Oxford Medical Society

The Oxford Medical Society was formed in 1892. The minutes of their first meeting, held on 14^th Oct. 1892, state that ‘the objects of the Society be the discussion of subjects relating to the Science and Practice of Medicine & Surgery’.  All members of the medical profession working in Oxford were eligible to become members, and students were allowed to attend meetings as associates. The success of the society over the years lay in its combination of practitioners and researchers, and its inclusion of both ‘town and gown’.

Sir Henry Acland was invited to be the first president and accepted with the caveat that his advanced age had slowed him down somewhat, ‘I shall if selected feel it a pleasure to do my best and feel it a duty to accept the kind honor. But I am in my 78^th year – and tho’ more deeply interested than ever in the wonderful progress of Medicine in every direction, I cannot feel the power to keep pace with that advance, do what I will’.

Letter from H.W. Acland, Oct. 1892

In fact Acland resigned his position after a few months in objection to the practice of smoking at meetings: a lone voice in the medical profession at the time.

The records of the Oxford Medical Society have been on deposit at the Bodleian since 1959. A recent deposit by the Secretary, Dr. Alex Gatherer, has brought the collection up to date, and it now covers all papers from the Society’s inception in 1892, to its merger with the Oxford Medical Alumni in 2005. The catalogue is available online.

Margaret Thatcher and Dorothy Hodgkin

The papers of Dorothy Hodgkin held at the Bodleian Library reveal a remarkable relationship between two women at the top of their fields: a Nobel prize winning scientist and a British Prime Minister, whose divergent political views (Hodgkin was a lifelong communist sympathiser) never stood in the way of frank dialogue and mutual admiration.

Margaret Roberts read Chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, 1943-1947, choosing to do her Part II Chemistry under Hodgkin, who had just achieved scientific recognition for her discovery of the structure of penicillin. Under Hodgkin’s supervision, Roberts carried out x-ray crystallographic analysis of Gramicidin S, an antibiotic peptide. Hodgkin recalls, ‘She came up to Somerville just before the end of the war and chose to do her Part II Chemistry with me. I must say I was very pleased with her’, only regretting that the young student did not have ‘the pleasure and experience of actually solving a structure’. In fact the structure of Gramicidin S was to prove elusive for many years.

Margaret Roberts’s career as a chemist was short-lived but her political rise was extraordinary. A draft letter in the archive from Hodgkin to Thatcher, congratulates her on becoming Prime Minister, ‘Yours is a very remarkable achievement, to be the first woman prime minister of this country and also the first scientist. You have wonderful opportunities.’ Although the letter continues rather cryptically, ‘I keep on so hoping that good may come of it but also so fearing quite otherwise.’ Perhaps this was due to their very different political views. Hodgkin was a pacifist, a socialist and an admirer of communism. She travelled widely, engaging with the international crystallographic community and she had friends across the Cold War divide. She was devoted to the peaceful resolution of conflicts and to nuclear disarmament, and actively promoted dialogue between East and West.

During the 1980s there was a cordial and well-informed correspondence between the two women, as she sought to persuade the Prime Minister of the necessity of banning chemical weapons and encouraged her to believe that the Soviets were close to an agreement on the international verification of chemical disarmament.



Manuscript note by Hodgkin, 'Notes for Margaret: Object - to rethink relations with the Soviet Union on the basis that friendship is possible & would be to everyone's advantage - trade - science - art - the lot'



In a letter to Tony Epstein, Hodgkin confessed, ‘I find myself worried about her – she got stuck with these Tory principles when young but she can occasionally be persuaded that different courses should be adopted’. She seems to have been vindicated by Thatcher’s declaration that Gorbachev was a man she could do business with, and by the Prime Minister’s visit to Moscow in 1987. Afterwards Hodgkin wrote, ‘Long ago I meant to write to say how glad I was about your progress in Moscow, especially with Gorbachev. I knew the scientists would enjoy your coming and only hoped you would like them too.’ In return, Thatcher sent her old tutor, six colour photographs of her meetings with the Russian scientists in Moscow.

Margaret Thatcher with Russian scientists in Moscow, 1987.

