The material in this section is arranged as follows:
A/1-A/4: Obituary notices, 1940-1942
A/5-A/31: Biographical notes, 1909-1958. Within this group, A/23-A/31 comprises correspondence and papers found together. The bulk of this material was originally assembled by Lord Rayleigh whilst writing his biography The Life of Sir J. J. Thomson O.M. sometime master of Trinity College, Cambridge, published in 1942 by Cambridge University Press. There is also a little material added later by the family.
A/32-A/71A: Career, honours, and awards, 1874-1940. This section also includes letters of congratulation to Thomson's mother Emma on his early successes, and letters of condolence to his wife on his death.
A/72-A/103: Certificates, 1900-1937. A number of these awards are also documented at A/32-71.
A/104-A/109: 'J.J. on Education', 1918-1940 (material found together, and thus entitled, by Lord Rayleigh in the course of writing his biography of Thomson). See A/120 for press cuttings re Thomson's interest in Education.
A/110-A/143: Press cuttings, 1888-1956. Arranged in chronological order, and including press cuttings re Thomson's lectures and publications.
A/144: Diary of J. J. Thomson
A/145-152: Financial papers, 1878-1938
A/153-160: Photographs, 1909-1932
A/161-165: Invitations, 1885-1936. Social invitations received by Thomson. See also C/81-C/130
A/166-176: Miscellaneous, 1878-1956
Thomson's association with Trinity College, Cambridge began in 1876, when he arrived as an undergraduate to study Mathematics. After graduation in 1880 Thomson remained in Cambridge and undertook research in physics under Lord Rayleigh. He was made a Fellow of Trinity College in 1880, College lecturer in 1883 and in 1884 was appointed Professor of Experimental Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory. In 1918 Thomson was appointed Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, a position he held until his death in 1940. The material in this section relates entirely to the period of Thomson's Mastership, and is arranged as follows.
C/1-C/80: Correspondence. Received by Thomson on his appointment to the Mastership of Trinity College Cambridge in 1918 (C/1-C/10) and as Master 1918-1939 (C/11-C/80). Most of the correspondence relates to a wide range of College matters including students, Fellows, meetings, lectureships, appointments to Church livings held by the College, gifts and endowments etc., but the material also includes personal and business letters and correspondence and papers for other bodies on which Thomson served, most notably the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. There is a very little posthumous material relating to Thomson's Mastership.
C/81-C/130: Invitations received by the Thomsons, as well as replies to invitations to College social events hosted by the Thomsons between 1918 and 1938.
There are also a small number of Trinity College entrance examination papers and scripts from Dec 1937: C/131-C/137
The material in this section is very slight. It consists of a few research notes, 1899-1920 and n.d., and photographs from the period 1893-1934.
The material is very slight and in consequence does not represent the full extent of Thomson's involvement with British and overseas societies and organisations. The best documented body is the Committee on Science in the Educational System of Great Britain, of which Thomson was Chairman.
F/1-F/32: Principally drafts and correspondence relating to Thomson's public lectures and speeches, 1890-1938. F/27 is a notebook used by E.P. Adams for typescript notes on lectures by Thomson.
F/33-F/64: Publications by Thomson. F/39-F/46 relate to Conductivity of Electricity through Gases (1903); F/51-F/55 relate to Rays of Positive Electricity and their application to Chemical Analysis (1913).
H/1-H/14: Scientific correspondence. H/1-H/6 comprise principal correspondents, in alphabetical order; H/7-H/14 comprise shorter scientific correspondence, in chronological order.
H/15-H/36: General correspondence, mostly arranged in chronological order. H/32-H/35 comprise the contents of a folder inscribed 'Letters to JJ from distinguished people and others'; H/36 is a bundle of telegrams.
The material in this section is arranged as follows:
B/1-B/679: Correspondence and papers, 1836-1952. Family and personal correspondence of Sir J. J. Thomson is at B/1-B/44. At B/45-B/639, the bulk of this section, is the correspondence and papers of Thomson's wife Rose Elizabeth, Lady Thomson (née Paget): most of this is incoming correspondence from family members and friends; there are also notebooks and diaries at B/570-B/594, correspondence from and material relating to societies, organisations, and appeals at B/595-B/635, and miscellaneous material at B/636-B/639.
