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A small collection of papers of Sir Arthur George Tansley, mainly related to the formation of organisations, in the period 1918-1921, that aimed to promote pure and applied scientific research. The bulk of the collection consists of papers relating to Tansley's involvement in the Scientific Research Association. The Scientific Research Association's papers include rules, promotional leaflets and circulars, financial material and a relatively large amount of correspondence. A smaller amount of material survives for the National Union of Scientific Workers including rule booklets, membership lists, reports from meetings, agenda and promotional leaflets and circulars. Only a few items are preserved in this collection for the Federation of Technical and Scientific Associations and the Cambridge Research Group. The published articles and reports at AT/5 mainly concern issues related to the funding, support and the general state of scientific research. As a whole the collection reveals many problems faced by those who wished to organise research work after the first world war, such as the problem of rival organisations created to promote research whose aims overlapped, and disagreements over how and whether research could be organised. For example a letter from the Royal Society to the Scientific Research Association commented that 'lines of development' were 'discovered not by councils or committees but by the instinct of individuals, and the less this is trammelled by organization the better' (AT/2/6/1/42). The article 'Research and Organisation' at AT/2/3/15 was written in an attempt to answer such criticisms by arguing that research could be organised. Other issues also surface in the correspondence of the Scientific Research Association. For example one letter opposed support for any scheme founded on government funding as 'government endowment will, in the long run, corrupt Science...' (AT/2/6/2/17). There were also disagreements as to whether emphasis should be laid upon 'the promotion of scientific research' or 'the economic interest' of research workers which seems to have contributed to a division between the National Union of Scientific Workers and the Scientific Research Association (AT/2/4/3).

Correspondence, diaries and other papers of Sir Alfred Charles Glyn Egerton, including some personal papers but largely relating to The Royal Society and particularly to wartime activities and post-war research needs in Britain. The diaries form an almost complete record of Egerton's career during the period 1943-1959. Earlier diaries date back to 1917 and the period 1929-1930, but for the most part they relate to the period 1938-1941.

The papers are extensive, relating to almost every aspect of Blackett's career in science and public life. There is biographical and personal material including large numbers of letters of congratulation received on the occasion of the various scientific and public awards and honours with which Blackett's achievements were recognised. There are records of his work on particle disintegration, cosmic rays, astrophysics and magnetism in the form of laboratory notebooks, working papers, correspondence, lectures, publications and broadcasts. There is documentation of his activities on various defence projects and as a member of government committees before, during and after the Second World War. Blackett's political interests are represented by material relating to the Association of Scientific Workers, Labour Party discussion groups on science and technology policy and the Ministry of Technology instituted after the Party's 1964 electoral victory. There are records of a wide range of science-related interests such as the history of science and technology, science, education and government, and nuclear weapons and disarmament, and of his overseas activities including material relating specifically to India and that concerned with matters more generally affecting developing countries.

A few lacunae in the surviving material have been identified. There are no documents relative to Blackett's service with the National Research and Development Corporation or the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and, of his correspondence during the Second World War, only that for 1942 survives.