¹ Garland Allen is the only author so far to attempt any sort of overview of twentieth century biology. See Allen, G., Life Science in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge, 1978Google Scholar; and the early chapters of Thomas Hunt Morgan. The Man and His Science, Princeton, 1979.Google Scholar

² For a succinct discussion of the problems of electronic communication for archive accumulation in science and technology, see Meadows, A.J., ‘Changing records and changing realities’, BJHS (1987), 20, pp. 67–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³ Kuhn, T.S., Heilbron, J.L., Forman, P. and Allen, L., Sources for the History of Quantum Physics. An Inventory and Report, American Philosophical Society, 1967.Google Scholar

⁴ Center for the History of Physics and Resources of the Niels Bohr Library, undated pamphlets from the Center for History of Physics of the American Physics Society. Center for History of Physics Newsletter, American Institute of Physics, 335 East 45 Street, New York, NY 10017, U.S.A., 1, (1968).Google Scholar

⁵ For instance, the Center for the History of Chemistry, 215 South 34th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 6310, U.S.A., which publishes CHOC News; the EEE Center for the History of Electrical Engineering, 345 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017, U.S.A.; the Charles Babbage Institute for the History of Information Processing, 103 Walter Library, University of Minnesota, Mineapolis, MN 55455, U.S.A.

⁶ Pharmacology in History, (1986), 28, p. 49.Google Scholar

⁷ Bearman, D. and Edsall, J. (eds), Archival Sources for the History of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, American Philosophical Society, 1980.Google Scholar

⁸ Gowing, M., ‘The Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre’, Archives, (1973), XI, pp. 73–75.Google Scholar

⁹ Buchanan, R.A., NCUACSGoogle Scholar, undated pamphlet.

¹⁰ Sheppard, J., Catalogue of the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre, Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1985.Google Scholar

¹¹ All information about learned societies and professional groups is drawn from personal communication with presidents, secretaries and archivists.

¹² R.E. Banks, Acting Head of Library Services, British Museum (Natural History), personal communication.

¹³ These would include the following titles: Bridson, G.D.R., Phillips, V.C. and Harvey, A.P., Natural History Manuscript Resources in the British Isles, Mansell, 1980Google Scholar; Davis, P. and Brewer, C. (eds), A Catalogue of Natural Science Collections in N.E. England with Biographical Notes on the Collectors, North of England Museum Service, 1986Google Scholar; MacLeod, R.M. and Friday, J.R., Archives of British Men of Science, Mansell, 1972Google Scholar; Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Guides to Sources for British History (2) The Manuscript Papers of British Scientists, 1600–1940, HMSO, 1982.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Robert Radcliffe, Chairman of the Royal Meteorological Society Historical Specialist Group, personal communication.

¹⁵ G.R. Barker, Honorary Archivist of the Biochemical Society, personal communication.

¹⁶ Roche, J.J., The History of Physics Group within the Institute of PhysicsGoogle Scholar, undated pamplet from the Secretary of the Steering Committee.

¹⁷ Weart, Spencer R., Manager, Center for the History of Physics, personal communication.Google Scholar

¹⁸ See, for instance, Weart, S.R. and DeVorkin, D.H., ‘Interviews as sources for the history of modern astrophysics’.Isis, (1981), 72, pp. 471–477CrossRefGoogle Scholar and ‘The voice of astronomical history’, Sky and Telescope, (1982), pp. 124–127Google Scholar; Space Astronomy Oral History Project Catalogue, Introduction, pp. i–xGoogle Scholar, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, undated; Gortler, L., ‘Oral history, how, why and who?’, CHOC News, (1983), 1, pp. 7–9Google Scholar and ‘Doing oral history’, AGU Committee for the History of Geophysics Newsletters, (1985), 2, pp. 45–50Google Scholar and (1986), 2, pp. 75–85.

¹⁹ Details of the working procedures through sample documents from the Space Astronomy Oral History Project were kindly provided by its manager, David DeVorkin, Chairman of the Space Science and Exploration Department of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institute, Washington.

²⁰ Gortler, L., 1986, op. cit., (18), pp. 78–79Google Scholar ‘Doing Oral History 2’.

