IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0103 CHADWICK TRUST
Held at: University College London
Title: Chadwick Trust Archives
Date(s): [1820s]-1984
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 14 boxes and 2 outsize volumes
Name of creator(s): Chadwick Trust
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Chadwick Trust was set up in 1895 under the provisions of the will of Sir Edwin Chadwick (d 1890), who bequeathed money to promote research into public health engineering. Sir Edwin Chadwick, born in 1800, was a pioneering sanitary reformer; secretary to Jeremy Bentham; appointed Assistant Commissioner to the Poor Law Enquiry, 1832; appointed Royal Commissioner to the Poor Law Enquiry, and to enquire into the employment of children in factories, 1833; Secretary of the Poor Law Commission, 1834-1847; Royal Commissioner to enquire into a rural constabulary, 1836; published his report on the sanitary condition of the labouring population, 1842; appointed Royal Commissioner on London sanitation, 1847; Metropolitan Commissioner of Sewers, 1847-1849; Commissioner of the General Board of Health, 1848-1854. At his death he also bequeathed money to University College London to create the Chadwick Professorship of Municipal Engineering, first occupied by his son Sir Osbert Chadwick from 1898. The Chadwick Trust gives prizes and medals to students researching into both the medical and engineering aspects of sanitary science. It also funds lectures on related subjects. The Trust was set up under a Board of Trustees and was later associated with the Royal Society of Health, on whose premises its office was situated. In 1980 negotiations began with University College London to house the Trust in the Civil Engineering Department, and the Trust was subsequently administered by a committee of University College London.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
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.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: Mainly English
System of arrangement:
The records comprise the following sections: administration (Ref: A); financial affairs (Ref: B); lectures (Ref: C); correspondence (Ref: D); items pertaining to Edwin Chadwick (Ref: E); other acquired papers (Ref: F); photographs (Ref: G). The early correspondence (Ref: D1) comprises collected letters, but the later files retain the arrangement given to them by the Trust. No particular arrangement is apparent in the general files (Ref: D2-4), which overlap chronologically. Some sections comprise files kept by the Clerk of the Trust and by G M Binnie (Ref: D5-13). The later correspondence (Ref: D14-29) is divided into files dealing with particular subjects.
Conditions governing access:
Open.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Normal copyright restrictions apply.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Handlist available at University College London Special Collections.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
The records comprise the organisational archives of the Chadwick Trust and related papers.
Immediate source of acquisition:
The records were transferred from the Civil Engineering Department of University College London in three accessions between 1984 and 1987 after the College took over the Chadwick Trust.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
University College London Special Collections also holds the papers of Sir Edwin Chadwick, 1798-1923, including correspondence, drafts and notes, and printed material on his interests including police reform, the Poor Law Commission, public health and sanitation, education (Ref: CHADWICK), and some correspondence and papers, 1891-1923, on the Chadwick Trust (Ref: CHADWICK 143-5). Chadwick bequeathed some of Jeremy Bentham's papers on the Poor Law to University College London, and these and various letters to Chadwick were added to the Bentham Papers at University College London Special Collections (Ref: BENTHAM). University College London Special Collections also holds an undated fragment of a letter from Chadwick to an unnamed correspondent on the labouring classes [c1872] (Ref: MS MISC 3C); a letter to Chadwick from George Grote, 1838 (Ref: MS MISC 2G); inscriptions from Florence Nightingale to Chadwick [1859], 1871 (Ref: S.R.E.950.N4, S.R.E.950.N41); letters from Chadwick on University College London business, 1833 (Ref: COLLEGE CORRESPONDENCE 2826, 2903); books and 16 boxes of pamphlets (c500 items in total) collected by Chadwick and relating to his interests. Two medals and a brass plate of the Chadwick Trust are retained elsewhere in University College London.
British Library, Manuscript Collections, holds letters to Macvey Napier, 1835-1845 (Ref: Add MSS 34617-25); correspondence with Florence Nightingale, 1857-1883 (Ref: Add MSS 45770-71); correspondence with Sir Robert Peel, 1841-1846 (Ref: Add MS 40537). Public Record Office holds correspondence with Lord John Russell, 1836-1866 (Ref: PRO30/22). Royal College of Surgeons of England holds letters to Richard Owen, 1840-1848. Oxford University, Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts, holds correspondence with Lord Kimberley, 1883 (Ref: MSS Eng a 2013-14, b 2047-49, c 3933-4514, d 2439-92, e 2790-97). Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections, Palace Green Section, holds correspondence with the 3rd Earl Grey, 1836-1886 (Ref: GRE/B80/17). West Sussex Record Office holds 13 letters to the Duke of Richmond, 1834-1842 (Ref: vol 3). National Library of Scotland, Manuscripts Division, holds letters from Chadwick to John Burton, 1840-1880 (Ref: MS 9406).
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Sources: Janet Percival, The Papers of Sir Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890) (The Library, University College London, Occasional Publication no 3, 1978); National Register of Archives; AIM25 description of Chadwick Papers at University College London Special Collections; website of the Civil Engineering Department of University College London. Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.
Date(s) of descriptions: May 2001