Showing 100 results

The papers in this collection are mostly those of J. J. Thomson, his wife Rose, and their children George and Joan. Papers of George's children John and David largely relate to biographies, commemorative events (particularly re the 1997 centenary of the discovery of the electron) and memorials to their father and grandfather, although a few personal papers of theirs are included.

See inventory for more details.

This large collection is uneven in its coverage but papers survive from all phases of Synge's life and career.

Section A, Biographical, is extensive. The personal material includes pocket diaries 1926, 1945-1992. There are records of Synge's childhood in the form of school work, reports and printed material, and of his time as an undergraduate at Trinity College Cambridge, principally his lecture notes and work sheets. Documentation of Synge's later career, honours and awards is patchy but there is material relating to the award of the 1952 Nobel prize for Chemistry to Synge and A.J.P. Martin. There is much family material, including correspondence between his parents during their courtship and after their marriage, and their correspondence with him, including many letters during Synge's time at Old Hall School, Winchester College and Trinity College. Family material also includes correspondence with his wife Ann and his sisters Anthea and Katharine. Synge's political interests are not particularly well documented although there is material relating to the Communist Party in the 1940s, the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1946-1955 and to his later links with the peace movement including Scientists Against Nuclear Arms 1981-1991. The section also includes many photographs.

Section B, Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, is slight. It includes correspondence and papers relating to Synge's appointment including his statement of proposed work, inventories of equipment and chemicals, and miscellaneous administrative material. There are also papers relating to Synge's visit to Tiselius's laboratory at the Fysikalisk-Kemiska Institution in Uppsala, Sweden.

Section C, Rowett Research Institute, presents documentation of Synge's appointment to the Institute, his headship of the Department of Protein and Carbohydrate Chemistry - including research programmes, equipment and staff, the Agricultural Research Council Visiting Groups to the Institute, and administrative material including sets of Institute notices and circulars. There is also material relating to the Institute's Strathcona Club of which Synge was a loyal member, and a little memorabilia.

Section D, Food Research Institute, is not extensive. It includes correspondence and papers relating to Synge's appointment including his plan of research, comments on Lord Rothschild's 1971 Green Paper A Framework for Government Research and Development, administrative papers from the Chemistry Division, and project reports on Synge's research.

Section E, Research, comprises notebooks and research notes. The notebooks document Synge's research from postgraduate studies in the mid 1930s, through work for the Wool Industries Research Association in Leeds - including the invention and development of partition chromatography, the Lister Institute, Rowett Research Institute and Food Research Institute, to post-retirement work in the 1990s on electronic storage of chemical information. The bulk of the notebooks forms a sequence I-XXVII running from 1938 to ca 1979. There are also notebooks used for references from searches of the Science Citation Index and notebooks used by three collaborators, J.C. Wood, M.A. Youngson and S. Matai. The research notes cover the period 1938-1987. They include reports on work on proteins for the Wool Industries Research Association 1938-1943, wartime work on grass protein 1939-1943 and gramicidin S 1944-1946, studies on the nutritive value of by-products of the herring industry 1949-1951, and papers relating to computer searching for chemical information searches 1981.

Section F, Publications, lectures and broadcasts, documents some of Synge's scientific publications 1940-1992, public lectures 1942-1983 and broadcasts 1947-1961. The publications material is not comprehensive. There are relatively few drafts of Synge's biochemistry publications and the best documented work is Synge's 1990 article '25 years of Science Citation Index - some experiences'. There are translations of articles in the Soviet scientific literature on gramicidin S and correspondence and papers relating to the possible translation from the Russian of Mikhail Semenovich Tsvet 1872-1919 by E.M. Senchenkova. There is also editorial correspondence. Lectures material includes documentation of some of the many public and invitation lectures Synge gave to local and university branches of learned societies and professional associations. They include his 1951 Second P.F. Frankland Memorial Lecture, 'Biological aspects of proteins in the light of recent chemical studies' to the Royal Institute of Chemistry and the Institution of Electrical Engineers. Again, there are few drafts, the bulk of the material is correspondence regarding arrangements. The section also includes drafts found in Synge's two folders inscribed `Unpublished etc' including book reviews and drafts on the history of science, and a set of the collected off-prints of Synge's published work. References to Synge's publications in this catalogue refer to the List of Publications at A/1 and appear in the form Bibliog. ...

