The correspondence, papers and diaries of Sir Charles Blagden. Blagden's papers are interesting on several levels, generally for his close contact with European men of learning, and his relationship with Sir Joseph Banks. Blagden's professional researches are represented by medical notes in the boxed sequence. These are grouped with papers on other subject interests, including linguistics, e.g. a draft Tahitian-English dictionary, compiled from conversations with Omai, whom Blagden inoculated after Omai's voyage to England with James Cook. Blagden's interest in antiquities and travel is documented by diary entries, as is his intercourse with fellow scientists, particularly those associated with the founding of the Royal Institution.

Papers and correspondence, 1856-1968 (predominantly 1925-1966), of Sir (Gordon) Roy Cameron, comprising notebooks of lecture courses, 1925-1926, given by Cameron at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne; matriculation certificate at University of Freiburg im Breslau, 1927; other biographical and personal material, including printed matter and photographs; 14 letters and cards from Ludwig Aschoff, 1928-1937; scientific and personal correspondence, 1959-1965, with Professor Hou Pao-Chang, Cameron's collaborator on various scientific publications; correspondence on Linacre Lectures given by Cameron, 1964; research notebooks, annotated offprints and other working papers, 1961 and undated, and related correspondence, 1951, 1957-1958, 1961, the subjects including the liver, pulmonary oedema, and the spleen; notes and drafts for invitation lectures and articles, 1962-1966; draft report of the College of Pathologists to the Royal Commission on Medical Education, 1966; obituaries of Cameron and related correspondence with his friends and colleagues, 1966, 1968; material assembled for Cameron's proposed history of pathology, which he did not live to complete, including obituaries, notes and correspondence, 1965-1966, on Ludwig Aschoff, papers and correspondence, 1954-1965, on Julius Cohnheim, papers on Rudolf Virchow, including three letters of Virchow, 1891-1894, and other letters collected by Cameron, among them a letter from W L Begley to William Jenner to accompany a specimen sent to Jenner and William Sharpey, 1856, letters from Jenner to Thomas Barlow, 1891, and from Barlow to Cameron, 1935, concerning the specimen, four letters of R A Kolliker, 1862, three letters from Walter Pagel, 1954, 1961, and a letter from Peyton Rous, 1959.

The second accession comprises further papers of and relating to Cameron, 1917-1968, including various professional and personal certificates, 1917-1966, among them copies of Cameron's birth certificate, various medical registration certificates, and the certificate of his cremation; various photographs, 1920-1962 and undated, some unlabelled, including family photographs, holiday photographs, and formal occasions; correspondence between Cameron and Professor Cyril L Oakley, 1945-1965, on scientific, professional, personal and social matters; typescripts, 1951-1952, for an unpublished book by Cameron on immunology; two official letters to Cameron concerning his knighthood, 1957; Cameron's personal diaries, 1961-1963, including a trip to Italy and a trip to Australia and around the world; proofs of Cameron's Who's Who entries; press cuttings, 1954-1966, including various obituaries of Cameron, 1966; offprints of Cameron's obituaries from the Journal of Clinical Pathology, vol xx (1967), and Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol xiv (1968), and typescript of obituary from The Lancet, 10 Oct 1966; photostat of typescript address at Cameron's memorial service and printed order of service, 1966; letters of condolence on Cameron's death, 1966; miscellaneous printed and typescript material, including articles on scientific subjects and on the history of medicine by Cameron, and obituaries by Cameron of other scientists; various obituaries of scientists other than Cameron, including an offprint of Oakley's obituary of Alexander Thomas Glenny for Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol xii (1966), related correspondence, 1966, and other papers on Glenny including photographs and a typescript bibliography.

