The collection centres on Wallich's work on biology, particularly marine biology, and his belief that other figures in the field were ignoring or plagiarising his discoveries. As well as his notes, it includes a collection of offprints by Wallich (MS.4969) and a collection of offprints by other scientists, with Wallich's comments (MS.4970).

Papers of Richard Routley Adams Richards including diary on board HMS CHALLENGER, 1872-1876, Atlantic, Antarctic and Pacific oceans: seven volumes, illustrated with sketches; photographs including photographs taken during the voyage of the HMS CHALLENGER, notably Marion Island, Kerguelen Islands and Antarctic sea; four diaries, 1892-1894, Riviera and Carlsbad; and cartoons by Sub Lt Channer.

MSS.3356-3382 comprise journals and memorandum books documenting the various phases of McCormick's career, as follows: MS.3356, sketchbook relating to West Indies and South America voyages, 1824-1825; MS.3357, journal of voyage north of Spitsbergen in the Hecla, 1827; MS.3358, notes of lectures on natural philosophy by Robert Jameson (1774-1854) at Edinburgh University, 1830-1831; MS.3359, diary of voyages to West Indies and South America, 1830-1832; MS.3360, half-pay diaries (7 volumes), 1830-1838; MS.3361, diaries covering 1823-1830, fair copy; MS.3362, sketch book covering voyages in North Sea and West Indies, 1832-1833; MS.3363, diary covering blockade of Dutch coast and voyage to West Indies, 1832-1834; MS.3364, diary of a walking tour in Devon (apparently part of a longer journey of which the other journal volumes are not extant), 1834-1835; MS.3365, diary while fitting out the Antarctic expedition of the Erebus, 1839; MSS.3366-3368, diaries written during the Erebus Antarctic expedition (15 volumes), 1839-1843; MSS.3369-3370, meteorological and ornithological logs respectively of the Erebus Antarctic expedition, 1839-1843; MS.3371, half-pay diaries (4 volumes), 1843-1845; MS.3372, memorandum book on Arctic discovery, chiefly compiled during the voyage of the North Star as part of the search for Sir John Franklin, 1848-1852; MS.3373, diary while fitting out the North Star as part of the search for Sir John Franklin, 1852; MSS.3374-3380, diaries written during the voyage of the North Star as part of the search for Sir John Franklin, 1852-1853; MSS.3381-3382, meteorological tables and sketches respectively, made during the voyage of the North Star as part of the search for Sir John Franklin, 1852-1853. MS.8682 comprises loose miscellaneous material, chiefly printed, relating to various phases of McCormick's career: evolving versions of his Narrative of a Boat-Expedition up the Wellington Channel in the Year 1852 (London: Eyre and Spotteswoode, 1854), plus testimonials, printed items by other authors including the Arctic traveller Dr. Richard King, publisher's advertisements and newspapers.

MSS.3259-3285 comprise chiefly scientific material; they include student notebooks on zoology, botany and geology (MSS.3259-3280); scientific logs from the British Antarctic Expedition (MSS.3281-3283), specifically a biological log (MSS.3281-3282) and a log of whales sighted (MS.3283), both spanning 1910-1913; an address delivered in 1913 to the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association on Mendel's principle of heredity (MS.3284); and some notes on fish and fishing (MS.3285). MSS.5252-5254 comprise more personal and more miscellaneous material. MS.5252 is a scrapbook kept by Lillie, containing news cuttings, photographs and miscellaneous papers, spanning the period c.1845-1910 and including cuttings (with portrait prints) on science and scientists, 1845-1901; caricatures by Lillie of lecturers and staff at Birmingham University, 1904-1905; geological photographs, 1907-1909; family photographs (including a group class portrait at United Services' College, Westward Ho!, c.1892); and ephemera from Cambridge, 1909-1910. MS.5253 comprises cuttings from newspapers and illustrated magazines, spanning 1910-1914 and mainly relating to Robert Falcon Scott's British Antarctic Expedition. Finally MS.5254 comprises correspondence and very miscellaneous papers from the period 1824-1938 (plus some undated material) among them letters to his grandfather John Lillie D.D. (1806-1866), and to his maternal relatives the Macaire family, and letters to Lillie from E.A.N. Arber, Caroline Oates and others.

Papers of Thomas Henry Huxley, 1839-1931, comprising scientific and general correspondence, 1846-1911; Huxley family letters, 1842-1931; personal papers, 1839-1891; working papers, 1846-1900, largely comprising notes, drawings, lectures and unfinished essays, relating to anthropology and ethnology, 1866-1890, biology, 1846-1900, including voyage of HMS RATTLESNAKE, 1846-1850, education, 1861-1893, geology and palaeontology, 1854-1891, philosophy and ethics, 1871-[1893], theology and biblical criticism, [1859-1895]; papers of the Fisheries Commissions and Scottish Fishery Board, 1858-1864; appointment diaries, 1857-1894; drawings, [1849-1872]; caricatures and cartoons, [1852-1883]; photographs and engravings, [1846-1890]; posthumous papers, [1895-1925];

scientific papers, 1846-1898, comprising notebooks made whilst with HMS RATTLESNAKE, 1846-1850; scientific notebooks, containing drawings, notes, correspondence and lectures, [1855-1888], principally relating to zoology and largely organised by zoological classification; drawings, [1847-1895], many relating to the notebooks;

correspondence between Huxley and Henrietta Anne Heathorn, 1847-1854.

