Sources Guides list

Sources Guide: West Africa (A&M)

NB collections range in size from single items to large personal or organisational archives .

Further information about the materials mentioned below can be found on the Archives and Manuscripts Online Catalogue

In some cases the full detailed catalogues of archive collections are not yet in this online database: hard copy versions are available in the Rare Materials Room of the Library and on request to archs+mss@wellcome.ac.uk

George Macartney (1737-1806): Journal of voyage from London to China, via the Cape Verde Islands, 1792-3 (copy taken c.1805) MS.3352

Frederick Hornemann (1772-1807): Letter to Sir Joseph Banks summarising expenses, 1794 MS.5218/6

Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820): Draft report by Committee of the African Association announcing Mungo Park’s discovery of the Niger, 1799 MS.5218/10

Le Sage: Letter concerning Palisot de Beauvois’s published work on the flora of Oware and Benin, 1807 MS.7145/177

G R Nylander: Letter to an unidentified clergyman (apparently Secretary of an organisation) describing conditions in Sierra Leone following the resignation of Zachary Macaulay as Governor, 1809 MS.7330

Ninian Bruce (d.1832), surgeon at Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Letters concerning African boy brought from Sierra Leone by Lieut.-Col. James Chisholm (d.1821) and employed as a servant by Bruce’s wife: to Chisholm and his executors, 1814-31 MS.7027

Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866): correspondence and papers relating to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and other material relating to anti-slavery and philanthropic activities concerning West Africa, 1817-66 PP/HO/D

James McQueen: Proposals for a chartered West African Company, 1820 MS.7328/32

Royal Army Medical Corps Muniment Collection: Orders and letters of an army doctor in Sierra Leone, 1822-3; article on the political economy of British West Africa, 1867; letter re care of Royal Marines on the Gold Coast, 1874; RAMC corporal’s photographs of Sierra Leone, 1900s; meteorological observations in Northern Nigeria, 1904; reminiscences of service in Sierra Leone, 1908 and 1913-4; records including the senior medical officer’s war diary, of attempt to take Dakar for the Free French, 1940; scrapbook of lance corporal on troopships, Second World War; photographs of medical company in South Cameroons, 1960; photographs of RAMC visit to Nigeria, 1974. See under West Africa in place name index RAMC

Hugh Clapperton (1788-1827): Letter and fragment of diary, 1825, n.d. MS.7330

Dixon Denham (1786-1828): Paylist of officers in liberated African Department (Sierra Leone), 1827, and letters, n.d. MS.7330

Richard Lemon Lander (1804-1834): Partial diary of the expedition in which he discovered the course of the Niger, 1830 MS.3159

John Lander (1807-1839): Letter, 1835 MS.7330

James Ormiston McWilliam (1808-1862), naval surgeon: Letters and papers on his service in West Africa, particularly on the Niger expedition of 1841, and on tropical diseases, 1839-62 MSS.6829-31

Robert McCormick (1800-1890): diaries of Antarctic expeditions of HMS Erebus, including information on the birds of the Cape Verde Islands, 1839-43 MSS.3366-70

William Stanger (1812-1854), geologist, accompanied Niger expedition: Signature, plus descriptive note and picture of Stanger’s mother, mounted together, n.d. MS.7655/182

Paul Soleillet (1824-1886), French traveller and explorer in Africa: Letter, with letterhead showing Africa, written at Médine, Mali, n.d. MS.7649/23

Fleetwood Buckle (1841-1917), Royal Navy doctor: journals of travels, including voyage taking in the Gulf of Guinea in 1867, 1866-70 MSS.1395-1404

Wellcome Foundation: Archives of pharmaceutical company include material re operations, marketing and promotion in West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, the Gambia, 1880s-1990s WF

Sir James Cantlie (1851-1926): Letters and papers collected for the production of the Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, including original papers submitted for publication, on filariasis in Nigeria etc, 1887-1911, n.d. MS.6937

Mrs. Haines: Diary of a voyage from New Zealand to Great Britain and back, calling at Senegal and Sierra Leone, 1896-7 MS.8146

