Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections has contributed more than 10,000 images from its Southeast Asia Collection, named in honor of John. M. Echols, to the Digital Library.

The collection in Artstor is represented by more than 10,000 images of drawings, photographs, prints, and maps. The Echols Collection of European and American travel accounts of pre-modern Southeast Asia, consists of hundreds of books and journal articles, ranging from the 1550s to the 1920s. These primary accounts — travelogues, letters, official accounts, journals, autobiographies, guidebooks, and photo albums — cover Southeast Asia, but also include other areas. Most are illustrated, many in color. These materials were selected for the quality of their first-hand documentation of the region, as well as their visual representation, as recorded by Western travelers. Further they document the colonial period, whether the Dutch in Indonesia, the British in Burma, Malaysia, and Singapore, the French in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, or the Spanish and Americans in the Philippines. The collection was compiled by John M. Echols, professor of linguistics and literature in the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell.

The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library is located in the Carl A. Kroch Library. Named for Carl A. Kroch, a Cornell alumnus and bookseller, the library was designed especially for the storage of rare materials and opened in 1992. The division’s collections include more than half a million rare books, and 80 million manuscripts.

Visit other Cornell collections in Artstor:

Andrew Dickson White Architectural Photographs Collection (Cornell University Library)

Hill Ornithology Collection (Cornell University Library)