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King's College London College Archives

WILKINS, Maurice Hugh Frederick (1916-2004)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0100 K/PP178

Held at: King's College London College Archives

Title: WILKINS, Maurice Hugh Frederick (1916-2004)

Date(s): 1854-2004

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 170 boxes or 1.70 cubic metres

Name of creator(s): Wilkins | Maurice Hugh Frederick | 1916-2004 | molecular biologist

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born Pongaroa, New Zealand, 1916; family moved to Birmingham, UK, 1923; educated, King Edward School, Birmingham, 1929-1935, and St John's College, Cambridge, 1935-1938; joined Cambridge Scientists Anti-War Group and Communist Party; conducted research on luminescence in solids under John Randall, Physics Dept, Birmingham University, 1938-1940; PhD on thermoluminescence in solids, 1940; worked on improvements to radar screens, Ministry of Home Security and Aircraft Production, 1940-1941; worked on the separation of uranium isotopes for British atomic bomb research, codenamed the Tube Alloys Project, 1941-1944; worked at University of California at Berkeley, USA, on the Manhattan Project for the production of the atomic bomb, 1944-1945; Lecturer in Physics, St Andrews University, 1945; Researcher, Medical Research Council Biophysics Unit, Physics Department, King's College London, 1946-1958; Lecturer in Biophysics, King's College London, 1958-1963; awarded Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1962, jointly with James Watson and Francis Crick; Professor of Molecular Biology, King's College London, 1963-1970; President and co-founder, British Society for Social Responsibility in Science (BSSRS), 1969-1991; Professor of Biophysics, King's College London, 1970-1981; devised inter-disciplinary undergraduate course, 'The social impact of the biosciences', 1972; Director, Medical Research Council Cell Biophysics Unit, 1974-1981; Emeritus Professor of Biophysics, KCL, 1981-2004; President, Food and Disarmament International, 1984-2004; died, 2004.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins, 1854-2004, including: laboratory notebooks, graphs, data sets, notes, x-ray diffraction photographs and published articles relating to his scientific research, 1948-1976, chiefly his work on the structure of DNA, 1947-1966; correspondence, 1948-2004, with and about scientific colleagues, including Struther Arnott, Allen Blaurock, Francis Crick, Boris Ephrussi, Harriet Ephrussi-Taylor, Bruce Fraser, Meyer Friedman, Raymond Gosling, Leonard Hamilton, John Kendrew, Robert Langridge, Don Marvin, Linus Pauling, Max Perutz, John Randall, Alec Stokes, James Watson and Herbert Wilson. Correspondence, notes and articles, 1950-2003, relating to research on the history of the discovery of the structure of DNA, including: copies of Rosalind Franklin's laboratory notebooks and articles, 1951-1953, relating to her DNA research; correspondence, 1967-2003, with writers on DNA history, including Aaron Klug, Robert Olby, Meyer Friedman, Horace Judson and Watson Fuller; unpublished articles and talks on DNA history by Wilkins, 1975-1987. Drafts, notes, correspondence and collected background research relating to Wilkins' autobiography, The third man of the double helix (Oxford University Press, 2003). Papers relating to Wilkins' education and early career, 1928-1942, including: teenage essays and fiction on the role of science, 1928-1934; notes, articles and photographs, 1937-1938, relating to his student activities, including physics experiments, and photographs relating to his incendiary bomb testing for Cambridge Scientists Anti-War Group, 1938. Correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports and notes, 1962-1982, relating to the administration of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Biophysics Unit, King's College London (from 1964, the Department of Biophysics), on topics including funding, staffing, equipment provision and teaching. Correspondence, course handouts, student essays (CLOSED) and background material, 1971-1996, relating to the undergraduate course, 'The social impact of the biosciences', created and run by Wilkins, 1972-1982. Correspondence, newsletters and conference papers relating to Wilkins' involvement in political pressure groups, 1968-2003, notably the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science (of which Wilkins was founding President, 1969-1991), Food and Disarmament International (Wilkins' was founding President, 1984-2004), the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), and the Pugwash Conferences on World Affairs. Audio recordings, 1972-1996, including lectures by Wilkins on: social responsibility in science; his Eddington Memorial Lectures,Cambridge, 1977-1978, on the history and philosophy of science; nuclear disarmament, 1981; his retirement speech, 1982; the history of DNA.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material:

English

System of arrangement:

Files are grouped chronologically under thematic headings. There is some overlap between the content of the thematic groups, reflecting Professor Wilkins' working methods.

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID. Please note: Documents including personal data for named living individuals are closed, to be reviewed on the death of the individual, or 80 years from the date of the document. Access may be granted to researchers in certain circumstances, and upon signature of a special undertaking.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archives and Information Management.

Finding aids:

This summary description and detailed catalogue online.

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Professor Wilkins and the Wilkins family.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

King's College London College Archives

DESCRIPTION NOTES 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. This catalogue is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License. This catalogue may be updated from time to time in order to reflect additional material and/or new understandings of the material.

Date(s) of descriptions: 2012


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Ethics of science | Science of science
History of science | Science of science
Nuclear disarmament | Disarmament | Peace
Pacifism | Political doctrines
Biophysics
Molecular biology

Personal names
Wilkins | Maurice Hugh Frederick | b 1916 | molecular biologist

Corporate names
CND x Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Food and Disarmament International
King's College London | Department of Biophysics

Places