Col Frederick Smith (1858-1933) RAMC: Draft and edited version of (?autobiographical) novel “Jungle Savage”/"Yemma: a Story of ‘The White Man’s Grave’ in ’98”, set in Sierra Leone, n.d. c. early C20th MS.8701

Joseph Everett Dutton (1874-1905) and John Lancelot Todd (1876-1949): Diaries, casebooks, notebooks, letters, photographs, drawings etc. relating to the authors’ service in the Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria and the Congo, mainly on expeditions sent out by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to study malaria, trypanosomiasis, tick fever, filaria etc, 1901-18 MS.2248-68, 4790-98, 4801-5, 5690-1

Wellcome Archives: Records of the Historical Medical Museum, 1903-85, include material relating to West Africa (database can be searched under country name) WA/HMM

Psychiatry in Nigeria: Letter book and reports of Yaba Lunatic and Leper Asylum, Lagos, 1907-12, and reports re psychiatry services in Nigeria, 1928-64 GC/146

Gerald Cecil Dudgeon (1867-1930): Sketchbook containing water colour drawings of West African butterflies etc, [1905-10] MS.2226

Harry Andrew Foy (d.1942): Report on experimental work on animal trypanosomiasis, at Ibi, Northern Nigeria,1911 MS.2435

Yellow Fever (West Africa) Commission 1913: Sir Ronald Ross’s collection of reports and correspondence of this commission based at Freetown, Sierra Leone GC/59/A

Pierre Paul Emile Roux (1853-1933): Letters to General Famin, commander of colonial troops, on the deployment of Senegalese troops during World War I, 1916-7 MS.7498/20-21

Major General Sir Leonard Rogers (1868-1962): The papers of this Indian Medical Service specialist in various tropical diseases include files on ‘leprosy problems in British African areas’, including Nigeria, 1928, and on the large-scale trial for BELRA by Dr T F Davey at Uzuakoli in Nigeria, 1952 PP/ROG

[?Donald] Drysdale Anderson: Report to the Director of the Medical and Sanitary Services of Nigeria on sanitary investigation in Oyo and Abeokuta Provinces, 1930 GC/3

Cicely Delphine Williams (1894-1992): The papers of this paediatrician and nutritionist whose work for the Colonial Medical Services in the Gold Coast (Ghana) included pioneering maternal and child care based on local traditions and resources, and the identification of the protein deficiency disease kwashiorkor, include her reports on children’s health in the Gold Coast in the 1930s, reports on maternal and child health for the World Health Organisation, 1950s-60s and report on visit to Nigeria, 1957, to participate in the Nigeria Branch of the BMA Nutrition Conference. Publications re health in Africa, esp kwashiorkor PP/CDW

Alexander Cosby Lovett-Campbell (d.1985): Photographs and publications of this member of the West African Medical Staff re surgery and local customs in Nigeria, 1930s-40s WTI/ALC

Stanley George Browne (1907-1986): Records of work at the Baptist Missionary Society hospital, Yakusu, Belgian Congo, 1938-58 (N.B. access to the patient registers and case notes is restricted); research files on the anti-leprosy drug B663 (now known as clofazimine) compiled whilst director of the Leprosy Research Unit, Uzuakoli, Eastern Nigeria, 1959-66; Christian Council of Nigeria talks, pamphlets etc., mainly concerning sex education, 1959-64; clinical slides including subjects in Abeokuta, Nigeria, c. 1962-3 (ref. K.2/7/1/2); correspondence, photographs etc. re visits to the Belgian Congo mission hospitals in which he formerly worked, 1974-5; reports on visits to Libya in the 1970s and cancelled trip in the mid-1980s, plus article on the detection and management of leprosy in Libya; reports on visits to Dakar, Senegal in 1976, 1977 and 1978 including report on the International Course on Leprosy, Dakar, which he participated in, Feb-Mar 1978; visits to Nigeria, early 1970s; some correspondence relating to purported massacres at Ossiomo, Nigeria, late 1960s; reports on visits to Zaire, 1970s-80s WTI/SGB

