Catalogue description Supplementary catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Joseph Needham CH, FRS (1900-1995), biochemist and historian of science

This record is held by Cambridge University Library: Department of Manuscripts and University Archives

Details of NCUACS 81.2.99
Reference: NCUACS 81.2.99
Title: Supplementary catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Joseph Needham CH, FRS (1900-1995), biochemist and historian of science
Description:

SECTION A BIOGRAPHICAL NCUACS 81.2.99/A.696-NCUACS 81.2.99/A.1220

 

SECTION B CAMBRIDGE NCUACS 81.2.99/B.389-NCUACS 81.2.99/B.472

 

SECTION C SINO-BRITISH SCIENCE COOPERATION OFFICE NCUACS 81.2.99/C.167-NCUACS 81.2.99/C.185

 

SECTION D UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANISATION (UNESCO) NCUACS 81.2.99/D.366-NCUACS 81.2.99/D.376

 

SECTION E RESEARCH NCUACS 81.2.99/E.194-NCUACS 81.2.99/E.227

 

SECTION F PUBLICATIONS NCUACS 81.2.99/F.451-NCUACS 81.2.99/F.630

 

SECTION G LECTURES AND BROADCASTS NCUACS 81.2.99/G.124-NCUACS 81.2.99/G.142

 

SECTION H VISITS AND CONFERENCES NCUACS 81.2.99/H.131-NCUACS 81.2.99/H.264

 

SECTION J SOCIETIES AND ORGANISATIONS NCUACS 81.2.99/J.261-NCUACS 81.2.99/J.343

 

SECTION K POLITICS NCUACS 81.2.99/K.355-NCUACS 81.2.99/K.514

 

SECTION L RELIGION AND SOCIETY NCUACS 81.2.99/L.41-NCUACS 81.2.99/L.496

 

SECTION M CORRESPONDENCE NCUACS 81.2.99/M.245-NCUACS 81.2.99/M.472

 

Section A, Biographical, is extensive and supplements the material in the previous catalogue in a number of areas. There are autobiographical accounts, material relating to Needham's university studies and subsequent career, honours and awards. There is significant further family material relating in particular to his mother A.A. Needham and second wife Lu Gwei-Djen and correspondence relating to genealogical research into the Needham family. There is also personal and social correspondence. There is a complete sequence of diaries for 1933-1995. The section also includes documentation of a number of Needham's other interests, including his membership of the Cambridge Morris Men and interest in folk dance, holidays, and financial records. There are many photographs, of Needham and members of his family, friends and colleagues, and of tours of the Cambridge Morris Men in the 1930s.

 

Section B, Cambridge, chiefly comprises papers relating to Needham's Presidency and then Mastership of Gonville and Caius College. There is a little material relating to the Department of Biochemistry, history of science at Cambridge and to the acquisition of Chinese books for the University Library.

 

Section C, Sino-British Science Cooperation Office (SBSCO), is chiefly material relating to the book Science Outpost (1948) in which the Needhams gave an account of the work of the SBSCO.

 

Section D, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, presents a little material supplementary to the previous catalogue. Most relates to Needham's appointment as Honorary Counsellor to UNESCO after he left the organisation in 1948.

 

Section E, Research, is chiefly manuscript notes and drafts related to publications. The bulk of the papers cover the period 1929-1930s.

 

Section F, Publications, is extensive. It chiefly relates to Needham's pre-war and wartime publications but later works are also represented. Included in the section are not only drafts of scientific papers and books but also writings on philosophical and historical themes. Scientific works documented include Chemical Embryology (1931), A History of Embryology (1934) and his contribution to The Chemistry of Life, (1970). There is further material relating to his collections of essays including Time the refreshing river (1943) and History is on our side (1946). There is also extensive documentation of Needham's article 'The geographical distribution of English ceremonial dance traditions', published in the Journal of the English Folk-Dance and Folk-Song Society (1936). The section also presents sequences of editorial correspondence and requests for off-prints.

 

Section G, Lectures and broadcasts, presents some of Needham's public and invitation lectures delivered on scientific and religious subjects 1928-1990. There is also a little material relating to broadcasts.

