Colonialism and decolonisation: examining empire through Special Collections
Colonialism has been a defining feature of the modern era. From the Portuguese exploration of West Africa in the early fifteenth century, to the emigration of European settlers to North America in the seventeenth century, and from the activities of the East India Company in the Indian subcontinent and China, to those of the Royal African Company in the transatlantic slave trade, European powers have competed to acquire territory, wealth, resources and power while extending the reach of western intellectual, political, religious and social beliefs. This colonial activity was at its most widespread by the early twentieth century, with the British empire alone controlling about a quarter of the world’s land surface at its most extensive. The combination of increasingly strident independence movements in colonised countries and the impact of the two world wars led to widespread decolonisation, though the impact and legacy of empire remains.
The archives, manuscripts and books held by The John Rylands Research Institute and Library reveal the stories of empire and colonialism, not only through the subjects and topics covered within their pages, but through the ways in which they have been selected and collected, catalogued and disseminated.
Here, we provide a series of linked packages of curated digital resources to illustrate the stories of this transformative period and its lasting impact, and to interrogate the connections between colonialism and collections.
Sources are arranged thematically and will cover the following topics:
‘Colonialism and decolonisation: examining empire through Special Collections’ is designed to be a modular package of resources that can be reused and repurposed by those designing and delivering teaching and learning. It offers an edited collection of high quality digital images from sources that are relevant to many disciplines and at all educational levels, from schools and college to undergraduate and postgraduate courses. It will also be of interest to adult learners and other groups interested in the history of empire, colonialism and decolonisation.
Items selected for this package are representative rather than exhaustive. For each section there are links to further information and catalogue references for featured artefacts. There are suggestions for discussion points; these are illustrative rather than prescriptive as tutors will wish to repurpose and apply to their own specific learning objectives and context. This resource also highlights some of spectacular special collection resources available for further study at the University whether physical artefacts or digitised copies. It will therefore be relevant to third year and postgraduate students identifying research topics.
Special Collections at the University of Manchester are happy to offer bespoke advice and support to University staff and students and anyone else interested in accessing our digital and physical collections.
These online resources will be posted as quickly as they are curated. If you would like further information on the series or using our collections in a Teaching and Learning context please do contact us.
Images reproduced with the permission of The John Rylands University Librarian and Director of the University of Manchester Library. All images used on this page are licensed via Creative Commons Licence CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0, for further information about each image, please follow the link in the caption description.