Records, [1820s]-1984, of the Chadwick Trust. Administrative papers comprise legal papers setting up the Trust, 1890-1896; minute books, 1895-1983; annual reports, 1962-1978; lists of securities, 1914-1917; corrected booklet The Chadwick Trust, 1926-1937; script of a proposed film treatment of Sir Edwin Chadwick, 1958; signing-in book for meetings, 1972-1980. Financial papers comprise account books, 1958-1979; tax claims, 1972-1976; financial files, 1972-1980; correspondence on tax reclaimed, 1980. Papers on lectures given under the auspices of the Trust comprise announcements of lectures, 1913-1935; printed copies of lectures held under the Trust's auspices, 1930-1967, the subjects including public health and buildings, sewerage, nutrition, disease, air quality, training and public health, medical provision, and public health work overseas; other printed lectures and writings, 1896-1932, the subjects including aspects of sanitation, disease, and Sir Edwin Chadwick. Correspondence comprises general correspondence, 1913-1924, 1971-1982; correspondence of the Clerk of the Trust, 1969-1979; correspondence of G M Binnie, 1944-1980; Charity Commission correspondence, 1962-1978; correspondence relating to medals and a memorial prize, 1966-1978; Trustees, 1969-1977; receptions, meetings and lectures, 1970-1978; blue plaque, 1972-1976; costing of activities, 1974; annual reports, 1974-1979; transfer of the Trust to University College London, 1974-1984. Miscellaneous items pertaining to Edwin Chadwick, [1820s]-1889, include his diary [1820s] and patents of his inventions, 1871-1872. Other acquired papers comprise printed ephemera including circulars against inoculation [1914-1918] and undated printed extracts from a hymn on sanitation. Photographs include undated prints of Edwin Chadwick and other eminent scientists; undated slides for a lecture, including various 19th-century public figures, 19th- and 20th-century mortality rates, and various London hospitals; and photographs, 1980, of a plaque to Chadwick at his birthplace in Longsight, Greater Manchester.

The vast majority of the material relates to Dent's research and clinical interests and falls into four main categories: correspondence files; files created around the publication of papers; lecture notes and symposium papers; and case/research notes. There are also smaller quantities dealing with other aspects of his career, such as the administration of UCH Metabolic Ward. The papers thus reflect most of Dent's scientific and clinical interests. This research is mainly represented by the abstracted documentation which he kept with drafts of his published papers (see section E.1) and also by correspondence about cases and clinical case notes (see section C.5). To a lesser degree they also illustrate the work at the laboratory bench which underpinned much of this research. For example, a file of unidentified paper chromatograms has been preserved (C.2/10) to illustrate one of Dent's methods of working, as described by his colleague, Heathcote, and quoted in the Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1978: 'Paper chromatograms were not to be thrown away. They were filed and, since the colours faded, the outline of each spot was drawn in and the intensity of the colour was indicated by a number.' The way in which Dent compiled a large series of files around drafts of scientific papers also illustrates the importance of the published paper to him as a stage in the research process. An incomplete collection of reprints of Dent's published papers may be found in section E.2 of the collection.

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.

This exceptionally interesting collection consists of the archives of a London business family, the Howards, and their relations by marriage, the Eliots. The family were based in London, with homes in the City and various places round about, but they also had property and connections in several other parts of England.

The chief interest of the collection is in its quality as the personal record of a group of prosperous manufacturing and merchant families who were members of the Society of Friends. The Eliots were merchants and their account books, which cover both business and private expenses, together with letters and memoranda, reflect a picture of "City" life in the Eighteenth century. They attended the Change, Lloyd's and Child's and Jonathan's and other Coffee Houses, and dealt with a variety of business including trade overseas in cotton and duck cloth and Cornish tin and invested in "a voyage to Lima" and other merchant shipping ventures (including that of the Tuscany, unfortunately "Taken by the French and carried into Marseilles" in 1757). (See especially numbers 905, 928, 929, 944, etc.).

There is interesting material relating to John Eliot's estates supplemented by John Eliot's letters (e.g. Numbers 988-1011), which also mention a "good season" for pilchards, the decline of the docks at Topsham, the appropriation by the Government of some sugar pans near Exeter to use for French prisoners, etc. John's sister Mariabella also purchased in 1765 Pickhurst Farm, Hayes, Kent (Nos. 376-475).

