Catalogue description Supplementary catalogue of the papers and correspondence of JOHN RANDAL BAKER, FRS (1900-1984)

SECTION D RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS CSAC 114.5.86/D.1-CSAC 114.5.86/D.92

SECTION E ANTHROPOLOGY AND RACE CSAC 114.5.86/E 1-CSAC 114.5.86/E.193

Introduction to Section E

SECTION F CORRESPONDENCE CSAC 114.5.86/F.1-CSAC 114.5.86/F 53

SECTION G BIOGRAPHICAL CSAC 114.5.86/G 1-CSAC 114.5.86/G.14

Correspondence about the Society for Freedom in Science, which Baker cofounded with M. Polanyi, does not form part of the present deposit.

Section D includes a sequence of notebooks covering Baker's undergraduate and research careers and reflecting his interests in microscopy, chemical contraception and scientific biography. There is also a major accumulation of more varied material (correspondence, notes and drafts, and background material) respecting research undertaken towards the end of Baker's life on the humane killing of crustacea.

Section E, the most substantial in the supplementary catalogue, also reflects interests on which Baker concentrated in his last year - anthropology and race. In particular in contains very considerable documentation (drafts, correspondence with publishers and colleagues) for Baker's book Race, published by the Oxford University Press in 1974. N.B. CSAC 114.5.86/E.50-CSAC 114.5.86/E.52, the autograph ms. of chapter 23, was formerly CSAC 114.5.86/D.1 in the earlier catalogue (CSAC 69/7/79).

Section F contains what survives of Baker's general scientific correspondence. Much is in the form of photocopies, the originals being retained by Baker's family.

Section G is a very small biographical section, also principally photocopies of material in family hands.

Compiled by Jeannine Alton and Peter Harper

The work of the Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre, and the production of this catalogue, are made possible by the support of the following societies and institutions

The Biochemical Society

The Charles Babbage Foundation for the History of Information Processing

The Institute of Physics

The Institution of Electrical Engineers

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers

The Nuffield Foundation

The Rhodes Trustees

The Royal Society of London

The Wolfson Foundation

PRESENTATION

The material has been sectionalised to follow the sequence of the catalogue compiled in 1979 (CSAC 69/7/79) with Section D (Research and publications) in the present catalogue replacing Section D (Publication) in the earlier catalogue.

LOCATIONS OF FURTHER MATERIAL

Diaries and other material relating to scientific expeditions to the New Hebrides in the 1920s and 1930s are retained by Baker's family.

Index cards used by Baker in respect of his work on anthropology and race are preserved at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, Oxford.

Baker, John Randal, 1900-1984, scientist and cytologist

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

THE KEEPER OF WESTERN MANUSCRIPTS

BODLEIAN LIBRARY

OXFORD

PROVENANCE

The material was received from Dr. Baker's family in 1985 for cataloguing by the Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre and deposit in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, as stipulated in his will.