This collection forms part of a wider collection of slides taken by Jim Chaplin between 1957 and 1966. The material held in the RCS relates to a journey made by Chaplin in 1962 overland from India back to England via Syria and Turkey. (The slides relating to the rest of the 1962 journey through Greece, Yugoslavia, Austria and France, were retained by the donor). Coverage includes: Karachi, Madras [Chennai], Bombay [Mumbai], Rajasthan, Punjab, the Lalak Pass in Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.


The slides are stored in their original filing cabinet, comprising four drawers of approx. 100 slides each, and a separate box of 29 slides relating to Chaplin's travels in Turkey. The slides are mostly uncaptioned but the collection includes a photocopy of Chaplin's handwritten catalogue of the collection as well as a typescript list compiled by B.W. Smith and A.I. Gascoigne, who were involved in preparing the slide collection for deposit in the mid-1990s. Accompanying the collection is a micro floppy disk (filemaker PRO 2.1 for Apple Mac) entitled 'Chaplin slide collection - African section.', a CD-Rom which probably contains the same listing information, rough notes on the whole collection, a two-page biography of Chaplin by J. Desmond Clark, and Chaplin's bibliography.


The larger part of Chaplin's collection, approx. 1200 slides, relate to his time in East and Southern Africa (Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda). This part of the collection was originally intended to be held at the British Institute in Eastern Africa in London. Due to the move of the British Institute, the slides were returned to David Philipson (former Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA), Cambridge) who had assisted with their deposit. Thus the African collection is now in the care of the MAA Photograph Collection.