This collection presents rare documents relating to the development of various forms of communication across Africa by the British, as part of their economic investment in Africa

I: Construction; 1: Crown Agents to Colonial Office (23 August 1897); held at the National Archives, CO 879/49/2, No. 190.; 2: Sierra Leone (Kwalu) Railway Survey. Report of Messrs Shelfordand Son (15 November 1899); held at the National Archives, CO 879/61/612.; 3: High Commissioner Sir F. Lugard to Mr. Chamberlain (25 February 1903); held at the National Archives, CO 879/76/695, No. 41.; 4: Papers [August 10, 1893 to August 12, 1904] relating to Construction of Foreign Railways in West Africa (London: printed for the use of the Colonial Office, 1905); held at the National Archives, CO 879/86/3.; 5: Mr. Lyttelton to Governor Egerton (6 January 1905); held at the National Archives, CO 879/76/695.; 6: Memorandum by Mr. Churchill on Railway Construction in Nigeria (1906); held at the National Archives, CO 879/93/5.; 7: F. Shelford, Some Features of West African Railways , ed. J. H. T. Tudsbery (London: Institution of Civil Engineers, 1912).; 8: The Nigerian Railway. Some General Particulars, a Short Historical Sketch and Interesting Statistics (Lagos, [1925]).; 9: Sir W. De Frece, The Failure of Officialdom (London, 1923); held at LSE, HE 1(6)/3.; 10: F. L. O' Callaghan, 'Uganda Railway', 26:8 (1900), Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers. (OccasionalPaper Series ), pp. 1-20.; 11: F. W. Emett, 'Some Curiosities of the Uganda Railway', Wide World Magazine (April 1901), pp. 26-35.; 12: Memorandum for the Private Enterprise Committee by the Hon. Gideon Murray, Master of Elibank [n.d.]; held at the National Archives CO 766/1.; 13: E. H. Smith Wright, Railways in Rhodesia. A Few Notes on their Construction and on the Country through which they Pass (London, 1904).; 14: 'Contract for the Construction of a Railway and Works in the British Central Africa Protectorate, dated 1897', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute , 55 (1925), pp. 439-67.; 15: Central Africa Railway Company Limited and Shire Highlands Railway Nyasaland Limited and the Crown Agents for the Colonies on behalf of the Nyasaland Government: Conditional Agreement (1930); held at the National Archives, CO 525/139/2.; 16: A. G. Dalton, A Report and Estimate Concerning the Construction and Equipment of a Railway between Oudtshoorn andKlipplaat Station via Willowmore with Full Details (Cape Town, 1894).; 17: G. S. Owen, Report and Estimate in Connection with Caledon Surveys, with a View to the Construction of a Line of Railway (Cape Town: Government Printer, 1897).; 18: Railway Construction: ZoutpansbergDistrict (Pretoria: Government Printer, 1909).; 19: Tanganyika Territory. Proposed Loan for Railway and Harbour Development, 1923-4 (London: printed for the use of the Colonial Office, 1924); held at the National Archives, CO 879/121/3.; 20: Natal Government Railways. Draft Law to Raise a Loan for the Construction and Equipment of Certain Railways [n.d.]; held at the National Archives, CO 879/7/19.; 21: Report of the Select Committee on Railway Labourers (Cape Town: Saul Solomon & Co., 1863).; 22: A. R. Seymour, 'Tropical Railways', unpublished manuscript, © A. R. Seymour Estate; held at Rhodes House, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MSS. Afr. r. 213.; 23: E. R. Calthrop, 'Light Railways in the Colonies', Royal Colonial Institute Proceedings , 29 (1897-8), pp. 98-103.