The Times (of London) has a wonderful archive that allows anyone who registers to dip into the paper’s long and distinguished history. Today I had a scout around to see how useful it might be as a resource for New Mandala readers.
For starters…the archive begins in 1785.
As a result, searches for words like Burma, Thailand, Bangkok and Kachin unsurprisingly turn up all manner of interesting historical debris. A search for “Burmese” reveals that the first time the word was apparently used in The Times was 17 July 1824, soon after the proclamation (free registration required) of what we now call the First Anglo-Burmese War. Unfortunately the typeface used in the really old material makes it difficult to get accurate keyword matches. In my experience, relatively unique words such as Yunnan (1829) or Myitkyina (1892) return the most promising results. Words that are easily confused when converted to plain text–and here I am thinking of words like Thai, Burman or Mandala–struggle to find clear matches.
Nonetheless an hour (or three) browsing the archives of The Times is time well spent. No matter the specific research, personal or political interest there is a great deal of fabulously accessible history that will interest New Mandala readers.
Particularly for material published in the past 100 years the keyword search function turns up a remarkable range of news reporting and other ephemera. There are seemingly hundreds of thousands of pieces in the archive that shed light on all recent periods of mainland Southeast Asian history. For instance, I couldn’t help but notice that on 19 August 1982 The Times carried a report titled “Thais alarmed at call to pray for ailing king”. As a piece of (largely forgotten?) history the article is well worth a look. So, I might add, is the report titled “Burma dissatisfied” from 25 June 1946.
This kind of history has, it is fair to say, never been easier to trawl through. Have a go…and please let us know about any mainland Southeast Asia-related gems that you find among the treasure of The Times archive.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Somsak Jeamteerasakul // Aug 3, 2008 at 1:03 am
What a strange co-incident that Khun Nicolas should mention the 1982 illness of the King as a “forgotten history” especially about the call for a pray. I’ve been working on an article that will deal with this interesting episode. The brief account in King Never Smiles contains some info that could be misleading (though in a very interesting way). To give a bit of a ‘preview’: the 1982 illness compared with the most recent one (Nov 2007) shows, or I argue, the changing nature of the monarchy. The prey mentioned in the Times article actually was ignored or overlooked by a large number of Thai – in Bangkok of all places! – at the time. This compares with the near ‘mass hysteria’ reaction during last year illness.
2 Somsak Jeamteerasakul // Aug 3, 2008 at 1:06 am
btw, thanks Khun Nicolas a million for info of Times archive. I’ll certainly be a visitor.
3 Colum Graham // Aug 3, 2008 at 1:54 am
Just thought this was an amusing quote from an article titled ‘Journalism in Rangoon’ on April 20th, 1937.
“The New Light of Burma preaches Burma for the Burmans and violently opposes the new Constitution.”
Thanks for alerting me to this, for general news I don’t venture far from the warm glow of the Guardian or the homely vibes of abc.net.au too often.
4 Glenn // Aug 3, 2008 at 4:06 am
“Siam” turns up lots of interesting old articles as well.
5 Kate G. // Aug 3, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I do love those archives! Trying to figure out when opium had become a significant cash crop for upland peoples in northern mainland Southeast Asia, I found many gems in online archives of newspapers of the day. For instance, colonial authorities in Burma were deeply concerned about the uplanders growing opium as they feared it would cut into their monopolies; so, too, with the Royal Thai government. The Daily News (London) of May 21, 1886, noted the opium trafficking problem in Upper Burma and the government’s plan to suppress that trade (Daily News (London) 1886).
Daily News (London)
1886 The Suppression of the Opium Trade. Daily News (London), 21 May: page 3.
1900 This Morning’s News. Web Archives, Http://Www.Uk.Olivesoftware.Com/. Daily News (London), 5 November.
I also found interesting accounts of British attempts to exert sovereignty over the Sino-Burmese border area by serving as peace makers. Part of what’s fun about reading these is that the cultural ideas of the time about the role of the British in world politics and the centrality of the idea of trade and profit as legitimations of British control.
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