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Papers and correspondence, 1846-1974, of David Meredith Seares Watson and his family, largely comprising biographical material and family papers, scientific correspondence, and photographs, also including a few Exchequer receipts, 1568-1622.

Biographical material, 1886-1974, includes Watson's birth certificate, 1886; documentation, including certificates and correspondence, of Watson's career, honours and awards over a period of forty years, including election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, 1922, the award of its Darwin medal, 1942, and the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society, 1965; correspondence about the Directorship of the British Museum (Natural History), 1937; correspondence about the presentation album on his retirement from the Jodrell Chair, 1951; correspondence and papers relating to his final retirement from research, 1965; obituaries, 1973; F R Parrington and T S Westoll's memoir of Watson from Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1974; an account of Watson's early days and family background by his daughter Janet Vida; recollections by his research assistant Joyce Townsend; Watson's curriculum vita and bibliography.

Family papers include the birth certificate of Watson's father, David, 1846, correspondence with his wife Mary, 1888, and a letter of condolence to Mrs Watson on her husband's death, 1899; diaries of Mary Watson, 1881, 1885; birth certificate of their daughter Constance, 1888, letters from Constance to her brother David Meredith Seares Watson, 1905-1909 and undated; papers relating to Katharine Margarite Watson (née Parker), Watson's wife, including her birth certificate, 1891, marriage certificate, 1917, death certificate, 1969, and various correspondence; papers relating to Watson's daughter Katharine Mary, including letters of congratulation on her birth, 1918, and letters to her parents, 1950, 1955; material relating to Watson's mother's family, including letters of her father Samuel M Seares, 1871, 1879-1882; papers of Charles J B Hutchinson, 1879-1880, who emigrated to Australia after his engagement to Watson's mother was broken off but who remained in correspondence with her aunt, Fanny Rossiter; other Parker family papers, 1929-1972; miscellaneous other personal correspondence, 1896-1965.

Four Exchequer receipts dated 1568, 1580, 1616 and 1622 were found enclosed with a letter to Watson's wife.

Scientific correspondence of Watson, sometimes including photographs of fossil specimens, with leading palaeontologists in Africa, 1947-1953, America, 1915-1964, Australia, 1931-1962, China, 1926-1927, 1935-1964, England, 1913-1914, 1920, 1926-1960, France, 1930-1936, 1945-1956, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, 1920-1962, Russia, 1920-1962, and Scandinavia, 1922-1964, and with the palaeontologist Robert Broom, 1911-1950, and Watson's research assistant Joyce Townshend, 1929-1973, also including a few letters from Watson's wife and scientific colleagues, and an obituary of Watson, 1974; correspondence and papers on bones found at Qau, Egypt, 1930-1957, 1972; miscellaneous other palaeontological correspondence, 1912-1967. There are few copies of Watson's outgoing letters before the end of the Second World War.

Photographic material comprises photographs documenting Watson's career, [1912]-1965 and undated, some including colleagues; photographs of scientific colleagues, 1911-1951 and undated, including Watson's predecessor as Professor at University College London, J P Hill, and Robert Broom; album of photographs and signatures presented to Watson, 1951; undated family photographs, including a photograph of Watson as a boy, photographs of members of the Seares and Parker families, and photographs of Watson's wife, Katharine Margarite, and daughter, Katharine Mary; photographs of unidentified fossil specimens.

Royal Society Darwin Medal Award given to Watson, 1942.

The collection contains correspondence, diaries, travel journals, accounts, library catalogues and commonplace books of the Kenrick, Reid, Rogers and Sharpe families, which all help to complete the picture of the four related families. The correspondence covers many topics and is especially interesting on three counts: first, for the many letters from eminent men and women; second, for the range and depth of discussion and exchange of ideas on literary, artistic, religious and philosophical matters; and third, for the day-to-day letters written between parent and child over several generations, which provide a detailed account of family life during the period.