Section G, Visits, conferences and travel, covers the period 1945-1992. The most extensively documented visit is Synge's extended stay in New Zealand 1958-1959. There is correspondence relating to arrangements, documentation of Synge's research and material relating to other engagements fulfilled during his stay. There is also material relating to the return journey, including travel on the Trans-Siberian railway. Other visits for which significant documentation survives are the 1955 International Wool Textile Research Conference in Australia, the International Symposium on the Origins of the Earth, Moscow, USSR, 1957, Synge's visits to India as a guest of the Indian Statistical Institute in 1965, 1966 and 1970, and his visit to Cuba in May 1969. There is also material relating to Synge's award of the Nobel Prize. He attended gatherings of Nobel laureates at Lindau, West Germany on several occasions and returned to Stockholm for other Nobel-related events. Synge often took his family on his visits and this is sometimes reflected in the material.

Section H, Societies and organisations, documents Synge's involvement with 24 UK and overseas organisations from ca 1936 to 1993. There is material relating to the Agricultural Research Council, principally the Ruminant Metabolism Group 1949-1953 and N.W. Pirie's proposals for research on the extraction of leaf protein 1951-1953. Also well-documented is the Association of Scientific Workers 1938-1966. Synge was an enthusiastic supporter of the Association and served as a Vice-President from 1954. Other bodies for which there is significant material are the Biochemical Society - Synge served on the Editorial Board of the Biochemical Journal 1949-1955, the British Nutrition Foundation - Synge was a scientific governor of the Foundation 1974-1979, the Royal Society, and the Royal Society of Chemistry - particularly relating to its Chemical Information Group, 1984-1987.

Section J, Correspondence, is substantial and important. There is a main sequence of principal correspondents including A.C. Chibnall, S.R. Elsden, Hugh Gordon, Dorothy Hodgkin, J.H. Humphrey, H.R. Marston, A.J.P. Martin, Stanford Moore, N.W. Pirie, P.L. Robinson, F. Sanger and Arne Tiselius. There is also a chronological sequence of shorter scientific correspondence, requests for off-prints, and references and recommendations.

The archive contains little scientific material as by far the greater part of Thomson's scientific papers are deposited in Cambridge University Library. Material is arranged as follows:
Section A - Personal material and correspondence;
Section B - Notes and drafts for publication;
Section C - Scientific correspondence;
Section D - Accounts and biographies of Thomson;
Section E - Published works.

Class O is the repository of the Gale collection of manuscripts, donated to the library in 1738 by Roger Gale, the son of Dr Thomas Gale. This collection was described in 1902 by M. R. James in the preface to volume III of his catalogue of Western manuscripts in Trinity College Library which may be viewed online at https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/manuscripts/uv/view.php?n=vol.3#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-338%2C0%2C5011%2C3341. A searchable version of the James catalogue may be found online at https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/.

The manuscripts listed in this catalogue were placed in Class O in the Wren Library on shelves not otherwise occupied by the Gale collection. They consist of a mix of single items and small archival entities, with materials which form a part of larger collections housed elsewhere. It should be noted that there are gaps in the numbering scheme of items on the shelves, and that the cataloguing of these materials is a work in progress.

Class R is the Wren Library repository of manuscripts for all those works which could not be classed as theological. As a consequence, the class is a miscellaneous assortment representing many fields, particularly history, poetry, philosophy, law, natural science, medicine, and music. The contents of Class R were described in 1901 by M. R. James in the preface to volume II of his catalogue of Western manuscripts in Trinity College Library, which may be viewed online: https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/manuscripts/uv/view.php?n=vol.2#?c=0. A searchable version of the James catalogue may be found online: https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/

The manuscripts listed in this catalogue are those modern manuscripts in R with strong connections to materials housed elsewhere in the library, particularly in Additional Manuscripts. Where James did not provide a description in his catalogue, a description has been provided. Where the James catalogue entry is detailed, a pointer record has been created in this catalogue to highlight the entry in the James catalogue. It should be noted that there are gaps in the numbering scheme of items on the shelves, and that the cataloguing of these materials is a work in progress.