Air Marshal Sir Harold Whittingham (1887-1983): Notebooks with notes of inspections, as Director of Medical Services RAF and BOAC, of airport medical and health facilities in West Africa, including Lagos, Kano and Dakar, 1940s and 1950s PP/HEW

George William Marshall Findlay (1893-1952): Unpublished typescript ‘Memorandum on yellow fever in Africa’ (c.1941) includes investigations in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Gambia; notebooks of abstracts and research notes, including re blackwater fever among military personnel 1941-5 GC/14

Edmund Cyril Smith, pathologist and tropical medicine specialist, based at Medical Research Institute, Lagos: Letter, written in London very shortly before his death, 1943 MS.7655/63

Thomas Cecil Hunt (1901-1980): War diary from RAMC service in Sierra Leone, 1941; report on social and health problems of Nigerian students in Britain, 1958-9; a little material on University of Ibadan Department of Medicine, 1950s-60s GC/46

Norman Ashton (1913-2000): material relating to RAMC service in Sierra Leone and Nigeria, 1946-7 PP/ASH

National Birthday Trust Fund (f.1928): File re Maternity Clinic, Nigeria 1946-53 SA/NBT

George Macdonald (1903-1967): Material relating to malaria prevention project in Ibarapa, Nigeria, and WHO Project Kankiya, correspondence with colleagues in Nigeria, 1950s-60s PP/MAC

Family Planning Association (f. 1930): Correspondence with family planning organisations and reports from clinics in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, 1950s-60s; a little correspondence with doctors and members of the public SA/FPA

Sir Christopher Andrewes (1896–1989), virologist: travel journals, including several trips to Lagos, 1953-9 GC/168

Queen’s Nursing Institute: District Nursing Overseas files include Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, 1953-73 SA/QNI/U.3

Professor Sir Robert Macintosh (1897-1989) Correspondence re anaesthestics in Ghana and Nigeria, 1960-80, and diary of visit to Nigeria, 1956 PP/RRM

Marthe Vogt (1903-2003): Correspondence with pharmacologist colleagues in Nigeria and Senegal, 1960s-70s PP/MLV

Professor Percy Cyril Claude Garnham (1901-1995): Correspondence with malaria researchers in West Africa, 1960s-70s PP/PCG

Hugh Reginald Jolly (1918-1986): Draft account of secondment, 1961-2, as Professor of Child Health, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, with correspondence and photographs GC/143

Sir William Drummond Paton (1917–1993): file as a Rhodes Trustee relating to Zaria scheme to study endemic diseases in Northern Nigeria, 1963–75, with notes on Paton’s visit to Ghana and Nigeria, 1975 PP/WDP/G.1/2/2

Forrest Fulton (1913-1917): File relating to visit to Ghana as External Examiner in Microbiology, 1969-70 GC/177

International Confederation of Midwives: correspondence with Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo (member countries), 1970s-80, Cameroon, Republic of Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauretania, Niger, Senegal (non-member countries), 1970s; ICM/WHO/UNICEF pre-Congress Workshop Midwifery Practice - Measuring, Developing and Mobilising Quality Care, Ghana, Nigeria, 1990s; Project Reports, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Niger, Mali, Nigeria, 1980s-90s, Cameroon, 1978-9; Report of the Anglophone West African Working Party, 1972, Reports of the Francophone West African Working Party, 1973; Safe Motherhood Initiative - West Africa Regional Workshop and Burkina Faso Workshop, 1987-93 SA/ICM

Eldred Hugh Owen Parry (b. 1930): Questionnaires on disease in African countries, 1971-2 (for Principles of medicine in Africa, 1976), include Nigeria and Ghana WTI/EHP

Sir John McMichael (1904-1993): set of photographs from a visit to Nigerian Medical Schools on behalf of the Wellcome Trust, 1972 PP/JMM/H/8

World Federation of Occupational Therapists: files relating to local associations in Nigeria, 1981-92, and Senegal, 1977-81 SA/WFO