Alan Hodgkin was born on 5 February 1914, son of George Lloyd Hodgkin and his wife Mary. He attended school in Cornwall and Norfolk, winning a scholarship to Trinity College Cambridge in 1932. Although his intention was to study Zoology, he took physiology in his final year. As a result of research on nerve fibres he was elected to a Junior Research Fellowship by Trinity in 1936, spent a year at the Rockefeller Institute in New York and returned to a college lectureship at Trinity in 1938.
After war-work that was for the most part radar-related, Hodgkin resumed his academic career, supported by his wife Marni, whom he had married in 1944. He became University Lecturer in 1946 and Assistant Director of Research the following year. In 1952 he took up a Royal Society Foulterton Research Professorship and in 1970 he became John Humphrey Plummer Professor of biophysics at Cambridge. Throughout this period, much of his research was done alongside Andrew Huxley on the physiology of nerve fibres. For this work Hodgkin and Huxley were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in 1963; this was shared with John Eccles for unrelated work. Other collaborators included R. D. Keynes, T. I. Shaw, R. H. Adrian, M. G. F. Fuortes and D. A. Bayler.
From 1970 to 75 Hodgkin was President of the Royal Society at a time it required considerable reforms to ensure it remained financially independent. These he achieved, though he was less successful in influencing government policy on the financing of scientific research. He was knighted in 1972. In 1978 he succeeded Lord Butler as Master of Trinity, holding the post until 1984. He died in 1998.
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This sizable archive contains the following materials. Biographical and autobiographical material 1914-2000, school and college papers 1919-1936, honours and awards 1936-1987, family correspondence and papers 1902-1977, personal correspondence 1937-1981, administrative papers relating to University and College 1938-1989, research notebooks 1934-1987, research files 1935-1991, publications 1838-1988, lectures and speeches 1950-1987, papers relating to visits and conferences 1961-1998, papers relating to societies and organisations 1938-1989, correspondence 1945-1990, photographic materials 1937-1972
Hodgkin worked closely with Sir Andrew Huxley, whose (uncatalogued) papers are also at Trinity College Library.
Not all the material in this collection may yet be available for consultation. Enquiries should be addressed in the first instance to:
The Archivist
Trinity College Library
Cambridge
Cambridge
CB2 1TQ
archives@trin.cam.ac.uk
This collection-level catalogue was produced by Jonathan Smith. The Hodgkin papers were catalogued by Simon Coleman, Peter Harper and Timothy E. Powell of the National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, and a typescript catalogue is available in Trinity College Library
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Biographical material has been arranged as follows:
1-3: Obituaries, memorials and tributes (1998-2000)
4-5: Curricula vitae and list of publications (c 1975-1988)
6-18: Autobiographical information (1963-1988)
19-22: Hodgkin's 'Personal' File, including University correspondence, finances, donations etc (1936-1981)
23: Newspaper cuttings, mostly relating to the Mastership of Trinity College, 1984 (1970-1992)
24-29: Requests for autographs (1963-1986)
30-38: Childhood memorabilia (1914-1923)
39-69: Education
70-103: Career, Honours and Awards
104-168: Family: The great bulk of this material is correspondence from Hodgkin, and later Hodgkin's family, to his mother (106-164).
169-173: Personal Correspondence: Includes correspondence with Charles M. Fletcher, G. W. Edwards and R. van der Hulst.
174-187: Occasions and Functions: See also E: 'Lectures and Functions'.
188-193: Colleagues
194-202: Photographs
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University of Cambridge material has been arranged as follows:
1-72: Laboratory Funding
73-141: Laboratory Equipment
142-305: Laboratory Staff
306-314: Laboratory 'Research animals'
315-320: 'Laboratory'
321-342: Laboratory: Miscellaneous files
343-349: Trinity College
350-378: Teaching: Papers and correspondence relating to lecture courses in the Department of Physiology. Included are details of course content and organisation, lecture notes (some in Hodgkin's hand), timetables, memoranda to staff, agenda for staff meetings, lecture hand-outs etc.