 

Section H, Visits and conferences, presents a chronological sequence of material 1931-1988. Needham's historical interests are represented rather better than his biochemical ones. Among the occasions represented by surviving material are the Second International Congress of the History of Science and Technology, London, 1931, the First Congress of Polish Science, Warsaw, Poland, 1951, a visit to Romania in January 1963, a visit to Sweden and Denmark, April 1964, the Fifteenth International Congress of the History of Science, Edinburgh, 10-19 August 1977, and a British Council sponsored visit to Cyprus, 21 May - 4 June 1979.

 

Section J, Societies and organisations, documents Needham's involvement with nineteen national and international bodies. Those best documented are the Cambridge Museum of Technology, Needham was Chairman of the Trustees 1968-1981, Collet's Holdings Ltd, of which Needham was a director, and the Royal Society, principally the British National Committee for the History of Science, 1969-1972.

 

Section K, Politics, documents Needham's wide-ranging involvement in politics of the Left. All the material in the section is post-war. It includes documentation of his concern with peace and nuclear disarmament and Needham's international outlook, naturally focused on China, is also well-represented, in particular by material relating to his Presidency of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU).

 

Section L, Religion and society, represents Needham's religious concerns. There is a chronological sequence of sermons and addresses, 1935, 1961-1987 delivered by Needham, principally at divine service at Gonville & Caius College Chapel and at Thaxted Parish Church. There is documentation of Needham's association with the Teilhard Centre for the Future of Man (Needham was Honorary President from 1967), Thaxted Church, Needham's involvement with which dated back to 1927, and various other religious organisations. There is also material assembled by Needham relating to Christianity in China, and religious literature including tracts and offprints which attest to his interest in the Christian Socialist tradition.

 

Section M, Correspondence, consists of a sequence of longer exchanges arranged alphabetically by correspondent, a sequence of shorter exchanges and single letters arranged chronologically 1923-1994, and references and recommendations. Principal correspondents include Zain-ul-Abedin, Max Pettersson and M. Teich. The sequence of shorter correspondence, the great bulk of which dates from the last twenty five years of Needham's life, reflects his religious, political and especially history of science interests as well as including news of the principal events of his personal life. It should be noted that there is extensive correspondence throughout the catalogue. Much of Needham's correspondence is to be found in other sections where it is retained with the material with which it was found.

Note:

Compiled by Timothy E. Powell and Peter Harper

 

The work of the National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, and the production of this catalogue, are made possible by the support of the following societies and organisations

 

The Biochemical Society

 

The Geological Society

 

The Higher Education Funding Council for England

 

The Institute of Physics

 

The Royal Society

 

Trinity College Cambridge

 

The Wellcome Trust

"
Date: 1874-1995
Arrangement:

This catalogue of the papers of Joseph Needham is a supplement to that compiled in 1995 (NCUACS54/3/95). The material has been arranged into sections and numbered to follow the sequence of the previous catalogue, which should therefore be consulted in conjunction with this catalogue. Papers supplementary to the first catalogue have been found for all the sections.

Related material:

LOCATIONS OF OTHER MATERIAL

 

Photographs, postcards and items of memorabilia were returned to the Needham Research Institute.

 

The previously catalogued papers and correspondence of Joseph Needham are deposited in Cambridge University Library. Finding aid: NCUACS catalogue no. 54/3/95.

 

Papers relating to Needham's Mastership of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, 1966-1976 are held by the College Archives.

 

Papers relating to Needham's work on Science and Civilisation in China are held at the Needham Research Institute, Sylvester Road, Cambridge.

 

Papers and correspondence relating to chemical and biological warfare, 1952-1989 were deposited by Needham at the Imperial War Museum, London. Finding aid: NCUACS catalogue no. 55/4/95.

 

Papers and correspondence of Dorothy Needham are deposited in the Library of Girton College Cambridge. Finding aids: NCUACS catalogue nos 22/7/90, 37/5/92 and 62/5/96.