The papers include personal and professional correspondence; photographs; cuttings of articles and reviews, both by Babington Smith and on her own life and works; texts of talks and addresses given; and poetry. There is a great deal of material relating to her biographies of Amy Johnson, John Masefield, Iulia de Beausobre (Lady Namier), and Margery Blackie. Particularly notable is the material relating to her cousin Rose Macaulay; Babington Smith edited three volumes of Macaulay's letters, as well as writing a biography of her, and the collection includes photographs and other Macaulay family papers. Also well-represented is Babington Smith's interest in Greek Orthodox Christianity, with correspondence, research and religious papers.

See the attached inventory for further details.

Jeans' papers include: school reports and juvenilia; diaries; personal and family correspondence; scrapbooks and albums; portrait photographs; and legal and financial material. There are notebooks containing scientific work; lectures; accounts and correspondence relating to publications; printed proofs; astronomical photographs; and scientific correspondence.

There is also material relating to Jeans' sister Gertrude, his first wife Charly (née Mitchell), daughter Olivia, and second wife Susi (née Hock).

The collection is particularly noteworthy for its coverage of Adams's lectures, research and incoming correspondence.
Section A, Biographical, is not substantial. It includes a little material of Adams's relating to his own career including three Bedford School notebooks and his PhD thesis, and material assembled by I M James during the preparation of his Royal Society memoir.
Section B, Research, provides extensive documentation of Adams's research from the 1950s until his death. It is presented in an alphabetical sequence arranged by subject title.
Section C, Lectures, is the largest in the collection. Two subsections comprise Adams's lecture notes and other teaching material for courses given at Manchester and Cambridge, and material from conferences and seminars attended by Adams throughout the world including drafts of Adams's contributions and notes of contributions by others. A third subsection consists of Adams's ms notes found in filing cabinet drawers labelled 'Other people's lectures'. It includes notes taken by Adams as an undergraduate at Cambridge in 1949.
Section D, Publications, is very slight. It includes drafts of a few of Adams's scientific papers.
Section E, Correspondence, contains virtually no extended exchanges of correspondence as very few copies of Adams's own letters survive. There is, however, significant correspondence from colleagues such as M F (later Sir Michael) Atiyah, M G Barratt, P J Hilton, I M James and S MacLane, sometimes extending over a period of twenty or thirty years.

The collection comprises letters, mainly to Dawson Turner from members of his family (A1–MM1), an engraving (NN1), a poem (OO1), three albums of ‘Etchings and Autographs’ (PP1–3), and notes and illustrative material made or collected by A. N. L. Munby (QQ1–4).

The correspondence in files A1–OO1 consists mainly of personal letters to Dawson Turner from his family and a few friends. Besides a wealth of domestic detail, the letters from Mary Turner and her children contain vivid accounts of their travels in Britain and abroad, including a stay in Rouen shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Harriet Gunn’s impressions of Belgium (including the site of the Battle of Waterloo) in the 1840s, and a trouble-ridden tour in Germany and Switzerland by Dawson W. Turner. A letter from F. T. Palgrave from Paris in the spring of 1848 gives a fascinating picture of life there during the early days of the Second Republic.

Dawson Turner’s family lived variously in Yarmouth and rural Norfolk, Glasgow, London, and Oxford. Their letters describe personalities and events as well as the localities themselves, and contain observations on such disparate subjects as Queen Victoria’s coronation procession and Charles Macintosh’s newly-invented rubberised raincoats. Art and architecture are carefully documented. There are detailed accounts of private collections and exhibitions of pictures at the Royal Academy and elsewhere, besides the Norfolk church screens and wall-paintings—some of which are now lost—recorded and illustrated by Harriet Gunn. The artists Thomas Phillips and John Sell Cotman were known personally to the Turners and figure in some of their activities.

The only significant body of correspondence not connected with the family is a sequence of some ninety letters written by Turner’s friend and business partner Hudson Gurney (KK1–4). Gurney’s regular commentaries on local businesses and the state of the national economy are counterbalanced by discussions on books, manuscripts, and antiquities, his forays into Norfolk, and his abiding love of London life—the preoccupations of an urbane man who once reported that he had snapped a tendon dancing with 'smart girls’.

The albums of ‘Etchings and Autographs’ (PP1–3) contain prints, cuttings, correspondence, and other manuscript material. Several of the letters are represented by copies in the main correspondence sequence, with notes by Turner showing that the originals belonged at one time to his extensive collection of autographs (these are not at Trinity). The correspondents are, in the main, Turner’s academic acquaintances and minor public figures. Their letters range in content from brief formal messages to discourses on natural history, publications, business, and local affairs. Not all are addressed to Dawson Turner—a good many are to the Palgraves—and some were not written during his lifetime.

