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274 x 208 mm. View from the water’s edge looking across the harbour, with small boats and lighters moored in the foreground and larger craft beyond. The view appears to have been taken from beside the passenger jetty just north of the Grand Oriental Hotel.

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Landscape format.

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Landscape format.

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Monochrome postcards showing views in Colombo, Kandy and the ruined cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, published by Platé Ltd.

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265 x 285 mm. Close up view of Ceylonese labourers and a number of European overseers grouped around the debris on the line. Photograph taken on the same occasion as Y303B/55. As can be seen more clearly in this view, the whole of the embankment has subsided down the hill side. Photographer unknown, probably W.L.H. Skeen & Co.

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215 x 273 mm. View looking along the line towards the ‘Lion’s Mouth’ at Moragalla on the Kadugannawa Incline. A group of labourers stands beneath the rock face beneath whose overhang the track runs. The line to the top of the incline was reached in December 1867. This photograph was presumably taken at around this period and at the same time as Y303B/30, 45 and 48. See also Y303A for notes on the history of the Colombo-Kandy Railway.

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211 x 277 mm. View looking up the line towards the ‘Lion’s Mouth’ from roughly the same position as Y303B/36, but taken after the blasting operations seen in Y303B/48. Much of the overhang has been destroyed by the explosion and the line beneath is covered in boulders and rubble to a depth of several feet. See also Y303B/39, 45.

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260 x 108 mm. View from the hillside above the railway looking down onto the track, with station buildings in the foreground and the ‘Lion’s Mouth’ beyond. A locomotive stands near the rock, with labourers clustered beneath the overhang. The station buildings and sidings seen here were probably temporary, since the completed line had no steps between Ballany and Kadugannawa.

Scope and Contents 275 x 214 mm. View looking down the line from the station seen in Y303B/45, towards the ‘Lion’s Mouth’, which is in the process of being blasted. A large part of the overhang is falling on to the line beneath, while a great cloud of smoke from the explosion ascends skywards. The dating is problematical: if this work was done during the actual construction of the line, it would date from 1866-67; it is possible, however, that this piece of engineering was undertaken at a slightly later date,...

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The printed caption on the reverse reads: 'M.B. Uduman's Copyright No. 67. Printed in Saxony. Published by 'The Travellers Mart', 14 York and Ballie Street, Colombo'.

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Monochrome postcards, mainly of Colombo scenes, published by W.H.L. Skeen and Co.

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214 x 160 mm. View looking back along the line towards the station platform, with a locomotive and carriages in the foreground: ‘A very striking view too is that in which an engine and train are photographed in the foreground, with contrasted masses of cocoanut and other foliage rising over and above these triumphs of man's art’ (p5). (Perera, ‘The Ceylon railway’, p. 68, dated in the 'sixties').

Scope and Contents 212 x 159 mm. View of the exterior of the building from the north west, ‘As a picture, however, the palm must be given to the view from the hill above, in which the Lake, the little islet opposite the Government Factory, the Pettah and the Fort of Colombo form the really beautiful background; a massive group of palms to the left of the foreground fulfilling the exigency of all truly oriental scenes. By way of violent contrast we suppose and to commemorate the primitive modes of conveyance...

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140 x 57 mm colour print.

Scope and Contents From the Fonds: A collection of glass lantern slides, 82 x 82 mm, mostly of Samoa, taken by John Snowden Smithson. Smithson visited Samoa on holiday and presumably the remaining slides (5 of them unidentified, 13 of Yosemite National Park and 10 of Ceylon), together with a map, date from the same period. None of the slides are captioned, but the first 91 slides have numbers on their left hand corners, running from 20/10 to 30/9, with a few gaps, and presumably represent the sequence in which the...

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Half-plate. New offices for Public Works Department in course of erection. Hoods of bullock carts are of dead palm leaves. Building is of red brick, but mostly hidden by screens of plaited cocoanut [i.e. coconut] leaves to keep rain off new brick work. (Fisher). [Wooden scaffolding all round building].

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Showing tower with lantern top. (Clock tower white. Water buffalos a dirty gray colour). (Fisher).

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Showing tower with lantern top. (Clock tower white. Water buffalos a dirty gray colour). (Fisher).

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206 x 155 mm. View looking east from Galle Face towards the narrow northern portion of the Island, with the main part of the lake beyond. The commandants’ quarters (exact location unidentified, but presumably near the old Parade Ground) are a set of two large bungalows connected by a narrow wing in which the main entrance is set.

Scope and Contents Collection of 35mm colour slides of countries of the Commonwealth. When the 'Commonwealth in Focus' exhibition was being prepared it was felt that the strong emphasis on the historical aspect, and the fact that the only section on the contemporary Commonwealth dealt with broad issues and organisations rather than individual countries, made some additional material on contemporary developments desirable. Accordingly it was decided to have a continuous slide projection of contemporary...

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The principal part of the collection is a set of programmes and guides prepared for the different legs of the Royal Tour. These are supplemented by related correspondence and papers compiled by the Royal Empire Society and others. The collection is in English with the exception of one item in English and Arabic.

Scope and Contents Detailed diary written whilst Smedley visited the United States (including Hawaii), Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bombay, Bangladesh and Pakistan with Lord Home, Commonwealth Secretary, 1955-57 (143 sheets).This file also includes a pamphlet entitled, ‘The Frontier: a miscellany prepared for the RH Earl of Home on the occasion of their visit to Peshawar on 1st November, 1955’, with complimentary note inside; invitation cards to Smedley from Government...

Scope and Contents This is an unedited draft of a book in which Alexander set out to give 'a personal account of my contacts with universities in the developing countries of the Commonwealth.'It begins with the background of Alexander’s own university education at Auckland, Cambridge and London; describes Raffles College and the University of Malaya; and his work at the University of Ibadan and the contribution of its Physics Department during the International Geophysical Year 1957-58. Considerable...