Hodgkin was delighted with the thaw in relations but took the opportunity to press Thatcher on another subject close to her heart - the cuts to student numbers and the reduction of the student grant, 'I do feel your talks with Gorbachev have totally changed the East-West confrontation and you could now drop modernization of nuclear weapons and spend the money & the scientists brains on the environment - and education - especially welcoming good young teachers and providing finance for students.' An earlier response by Thatcher on the issue, shows how cordial their relationship was.



Letter from Thatcher to Hodgkin, 1983, 'I do so much value your advice and guidance'.



It's a tribute to the personalities of these two remarkable women that they were able to maintain a lifelong friendship across such an enormous personal, political divide. The papers are available for consulation in the Bodleian Library's Special Collections Reading Room. 

Women In Science - London Metropolitan Archives Conference

The Saving Oxford Medicine project team have been acquiring, preserving and cataloguing the archives of Oxford-based scientists such as Lady Julia Bodmer, Edith Bülbring, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ida Mann and Mary Somerville. Naturally we were excited to attend the Women in Science event hosted by London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) on 8 March 2013. This event explored the lives and varied contributions of women to scientific progress. And what better day to celebrate pioneering women in science than on International Women's Day! The event also proved a great complement to the recent global Wikipedia Editathon we attended during Open Access Week in Oxford. This was held to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day and the many, often overlooked contributions made by female scientists.

Dorothy Hodgkin

Howard Benge and Jan Pimblett from the LMA kicked off the day and introduced us to some of the work they have been carrying out to identify science-related material within the millions of documents held in the Archive.

We then started to think about the kinds of scientific work women have been involved in historically, and how we can uncover their work. Importantly, as Howard suggested, there is still a prevailing attitude that women shun the study of science, which makes determining the impact of female scientists problematic (we should also remember that institutions like the Royal Society closed their doors to women as Fellows until 1945, and as such makes female scientists harder to unearth). A thread running through the day with other speakers was that to discover the contributions of female scientists, we must broaden our conceptual net. For example, rather than focusing on 'pure science' as such, we should embrace the application of science in society. For instance, the LMA holds collections that relate to food science (not generally regarded as a science per se until modern times), such as freezing and crystallisation, and the Lyons collection illsutrates the development of techniques relating to ice cream.

With this wider framework of applied science in mind, Rebekah Higgitt, Curator and historian of science at Royal Observatory Greenwich and National Maritime Museum then continued the theme, and discussed the definition of ‘someone who does science’ (you can read Rebeka’s Guardian blog here). Rebekah emphasised the different kinds of scientific research and work undertaken by women, and some examples of influential female scientists were highlighted. We heard about Maria Merian, the German artist-naturalist; instrument maker Janet Taylor; publisher, teacher and astronomer Margaret Bryan; Mary Edwards, the ‘human computer’ and Mary Annings, the palaeontologist who ran a fossil shop. All of the above women contributed to science on a daily basis, working close to their homes. It was also noted that from the early twentieth century, ‘new’ science gave women more opportunities to make their name, which had previously been difficult in the traditional fields of physics, astronomy and botany. Crystallographers such as Dorothy Hodgkin and Rosalind Franklin are notable examples here, as is the geneticist Julia Bodmer.

Bridget Howlett then gave an engaging presentation on the LMA collections relating to Florence Nightingale. This includes correspondence from the Crimean War, and training records of the nursing school Nightingale established at St. Thomas’ Hospital. Bridget suggested that although Nightingale is often thought of as 'anti-science' for her rejection of the germ theory, she nevertheless supported women’s education and women’s participation in medicine and science. Moreover, not only are her contributions to professional nursing notable, she was a talented statistician and devised a system of accounts for the army during the war. Nightingale also promoted the education of sanitary science and campaigned strongly for the 1867 Metropolitan Poor Act to ensure the provision of infirmaries for sick paupers. As such, Florence Nightingale should without doubt be celebrated as a pioneering woman in science. Here at the Bodleian we hold correspondence from Nightingale in some of our collections.