There is also family and personal correspondence of other family members including their son George Paget Thomson, B/640-656, and daughter Joan Paget Thomson, B/657-B/658. The correspondence between family members is arranged by recipient, thus letters from J. J. Thomson to his wife are to be found in the incoming correspondence of Rose Thomson at B/45-B/53 rather than in the family correspondence of Thomson himself (B/1-B/6).
B/680-B/688: Photographs, 1917-1925
B/689-B/719: Accounts, 1888-1951. This material consists chiefly of Thomson household accounts, which were kept by Lady Thomson, and have been arranged, in chronological order.
B/720-B/731: Miscellaneous, 1918-1944
Includes: a manuscript account of a tour by yacht on the Norfolk Broads, perhaps by Huia Onslow's governess Helen Moodie; several items from Onslow's time at Eton College, such as a printed programme for an Eton College Scientific Society Conversazione, in which Onslow features as demonstrator and lecturer and two copies of another lecture given by Onslow.
There are also pieces of creative work such as a poem, The Story of the Lost Ice Age, written at Eton for a prize, and a draft of a story, The Sobbing Water. Poems appear too with notes on ascents of the Croda del Lago and lists of books about the Dolomites, showing Onslow's interest in mountaineering. Also present are Onslow's translations of poems from Les Amours de I. du Bellay, by Joachim du Bellay, which according to the memoir published by his wife he was thinking of publishing in 1913-1914.
Two items are posthumous: the order for the memorial service for Onslow held at Trinity College, Cambridge in October 1922, and uncut proofs for first chapter of Huia Onslow: a Memoir by his wife Muriel Onslow, published in 1924.
Correspondence mainly relating to research: little on personal matters other than the series of letters relating to Huia Onslow's stay for health reasons at Banchory in 1913 (even this is largely on financial aspects). This series has a number of correspondents; most other letters are either to or from Huia Onslow, though Helen Moodie also appears as a correspondent.
Some single letters and several series: the letters re Banchory; letters between Huia Onslow and J. Donovan arising from Donovan's advertisment looking for 'explanation of Life and Mind in exclusively physical terms', letters between Onslow and various people associated with the Eugenics Education Society; correspondence between Onslow and George MacElwee and between Onslow and Frederick W. Fletcher following on from Onslow's appeal for funds as 'A Struggling Scientist' in an advertisement placed in the Times; correspondence with W. Auton regarding the breeding of rabbits and mice; letters relating to Onslow's role as Secretary of the Soldiers and Sailor's Families Association, London North West District.
Two series of letters were found with associated notes: the correspondence between Onslow and J: Donovan, which was found with various notes on heat; and the correspondence between Onslow and the Eugenics Education Society, found with abstracts of scientific papers compiled by Onslow for the Society. These notes have been kept alongside the correspondence.
Most of the material in this category is in the form of notebooks. Some of these, such as one from the Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge, and the 'Field Book' containing notes on and attempts at field surveying, date from Onslow's time as an undergraduate. Most however record his own investigations into genetics and biochemistry from 1912 onwards. Notable are the three large books in which Onslow's programme of breeding rabbits for colour is recorded, with a page for each individual rabbit and often a stamped image showing markings. There are also notebooks on Onslow's research into pigmentation in insects (butterflies and beetles) and birds.
Amongst the loose notes, there are several relating to Onslow's interest in hypnosis, including observations made during the hypnosis of Louis Chauvin over several sessions by Onslow, William Howard Warman, and Francis Aveling. A fair quantity of material relating to experiments which led to Onslow's paper A Method of estimating the Tryptophan Content of Caseinogen, based on Determinations of the Nitrogen Values of the Mercuric Sulphate Precipitate (published posthumously in 1924) is also present.
Typescript and manuscript drafts; some, such as ONSL/5/5 and ONSL/5/6, of articles which were later published, others seemingly unpublished. Where notes were found alongside drafts (see ONSL/5/7), these have been included in this section; notes which seem connected to drafts but were found separate from them have been indicated in the 'Allied Materials' field.
Offprints of many of Huia Onslow's published works, including some posthumous publications. For a full list of his publications, see Onslow, M. (1924). Huia Onslow : A memoir. London, p 239-242.
A small gathering of textbooks, presumably used by Onslow as an undergraduate.