Expedition: Lake Rudolf Rift Valley

The series includes annotated notebooks of the expedition; copies of maps and the original hand drawn key; papers and reports of specimens collected; and a draft copy of Fuchs PhD thesis, including photographs.

The mission of this expedition was to conduct geological and survey work (and also to collect plant and animal specimens) in the northern area of the East African Rift Valley in Kenya Colony.

Members of the Expedition included Vivian Fuchs (Leader / Geologist); Cuthbert Wakefield (Surveyor, from the Sudan Survey Department); W.R.H. Martin ('Snaffle'; forester); Dr W.S. Dyson (Medical Officer / Zoologist); John Millard (Archaeologist); and Donald MacInnes (Palaeontologist).

The findings from this expedition, in which two of the party were lost, brought Fuchs his Ph.D from Cambridge in 1937, an annotated copy of which is included in the collection.

The records had been originally re-boxed during the 1990s and all original order was lost. The series has therefore been artificially arranged into 2 sub-series to reflect the type of records retained for each expedition- those created on the expedition (notebooks) and those relating to specimens and/or created after the expedition (papers, specimen cards, maps and notes).

The microfilm copies are not currently accessible. Copies can instead be requested from Cambridge University Library if necessary.

Sub series and file level descriptions are available. Please ask staff for further information.