Collection comprises correspondence with Philip Hammersley Leathes, manuscript papers, diaries, devotionals, dictionaries and pedigree rolls, title deeds and indentures, printed books and pamphlets, catalogues and the manuscripts of the architect, John Carter, [1350-1863]. Notably including correspondence from George Nayler of the College of Arms and Nicholas Carlisle, Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, relating to publications of the Society, discoveries of antique brass plate, and the exchange of manuscripts between antiquaries, [1790-1838]; loose manuscript papers collected by Leathes, describing ornamentation in early printed devotionals, a fictional narrative entitled 'The amorous Jill: A tale', narrative of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, notes relating to the observation of comets, including the comet of 1811, copies of charters of the reigns of Edward IV and Henry VII, papers relating to the Portland Vase, British Museum, fragments describing inscription on newly discovered brass plate, 1747-1829; pedigree rolls tracing the lineage of the English Crown, [1450, 1762]; manuscript volumes including collection of biblical extracts, liturgical handbook, autograph book with colour illustrations, antiquarian ephemera such as funeral memorials, armorials and the creation of nobles, volume by Francis Harrison entitled, 'The elements of navigation' with colour charts, tables and illustrations, dictionaries of Celtic and Saxon words, notes on the teaching of mathematics, commonplace book drawing on ancient and modern authors, manuscript diary including progress of architectural tour of Europe; title deeds and indentures for families in Nottingham, Southampton, London and Hungerford, residency certificates in Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, 1650-1751; printed books and pamphlets on the subjects of antiquarianism, genealogy and architecture, 1778-1853; manuscripts of John Carter, architect, acquired at his death in 1817 by his executor, Leathes, notably including autobiographical notebooks by Carter describing architectural subjects and tours, commonplace book, correspondence with Leathes, loose notes on linguistics and the ships of the Russia Company, obituaries of Carter and sale catalogue from his estate, 1700-1818; manuscript catalogues and display captions relating to the Leathes' papers, King's College London, 1819, 1837.

Halford's papers, c.1767-1843, include notebooks containing medical extracts and observations, which include prescriptions, in the format of commonplace books, including prescription by Halford's father, James Vaughan, 1767, 1767-1801; Clinical reports, 1783-86, and lecture notes made whilst a student in Edinburgh, 1785-89; Case notes with prescriptions, from practicing in Leicester, 1787-91; Fee books, 1791-1808, annual cash-books with fees and receipts, 1796-1839 (incomplete, missing 1814, 1831), and cheque-book stubs, 1805-09; Prescription books, including one kept whilst practicing in Scarborough, 1792, 1802-03; Halford's copies of Jacobii Hollerii Stempani in Aphorismos Hippocratis commentarii septem... (printed, 1675) with annotations in his hand, and the Middlesex Hospital Pharmacopoeia, c.1790s; Monthly note-books containing daily appointments and total fees per month, 1802-43; Papers and speeches given at the College, including lectures on medical subjects, the Harveian Oration, 1800, and oration made at the opening of the new building, 1825, 1800-35. There is also a copy of Moore's Almanack for 1812, a postcard of hotel in Copenhagen, 18th century, and journal belonging to Jean Gaspard Lavater, 1787, found with Halford's papers.

The collection is mostly comprised of diaries written by Florence Turtle between 1917 and 1980. The first three diaries (1917-1919) contain generally brief and sporadic entries. There are then no diaries for the years 1920-1928. From 1929 onwards the diaries contain more detailed entries. There are no diaries for the years 1944, 1946, 1948-1949, 1952-1954, 1962, 1964-1965, or 1967-1970. Florence writes in her diaries about her relationships with family and friends, her living situation, work life, social life, holidays, and local, national and international current events, and records her thoughts and feelings on various matters. Many of the diaries contain additional notes, clarifications and corrections made by Florence in the 1970s. Some of the diaries contain photographs, and also pencil illustrations by Florence. The collection also contains one volume in which Florence reviews the books she reads throughout 1936, and a volume entitled 'Book of Ideas', in which Florence has written quotations from various sources, and also glued newspaper cuttings. The remaining items in the collection are a set of photographs of Florence's family and friends, and a framed certificate of election to the Buyers Association of Great Britain.

