Letter to Douglas Carruthers

Letter (holograph) to Douglas Carruthers from John [ ], dated 7 March, 1925, from Hotel Belle Ile, Cadenabbia, Lago di Como, Italy.

Letter discovered in a volume in the RSAA Library (Ex Libris Douglas Carruthers, and a prior bookplate of Henry Wilson): Thomas Witlam Atkinson, Oriental and Western Siberia: A Narrative of Seven Years' Explorations and Adventures in Siberia, Mongolia, the Kirghis Steppes, Chinese Tartary, and Part of Central Asia (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1859).

The letter to Carruthers makes reference to coming upon "pictures" by Atkinson on the walls of the villa of Sir Roderick Murchison, "next door but one to this hotel." The volume by Atkinson, in which he recounts his travels in Siberia, is illustrated by thirty-two wood engravings and twenty lithographs (two-tone and full colour). The lithographs are attributed to Atkinson. In the Preface, Atkinson wrote (pp. v-vii): "My sole object was, to sketch the scenery of Siberia ... I traversed much of the hitherto unexplored regions of Central Asia, and produced 560 sketches of the scenery, executed with the moist colours made by Winsor and Newton, - invaluable to an artist employed under such circumstances."