Hallo to Those Attached to “CEYLONIANA” and Valuable Lankan Artefacts & Books
…………… Way back I took steps to catalogue and transport my Oral History tapes and other valuable material to Sri Lanka with the assistance of Jitto Arulampalam in Melbourne, several Adelaidians and VERITE RESEARCH in Colombo (a prolonged and massive set of operations). That stock in now available to the public at the National Library Services Board in Torrington Avenue, Colombo.[1]
Now: as my wife and I age and enter the last phase of our lives, we face the issue of the stock in my study. This includes:
- many-many-many off-prints of articles on Sri Lanka and world politics;
- books under my name;
- books on Sri Lanka and/or world politics (including Marxist fare);
- Sessional Papers and Census publications from official stock in Sri Lanka …in largish foolscap size bound copies ….;
THE SCENARIO in my STUDY …. including a steel cabinet made by Don Carolis’s firm in Colombo which brought my stock of books from that city to Adelaide in 1977…. lock stock and barrel,eh!
Most of these items will be widely available in public/university libraries …besides the digital world.
THAT stressed, I now proceed to list items that I consider RARE and as valuable as rare. … under two headings: one involving items that I call ARTEFACTS; and the other being books (generally those published in the 19th century or early 20th century). ..………. with supplementary photographs (amateur) of some items as Appendices.
ARTEFACTS
1 = Plaque with miniature bat signed by all Members of the 1996 Sri Lankan cricket team … & … miniature Cup …. 12 inches by 4
2 = B & W Etching of Don Bradman… framed … say 7 inches by 14
BOOKS
- Charles Williams: An Australian Hero, 1996, Little Brown & Co … signed by Don Bradman himself
- YOUNG CEYLON. A Monthly Periodical and Magazine of Ceylonese and General Information, MDCCCL [1850] Volume the First, 1850 …. 247 pp
- Leopold Ludovici: Rice Cultivation; Its Past History and Present Condition, with Suggestions for its Improvement, Colombo, MCCCLXVII [1867]
- William Digby: Life of Sir Richard Francis Morgan, 1879, Madras, Higginbotham & Co, …. 2 vols
- A Planter: Ceylon in the Fifties and the Eighties: ….., 1886, Colombo, AM & J. Ferguson … But not the real thing: a photocopy of sorts??????
- Robert Knox: An Historical Relation of Ceylon, together with …., Glasgow, James MacLehose & Sons, MCMXI … that is …
- The De Soysa Charithaya by C Don Bastian … in Sinhala
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[1] SEE https://thuppahis.com/2020/12/11/the-rohp-in-ceylon-1966-70-interviews-and-select-transcriptions/
Better give your collection to the library at Peradeniya University.
Michael
Great to hear. You always leave behind a memory. You have worked with many institutes and personnel. But most of us still reminisce young Michael Roberts on the Wespa two wheeler down Galaha Road.
I also endorse that your valuable collection belongs in Peradeniya University.
This valuable list is better off in a Sri Lankan university library or the National Archives where they can some day be digitised and available for all, rather than in the hands of a private collector who may be driven (not always) by the profit motive.
Michael, kindly accept my belated (10 days after!) 86th birthday greetings. Your lines, “as my wife and I age and enter the last phase of our lives, we face the issue of the stock in my study.” touched me deeply.
Though 15 years younger to you, having reached 71 last May, I also share your thoughts pensively, about my 50 year collection of books, on what to do with these.
In the Japanese language, a word ‘shu-katsu’ (which is interpreted as ‘harvest-action’) is very much in vogue, with the elderly living alone or in pairs and they don’t want to encumber their children or grandchildren to pass all ‘such unwanted burden’.
Your heart and soul are in Sri Lanka, that is in Galle or Peradeniya.
Let your heart and reasoning decide.