Sir Gordon Sutherland: Correspondence and Papers

The collection provides some documentation for most aspects of Sutherland's career, apart from his two periods at the University of Michigan, for which there is virtually no material. For the 1930s there is extensive correspondence, but no laboratory records, and for the wartime period there is a very full sequence of letters exchanged with H.W. Thompson, 1937-1947. Section C contains papers relating to the National Physical Laboratory, and Section D documents Sutherland's involvement with various societies and organisations, and has considerable material on the formation of the International Organisation for Pure and Applied Biophysics, in which Sutherland played a major part. Section E contains correspondence on issues of science policy, as well as Sutherland's own drafts and reports. The correspondence in Section H dates mainly from Sutherland's period at the N.P.L., all earlier letters being in Section B.

Some items are restricted at the discretion of the Keeper of Manuscripts

The material was received from Lady Sutherland and from Professor N. Sheppard FRS who contributed some additional material, mainly correspondence received in connection with his Memoir of Sutherland for the Royal Society.

This is an abbreviated record. A hard copy of the full catalogue is available in the Manuscripts Reading Room. A full online catalogue, created by NCUACS, is available on the National Archives website at http://tinyurl.com/gordonsutherland

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.

Specimens and correspondence relating to Sutherland's work on diamond are held at the Institute of Geological Sciences (Geological Museum), South Kensington, London. Material relating to Sutherland's service on two Cambridge University Committees (Joint Committee on Student Numbers and Committee of the General Board on Long-Term Development) has been deposited in the University Archives, Cambridge. A little personal material is held by Lady Sutherland.