Catalogue description Report on the papers of Dr. Herbert Hunter (1882-1959)

With the exception of a few notebooks and files (Items 17-24) and some scientific correspondence (Items 25, 27, 29) little remains of Hunter's original working records and notes. Most of the collection is of a biographical and personal nature. Of special interest are Hunter's own reminiscences of colleagues and friends (Section B), the papers and correspondence relating to his proposed visits to Russia (Items 6, 28), and his file of press cuttings which document the dramatic changes in plant breeding, crop production and the brewing industry during the first half of this century (Item 30).

Item 32 is the manuscript (unpublished) of Hunter's last book, Oats: Botany, Cultivation, Utilisation.

Dr. Colin M. Kraay, Keeper of the Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, kindly identified and described the casts of ancient coins in Item 11.

All items are manuscript unless identified otherwise; titles in inverted commas are those which appear on the manuscripts.

A Biographical and personal 1-11

B Reminiscences 12-16

C Notebooks and working papers 17-24

D Correspondence 25-29

E Publications 30-43

Compiled by Jeannine Alton Harriot Weiskittel

Hunter, Herbert,1882-1959, scientist and agricultural scientist

The papers were received from Hunter's daughter, Miss Margaret Hunter, who attempted to assemble as complete a collection as possible from the various institutions with which her father was associated during his career. She provided a biographical account of his life and work (Item 1) and much helpful information about the arrangement of the papers.

Hunter graduated in 1903 from the University of Leeds where he was one of the first two students to take the B.Sc. in Agriculture (Items 12, 17). He was then appointed officer in charge of the barley investigations being conducted by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction in Ireland (Items 12-14, 18, 41). It was during his work in Ireland that Hunter developed the Spratt-Archer variety of barley, which was for many years the most widely grown malting barley in Britain (Items 13, 25, 26). In 1919 he was appointed Head of the Plant Breeding Division of the Ministry of Agriculture for Northern Ireland, and in 1923 moved to Cambridge to join Sir Rowland Biffen, T.B. Wood and F.L. (now Sir Frank) Engledow in the Plant Breeding Institute of the University School of Agriculture (Items 5, 23). Hunter became Director of the P.B.I. in 1936, and, during the Second World War, also served as Director of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge. After his retirement from the P.B.I. in 1946, Hunter served as President of the Council of the N.I.A.B. for three years, 1951-53.