The Royal Geographical Society is opening its archives to launch a first of its kind collection that it hopes will inspire travellers to walk in the footsteps of some of the world’s most celebrated explorers and scientists.
Renowned for having over two million historical treasures, the Society is unveiling a new collection with British heritage travel organisation, Travelsphere, for the very first time at its iconic headquarters in London.
Handpicked by the Society’s archive experts, the collection includes artefacts from the RGS’ 200 year history, which inspire the new Royal Geographical Society Collection of trips.
Using these materials, which will be made available to the public, travellers will have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of legendary British explorers from the 1800s such as Isabella Bird, one of the most famous Victorian travel writers, who wrote about Mount Fuji in Japan, and Clements Markam’s famous 1853 expedition to Peru.
The collection also includes newly donated archives – the most significant photographic donation to the RGS for many years – a series of photographs by master travel photographer, Donal McLeish, which were given by the family to the RGS to form part of the new collection.