There are amongst this collection a few letters and papers of later Howards, including an interesting pocket diary in which Samuel Lloyd Howard, grandson of Luke, jotted (unfortunately rather roughly in pencil) memoranda and sketches of impressions of his visit to America in 1854 (No. 1618). At sea his ship rescued the crew of the Hannay of Whitehaven, loaded with salt and flying a distress signal-"lay to and took all off, boy, baggage, chronometer, barometers and all".

At all periods the family kept in close touch with their relations in all parts of the country, including the Hows of Aspley, Bedfordshire, the Paces of Westmorland and London, the Leathams of Yorkshire as well as with fellow Quakers. This gives the collection a national rather than a local interest-indeed the family were not primarily associated with any one locality.

A curious document amongst the collection is a receipt dated 1824 for 8. 15s from R. Smith for freeing Hamma Fie, slave to Bentoo Demba, and signed with the mark of Madeba, Alcaide of "Birkow" (No. 1617/p.12). The Society of Friends Committee for African Instruction supported some missions, and Richard Smith, a friend of Luke Howard, was in Africa in the 1820's.

Quaker marriage certificates, of which there are several examples (eg. Nos. 117, 565, 1273, 1274, etc) give full details of both parties and are signed by members of the Meeting as witnesses. Birth certificates (e.g., Nos. 1275-1286, 1390-1393) give the date of birth and name, and were signed by witnesses to the baby's birth. The Society of Friends was in advance of both the State and established Church in respect of such documentation.

Four diaries of Bernard Hunt, 1896-1899, giving an account of his experiences in Peru as a mining engineer; extracts from the diaries by his son, Philip B Hunt, 1986.

Papers of Professor John Stodart Kennedy, 1915-1993, comprising biographical and autobiographical papers, 1915-1992, including Kennedy's autobiographical notes, family and personal papers, diaries;
papers relating to research, 1939-1992, documenting most stages of his scientific career from the 1930s, including wartime service; his periods at Cambridge, Imperial College and Oxford, categorised alphabetically by topic including aphids, behaviour/behaviourism, ethology, locusts, mosquitoes and motivation; photographs and observations in Albania, 1939; drafts and exchanges of ideas for his book of 1992;
papers and correspondence relating to Imperial College, 1963-1987; papers relating to lectures, papers and broadcasts, 1935-1987; publications, 1939-1992; societies and organisations, 1937-1991, including the Anti-Locust Research Centre; scientific and general correspondence, 1937-1992, with friends and colleagues such as Donald Livingston Gunn, Vincent Brian Wigglesworth, many overseas correspondents including scientific exchanges; papers relating to references and recommendations, 1954-1991, including correspondence with editors, authors and publishing houses; photographs, 1942-1985, notably of the work of the Middle East Anti-Locust Unit, 1942-1944, wind-tunnels, group photographs of meetings and symposia.

Papers, c1914-1989, of Dame Kathleen Lonsdale.

Biographical material includes correspondence and papers relating to imprisonment in Holloway Prison, with Lonsdale's own accounts of her time there; diaries and personal notebooks, 1946-1969; letters of congratulation on election as Fellow of the Royal Society (1945); various photographs dating from school to her later years.

Papers relating to Lonsdale's teaching and administrative work at University College London include papers on teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses; significant documentation relating to laboratory personnel, research funding and general university administration; papers relating to the 'Round Table on Peace Studies', which proposed the establishment of a centre for research into international conflict at the University.

Research material, 1924-1970, consists of Royal Institution papers comprising notebooks, one dating from Lonsdale's first period there (1923-1927), correspondence with colleagues such as W H Bragg and J M Robertson, and Lonsdale's notes and drafts for various research topics; correspondence and papers from her University College years covering many different areas of research, including diffuse scattering of X-rays, thermal vibrations in crystals, methonium compounds and urinary calculi (the latter topic particularly well documented and including several case studies), and including a large group of photographs, mostly of X-ray diffraction patterns.

Papers on the preparation of volumes of the International Tables for crystal structure determination from Lonsdale's chairmanship of the Commission on Tables (1948) comprise drafts, notes and correspondence with colleagues and publishers.