Jan Pimblett then explained how the LMA uses the archives in public engagement, after which we were given the opportunity to view some original documents from collections that represent influential women in science. A personal favourite was the letter illustrated below from the physician and feminist Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. As the founder of The New Hospital for Women (the first hospital staffed by women), Anderson was the first woman to train and qualify as a doctor in Britain; although as a woman, she battled to be accepted to train for her license to practice as a doctor. She gained much of her training through private tuition.





Letter from Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, 1863





In the letter, Anderson asks a Dr. Hastings to accept her for private instruction in anatomy, and the difficulties she faced are evident. She eventually qualified through the Society of Apothecaries; two years later the Society changed its rules and barred women from taking the exam.

In keeping with the theme of the day and women’s varied and perhaps unlikely or underestimated contributions to science, Tom Richards then discussed his fascinating research on Daphne Oram. Oram invented the early digital workstation known as the Oramics Machine, which enabled her to draw sounds. Her scientific technique and invention was a key musical development, helping to pave the way for modern electronic music. Oram’s work also included co-founding the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1958. Daphne Oram’s archive is currently held at Goldsmiths University of London Special Collections.

Anne Locker was the last speaker of the day, and she gave a presentation on early women engineers and scientists whose records are held at the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) Archives. The IET collection represents women from the early twentieth century. During the First World War, women began to participate in engineering jobs and the IET Archive holds the records of electrical engineer Dame Caroline Haslett and reflect her involvement with the Electrical Association for Women (EAW). Haslett was the first Secretary of the Engineering Society and founder and editor of the journal The Woman Engineer. We also heard about the feminist Hertha Ayrton, the first woman to grace the IET. Ayrton worked on electric arcs and ripples in sand and water. The Archive also holds the records of IET Fellow Dr. Elizabeth Laverick, who was the first female Deputy Secretary of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. Like many of the scientists we heard about throughout the day, Laverick was particularly interested in education, and she worked hard to promote engineering as a profession.

Like others had commented on during the day, Anne also emphasised that even though there were a large number of women working in engineering and technology in the earlier period, they are under-represented, and even though they are documented in records, we still don’t know about many of them.

These are just a sample of the many women in science we heard about during the day, and the LMA staff and other speakers provided some thought-provoking and lively discussions about how women have contributed their ideas and work to science, some well-known, others more obscure. Further work in archives is likely to reveal that women played a more prominent role in scientific enterprises than has previously been recognised. It was great to make links with our Saving Oxford Medicine initiative at the Bodleian, and also hear about the work others are doing in a similar field. We are grateful to LMA for the effort they put into the day, and look forward to similar future events.

Public Image of Scientists

Cataloguing of the Bodmer archive has been underway for around six months now, and it has been fascinating to learn about the sheer scope of Sir Walter’s career. There have been many dimensions to his work, and importantly, national science policy and science education has clearly been a real concern for the geneticist. In 1985, Bodmer chaired a Royal Society committee that sought to uncover public attitudes towards science. Included in the archive are papers relating to the Public Understanding of Science (PUS) and the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS), groups set up by the Royal Society. It has been argued that the PUS movement (more recently Public Engagement with Science and Technology) developed as a consequence of the Royal Society's influential 1985 publication The Public Understanding of Science. Written by Walter Bodmer, it is also commonly known as the Bodmer Report. The purpose of the Report was to recommend initiatives for government, schools, universities and media amongst others (including scientists themselves) to work together in order to promote a scientifically literate population. The Report can be read here.

The Report also aimed to encourage a better relationship between scientists and the public, and in particular, that scientists communicate more effectively to their audiences. One of many issues addressed was the public image of scientists. A decade earlier, the New Scientist conducted a nationwide survey in an effort to monitor the public's attitude to and awareness of science and scientists. According to the Bodmer Report, the outcome of the New Scientist survey "was a mixed bag, with scientists seeing scientists as typically approachable, sociable, open, unconventional, socially responsible, and popular with broad interests, while non-scientists saw scientists as typically the opposite".  Similar attitudes prevailed in later surveys carried out by various groups that submitted their findings to the Royal Society, as illustrated below.

Example of written submission to the Royal Society from various societies including the British Academy and British Association for the Advancement of Science (1984).

