Papers of Frederick Gowland Hopkins

Approximately one third of the bulk of papers comprise working papers and notebooks. About another quarter comprises correspondence, certificates and ephemera relating to honours awarded by various bodies or relating to Frederick Gowland Hopkins' association with learned societies. The remaining material is a combination of papers and photographs generated by Frederick Gowland Hopkins' family (much of it predating his birth); together with correspondence and papers he generated in a personal capacity. A handful of published biographies and obituaries were added to the collection prior to deposit.

The material was presented without a system of arrangement thus the cataloguing archivist of 2009 imposed current order to facilitate access. Original archival order was preserved within discreet files, envelopes or bundles. The accruals of 2010 have largely been left as a single sequence labelled '/N', which is effectively section /8. Some items have been incorporated in the sequences of the 2009 arrangement.

MS Add.7620/9 and 10 were added to the catalogue in June 2021.

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

The collection was presented by Joseph Needham, Sc.D; Mrs Barbara Holmes, Ph.D; and Malcolm Dixon, Sc.D, in 1962. It is apparent from annotations on the material, or its wrappers, that the former two depositors inserted many items from a variety of sources into the main body of material accumulated by Frederick Gowland Hopkins. It is not certain that they annotated all items prior to insertion. The supporting material catalogued as MS Add.7620/1/18 was supplied by Stanley L. Becker, Ph.D, in March 1990. Additional deposits of family photographs, ephemera and biographical items were made by Dr Nicolas Hawkes. The material may be identified by the text 'Hawkes: 5 June 2010' or 'Hawkes: 4 Aug. 2010'.

Additions to the papers of F.G. Hopkins were added in June 2021. MS Add.7620/9 comprises material kept by the historian of science, Mikulas Teich. at Robinson College and transferred to Cambridge University Library by the Robinson College archivist in 2019. This series comprises letters, newspaper clippings and publications in original envelopes labelled by Hopkins, but not retained with the rest of his papers. MS Add.7620/10 comprises a collection of offprints, transferred from the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, in February 2020. Also included is a folder of biographical/bibliographical material; this has been added to the catalogue as MS Add.7620/5a/10.

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.

Much of the material has sustained minor losses, edge tears, and mechanical damage due to poor packaging. Many items also display foxing and surface dirt. leather; cloth; paper; parchment; photograph; wood

Further material relating to Frederick Gowland Hopkins and the Department of Biochemistry can be found within the Cambridge University Archives under the following reference codes: BCHEM; Pr.A. H.816 (11); Pr.C. H.304; CAS H218; CAV 14/7; Phot.57-8. Associated correspondence and papers, 1914-47, are held by the Medical Research Council (reference code not known). Correspondence with A.V. Hill, 1912-40, is held at the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge (reference code: AVHL). Correspondence re the Society for Protection of Science and Learning, 1933-46, is held at amongst the Special Collections of Bodleian Library, Oxford (reference code: SPSL). The Jacquetta Hawkes Archive is held by the University of Bradford Special Collections department (reference code: HAW).

Prior to deposit a number of items were published in ''Hopkins and biochemistry, 1861-1947: papers concerning Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, O.M., P.R.S., with a selection of his addresses and a bibliography of his publications'', edited by Joseph Needham and Ernest Baldwin; With a foreword by A.C. Chibnall; and contributions by Malcolm Dixon [and others] (Cambridge: W. Heffer, 1949).