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Locating the Manuscript Sources of Science
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
Extract
There is a wealth of source material to be digested by the historian. From about 1800 onwards books and specialized scientific journals have appeared in ever-increasing numbers, and he may feel overwhelmed by the printed sources. But printed material can supply only a part of the information he needs. The printed word of a scientist rarely shows how he arrived at his concepts, why they took the turn they did and what influences contributed to their formation and development. For these the historian must turn to private papers, to correspondence, to laboratory notebooks, diaries, drawings and designs and to whatever other record of day-by-day thinking may have been kept.
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- Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1964
References
1 For the period up to 1500 there is the index compiled by Mrs. D. W. Singer, ‘Hand-list of Western Scientific Manuscripts in Great Britain and Ireland dating from before the sixteenth century’. This index was presented by Mrs. Singer to the British Museum and consists of cards arranged in boxes. The sections on alchemy and pestilence have been published. For a description of this index see Skeat, T. C., reference 11 infra, pp. 41–43.Google Scholar A useful list of published catalogues and guides to manuscripts in Great Britain is given by Hepworth, P., Archives and Manuscripts in Libraries, and ed., London, 1964, pp. 20–61.Google Scholar A series of articles on the sources of transport history has appeared in the Journal of Transport History.
2 ‘The Conference on Science Manuscripts,’ Isis, 1962, liii, 1–157.Google Scholar
3 King, W. J., ‘The History of Recent Physics Project of the American Institute of Physics,’ Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, 1962, xv, i 27–136.Google ScholarKing, W. J., ‘The Project on the History of Recent Physics in the United States,’ American Archivist, 1964, xxvii, 237–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, 1962, xv, 129Google Scholar
5 Quirk, R. N., ‘Scientific Manuscripts,’ History of Science, 1962, i, 128–130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarQuirk, R. N. has also written ‘The Problem of Scientific Manuscripts in Britain,’ Isis, 1962, liii, 151–154CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘Problems of Scientific Manuscripts,’ The Times Science Review, Autumn, 1962, pp. 17–18.Google Scholar
6 Williams, L. Pearce, ‘The Physical Sciences in the first half of the Nineteenth Century: Problems and Sources,’ History of Science, 1962, i, 12–13.Google Scholar
7 The National Register of Archives, Quality House, Quality Court, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.2 (Telephone: CHAncery 3205). Information can be obtained from the Register by post, but a personal visit is usually more satisfactory. The Register ask that an appointment is made before visiting their office for the first time. They issue a leaflet, Facilities Offered to Students. The ‘Foreword’ to Bulletin of the National Register of Archives, No. 7, is an assessment by the late R. L. Atkinson of the first decade of the Register's work. Further detail is given in an article by Miss W. D. Coates which appears in the same issue: ‘The National Register of Archives, 1945–55.’ A general account is given by Van Kersen, L. W., ‘The National Register of Archives,’ American Archivist, 1960, xxiii, 319–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
An account of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, the parent body of the National Register, is given by Ellis, R. H., ‘The Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1869–1969,’ Journal of the Society of Archivists, 1962, ii, 233–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8 Published by H.M. Stationery Office.
9 A selected extract from a list of the National Register's reports of potential interest to the specialist in industrial and technological history is published as ‘The National Register of Archives: Sources of Industrial History,’ Journal of Industrial Archaeology, 1964, i, 59–65.Google Scholar
10 Now available from H.M. Stationery Office as a publication of the Historical Manuscripts Commission. Some repositories themselves issue periodic reports of their accessions of manuscripts (e.g. British Museum, Bodleian Library, and the Lincolnshire Archives Committee).
11 Skeat, T. C., The Catalogues of the Manuscript Collections in the British Museum, revised ed., London, 1962Google Scholar, lists the catalogues of the Dept. of Manuscripts which are in regular use. The Class Catalogue (i.e. subject index) includes the following sections: Vol. 95. Mathematics and chronology Vol. 96. Astronomy and astrology Vol. 97. Natural science and magic Vol. 98. Chemistry and alchemy Vol. 99–101. Medicine
12 Guide to the Contents of the Public Record Office, 2 vols., London, 1963.Google Scholar
13 A general survey of the MSS. of the Royal Society is given by Bluhm, R. K., ‘A Guide to the Archives of the Royal Society and to other Manuscripts in its possession,’ Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 1956, xii, 21–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14 The Wellcome Historical Medical Library (183–193 Euston Road, London, N.W.1) has some 10,000 MSS. (approximately half of them in oriental languages) and more than 100,000 autograph letters, still largely unexplored and by no means restricted to the field of medicine. S. A. J. Moorat has compiled a Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library. Vol. 1. Manuscripts written before A.D. 1650, London, 1962.Google Scholar
15 Maurice Bond, The Records of Parliament: a guide for genealogists and local historians, Canterbury, 1964. This originally appeared as a series of articles, ‘Records of Parliament’, Amateur Historian, 1959/60, iv, 219–226, 267–274, 307–314, 354–358.Google Scholar See also House of Lords Record Office Memorandum, no. 1 (e), List of Main Classes of Records, 1963 (obtainable gratis from the Office, London, S.W.1).
16 The British Council, Scientific and Learned Societies of Great Britain, 61st ed., London, 1964.Google Scholar A more specialized list has been issued by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, compiled by Lysaght, A., Directory of Natural History and other Field Study Societies in Great Britain, London, 1959.Google Scholar
17 Two general lists are Libraries, Museums and Art Galleries Year Book, London, 1964Google Scholar, and the Aslib Directory, 2 vols., London, 1957.Google Scholar A list of libraries possessing MSS. is given by P. Hepworth, ‘Archives and Manuscripts in Libraries–1961,’ Library Association Record, 1962, Ixiv, 269–283.Google Scholar The Museums Association publishes an annual Museums Calendar.
18 The most useful list is Record Repositories in Great Britain, London, 1964 (H.M. Stationery Office). A general account of record offices is given by Bond, M. F., ‘Record Offices Today: Facts for Historians,’ Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 1957, xxx, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19 The circular was sent to all members of the Business Archives Council (9 King's Bench Walk, Temple, London, E.C.4). The Council maintains an index of firms and industrial organizations which possess archive collections. A list of company museums is given by Hudson, Kenneth, ‘Company Museums,’ Journal of Industrial Archaeology, 1964, i, 21–26.Google Scholar
20 Crick, B. R. and Alman, M., A Guide to Manuscripts relating to America in Great Britain and Ireland, Oxford, 1961.Google Scholar