Extensive papers relating to publications, lectures and broadcasts include drafts of articles, on subjects including peace and religious issues, also including obituaries and biographical articles on various individuals, books, book reviews, obituaries, and letters to newspapers and magazines, the latter principally on the issue of atomic weapons; general correspondence concerning publications; drafts of lectures, 1945-1970, including ethics and the role of science in society; a large series of lecture notes, 1933-1970; scripts for broadcasts, on topics ranging from crystallography to religion, 1945-1967.

Papers on foreign and domestic travel, 1943-1971, relating to conferences and lectures, on crystallography, science ethics, and work for the Society of Friends, including her visit to China (1955) and her world tour (1965).

Papers relating to organisations, notably the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) and the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr), including material relating to a number of International Congresses of Crystallography, also papers relating to participation in Pugwash Conferences on World Affairs, 1958-1970, and papers concerning prison reform and the running of Bullwood Hall Borstal, Essex.

Correspondence, 1927-1974, comprises two main sequences, one arranged alphabetically, the other chronologically; 'day files', principally carbons of outgoing correspondence, 1966-1969; a sequence of references and recommendations; also including correspondence relating to Lonsdale's period of imprisonment (1943). Correspondents include scientists such as Max Born, W H Bragg, W L Bragg, E G Cox, Dorothy Hodgkin, Judith Milledge, L C Pauling and A J C Wilson.

Papers of Hugh Robert Mill including manuscript and printed papers relating to Antarctic whaling expeditions; collection of approximately 200 letters to Mill from officers of the Royal Geographical Society chiefly concerning the affairs of the RGS, 1847-1944; collection of approximately 800 letters to Mill from geographers, travellers cartographers and others, 1833-1944; 'Daily Doings', two volumes, 1861-1919 and 1920-1945, which briefly record the events of each day, contain lists of Mill's published works and the appointments he held, and are indexed by personal and place names.

Biographical material includes the draft of Mourant's autobiography, Blood and Stones published after his death in 1995, together with the correspondence and papers Mourant assembled while writing it. There is also documentation of Mourant's education at Victoria College Jersey and at Exeter College Oxford. The latter includes notes on lectures 1922 - ca 1926. Documentation of Mourant's career, honours and awards is patchy, although there is material relating to his search for employment in the early 1930s. There are pocket diaries spanning 1915-1982, with a fairly continuous sequence 1922-1961. Biographical material also includes extensive family and personal correspondence, much of which dates from or relates to the German occupation of Jersey or shortly thereafter. Mourant's other documented interests include his membership of the Methodist Church and his political affiliations, the League of Nations Union in particular.

There is a little material relating to Mourant's early career with the Geological Survey 1929-1931, miscellaneous material relating to Mourant's service with the MRC's Blood Group Reference Laboratory at the Lister Institute and the Nuffield (later Anthropological) Blood Group Centre at the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, and more extensive but uneven coverage of the Serological Population Genetics Laboratory. Although there is some documentation of the foundation of the Laboratory 1964-1965 and of its staff, the surviving material consists chiefly of correspondence and papers relating to Mourant's largely successful efforts to find continued funding for the Laboratory 1969-1977. Haematological research material, though not extensive, covers Mourant's work in a number of areas from research on blood serum in the mid-1940s to the mapping of blood groups in the 1960s and 1970s. There are early research notes, correspondence and papers relating to student and other expeditions undertaking blood group and physical anthropology research and some MRC material assembled by Mourant relating to projects in which he had an interest. The largest group of research papers, however, is maps and data produced during preparation of the second edition of The Distribution of the Human Blood Groups. There is a chronological sequence of drafts and correspondence relating to Mourant's publications, 1929-1991, with extensive material relating to editions of The Distribution of the Human Blood Groups and to The Genetics of the Jews (1978). There is also editorial correspondence relating to publishers and journals, chiefly invitations to review books or referee papers and an incomplete set of offprints. There is correspondence and papers relating to some of Mourant's lectures and broadcasts, most notably the lectures on blood groups given at the Collège de France, Toulouse, 1978-1979. Societies and organisations material is not extensive, and is confined to brief documentation of only a few of the societies and organisations with which Mourant was associated. It includes professional and geological bodies as well as haematological, biological and medical organisations. Visits and conferences material covers the period 1960-1987. It is not comprehensive, though there is also considerable documentation of Mourant's visits and conferences in the papers he assembled in the course of preparing his biography and with lectures material. Mourant's correspondence is extensive. Its complexity reflects Mourant's organisation of the material, the bulk of which was found in three main series: 'Foreign 1965-1977', 'Biological' and 'Geological', together with a fragment of a fourth series 'Home 1965-1977'. Principal correspondents include C.C. Blackwell, B. Bonné, O.J. Brendemoen, V.A. Clarke, L.L. Cavalli-Sforza, A. W. Eriksson, T.J. Greenwalt, J.K. Moor-Jankowski, T. Jenkins, W.S. Pollitzer, D.F. Roberts, J. Ruffié, D. Tills and J.S. Weiner.