The papers of Sir Walter and Lady Julia Bodmer reveal this apparently common public perception of scientists could not be further from the case, and the personalities that come across in the archive are a far cry from the stereotypical scientist 'who cannot be identified with the man on the street'. The papers (including many photographs) reveal a couple that were not just hard-working and committed to their careers and family, but also relaxed, sociable and popular.

After Lady Bodmer passed away in 2001, an obituary recalled 'her strength, her humour, her infectious enthusiasm [and] her dedication to science'. A former colleague remarked, 'I like to recollect Julia in her apartment at the top of the ICRF when Walter was playing piano and we were just having a friendly talk'. Music and the performing arts appear to have played an important part in the Bodmer's lives. For instance, the collection includes papers concerning Sir Walter's time as a Trustee and Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance (now Trinity Laban). In fact, Sir Walter's connection with Laban originated with his mother Sylvia Bodmer (1902-1989), who gained a reputation as one of the most distinguished exponents of modern dance and movement. Having danced as one of Rudolf von Laban's pupils in Germany during the 1920s, she continued with her career in dance, choreography and teaching after moving to England.

The Kidney Stakes

One of the quirkier parts of the collection I have come across recently perfectly captures the Bodmer's sense of fun and love of music. The images highlighted here are an example of several songs and sonnets that were buried in a box of material relating to an International Histocompatibility Workshop. Written in Julia's hand, the songs were intended for post-conference entertainment, possibly the event hosted by the Bodmers in Oxford, 1977. 

The DR Region

I never fully appreciated quite what to expect with a scientific archive, apart from the more predictable research and teaching related papers, and it has been fun uncovering some real gems in the collection. The archive stretches well beyond the laboratory and the world of science and genetics, offering a window into the lives of two prolific geneticists who enjoyed a broad range of interests and pastimes.

G.W. Harris, 'father of neuroendocrinology'

Hertford College, Oxford
Taken by Brian Jeffery Beggerly

‘A review of Harris's work reads like a chapter in the history of endocrinology. The control of the multiple activities of the pituitary gland, and the study of the reciprocal interactions of brain and endocrine glands are the topics he had made his own. Step by step Harris contributed building stones to our present knowledge, always making sure that his ground was unshakeable before proceeding to the next step. He was one of the founders of the subject of neuroendocrinology.’

Marthe Vogt's obituary in, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 18 (1972), published a year after Harris’s pre-mature death in 1971, points to his huge contribution to endocrinology.

 

Harris came to Oxford in 1962, succeeding Wilfrid Le Gros Clark as Dr. Lee’s Professor of Anatomy, and becoming a Fellow of Hertford College. He was an effective and popular teacher of anatomy, raising its profile, and contributing to the development of the new Physiological Sciences Final Honour School, which brought together for the first time, the five preclinical departments of anatomy, biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology and physiology. His teaching extended to include endocrinology as a special subject. In the same year he was appointed Honorary Director of the Medical Research Council’s Neuroendocrinology Research Unit in Oxford. Here he continued his scientific research: attempting to isolate the luteinizing hormone releasing factor, and studying the effect of gonadal hormones on the sexual differentiation of the brain. He also continued to practise clinical medicine at the Littlemore Hospital, where he was Honorary Consultant, investigating gonadal and pituitary hormones in psychiatric patients.

His papers held in the Bodleian Library, were catalogued by the Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre in 1973. They contain an extensive set of his laboratory notebooks, covering almost the whole of his career, as well as research data and a large volume of lecture notes. The catalogue of his papers has recently been enhanced and is now available directly from the Bodleian’s Western Manuscript Online Catalogue pages.

‘Scientific heritage: Science today, history tomorrow’

Georgina Ferry’s recent article in Nature (493, 19-21) is an impassioned plea for the preservation of scientific and medical archives: highlighting the importance of preserving the full historical record for future historians and scientists, and setting out the factors which could result in a dearth of archives for future historians of science and medicine. This is a subject close to the heart of Saving Oxford Medicine, as it seeks to survey, acquire, preserve and provide access to the records of key Oxford medics.