²¹ The book length autobiographies were as follows: Chargaff, E., Heraclitean Fire, Sketches of a Life Before Nature, Rockefeller University Press, 1978Google Scholar; Corner, G.W., The Seven Ages of a Medical Scientist. An Autobiography, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981CrossRefGoogle Scholar; von Frisch, K., A Biologist Remembers (tr. Gombrich, Lisbeth), Pergamon Press, 1967Google Scholar; SirGodwin, Harry, Cambridge and Clare, Cambridge University Press, 1985Google Scholar; Hutchinson, G.E., The Kindly Fruits of the Earth. Recollections of an Embryo Ecologist, Yale University Press, 1979Google Scholar; Huxley, J., Memories, Memories II, George Allen and Unwin, 1970 and 1973Google Scholar; Martin, W. Keble, Over the Hills …Google Scholar, Joseph, Michael, 1968Google Scholar; Krebs, Hans, Reminiscences and Reflections, (in collaboration with Anne Martin), Clarendon Press, 1981Google Scholar; Lawrence, W.J.C., Catch the Tide, Adventures in Horticultural Research, Grower Books, 1980Google Scholar; Clark, W. Le Gros, Chant of Pleasant ExplorationGoogle Scholar, E. and Livingstone, S., 1968Google Scholar; Luria, S.E., A Slot Machine, a Broken Test-Tube, an Autobiography, Harper and Row, 1984Google Scholar; McCarry, M., The Transforming Principle, Discovering Genes Are Made of DNA, W.W. Norton and Co., 1985Google Scholar; Medawar, Peter, Memoir of a Thinking Radish, an Autobiography, Oxford University Press, 1986Google Scholar; Parkes, A.S., Off-Beat Biologist, Galton Foundation, 1985Google Scholar; Simpson, G.G., Concession to the Improbable, an Unconventional Autobiography, Yale University Press, 1978Google Scholar; Todd, A., A Time to Remember, the Autobiography of a Chemist, Cambridge University Press, 1983Google Scholar; Twitty, V., Of Scientists and Salamanders, W.H. Freeman and Co., 1966Google Scholar; Waksman, S.A.. My Life with the Microbes, Robert Hale, 1957Google Scholar; Watson, J.D., The Double Helix, Weindenfeld and Nicolson, 1968Google Scholar; Worthington, E.B., The Ecological Century. A Personal Appraisal, Oxford University Press, 1983Google Scholar; Zuckerman, S., From Apes to Warlords 1904–46, Hamish Hamilton, 1978.Google Scholar

²² Cleghorn, R.A., ‘Eyewitness-agents of change in medical biology over sixty years’, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, (1985), 29, pp 132–147CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Cheung, W.Y., ‘Discovery and recognition of calmodulin, a personal account’, J. Cyclic Nucleotide Research, (1981), 7, pp. 71–84Google ScholarPubMed; Click, D., ‘50 years of histochemistry and cytochemistry’, J. Histochem. Cytochem. (1985), 33, pp. 720–728Google Scholar; Kroc, R.L., ‘Relaxin, a personal perspective’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, (1982), 380, pp. 1–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Reinhold, J.G., ‘Adventures of a clinical chemist’, Clinical Chemistry, (1982), 28, pp. 2314–2323.Google ScholarPubMed

²³ Davenport, H.W., ‘The apology of a second class man’, Ann. Rev. Physiology, (1985), 47, pp. 1–14CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Hodgkin, A.L., ‘Beginning: some reminiscences of my early life (1919–1947)’, Ann. Rev. Physiology, (1983), 45, pp. 1–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lipman, F., ‘A long life in times of great upheaval’, Ann. Rev. Biochemistry, (1984), 53, pp. 1–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Luck, J. Murray, ‘Confessions of a biochemist’, Ann. Rev. Biochemistry, (1981), 50, pp. 1–22CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Prosser, C. Ladd, ‘The making of a comparative physiologist’, Ann. Rev. Physiology, (1986), 48, pp. 1–6CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Raffel, S., ‘50 years of immunology’, Ann. Rev. Microbiology, (1982), 36, pp. 1–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Woodruff, H. Boyd, ‘A soil microbiologist's odyssey’, Ann. Rev. Microbiology, (1981), 35, pp. 1–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

²⁴ Much of this work could be read with advantage by any historian setting out to uncover a piece of history by interview or questionnaire. As a single example of the genre, see Woolgar, S.W., ‘Writing an intellectual history of scientific development. The use of discovery accounts’, Social Studies in Science, (1976), 6, pp. 395–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁵ Even scientists themselves come to realize this when they find themselves wearing historical hats. Todd has had considerable experience in composing obituaries for his F.R.S. colleagues and reports how difficult it is to write about them as personalities if documents are not available. These problems tempted him to write his own autobiography, including those aspects of personality which he found so hard to describe in his subjects. McCarty laments the absence of personal documents to remind him of the motivations of his own youth and others which could have provided inside information about Avery and MacLeod's work at the Rockefeller laboratory before he arrived there.

²⁶ Berry, R.J., ‘Is divided biology weakened biology?’, Biologist, (1985), 32, pp. 211–212.Google Scholar

²⁷ Rosenberg, N., Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 3–33.Google Scholar

²⁸ Russell, N., ‘Report of the meeting on Heredity and Animal Breeding’, Institute of Biology History Group Newsletter and Proceedings, (in press).Google Scholar