IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0114 MS0027
Held at: Royal College of Surgeons of England
Title: QUEKETT, John Thomas (1815-1861)
Date(s): [1840-1854]
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 3 boxes
Name of creator(s): Quekett | John Thomas | 1815-1861 | histologist
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born, Langport, Somerset, 1815; educated by his father; gained an interest in microscopes early in life; at sixteen gave a course of lectures to the pupils of his school; apprenticed to a surgeon at Langport, and moved to London as apprentice to his brother Edwin; student at the London Hospital Medical College, and at Kings College; Royal Microscopical Society was founded in 1839 as the Microscopical Society of London in the house of Edward Quekett; qualified, 1840; won a three year Studentship in Human and Comparative Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons; lectured on histology; Secretary, Microscopical Society, 1841-1860; Assistant Conservator of the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1843; Demonstrator of Minute Anatomy, 1844-1852; his collection of 2,500 microscopical preparations purchased by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1846; Professor in Histology at the Royal College of Surgeons, 1852; gave some instruction to Prince Albert on the use of his microscope; Conservator of the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1856; Fellow of the Linnean Society, 1857; Fellow and President of the Royal Society, 1860; died Pangbourne, Berkshire, 1861; Quekett Microscopic Club was named in his honour, 1865.
Publications: A Practical Treatise on the Use of the Microscope (London, 1848); Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the Histological Series contained in the Museum of the Royal College, etc. Vol. 1. Elementary tissues of vegetables and animals [By J T Duckett] (London, 1850); Lectures on Histology ... Elementary Tissues of Plants and Animals ... Illustrated by woodcuts 2 vol (London, 1852-54); Lectures of Histology Vol 11 structure of the skeleton of plants and invertebrate animals (Bailliere 1854).
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers of John Thomas Quekett, [1840-1854], relating to his work as Conservator of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, comprising diaries, 1840-1848, which include references to prominent microscopists of the time, such as Carpenter, West, Ross, Sowerby, and Smith of Smith and Beck; notebook, containing some sketches and including notes on experiments on frogs, 1841; ?draft catalogues of the Histological Series in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and catalogue of Pathology, [c1840-1860]; catalogue of Hewson's Preparations, [c1840-1860]; unpublished part of Quekett's catalogue of histological series; Lectures on Histology delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons 1852-1854 with annotations by Quekett; notes for lectures on histology delivered in the session 1853-1853, on the structure on the skeleton of vertebrate animals, with original drawings.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
The records are arranged as outlined in the scope and content.
Conditions governing access:
Open to bona fide researchers by written appointment.
Conditions governing reproduction:
At the discretion of the Librarian.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1928) by Victor G Plarr.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
The Quekett papers were presented to the Royal College of Surgeons by Mrs Quekett in 1922.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Papers, 1849-1885 (64 items) held by the American Philosophical Society, including correspondence, drawings and publications. The correspondents include James Hilton, Julian S Huxley, John Pethereck, Sir James South, and Thomas Wormald.
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Sources: Dictionary of National Biography (Smith, Elder and Co, London, 1895); website of the Quekett Microscopical Club http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/quekett/JTQ.html; Molecular Expressions Website http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/quekett.html; Historical Manuscripts Commission On-line National Register of Archives; British Library Public On-line Catalogue. Compiled by Julie Tancell as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.
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: October 2002