it came into the world, and how it shall be made to go out by James Bronterre O'Brien (1885) [Reserve 326 OBR]

The Gale and Morant Family Papers relating to enslavement on plantations in Jamaica (EUL MS 44; EUL MS 44 add. 1; EUL MS 130)

The Gale and Morant Family Papers include correspondence, accounts and other papers (1731-1939) relating to the management of family-owned sugar plantations in Jamaica at the height of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Many of these papers relate to enslavement, which include lists of enslaved people; documents recording their births and deaths; account books containing details of income and expenditure, including payments for enslaved people, their provisions and healthcare; and correspondence that provides insight into the living and working conditions on the plantations, as well as notes of revolts, escapes and liberations.

Content advice: This collection documents the oppression and enslavement of people of African and Caribbean descent. Papers within this collection may contain offensive terms or terms that have changed meaning over time.

Find out more about this collection on the online catalogue under the reference numbers EUL MS 44; EUL MS 44 add. 1; EUL MS 130.

Letters of John Bishop Estlin relating to the abolitionist movement (EUL MS 55)

The collection is a series of transcribed letters concerning the efforts made by John Bishop Estlin (1786-1855), an opthalmic surgeon in Bristol, and his contacts and colleagues to aid the abolitionist cause during the period 1844-1866.

Find out more about this collection on the online catalogue