History of science and other interests

This section is chiefly concerned with Jeffreys's interest in the history of science, and mathematics in particular. It is dominated by a sequence of material (notes, correspondence, offprints etc) on a large number of eminent scientists, both contemporaries of hers and historical figures. There is significant material in particular on Mary Lucy Cartwright, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, John Arthur Gaunt, Douglas Rayner Hartree, Inge Lehmann and Barbara Mary Middlehurst. The section includes a little general material on the history of mathematics and science. Jeffreys's concern for the place of women in science is partly indicated by the high proportion of individual women scientists in the main sequence, but there is also general material on this issue, including correspondence with Joan Mason, the founder of AWISE, the Association for Women in Science and Engineering, and correspondence and papers relating to the influential 1992 White Paper on Science and Technology and the resultant 1993 report The Rising Tide. Jeffreys interests in education represented includes material relating to the teaching of mathematics in schools and the admission of men to previously all-women Colleges.

Published