Papers of the chemist Durward Cruickshank. Cruickshank was an internationally important figure in the development of crystallography in the second half of the twentieth century. He was professor of chemistry at the universities of Leeds, Glasgow and UMIST.
The main component of the archive is Cruickshank's correspondence and subject files, which date from his wartime service in SOE up to this death in 2007. The files deal with a wide range of topics in chemistry and crystallography, and include Cruickshank's academic papers and correspondence. These reflect his influential position in the international crystallographic community and his excellent network of contacts and associates. Significant figures represented in the files include: Sir Gordon Cox (his mentor at Leeds), Dorothy Hodgkin, who he assisted with her work on vitamin B12, John Monteath Robertson, Linus Pauling, Otto Bastiansen, Jackie Truter, G V Gibbs, Leslie Sutton, Larry Bartell, David Phillips, Kozo Kuchitsu, Alajos Kalman, Kathleen Lonsdale, Marianne and Bela Rozsondai, Istvan Hartiggai, Paul Ewald, and Ralph Wyckoff. Cruickshank's longstanding involvement in the International Union of Crystallography is also well documented in the files.
The files include information about Cruickshank's pioneering use of digital computers in the 1950s and 1960s for crystallographic work, including his experiences of the EDSAC (Cambridge), Manchester Ferranti, Leeds Pegasus and Glasgow KDF9 computers. There are also files covering Cruickshank's work on gas electron diffraction. There is variable coverage of the universities at which Cruickshank worked: there are some papers relating to professional work and ceremonial events at UMIST, fewer for the University of Glasgow, and probably most material for the University of Leeds, including files on the Pippin Club, an informal group of Gordon Cox's alumni.
Cruickshank was interested in the history of science, and he collected material on the scientists William and Lawrence Bragg, Rosalind Franklin and the 19th century physicist John Kerr. There are also several files relating to Cruickshank's work for the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War, when he was based at Station IX, the Frythe and helped design the Welfreighter, a midget submarine.
The archive includes a small selection of Cruickshank's notebooks and unpublished papers, as well as photographs, mainly relating to the IUCr. Also present are some rare paper computer tapes used on the Manchester Ferranti computer for his work on the differential synthesis program in the early 1950s.