The South-East Asian collection in the Brynmor Jones Library began alongside the foundation at Hull University of a Centre for South-East Asian Studies in the early 1960s. The Centre was administered by a Board of South-East Asian Studies chaired by Professor J Wilson of the Economics Department and the acquisition of South-East Asian research materials was vastly helped by the involvement of the librarian, Philip Larkin.
In 1968 Mervyn Jaspan was appointed to the chair of South-East Asian Sociology at Hull University. He became director of the Centre for South-East Asian Studies and there was rapid expansion in the 1960s with the library spending several years acquiring material through purchase and active pursuit of donations, many of which came from Professor Jaspan himself. In the 1970s the main holdings were boosted by the deposit of around 1000 of Professor Jaspan's books and pamphlets about the sociology and anthropology of South-East Asia as well as many original texts, especially from Sumatra. Archival papers began to be acquired and the library now has those of Dr David Bassett, F W Dalley, Dr Harry Parkin and Dr Roy Bruton (see separate Guide entries).
The library also purchased in 1971 the valuable collection of Professor C Hooykaas including books and periodicals and Indonesian novels. Concentration on Indonesian material has led to it comprising about 30 per cent of the total South-East Asian holdings of the library and includes a microfilm copy of the Sumatra factory records for 1685-1825. At Professor Jaspan's urging these materials were given separate cataloguing and physical space in the main library and archives and upon his death in 1975 his research materials and original manuscripts were also donated by Helen Jaspan. Many manuscripts from Jaspan's personal collection lie at the heart of the artificial collection at DSE and his own interest in collecting examples of South-East Asian scripts is reflected in the organization of the artificial collection itself.
From the guide to the Artificial Collection of South-East Asian Manuscripts, 18th century-1967, (Hull University, Brynmor Jones Library)