Papers of Sir Richard Owen, [1831-1873], comprising papers relating to his scientific research and as Curator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Papers largely relating to Owens' research and publications, including work on specimens of the Hunterian Museum and other institutions, namely original illustrations for plates published in his works and proof sheets; notes of dissections performed at the Zoological Society; report of preparations in comparative anatomy from animals which have died at the Zoological Gardens, 1831; report on the dugong received by the Zoological Society, 1831; paper on metamorphosis of insects; notes and sketch on python and boa; papers relating to a variety of subjects, including temporal mastoid-mammals; viscera and muscles of the myrmecophaga jubata (anteater); distinction of an animal from a vegetable; animal kingdom; order ophidia; serpents from British Fossil Reptiles, [c1850s]; list of 'Mr Cumming's Mollusca'; notes on birds closest in structure to mammalia; classified list of D Bennet esq's specimens of natural history, [1836]; notes on the hyoid, with sketches on the salamander; illustrations of cetacea; notes on the fore-foot, megatherium (giant sloth); loose notes on generation; notes on homologies; plates and notes on histology of animals; description of a malformed foetal heart; notes on composition of vertebral segments; notes on the dermo-skeleton, operculum and of a lecture on digestion; notes on belemites; memoranda on various subjects, including harpa ventricosa and Ehrenberg's classification with letters from naturalists; description of the skeleton of an extinct gigantic sloth, [c1842], and megatherium; report of preparations in comparative anatomy from animals which have died at the Zoological Gardens; report on the dugong received by the Zoological Society, 1831; notes on the giraffe, 1837; notes and sketches on a dugong, 1838; notes on the incubation and development of the chick; notes and plates on odontography, 1844; printed papers on Dinornis maximus (moa), with annotations by Owen, 1848-1851; memoir of William Clift, [c1850]; report on the dissection of the chimpanzee, 1844; notes taken at the Garden of Plants, Paris, 1847;

papers largely relating to the administration of the museum collection, namely lists of specimens, additions to the collection from other collections and reports to the Board of Curators of the Museum, including list of Hunterian documents handed by Owen to the Museum Committee; list of duplicate specimens in the College; selection from the collection of M Verraux; report to the Board of Curators, 1833; report on the present state of the museum, 1833; list of second selection of specimens from Mr Langstaff's collection, 1835; list of preparations in spirit presented by F D Bennett, 1836; donations from the Army Medical Departments; donations since July [1843]; report on duties of officers and servants of the Museum, 1852; plans for additional museum space, 1831; report to the Board of Curators on the Museum of Comparative Anatomy in the Garden of Plants, Paris, 1831; observations on the state of the College Museum, 1833; general account of specimens of comparative anatomy and natural history presented to the Museum by George Bennett, 1834; list of specimens proposed to be transferred to the British Museum and specimens of osteology proposed in place of the transfers, 1833-1834; report to the Committee on the chimpanzee, and copies of related correspondence, 1840; report on the physiological catalogue, 1840; list of duplicate preparations from the museum of Sir Astley Cooper not desirable for the College Museum, 1843; list of specimens selected for the College from Dr Buckland's series of bones of dinornis, 1844; report on additional space required for the collection, 1845; list of osteological specimens purchased at Steven's Auction Room, 1847; list of donations from Sir Thomas W Wilson, 1852;