Manuscript items of John Flaxman, comprising his journal, kept by him in Naples in 1788, consisting of manuscript text and drawings; and a commonplace book containing manuscript notes on sculpture and art and some pencil and ink sketches.

The majority of the collection is made up of journals kept by Buckle during the years 1866-1870, during which he travelled to South America, South Africa and Australia (there are also periods during which he was stationed at Portsmouth). There are some lacunae in the sequence of diaries. There is also one autograph album kept by Buckle relating partly to his own affairs (his application to become House Surgeon at the West Norfolk and Lynn Hospital, 1863-1864) but also including older material predating his birth.

Although Barlow is best known for his original researches on infantile scurvy, there is very little material relating to that subject in the collection. There are manuscript drafts of his address to the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh and his Bradshaw Lecture on infantile scurvy (BAR/E1-2), but the bulk of the clinical and scientific component of the papers relates to other matters, particularly Raynaud's disease and erythromelalgia, diseases to which Barlow turned his attention later in his career.

Among Barlow's clinical papers is a notebook recording minutes of a 'Clinical Club', 1875-77 (BAR/D.2), whose members included, apart from Barlow himself, Sidney Coupland, Rickman Godlee, William Smith Greenfield, Robert Parker, and William Allen Sturge.

Most of Barlow's private patients' records have not survived, though there is an index to his private patients' books, covering the years 1876-1918 (BAR/F.1).

Scientific and clinical matters are also discussed in Barlow's correspondence, but again this is relatively thin for the period when he was active in research. Barlow's non-family correspondence has clearly been heavily weeded: there are few letters from patients, with the exception of some prominent individuals, such as Mary Curzon, wife of Lord Curzon, Randall Davidson, archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Salisbury and Lord Selborne, and in general it seems that while letters from important or well-known figures have survived those from individuals deemed less important have been discarded. Significant numbers of letters remain however from several of Barlow's regular correspondents, such as the poet, Robert Bridges, Lord Bryce, and William Page Roberts, dean of Salisbury, as well as medical figures like Sir William Jenner and Sir James Reid.

Barlow's personal papers and family correspondence have survived in bulk and form a rich source of material for both his private and family life, and his public career. There are travel journals and sketchbooks from his earlier years, mainly documenting visits to the Continent, 1869-83; correspondence with his parents, brother, wife and children, 1852-1940, including letters written by Barlow from Balmoral, where he served as royal physician intermittently between 1897 and 1899, an eye-witness account of the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 (BAR/B.2/4), and letters and telegrams from court in 1902 during the crisis of Edward VII's appendectomy; and commonplace and scrapbooks compiled in retirement, 1920-37. Also from this period are various temperance notes and addresses.

The archive also comprises letters and papers of Barlow's parents, 1842-87; of Barlow's wife, Ada, including letters from her brother and sisters in India, 1858-80, and to her daughter Helen studying in Darmstadt, Germany, 1905-6; of Barlow's sons, Alan, Thomas and Basil, including letters from the last-named while serving on the Western Front, 1916-17; and notably of his daughter Helen, including correspondence with Archbishop and Mrs (later Lady) Davidson, 1910-35, and letters from Sir John Rose Bradford and his wife while serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps in France, 1914-19. Helen Barlow's papers also include records of three charities with which she was associated: the University College Hospital Ladies Association, 1900-50, the Southwark Boys Aid Association, 1914-36, and the Quinn Square [Southwark] Social Centre Society, c. 1935-1951. Finally there is a handful of letters to Andrew Barlow, Sir Thomas's grandson, mainly relating to articles he wrote about his grandfather, 1955-81.