Ferry makes three main points in her article which resonate strongly with the work of Saving Oxford Medicine.

Scientists’ perceptions of archives

‘Today’s scientists underestimate the historical importance of anything other than their published papers’ (Ferry). Over the last 18 months, the Saving Oxford Medicine team has surveyed the personal papers of a number of practising, retired and recently deceased Oxford medics. The findings have been salutary. Many have disposed of the bulk of their archives (notebooks, correspondence, research data etc.), in the belief that only the published data was relevant. In fact, researchers are keen to see the whole record not only the redacted version: the experimental and working data, the correspondence (personal as well as scientific), and the photographs of peoples, places and experiments which illustrate the wrong turns and the dead ends but which finally led step by step to each new discovery. It is vital to preserve this archival material for future researchers and to convince current scientists of its worth.

Digital archives

The nature of archives is changing. The term ‘archives’ no longer refers solely to ‘piles of yellowing papers’ (Ferry) but encompasses an ever-expanding range of born-digital formats: emails, word-processed documents, electronic databases, digital photographs, websites and even tweets. These digital archives are an essential component of the historical record but they require specialist technology and expertise to store them safely and preserve them in a readable format for future generations. Fortunately the Bodleian Library is in the vanguard of digital preservation. The Bodleian’s Digitial Archivist, manages the library’s digital repository, BEAM (Bodleian Electronic Archives and Manuscripts), which is capable of preserving and providing access to any digital archives and manuscripts acquired by the Bodleian. The library has also created its own web-archive, to preserve websites which relate to the Bodleian’s research collections, including those relating to Oxford medicine.

Funding

Ferry highlights the paucity of funding for the preservation and cataloguing of scientific archives, both paper and digital. The Bodleian has been very fortunate in attracting the financial support of the Wellcome Trust, generous individuals and the university’s own Medical Sciences Division to catalogue and preserve medical archives. A major project to catalogue the papers of Sir Walter Bodmer, geneticist, is well underway, funded by the Wellcome Trust. Bodmer was one of the first to suggest the idea of the Human Genome Project, to sequence human DNA. This ongoing support ensures that the hugely important records of Oxford medics and medical scientists continue to be acquired, catalogued and made available to researchers.

In her article Ferry quotes the molecular biologist and Nobel prizewinner, Sydney Brenner, ‘Let's not wait until memories have faded and papers been discarded ... before deciding to save our heritage’. This seems a very apt thought to end on.

 

 

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v493/n7430/full/493019a.html

The International Histocompatibility Workshop comes to Oxford

During the early period of Sir Walter Bodmer's career in Oxford (1970-79) he was able to dedicate his time to research in addition to teaching.  The papers of Sir Walter and his wife, Lady Julia, illustrate the development of their valuable laboratory research into human gene mapping, and work on the human leukocyte antigen system (HLA), which they initially collaborated on at Stanford University in the lab of haematologist Rose Payne. 

In the new Genetics Laboratory at Oxford University, the couple progressed with their HLA research. Walter Bodmer also continued his work on somatic cell genetics and the biochemistry of HLA. Julia had a particular interest in studying the relationship between HLA types and diseases.



Seventh International Histocompatibility Workshop Conference, Oxford, 1977



The gene mapping aspect of genetics and the role of HLA in disease association was flourishing during this period as a major field of research. The first international HLA Workshop Conference had taken place in 1964 at Duke University, North Carolina, and would continue to be a seminal event. The Workshops provided scientists with a forum to collaborate on their investigations into immunogenetics research.  In September 1977 Walter and Julia Bodmer were responsible for bringing the Workshop to Oxford University.


 

Julia Bodmer, Oxford, 1977

Approximately 200 laboratories scattered worldwide participated in this Workshop, studying antisera, lymphocytes and typing cells. It was during this Workshop that HLA-D region types were properly defined for the first time, a major step forward in the HLA field. Additionally, as a consequence of the conference, 19 new HLA specificities were given World Health Organisation (WHO) designations.

Sir Walter Bodmer (seated), Oxford, 1977

In 1979, the Bodmers left Oxford for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) in London. Sir Walter eventually became Director-General of the ICRF while Lady Julia was head of the Tissue Antigen Laboratory.

