The British Library Digitises Landmark Siam Collection, 1881–1918

The British Library has digitised and released The Row Collection of Siam (Thailand), 1881–1918, making one of the earliest specialist philatelic studies of a single country freely accessible online. Available globally through the Internet Archive, the collection focuses on postage stamps, postal stationery, and postal markings from a transformative period in Thai history. Compiled by British zoologist and philatelist Richard Williams Harold Row (1884–1919), it contains 24,473 items across 1,358 pages in twenty-three volumes and remains a landmark example of meticulous philatelic research.

According to Richard Scott Morel, Curator of the British Library Philatelic Collections, stamps issued under King Chulalongkorn and King Vajiravudh served as potent symbols of the Chakri dynasty’s modernisation efforts and assertion of sovereignty as Siam resisted colonial influence. The online release includes high-resolution 600 dpi PDF scans supported by browsable metadata through the UK National Archives’ Discovery catalogue, enabling detailed study and responsible reuse under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC license.

The initiative represents the first stage in a broader programme to digitise the Library’s philatelic holdings, with invitations extended to researchers and societies to contribute to future development.

Explore the Row Collection today: https://archive.org/details/the-row-collection
For further information please email richard.morel@bl.uk

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