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Wellcome Library

Holmes, Edward Morell (1843-1940)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0120 MSS.2867-2932 and 7961, WMS/Amer.145-148

Held at: Wellcome Library

Title: Holmes, Edward Morell (1843-1940)

Date(s): 1876-1930

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 71 items (volumes, files or bundles of papers)

Name of creator(s): Holmes | Edward Morell | 1843-1940 | botanist and lecturer in materia medica
Batters | Edward Arthur Lionel | 1860-1907 | botanist

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Edward Morell Holmes described himself as a "Consulting Botanist and Pharmacognosist" and was the author of many papers on botany and materia medica. He was lecturer in botany at the Westminster Hospital School from 1873 to 1876, lecturer in materia medica to the Pharmaceutical Society from 1887 to 1890, and Curator of the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society from 1872 to 1922. In 1900 he was President to the British Pharmaceutical Conference. For an obituary see the Pharmaceutical Journal, 1930, 4th series, 71, pp.284-286.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Notes and extracts on vegetable materia medica, botany, etc. (with the exception of MS.2882, which deals with British insects, and MS.7961 which consists of general correspondence). The plants discussed include species from Africa, Asia and the Americas. Many of the pieces are drafts of lectures (to bodies such as the Royal Botanic Society) or of papers later published in journals such as the Pharmaceutical Journal, Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association, etc. Some items include inserted correspondence.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

The material is divided between the main Western Manuscripts series (MSS.2867-2932 and 7961) and the American Manuscripts series (WMS/Amer.145-148). The four manuscripts in the American series deal with Latin American flora while the other large block of material, MSS.2867-2932, deals with flora from around the globe. MS.7961 comprises a single file of general correspondence. Within each of the large blocks of manuscripts, material is arranged in chronological order of composition (with the exception of MS.2932, which is written in collaboration with Edward Arthur Lionel Batters (1860-1907) and placed at the end of the block of material as a reflection of this difference in authorship).

Conditions governing access:

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Physical characteristics:

holograph manuscripts and typescripts, held as volumes, files or bundles of papers.

Finding aids:

Described in: S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973); and Robin Price, An Annotated Catalogue of Medical Americana in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1983).

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented by Edward Morell Holmes's widow in 1935 (accession number 89200), with the exception of MS.2882 and WMS/Amer.148 which were purchased from Dulau & Co., London, in April 1931 (accession numbers 57899 and 57888 respectively).

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: description compiled by Christopher Hilton based upon those in the Library's published finding aids by S.A.J. Moorat and Robin Price.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: December 2000


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Insects | Animals | Zoology
Lectures (teaching method) | Teaching methods
Medicinal plants | Plants | Flora | Vegetation | Botany
Materia medica x Pharmacology
Arthropods
Biology

Personal names
Batters | Edward Arthur Lionel | 1860-1907 | botanist
Holmes | Edward Morell | 1843-1940 | botanist and lecturer in materia medica

Corporate names
Royal Botanic Society

Places
Latin America x South America
Africa
Americas
Asia