Record

RefNoCMB/119/2
LevelFile
TitleMinutes of a meeting of the Standing Joint Committee on Scientific and Technological Records [Scientific Manuscripts Committee]
Date25 October 1967
DescriptionPresent at the meeting: Sir Harold Hartley in the chair; Professor E N da C Andrade; Professor W D M Paton; Professor N Kurti; Sir Robert Somervilly; Mr R H Ellis, Secretary; with Dr R E W Maddison and Mr H M G Baillie in attendance

1. Apolgy for absence from Dr C V Wedwood

2. Chairman welcomed Dr Maddison, ' who had very kindly undertaken to edit the Guide to the papers of leadingh British scientists, and to collect the materials for compilation. He assured Dr Madison that the Committee woudl help him in every possible way, and enable him to proceed undistracted with this, his primary task.

3. Minutes of last meeting approved, with the addition of Professor Kurti's name, and signed.
Arising from the minutes, it was left to the Chairman and Mr Ellis to find both the monery and the Editor for the proposed Guide. Money suplied, after the Chairman's efforts, by the Goldsmiths Company, as a grant of £2000 a year for two years, with liberty to apply for a further year; and Dr Maddison had accepted the Chairman's invitation to act as Editor. An article by the Chairman and Professor Andrade was published in Notes and Records, and circulated to the committee.
Vote of thanks proposed by Professor Paton, seconded by Professor Andrade to the Goldsmith's Company, and Mr Ellis to write to thank them.

4. Dr Maddison's progress and plans discussed, and procedure agreed;
4.i First list to be compiled, by Dr Maddison and the Chairman, of scientists and technologists to be included in the Guide. List to be based on two lists compiled by Dr Trevor Williams and Mr Jeffreys, with a limit of 25 names, and to be submitted for approval by the Committee and by the Royal Society.
4.ii A second list to be compiled of the places in which the papers of these scientitsts and technologists might be expected to lie.
4.iii Discussed to which newspapers letters (draft already before the Committee) should be sent
4.iv Dr Maddison to begin with a card index by extrracting information from the lists (of scientists and institutions) made by Mr Jefferys while at Keele University and from the National Register of Archives.
4.v Dr Maddison would send individual letters to institutions where the papers of listed scientists were believed to be, including copies of he letter in 4.iv abov, and asking about information about their holdings of such papers.

5. Committee's view on a further approach to Universities and other places of research following up the Master of the Rolls letter to Vice-Chancellors in 1964;
5.i This approach to be quite seaparate form Dr Maddison;s enquiry and deferred until he had made progress
5.ii Proposed (by Professor Kurti) a pilot scheme of two or three recently deceased scientists, their papers fully examined, arranged, and listed to show nature and extent of the field to be covered; Profesoor Kurti believed he could find a qualified person to undertake it. Mr Ellis to approach Treasury for financial support. Letter to Professor Kurti from the American Philosophical Society circulated to the Committee
5.iii That if space and services were required for the deposit of such papers, the facilities offered by established repositories (as shown in the list of Record Repositories of Great Britain should be borne in mind.

Points emphasized in discussion were: that all collections of scientists and technologists papers should be registered at some central point, which might also become a place of deposit for copies of such papers (Professor Andrade); and that it was of urgent importance to find and preserve the papers of living scientists now (the Chairman). `
Extent2p
FormatTypescript
AccessStatusOpen
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