379-394: School of Biological Sciences
395-435: Miscellaneous Papers: Includes material relating to the Oliver Gatty Fund, H. E. Durham Fund, Ernest Oppenheimer Fund, E. J. Bles Fund, material on the election of professors, and other administrative material.
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Research has been arranged as follows:
1-67: Experimental Notebooks: These notebooks chiefly cover experimental work carried out at the Physiological Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and the Marine Biological Association laboratory, Plymouth, Hodgkin's first summer at the MBA was in 1939 when he worked for the first time with A. F. Huxley on squid nerve fibre. After the interruption of the war years their work resumed at Plymouth in 1947 and was completed by the publication of five papers in 1952. Contents are chiefly tables of experimental results, often with notes on the details of particular experiments, with diagrams and calculations etc. Dates, where found, are sometimes inscribed at the top of a page or on the cover, though some notebooks have no dates. Intercalated pages of notes and graphs are also found. Entries in the hands of others, chiefly A. F. Huxley and B. Katz, frequently found.
68-105: Theoretical and General Notebooks: These notebooks chiefly contain theoretical notes, usually with reference to published work by others, as background to Hodgkin's experimental work. Intercalated notes etc are found.
106-1127: Files for Experimental and Theoretical Work further divided: 106-156: Early research (1935-1939);
157-308: Various topics (1942-1991). A small amount of material relating to Hodgkin's work during World War II is included at C/157.; 308A-1120: Later experiments and theory (1960-1988). Much of this material was found organised in a rough chronological sequence. It chiefly consists of experimental data (manuscript and computer-generated), calculations and theoretical notes. A large proportion of the experiments are on vision; 1122-1127: 'Circuits' (1939-1960). Contents of a box so inscribed. The material appears to be chiefly c 1945 and to relate to Hodgkin's work in designing electrical circuits. It appears to cover some of his later wartime work on airborne radar at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) 1940-1945, and work on the nerve impulse, which he resumed with A. F. Huxley in 1946. It is probable that some of the circuit diagrams represent Hodgkin's preparations for the resumption of the nerve impulse research.
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Drafts and Publications are arranged as follows:
1-437: Drafts: Drafts of papers by or co-authored by Hodgkin, with accompanying manuscript experimental data, calculations, equations etc. Correspondence with co-authors included.
438-463: Editorial Correspondence
464-465: Offprints: Hardback bound volume of offprints of papers, 1937-1950, by or co-authored by Hodgkin. 1 box of loose offprints.
In a number of cases where there was only draft material present in an original file, the details concerning the particular lecture or speech (title, occasion and date) have been provided by inscriptions on the file.
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A chronological sequence of papers relating to Hodgkin's public and academic lectures, and other speeches and addresses delivered at various occasions.
A/174-187: Occasions and functions, 1971-1977.
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Arranged chronologically.
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Societies and Organizations are arranged as follows:
1-7: Cambridge Graduates' Science Club (1938-1960)
8-13: George Henry Lewes Studentship Fund (1968-1983)
14: Gresham's School (1984)
15-25: Leverhulme Research Awards Advisory Committee (1977-1979)
26-103: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (1956-1987)
104-120: Medical Research Council (1960-1978)
121-132: Nuffield Foundation (1962-1968)
133-148: Physiological Society (1951-1979)
149-151: Royal Commission on Medical Evidence (1965-1967)
152-237: Royal Society (1953-1989)
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Correspondence is arranged as follows:
1-24: Scientific Correspondence 1945-1950: A chronological sequence of correspondence with colleagues about research, publications, visits etc.
25-36: Correspondence: Contents of an untitled folder. Chronological sequence of scientific correspondence, complementary to the preceding. Includes correspondence re equipment and supplies.
37-93: Old Letters: Contents of two box folders so inscribed: alphabetical sequence of correspondence with colleagues about research, publications, visits, equipment etc.
94-152: General Files: Contents of box folders so inscribed: alphabetical sequence of correspondence A-K with colleagues about research, publications, visits etc. Files L-Z were not found.
153-158: Miscellaneous
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Non-textual material is arranged as follows:
1-82: Photographic films (1937-1963)
83-104: Photographic slides (1939-1951)
105-118: Photographic prints (1971-1972)
119-121: Out-size material (various dates)