The archive includes diaries 1952-59, records of self-analysis 1939-59, correspondence 1925-1980s, student notes of G E Moore's lectures 1923-24, academic papers (many fragmentary) ?1920s-1980s

Personal and family papers 1916-80, official papers 1905-81, correspondence 1911-83, miscellaneous notes 1923-63, notes for lectures 1927-31 and 1941-43, publications 1920-73, diaries 1927-81, bibliographical notes

The archive contains school and University papers 1871-1905, diaries 1881-94, Education Department and Treasury papers 1883-93. Papers relating to India 1891-1904, the Natal finance 1899-1900, the Ottoman public debt 1893-09, the General Post office 1903-09, the National Bank of Turkey 1903-17, the Royal Commission on the Civil Service 1912-15, wartime finance and trade 1915-21, the Indian Exchange and Currency Committee 1914-20 and the Railways Amalgamation Tribunal 1921-23. Correspondence 1873-1923. Papers of Lady Elisabeth Mary Babington Smith 1894-1935. Bruce family correspondence 1861-1938.

This collection does not contain a great quantity of personal material: there is no correspondence with family and friends, for example; there is however a manuscript account of a tour by yacht on the Norfolk Broads in 1903, perhaps by Huia Onslow's governess Helen Moodie as well as creative work by Huia Onslow, such as poetry and a short story, and his translations of poems from Joachim du Bellay's Amours. There is also a group of letters relating to Onslow's stay for health reasons at Banchory, Scotland, in 1913, mainly concerning the choice of house and payment of rent. Financial and legal material includes correspondence between Onslow and his solicitors regarding duties payable on the death of his father William, 4th Earl of Onslow, in 1911, statements of rent received from properties in London account books (including a record of laboratory expenses, 1918-1922), and an inventory and valuation of furniture at Onslow's house made after his death.

Despite the lack of personal correspondence, the papers include a large number of letters. Significant groups include: Onslow's correspondence with J. Donovan, sparked by Donovan's advert in the Athenaeum magazine asking for a physicist to provide him with help on 'an original line of inquiry bearing on the explanation of Life and Mind in exclusively physical terms'; correspondence with various members connected to the Eugenics Education Society (1914-1920) relating to Onslow's work for them; and letters relating to Onslow's work as secretary for the Anaesthetics Emergency Fund of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association (1915-1916), particularly over-seeing contributions from New Zealand.

Correspondence relating to Onslow's own work includes: letters to and from George MacElwee and Frederick Fletcher in response to Onslow's advertisement in the Times as 'A Struggling Scientist' seeking funds for his research (1914-1915); letters between Onslow, William Auton, and Helen Moodie regarding the breeding of rabbits and mice (1914-1915), as well as letters from H. W. Blake, Mabel Illingworth, and W. S. Singleton on the same subject. There is however no correspondence with Sydney Cole (except for a 1914 bill from Cole for private tution), Muriel Wheldale or other scientists.

Onslow's scientific research is well represented in the form of notes: most of the material in this category is in the form of notebooks recording record his investigations into genetics and biochemistry from 1912 onwards, such as three large books on Onslow's programme of breeding rabbits for colour, and books concering his research into pigmentation in insects (butterflies and beetles) and birds. Also present is a fair quantity of loose material on experiments relating to trytophan, probably the work which led to his (posthumously published) paper on the subject. Onslow's interest in hypnosis is also reflected in his loose notes, which include observations from a series of hypnosis sessions in 1912.

There are also drafts of several of Onslow's articles, some later published, others seemingly unpublished, and offprints of the majority of his published articles. Finally, there are a few textbooks, presumably used by Onslow as an undergraduate.

Most of the items included in this category are letters, and most are connected with the publications into which they are inserted.

The collection consists mainly of letters and papers received by Montagu in the course of his political career, along with typescript copies of his replies. There are substantial series of correspondence with Curzon, Churchill, Asquith, Lloyd George, Chelmsford, Hardinge, Indian notables and India Office officials. The papers principally reflect Montagu's great interest in India, but there is also material on wartime reconstruction, Ireland, Egypt, and Turkey, as well as interesting personal accounts of the fall of the Asquith government in December 1916 and the Paris Peace Conference.