Scientific papers of T H Huxley, 1846-1898, comprising notebooks made whilst Assistant Surgeon to HMS RATTLESNAKE, 1846-1850, containing his observations, sketches of specimens, notably oceanic hydrozoa, mollusca and crustacea, related notes;

scientific notebooks, papers and correspondence, [1855-1888], relating to botany and principally zoology, bound in volumes largely according to zoological classification, including invertebrata, crustacea, vertebrata, teleostei, amphibia, reptilia, aves, mammalia, carnivora, primates, anthropology, mycological, bacteria, hirudinea, mollusca, petromyzon, ganoidei, sturiones, dipnoi, teleostei, salmonidae, insectivora, rodentia, lepus, canidae, fossil fishes, dinosauria, ethnology, origins of biology, gentiana; correspondence concerning deep sea soundings, 1857; syllabus and notes for lectures, [1860-1886], for the Government (later Royal) School of Mines, Royal Institution, working men, London Institution, University of Edinburgh, notably on natural history, zoology, ethnology, elementary geography, physiography; correspondence, 1851-1894; notebooks, [1847-1884], concerning visits to Switzerland, Tenby, Italy, notes on anatomy and vertebrae;

drawings, [1847-1895] many illustrating laboratory work, and relating to observations in his notebooks, relating to protozoa and botany; coelenterata, brachiostomata, echinodermata, mollusca; vermes and arthropoda with peripatus; pisces with tunicata and amphioxus; mammalia; anthropological photographs, [1868-1898].

Papers of Thomas Henry Huxley, 1839-1931, comprising scientific and general correspondence, 1846-1911, notably from Alexander Emanuel Agassiz, 1874-1895; Matthew Arnold, [1870]-1880; William George Armstrong, 1874-1900; Charles Robert Darwin, [1851]-1882; Anton Dohrn, 1867-1900; John Fretchfield Dykes Donnelly, 1870-1897; Frederick Daniel Dyster, [1854-1892]; Michael Foster, 1865-1902; Edward Frankland, 1857-1895; Ernst Haeckel, 1862-[1907]; Albany Hancock, 1852-1870; Joseph Dalton Hooker, [1853]-[1900]; James Hunt, 1866-1868; Benjamin Jowett, [1870]-1893; Charles Kingsley, 1859-1871; James Thomas Knowles, 1871-1908; Edwin Ray Lankester, [1872]-[1907]; Joseph Norman Lockyer, [1863]-1894; Charles Lyell, 1853-1873; John Morley, 1867-1892; Herbert Spencer, 1852-1900; John Tyndall, 1851-1894; Edward Perceval Wright, 1860-1874; supplementary letters, 1842-1931, principally Huxley family letters, 1842-1886; letters to Mrs Huxley and Dr Leonard Huxley, 1868-1931; letters by T H Huxley, principally drafts or copies, 1850-1895; copies of correspondence of Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1856-1897;
personal papers, 1839-1891, comprising miscellaneous papers, 1839-1911, including sketches and bills; diplomas and appointments, 1850-1893;
papers relating to anthropology and ethnology, 1866-1890, including lecture course on ethnology; papers relating to biology, 1846-1900, including notes and drawings relating to published papers on marine invertebrates, zoological papers sent to the Royal and Linnean Societies from HMS RATTLESNAKE; papers relating to lectures and essays, Darwin's works; papers relating to education, 1861-1893, concerning scientific and technical education, reform of the University of London, press cuttings; papers of the Fisheries Commissions and Scottish Fishery Board, 1858-1864; reports, notes, drawings and lectures relating to geology and palaeontology, 1854-1891; papers relating to philosophy and ethics, 1871-[1893], including material for a history of philosophy and human thought; theology and biblical criticism, [1859-1895] principally notes and unfinished essays; papers relating to the British Museum, sociology and politics, spiritulism, [1858-1894]; notebooks,1846-1894, some containing drawings, relating to philosophy, lectures at the Royal Institution, London Institution, Royal College of Surgeons, biology, zoology, publications, religion; appointment diaries, 1857-1894;
drawings, [1849-1872], mainly of landscapes and some specimens; caricatures and cartoons, [1852-1883];
photographs and engravings, [1846-1890], mainly of people and houses; posthumous papers, [1895-1925], including obituaries and reminiscences.

Papers of Sir John Franklin, 1801-1847, chiefly relating to the ill-fated Franklin Expedition in search of the North-West Passage on HM Ships Erebus and Terror, 1845-1847, and the subsequent expeditions sent to search for survivors or relics of the expedition. Also, some earlier letters from Franklin mainly to relatives and letters from relatives to or about him. Some items relating to the bicentenary of Franklin's birth celebrated in 1986.

Six personal letters of Belcher, 1864-1865 with some reference to Arctic matters. Record deposited at Arthur Strait in 1853 and recovered by Sverdrup expedition 1899-1902. Table of latitudes from west coast of America and Pacific determined on board HMS Sulfur, 1837-1842. Geographical subject headings: 1) ARCTIC 2) CANADA 3) UNITED STATES 4) PACIFIC OCEAN.

Seven bound journals of Andrew F Balfour with enclosures including three journals covering Balfour's service on the HMS Challenger scientific expedition; one journal describing his command of the gunboat HMS Stork off east Africa (1889-1891); and three journals describing his command of HMS Penguin on a Pacific survey (1893-1896). Loose papers and newspaper cuttings are enclosed with the journals.

Papers of Sir George Back, 1814-1878, including c. 250 letters addressed to Sir George Back by various correspondents (listed by name), 1848-1878; personal letters from Back to his family, 1813-1878; photocopies of extracts from Back's sketchbook and slides of his sketches from 1819-1822 expedition to Arctic; passports and framed letter with sketches of polar bear, 1874.