In 2023, we went on a rather energetic, and (for us) unprecedented drive to bring in exciting new material into the archives. Rather quickly into the year, we realised that the standard methods of acquisition just didn’t bring in archival material from female scientists, the way they did from male scientists. We had less of a problem with this when it came to oral histories, but for physical material like photographs, letters and notes, we found that institutes and individuals tended to retain less material related to female scientists, if at all.
We’re in the business of preserving history, so it grates on us that this leaves an enormous hole in science history, and perpetuates the idea that women played no significant role in the development of Indian science. The same seems to apply to people marginalised on the grounds of caste, religion, and class. We knew that if we wanted an archive that was truly representative of science in India, we would have to modify our day-to-day functioning and figure out a more inclusive way to bring in material.
Photographed below are the members of a Planters Association with Leslie Coleman (seated in the centre) who was the Director of Agriculture in Mysore in the 1930s and whose work as an entomologist for the princely state has been catalogued at the Archives at NCBS.
Group photograph: Leslie C Coleman, Davison and others, MS-012-5-2-4-3, Leslie Coleman Papers, Archives at NCBS.
However, seated two seats to his right is a woman, the only one amongst a group of 50-odd people. She is Sakamma – the name behind one of the oldest local coffee powder enterprises to be set up in the state. Besides this photograph and a mention of her in a letter from the chemist H V Krishnayya, there is hardly any primary material on her to be found online. We can only ask, where are her papers?
Letter from H. V. Krishnayya to Leslie Coleman, dated 7th April, 1952. Pleasantries and reports on whereabouts of mutual acquaintances like M Visvesvaraya and Sakamma, MS-012-1-1-1-8, Leslie Coleman Papers, Archives at NCBS.
There is physical material out there, even if it is small in volume: whether it yields a single photograph or a hundred, we still hope to pursue every lead that we get. We’ve set aside 2024, for a start, to prioritise an inclusive approach, and focus on bringing in diverse material. If you’ve got leads for us or would like to help, do get in touch!
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