There are also more than five hundred original letters from Montagu to his mother, Lady Swaythling, from 1885 to 1918.

The papers primarily consist of mathematical notes on differential geometry, and are accompanied by a small group of printed pamphlets and correspondence.

The papers relate mostly to his writings, notably A New Introduction to Bibliography and From Writer to Reader, though his shorter writings and bibliography are also represented, as are his photographs, including those exhibited in the Wren Library as part of the "Figures" exhibition with David Inshaw.

Manuscript and typescript drafts of articles, lectures, correspondence and presscuttings

Writings, printed material, and miscellaneous material relating to both editions of F. W. Aston's 'Isotopes' and both editions of the later revision, 'Mass-spectra and Isotopes'.

The writings include an incomplete[?] draft of the first edition of 'Isotopes' written in Aston's hand [ASTN 1], some pages written on the verso of minutes of the British Association for the Advancement of Science [ca 1920-1923], with related notes and including a postcard from Hugh Frank Newall dated Dec. 193[?] about a reference found in [Antonius] van den Broek [ASTN 1/104]; other drafts are a combination of typescript and printed material with emendations in Aston's hand and that of a typesetter, some of it written on C. P. Snow's letterhead., with original material for the plates and figures [ASTN 2, 4, 7, 8].

Accompanied by printed copies of 'Isotopes' which contain some edits and have been cut up for use in the revision [ASTN 3, 6], and a typescript letter from F. P. Dunn of Edward Arnold Publishers dated Nov. 1923 sending unbound copies of 'Isotopes' for his use [ASTN 5]. Also accompanied by offprints of other works, also with emendations and cut sections [ASTN 9], and a letter from F. A. Towle of the Royal Society in July 1927 returning figures for his Bakerian Lecture [ASTN 10].

The papers contain faculty and special lectures, academic correspondence, scientific notebooks, letters and papers as Master of Trinity and President of the Royal Society, papers relating to the Natural Sciences Club, papers relating to the Cambridge Post-Expressionist exhibition and the diaries of Hester Adrian.

The additional manuscript series are artificial groups containing manuscripts from various sources. Most of the contents are single items or small groups, but they include some fairly large personal archives, either arranged in sequence or scattered in various places. See the overview of the collections (https://archives.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php/overview).

The additional manuscript series are artificial groups containing manuscripts from various sources. Most of the contents are single items or small groups, but they include some fairly large personal archives, either arranged in sequence or scattered in various places. See the overview of the collections (https://archives.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php/overview).

Most, if not all of Batchelor’s papers were left in his rooms at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and transferred after his death to Trinity College Library by Professor Keith Moffatt. His surviving papers reflect his wide professional interests. Section H contains manuscripts and working materials for many of his publications. Section I contains notes on various aspects of his subject which he produced throughout his career, many of which are dated. Section K contains texts of conference and special lecture that he gave (faculty lectures are to be found in section D9). Papers relating to his work at DAMTP are in section D and his copious scientific correspondence in section F

The papers consist of correspondence, research notes, writings, documents, publications, photographs, glass slides, films, and audiotapes documenting all stages of Otto Robert Frisch's life, and include Frisch's collection of the papers of his aunt, the physicist Lise Meitner. The 70 boxes of material are organised into seven series: Biographical and personal papers; Scientific research; Lectures and publications; Radio, television, films; Visits and conferences; Correspondence; and Non-print material.

Series A, Biographical and personal papers, is particularly full, incorporating material relating not only to Frisch's own career and interests including music (A.86-90) and sketching (A.84, 233-249), but also to Frisch’s extended family. These have historical interest as an example of the diaspora of the Thirties, and in the case of Lise Meitner a more specific scientific interest complementing other material deposited elsewhere. Lise Meitner's papers appear primarily in this series (A.134-211), and consist of correspondence, most of which is with Frisch and her younger brother Walter, as well as drafts of lectures, photographs, and miscellaneous papers. Several of her letters appear elsewhere in the collection (C.55, D.55, and F.15) and she is the subject of letters and articles throughout. Series F contains photocopies of letters written to her from Otto Hahn in December 1938 (F.52) and Series G includes photographs of her as well as an undated audiotape of a conversation between Frisch and Meitner (G.31).

