Kirk was Agent and Consul-General at Zanzibar and a major oponent of the Slave Trade. He accompanied David Livingstone on his second Zambezi expedition 1858 - 63 and took photographs which are preserved in this collection together with correspondence from Livingstone and PD Lugard, vividly describing the difficult early yeats of Uganda. There are also copies of Kirks telegrams to the Foreign Office reporting the progress of German colonisation and a group of Arabic letters including a captured letter of the Mahdi reporting the death of General Gordon at Khartoum and all other enemies of God