Allchin Collection

Bridget and Raymond Allchin

To date, only a small part of the Allchin library is housed in Brooklands House: the Russian and Central Asian section, and the extensive offprint collections. When the remaining sections are added, they will include major holdings on the prehistory, protohistory, early historic archaeology, ethno-archaeology and rock-art of the countries of South Asia.

The Indus civilization and its antecedents is well represented, and there are further collections on the art and archaeology of Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Many publications are of South Asian origin.

The Central Asian collection includes numerous publications from the former Soviet Union and Central Asian Republics, along with pamphlets and offprints, complementing corresponding sections of the van Lohuizen holding.

The library also brings together additional materials on South Asian epigraphy, including a long run of reprints of Epigraphia Indica; books on South Asian numismatics and on the history of South Asian art and architecture. Another section includes selected books on the history of Buddhism and Hinduism.

A biography of the late Dr Raymond Allchin, written by Robin Coningham, published in the Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, XI, pp.3-23, 2012, and reproduced here with the kind permission of the British Academy.