Series B, Scientific research, includes notebooks, laboratory notes and calculations, publication drafts and correspondence. It presents a full record for the periods of work at Hamburg and Copenhagen, but the wartime work on the atomic bomb project is under-represented due to the security restrictions placed on the work. B.209-220 are documents relating to nuclear fission in the first half of 1939: correspondence between Frisch in Copenhagen and his aunt Lise Meitner in Sweden, correspondence between Frisch and Niels Bohr at Princeton, two drafts of Bohr's paper on the disintegration of heavy nuclei and correspondence between Frisch and Nature. The series also contains Frisch’s original eyewitness account of the Trinity Test (B.135), and a letter from Louis, identified as Louis Slotin by Sir Rudolf Peierls, written a month before Slotin's fatal accident (B.136A). Also present is an item added later by the Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre which provided the original cataloguing of the collection, a photocopy of the official report on Frisch's work at Los Alamos drawn up in August 1946 (A.58A). For the later period, the paucity of material relating to the Cavendish Laboratory reflects Frisch's lack of interest in administrative and committee work and his preference for relatively small-scale experimental projects such as his scanning device, and the various constructions and gadgets which he continued to devise for his Laser Scan company to the end of his life.

Series C, Lectures and publications, and D, Radio, television, films illustrate Frisch's expository skills in the written and the spoken word; he was greatly in demand as a lecturer, and the broadcasting services made regular calls on his multi-lingual gifts. There are drafts, correspondence, and printed material related to Frisch's lectures and publications, and drafts of scripts, correspondence, contracts and receipts related to Frisch's work in radio, television, and film.

Series E, Visits and conferences, varies in content from brief notices or programmes to substantial folders including correspondence on scientific matters, arrangements for lectures, publications, and travel, as well as visits to friends. It should be noted that many of the important meetings of the Thirties were held at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Copenhagen where he worked. E.64-76 contains material relating to the commemoration meeting for Bohr held at Copenhagen in 1963. The material in Section G, Non-print materials, provides a supplementary photographic record of meetings and conferences.

The correspondence in Series F dates mainly postdates 1947 and Frisch's establishment in Cambridge. Very little survives for 1943-1947 due to security restrictions at Los Alamos. Incoming scientific correspondence for the earlier period 1930-1943 is less well documented and was usually kept by Frisch with relevant research notes. Incoming personal letters for those years appear mainly in the 'Family correspondence and papers' in Series A. During the Thirties, Frisch kept copies of his outgoing letters in chronological folders where correspondence of all kinds and in several languages is juxtaposed. In a letter to Margaret Hope of 14 September 1936, Frisch explains 'I like to keep a duplicate of all my letters, it is like a diary for me'. This material remains in its original order, at B.39-42, B.73-81.

Series G, Non-print material, consists of photographs, film, glass plate slides, photographic slides, and audiotapes. The photographs include those by his aunt and noted photographer Lotte Meitner-Graf (G.10, 12, 18). The film includes those taken at Copenhagen and the Bohr’s holiday home Tisvilde in 1937 (G.21), and at post-war conferences (G.22). The glass plate slides were created to accompany lectures (G.23-28). There is also an audio recording of an undated conversation between Lise Meitner and Frisch (G.31).

Frisch was fluent in German, Danish, and English, and read other languages, and so the collection is multi-lingual as well. He continued to use Danish and German for lectures, speeches or correspondence to the end of his life; English became his language of choice for writing. Another feature of the collection is evidence of Frisch’s gift for sketching, particularly of caricatures of colleagues; there are some specific samples of his drawings, but others are scattered throughout the collection, on letters, conference programmes, and menus. Shortly before his death in 1979 Frisch published his autobiography What little I remember (Cambridge University Press), giving an informal account of his life mainly up to 1947. This has been drawn upon as a basis for dating material, and catalogue entries cite references in the book. The memoir by R.E. Peierls for the Royal Society of London, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (27, 1981) has been drawn upon and referred to in the catalogue as well.

The papers consist of correspondence, diaries, subject files, writings, other Whewell papers, family papers, and later papers of others. The family papers include those originally gathered by Whewell's first wife Cordelia (née Marshall) and his second wife Lady Affleck (née Ellis). The papers of Lady Affleck's brother and Whewell's friend Robert Leslie Ellis now form a subset of this collection.

These papers comprise letters to Dawson Turner, mainly from members of his family, letters to Hudson Gurney from Sir Francis Palgrave and Dawson Turner, letters to Palgrave from Gurney, and a few other miscellaneous items.