ELIAS, Ney (1844-1897)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0402 NE
Held at	: Royal Geographical Society   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Collections/Collections.htm ›
Full title	: ELIAS, Ney (1844-1897)
Date(s)	: 1857-1890
Level of description	: Collection level
Extent	: 4 boxes or 56 files
Name of creator(s)	: Elias | Ney | 1844-1897 | diplomat and explorer

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, 1844; educated in London, Paris, and Dresden; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1865; studied geography and surveying under the RGS's instructors; employed by merchant house, Barnet and Co., Shanghai, 1866; three expeditions to determine the new course of the Huang He or Yellow River, 1867, 1868, and 1869; crossed the Gobi Desert, 1872; founder's medal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1873; Member of the Council of the RGS; engaged by the Government of India, 1874; second in command of the overland mission from Burma to China; attached to Robert Shaw's abortive mission to Kashgar, 1877; joint commissioner of Ladakh; expedition over the Karakoram, 1879; visits to Kashgar, 1880 and 1885; special duty in connection with the Sikkim War, 1888-1889; first-class political agent, took command of a mission to report on the political geography and condition of the Shan States on the Burma-Siam frontier, 1889; agent to the Governor-General at Mashhad and Consul-General for Khorasan and Seitan, 1891; retired, 1896; died, 1897.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Ney Elias, 1857-1890, chiefly referring to Elias' career in China, Kashmir, Chinese Turkestan and with the Siamese Boundary Commission together with personal journals and drafts and the manuscripts and proofs of his book Tarikh-I-Rashidi. Nos. 1-12, 1873-1890; Nos. 13-23, drafts of letters and reports to the Government of India; Nos. 24-35, personal journals while at school in Dresden 1857-1860, 1867 and 1868 in China, 1880 Yarkand, 1885-1886 Pamir journey, and 1889-1890 as a member of the Siamese Boundary Commission; Nos. 36-48, miscellaneous notes and drafts; Nos. 48-54, rough notes and correspondence; Nos. 55-56, drafts and notes relating to a book The History of the Khojas of Eastern Turkistan; calculations of altitudes, Sinkiang, 1887 and reductions of observations made in the Mongolian Republic, 1872-1873.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Arranged in 56 sections as outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

Accessible via The Foyle Reading Room. Free of charge for Fellows, Members and those with valid academic identification. All other users pay a charge and must bring identification in order to register on arrival.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopying at the discretion of the Archivist, and subject to completion of an 'application for copies' form. No reproduction or publication without the permission of the RGS-IBG Archivist.

Finding aids:

Hand list and card index.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Unknown.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Prepared by Archives Volunteer using existing finding aids. Revised by Sarah Drewery. Sources: Oxford DNB; Obit. Geog. Jnl. 1897, Vol. 10, pp 101-106.

Rules or conventions:
ISAD(G) ed. 2, name authority NRA.

Date(s) of descriptions:
24^th May, 2001. Nov 2008.