Women in Science and Wikipedia

Saving Oxford Medicine archivists recently attended the Oxford Wikipedia Editathon: Women in Science, an event held in conjunction with Open Access Week. Held at the Radcliffe Science Library, this hands-on workshop followed a similar event at the Royal Society that was held as part of the Ada Lovelace Day celebrations. Similar sessions were held worldwide. The events aimed to enhance the Wikipedia profiles of leading female scientists, many of whom have been overlooked by the online encyclopaedia. By promoting the scientific discoveries of women, it was also hoped the events would play a role in encouraging the visibility of women working in the fields of science and technology.

During the Oxford editathon, Saving Oxford Medicine contributed by creating a Wikipedia entry for the geneticist Lady Julia Gwynaeth Bodmer, whose papers are currently being catalogued, and enhancing existing entries for the ophthalmologist Ida Mann, the pharmacologist and physiologist Edith Bülbring, and the neuroscientist Marthe Vogt. Papers of Mann and Bülbring have been catalogued as part of Saving Oxford Medicine. Bülbring and Vogt worked together in Berlin and came to England in the 1930s. Bülbring helped Vogt to find work in England, and her papers show her support for Vogt’s appeal against an order for internment in 1940. 

 Ada Lovelace by Margaret Carpenter, 1836

 

Other participants at the Oxford event improved entries for a number of women who made significant contributions to science, including Cynthia Longfield, Rosalind Pitt Rivers, Thekla Resvoll, Bertha Swirles and Sydney Mary Thompson and, significantly for the Bodleian Library, Mary Somerville. The Somerville papers are held by the Library on loan from Somerville College, and the catalogue is currently being revised with a view to publishing it online. The papers contain numerous letters received by Mary and members of her family from Ada Lovelace between 1834 and 1851, just a year before her death. It is said that Mary Somerville introduced Ada to Charles Babbage, with whom she collaborated on the ‘Analytical Engine’.

Sir Walter Bodmer and the Department of Genetics at Oxford University

As part of the Saving Oxford Medicine blog we will be tracing the distinguished careers of the Bodmers. Currently being catalogued, the archive of Sir Walter includes a significant number of papers relating to his time at Oxford University, both during his earlier career as Professor of Genetics from 1970-79, and later, as Principal of Hertford College from 1996. The archive also comprises the papers of Sir Walter’s wife, the economist and geneticist Lady Julia Gwynaeth Bodmer.

In our previous post we saw a picture taken of Professor Kenneth Franklin and his colleagues outside the old Physiology Laboratory in 1894. Moving forwards to a later generation of Oxford scientists we have a picture taken outside the same building on South Parks Road. The group picture below shows Oxford's first Professor of Genetics Sir Walter Bodmer (back row, fourth from right) and his colleagues outside the staff entrance of the Genetics Laboratory, which he headed. Julia Bodmer also worked in the laboratory, also pictured (middle row on steps, far right). The Genetics Laboratory would later become the Walter Bodmer Building, now demolished.

  

In addition to fully representing the development of Sir Walter and Lady Bodmer's laboratory research into human tissue histocompatibility antigens, the archive also illustrates the development of genetics as an academic discipline at Oxford University. In 1969 the University made the decision to create a chair of genetics after the retirement of geneticist Edmund Brisco Ford, who held a personal chair. Likewise, the distinguished geneticist and Professor of Botany Cyril Darlington was close to retirement. (Follow the links to learn more about the archives of both men, which are available for access at the Bodleian.)

Prior to this period there had been relatively little in the way of genetics available to Oxford students and it was felt that the discipline should be established on a more permanent teaching basis. Upon arrival in Oxford it was left to Bodmer to decide what department genetics would be allied with; zoology, botany or biochemistry. As a molecular biologist increasingly moving towards biochemical work, he chose to bring this newly created sub-department of genetics within the Department of Biochemistry. In his capacity as Professor of Genetics, Bodmer and his colleagues held the responsibility of all genetics teaching at undergraduate level, from medical students to biochemists and biologists. By Sir Walter’s own description, himself and his colleagues “built up a small lively department, with interests in biochemical genetics…and human genetics”.

