The World As We Know It

Founded in 1830 to promote the advancement of geographical sciences, the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) is today a 16,000-member professional organization. Since its beginning as a dinner club where informal scientific debates took place, the Society has been home to notable scientists, geographers and explorers who’ve helped understand and map the world as we know it.

Thorough its history, the Society has successfully advocated for the inclusion of geography in schools and universities, and served as an information exchange for geographers, explorers, soldiers, administrators and naturalists, providing intelligence for academic and state endeavors.

Primary Source Maps and Charts Dating Back to the 1400s

Spanning 1478 to 1953, the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) digital archive contains more than 150,000 maps, charts and atlases complemented by manuscripts, field notes, expedition reports, scrapbooks, correspondence, diaries, illustrations,  and sketches.

The archive is representative of the world’s largest private collection of maps and charts, along with atlases, globes, world gazetteers, and original manuscript mapping dating back to the 1400s that is held in the Society building in London. Some of the most influential geographers of the last two centuries have contributed to the collection.

Notable RGS members and contributors whose works can be found in this archive include Gertrude Bell, John Hanning Speke, David Livingstone, Robert Falcon Scott, Richard Francis Burton, Ernest Shackleton, and Edmund Hillary.

RGS Part I

1482-1899

Highlights include:

• 15,000 lantern slides
• Collections on colonization, including the ‘Scramble for Africa’
• Historic climate data
• Extensive mapping related to the British Empire

RGS Part II

1900-2010

Highlights include:

• Primary source materials on polar and desert expeditions
• The Everest collection
• Materials on de-colonization
• Fellowship certificates

Subjects and Themes

Agricultural Geography · ‍Anthropology · ‍Cartography · ‍Borders,Nations & Power · ‍Colonial,Post-Colonial & De-Colonization Studies · ‍DevelopmentStudies · ‍EarthSciences · ‍EnvironmentalHistory · ‍Ethnography · ‍Geography · ‍Geology · ‍Geopolitics · ‍HistoricalGeography · ‍InternationalLaw, Trade & Policy · ‍InternationalRelations · ‍Meteorology · ‍PhysicalGeography · ‍Resources& Land Use · ‍UrbanStudies

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Primary Source Materials

Charts & Plans · ‍ExpeditionReports & Scrapbooks · ‍Fieldnotes,Correspondence, Diaries & Personal Papers · ‍FellowshipCertificates · ‍GrayLiterature · ‍Illustrations,Sketches & Drawings · ‍JournalManuscripts · ‍Maps,Manuscript Maps, Gazetteers & Atlases · ‍Monographs · ‍Photographs,Lantern Slides & Artwork · ‍Proceedings& Lectures

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