A unique collection of documents, artefacts and photographs has been made available to the general public for the first time at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London.

A £7.1m scheme, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, will give full public access to study the Society’s heritage resources for the fist time in its 174-year existence.

Artefacts that will soon be released to the public viewing by the scheme, called Unlocking the Archives, include David Livingstone’s watercolour sketches of the Victoria Falls in Africa, maps used during the D-Day landings in 1944 and the oxygen tanks used on the first successful ascent of Mount Everest.

Although the RGS has placed heavy emphasis on making the exhibitions useful for schools and students for educational use, it also welcomes all of the public to view the remarkable collections.

Carole Sauter, director of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said: “The Unlocking the Archives project will help open up the Society’s treasures to a much wider audience, showing people how relevant they are to our understanding of modern life.”

To improve accessibility of the heritage holdings, more than 210,000 card records have been transferred to an electronic catalogue, allowing users to search the archives via the internet.

As part of the development, the RSG building at Kensington, London, has also received a makeover.

The new facilities now have full disabled access and include a glazed, open-planned entrance to the society on Exhibition Road, a public display space, educational facilities and a 70-seat reading room.

Specially designed conservation storage facilities have also been built to protect the unique artefacts.

Rita Gardner, director of RGS, said: “The transparency of the glass pavilion symbolises the opening up of the society visually, intellectually and physically to all those interested in learning about our geographical heritage and its relevance to understanding and managing the modern world.”

The project launches on 8 June and the free exhibitions will be open to public every weekday from 10am to 5pm. Details: www.rgs.org