Spot the Regius Professor!

Group outside the Physiology Laboratory, 1894

This lovely informal photograph taken outside the Physiology Laboratory c.1894, was found among the papers of Kenneth Franklin collected by Hugh Sinclair, nutritionist, and recently catalogued by the Saving Oxford Medicine team. Along with four small dogs hidden in the picture, there are also three Regius Professors of Medicine. The out-going Regius Professor, H.W. Acland (1857-1894), is the elderly gentleman, seated, centre right. His successor, John Scott Burdon Sanderson (1895-1904), is the slightly less elderly gentleman, seated centre left. Whilst the up and coming Regius Professor, Edward Farquhar Buzzard (1928-43), sits in the wings, front right.

A postcard from Farquhar Buzzard to Kenneth Franklin, written in 1936, adds further information about the photograph, 'Three Regii in one group!...they did squabble in those days! & the 'Burdon' seems to have been a bit difficult at times'.

The online catalogue can be viewed here, and the papers can be consulted in the Special Collections Reading Room.

Hodgkin Archive

'Miss Crowfoot is one of the most interesting undergraduates who have been in the College whilst I have been Prinicipal. Her mind is both mature and imaginative. Her interests are so varied that it is extraordinary that she should be able to keep her special work at so consistently high a level. She has a real passion for science, has studied crystallography and played at astronomy alongside her own subject...Miss Crowfoot ... has a nature of great charm and sincerity, with a special flavour which is very much her own. I believe that all my colleagues would agree with me in thinking it waste of a rare personality if Miss Crowfoot does not follow her strong natural bent for research beyond the bounds of a degree examination'

This glowing recommendation from Margery Fry, the Principal of Somerville College was written in March 1931, as Dorothy Crowfoot (later Hodgkin) came towards the end of the third year of her chemistry degree at Oxford. As suggested she pursued a research career and went on to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964 for her work on the determination of the structure of biochemical substances such as penicillin and vitamin B12.

Dorothy Hodgkin donated her archive to the Bodleian Library in 1994. On-going work over many months by the Saving Oxford Medicine team, means that the catalogue of the papers is now available directly from the Bodleian Library's website, making it easier for researchers to access and search:
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/modern/hodgkin/hodgkin-main.html

Full Bodleian shelfmarks have been added to the catalogue for the first time, which will streamline the ordering of manuscripts. We hope that the enhanced catalogue will increase research use of the Hodgkin papers.

Oxford public health

There has been some interest recently in the use of the Bodleian’s Minn Collection of photographs and drawings to illustrate living conditions in Oxford in the 19^th century and their impact on public health.

Henry Minn (1870-1961) was an Oxford watchmaker and antiquary. The collection contains photographs by Minn of Oxford City and the University as well as work by other photographers purchased by Minn or presented to him.

Henry Acland (1815-1900), Lee’s Reader in Anatomy at Christ Church from 1845, was appointed Physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1847. He took a leading role in efforts to control the outbreak of cholera that affected Oxford in 1854, laying down procedures for the distribution of medicines, cleaning and destruction of clothing, and nursing. His Memoir on the cholera at Oxford in the year 1854, with considerations suggested by the epidemic, published in 1856, identifies poor drainage and the discharge of sewage into rivers as its main causes. He remained very much concerned with public health and sanitation throughout his career, promoting improvements in the water supply and sanitation of Oxford and serving on the Royal Sanitary Commission from its establishment in 1869 until 1872.

MS. Minn 229, fol. 45

Photo by Hills & Saunders

This photograph from the collection shows the yard of the Clarendon Hotel, Oxford, in 1863. The hotel stood on a site in Cornmarket Street, now the Clarendon Shopping Centre.

In 1857 Acland was appointed Regius Professor of Medicine. He retired in 1894. The Bodleian Library holds his papers and papers of other members of the Acland family.

Incidentally, the Minn Collection includes photographs by Sarah Acland (1849-1930), daughter of Sir Henry and a prominent photographer. She gave her collection to Minn in 1920.