Held by: Cambridge University Library: Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

Needham, Joseph, 1900-1995, scientist and biochemist

Physical description: 68 boxes, ca 2,000 items
Access conditions:

NOT ALL THE MATERIAL IN THIS COLLECTION MAY YET BE AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION. ENQUIRIES SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN THE FIRST INSTANCE TO

 

THE KEEPER OF MANUSCRIPTS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

 

WEST ROAD

 

CAMBRIDGE

Immediate source of acquisition:

The papers were received in July 1996 from the Needham Research Institute, Sylvester Road, Cambridge.

Administrative / biographical background:

OUTLINE OF THE CAREER OF JOSEPH NEEDHAM

 

A fuller account is to be found in the introduction to the catalogue of Joseph Needham's papers compiled in 1995 (NCUACS 54/3/95), to which this catalogue forms a supplement.

 

Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (known as Joseph) was born in London on 9 December 1900, the son of Joseph and Alicia Adelaide Needham. He was educated at Oundle School 1914-1918 and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1918-1922 where he studied for the Natural Sciences Tripos. Needham then went on to postgraduate research in the Cambridge Biochemistry Department under Frederick Gowland Hopkins, supported by a Benn Levy Studentship 1922-1924. He was elected a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College in 1924 and in the same year married Dorothy Mary Moyle (1896-1987), a fellow researcher in the Department. Needham was appointed University Demonstrator in Biochemistry in 1928 and in 1933 succeeded J.B.S. Haldane as Sir William Dunn Reader in Biochemistry. He held this post until 1966 when he became Master of Gonville and Caius College. He retired from the Mastership in 1976.

 

Needham's early biochemical research focused on embryology. In Chemical Embryology published in 1931, Needham explained embryological development as a chemical process. He then extended this work with research into various aspects of morphology, culminating in his 1942 book Biochemistry and Morphogenesis. He combined a high rate of productivity in biochemistry with a prolific output of articles on historical, religious, political and philosophical subjects. Needham also gave many lectures, likewise on historical, philosophical, religious and political subjects in addition to those of purely biochemical interest.

 

As well as his contributions to the development of biochemistry in Cambridge Needham was an important figure in the establishment of the history of science as an academic discipline at Cambridge as a founder member of the History of Science Lectures Committee. After the Second World War he served on the History of Science Committee and the History and Philosophy of Science Committee until 1971. Needham was also a leading figure in the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science.

 

Needham's interest in China dated from the mid-1930s. In 1942 Needham went to China as Head of the British Scientific Mission and under the auspices of the British Council established the Sino-British Science Cooperation Office (SBSCO). The SBSCO was responsible for assessing the needs of Chinese scientific, technological and medical institutions and researchers, and facilitating the supply of equipment and medicines, books and journals to China.

 

The success of the SBSCO was the immediate inspiration for Needham's vision of postwar international science co-operation. With the form of the future United Nations organisation under discussion Needham argued that the proposed United Nations Educational and Cultural Organisation should include science within its remit. It was appropriate that in 1946 he was appointed the first Director of the Section of Natural Sciences of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. He served for two years.

 

On his return to Cambridge in 1948 Needham began work on his new project - a history of the contribution of China to science and civilisation. This work was to occupy Needham for most of the rest of his life; the first volume of Science and Civilisation in China appeared in 1954 and by his death it had run to sixteen volumes. Among those Chinese students who had first encouraged Needham's interest in China was Lu Gwei-Djen. The Needhams became close friends with Lu and their careers came together again when she returned to Cambridge in 1957 to assist Needham in this work.

 

Needham was a religious man. From his student days he was a high church Anglican but combined this with a commitment to social justice. In the 1930s Needham was active in propagating a highly political Christianity emphasising its closeness to Marxism and had a long association with the Parish Church of Thaxted, Essex, identified very closely with the Christian Socialist tradition. In later years Needham's concern for reconciliation between science and religion led to his Presidency of the Teilhard de Chardin Centre for the Future of Mankind. He was also a Reader in the Church of England

 

Needham was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1941 and in 1971 elected a Fellow of the British Academy. In 1992 he was appointed a Companion of Honour. Needham died in 1995, outliving both Dorothy Needham, who died in 1987, and his second wife Lu Gwei-Djen, whom he had married in 1989 but who died in 1991.

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