Jim Chaplin slide collection

Chaplin took many slides between 1957 and 1966, in Africa, Asia, and Europe. His Asian collection, stored here, is in a small filing cabinet of four drawers (three for India, one for India plus a journey to turkey), mostly uncaptioned. There is also a small box of twenty nine (uncaptioned) slides. Accompanying the collection is a micro floppy disk (filemaker PRO 2.1 for Apple Mac) entitled 'Chaplin slide collection - African section.' and also a CD-Rom which may contain an excel list of these images. Also included are notes on the collection, consisting of a two-page biography of Chaplin byJ. Desmond Clark, Chaplin's Bibliography and a typescript listing of 'Jim Chalpin slide collection 1957-1966' and a fourteen page photocopy of his personal slide log: Indian section.

James Harvey Chaplin was born on 16 September 1924. In 1952 he was appointed to the Meteorological Department of the Northern Rhodesian Government. His interest in the African people and their way pf life resulted in his publishing several papers on ethnographic subjects, and in 1957 he was appointed Inspector of Monuments to the Commission for the Preservation of Natural and Historical Monuments and Relics, where he was closely associated with the staff of the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum. In 1952 he resigned from the Commission and received the Diploma in Prehistoric Archaeology after attending the Institute of Archaeology, London. He moved to Uganda as Director of Antiquities but in March 1967 was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Kampala.

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

Presented to the Royal Commonwealth Society by James Harvey Chaplin's literary executor, Raymond Abthorpe, in August 1996.

Includes index.

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.

Chaplin's African material is held at the British Institute in Eastern Africa, in London; the European material, mainly personal, has been retained by Dr. Abthorpe.

This collection level description was entered by WS.

Chaplin, James Harvey, 1924-1967