papers relating to catalogues of the Hunterian Museum, including sketches and notes for an osteological catalogue, [?1840s]; notes and classifications referring to specimens in the Museum, [1827-1856]; Catalogue of Hunterian Osteological specimens, [?1853]; notes made whilst producing the catalogue of comparative anatomy, ?1831; printed histological catalogue of the Museum, with annotations, 1850; papers prepared for publication of descriptive catalogue of the fossil organic remains of invertebrata in the museum, 1856;

papers relating to the Hunterian lectures delivered by Owen at the College, including museum lectures on the animal kingdom, (Owen's first course of Museum lectures) c1837; notes for lectures delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, 1830s-1850s; memorandum concerning Museum lectures, 1823-1833; lecture on the comparative anatomy and physiology of the vertebrate animals, 1844; notes, plates and drawings relating to mammalia and Owen's lecture, 1844;

notes taken by William W Cooper on lectures on comparative anatomy delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1838-1839, revised and corrected by Owen; notes on lectures on comparative anatomy delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1837, in Clift's hand; notes taken by T E Bryant on Owen's lectures on comparative anatomy, 1839; notes taken by Frederick Hoare Colt on lectures on physiology and morbid anatomy by Owen, 1845; Lady Owen's common-place book, [c1835-1873].

Papers of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay, 1812-1933, comprising notebooks and diaries, 1841-1882, recording both professional and personal details, including geological observations and drawings from field work in Britain, the Rhine, Canada, Switzerland, North Africa, France; sketches of landscapes, details of personal and official expenses, principally for travelling and accommodation; verses; inserted copies of correspondence; notices of deaths;
rough notes for lectures at the Royal School of Mines, Royal Institution, [1850-1880]; miscellaneous notes and printed papers, 1840-1889, principally relating to his book on Arran, 1841; appointment to University College London, 1847-1849; articles by Ramsay in the 'Saturday Review', 1858-1873; Bedfordshire palaeontology; examination papers, 1858-1875, for various institutions including the Geological Survey and Royal School of Mines, London University and University College, Cambridge University; sketch books and drawings of scenery, geological sections, portraits, [1840-1880]; miscellaneous printed papers, 1836-1892, notably papers relating to the Metropolitan Red Lion Association, 1836-1854; obituary notices for Ramsay, 1892;
family correspondence, 1812-1933, comprising letters of family members, including Ramsay's parents, wife, and daughters; correspondence with Sir Henry de la Beche, 1841-1854; general correspondence, 1833-1895, comprising letters from various correspondents, including Charles Robert Darwin, 1846-1864, Edward Forbes, 1844-1854, the Geological Survey, 1844-1876, Thomas Henry Huxley, 1854-1855, Joseph Beete Jukes, 1846-1867, Charles Kingsley, 1864, Sir Charles Lyell, 1841-1872, Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1848-1869, John Phillips, 1842-1867, Lyon Playfair, 1837-1854, Adam Sedgwick, [1865], Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn, 1846-1881, James Sharpe, 1840-1851, Sir Warrington Wilkinson Smyth, [1840-1890], Joshua Trimmer, [1840-1857], Anna Maria Williams, 1842-1852.

Papers collected by the antiquary George Scott. As well as catalogues of Scott's library (and many printed books) the collection includes George Scott's financial accounts; extracts from forest laws; abstracts of Treasury accounts; register of Queen Elizabeth I's out-letters; orders relating to the Cinque Ports; and a book of prescriptions. Also a diary of scientist Robert Hooke, 1671-1683. Please note this diary is available only with advance notice and at the discretion of the Assistant Director (Heritage).

Letters, diaries, drafts of published works, papers and photographs, 1917-1980, of William Gawan Sewell, relating largely to his time in China. Material on the West China Union University includes histories, brochures, detailed descriptions, plans and photographs.

Typescript copy, 1991, by Elizabeth Mardel of journal (1891) of William Walmsley, chronicling his journey to Zanzibar, everyday events, his impressions of customs and life in Zanzibar, including slavery, and his illness. The diary stops a few days before Walmsley's death.

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.