This is a list of accessions in 2024 and 2025, of archives and books, in History of Science, Technology and Medicine, at the University of Manchester Library. The usual terms and conditions apply: uncatalogued and/or unconserved material may not be immediately available, so if you are interested, please contact the University Archivist James Peters or Steven Hartshorne, the curator in charge of HSTM rare books about this in advance. You can find their contact details here.

Printed Books

Lecture notes for chemical students : embracing mineral and organic chemistry. / By Edward Frankland, F.R.S., For. Sec. C.S.
London : John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, 1866
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma9914798344401631

The life and letters of Faraday. : In two volumes. / By Dr. Bence Jones, Secretary of the Royal Institution.
London : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1870
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma992991307229701631

Lecture notes for chemical students. / By Edward Frankland
London : John van Voorst, Paternoster Row., 1870-1872
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma992991237040801631

Experimental researches in pure, applied and physical chemistry / by E. Frankland.
London : John van Voorst, 1877
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma9913111104401631

Agricultural chemical analysis / by Percy Faraday Frankland.
London : Macmillan and Co., 1883
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma992991307230001631

Inorganic chemistry / by Edward Frankland and Francis R. Japp.
London : J. & A. Churchill, 11, New Burlington Street, 1884
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma9914465884401631

Sketches from the life of Edward Frankland : born January 18, 1825, died August 9, 1899 / edited and concluded by his two daughters, Margaret Nannie West and Sophie Jeanette Colenso.
London : Printed by Spottiswoode & Co., Ltd., 1902
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma99214634401631

Various scientific texts owned by Sir Edward Frankland or members of his family, donated as part of the Frankland Family Archive (FRA). Some volumes contain extensive annotations.

A life of inquiry : a personal memoir of a Manchester scientist / Malcolm Norcliffe Jones.
Manchester : Empire Publications, 2015
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma992975856423501631

Biological interfaces : an introduction to the surface and colloid science of biochemical and biological systems / by Malcolm N. Jones.
Amsterdam ; Oxford ; New York : Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, 1975
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma99380424401631

Biochemical thermodynamics / edited by M.N. Jones.
Amsterdam ; Oxford ; New York : Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, 1979
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma991279694401631

Membrane biophysics : lectures : 7-11 September, 1987. Palacio de la Magdalena, Santander (Spain) / Second Europhysics Summer School on Chemical Physics.
Madrid : Vicerrectorado de Investigación. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 1988
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma992990809304201631

Biochemical thermodynamics / edited by M.N. Jones.
Amsterdam ; Oxford ; New York ; Tokyo : Elsevier, 1988
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma998206564401631

Micelles, monolayers, and biomembranes / Malcolm N. Jones, Dennis Chapman.
New York ; Chichester ; Brisbane ; Toronto ; Singapore : Wiley-Liss, c1995
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma998272424401631

Humic and fulvic acids : isolation, structure, and environmental role / Jeffrey S. Gaffney, editor, Nancy A. Marley, editor, Sue B. Clark, editor.
Washington, DC : American Chemical Society, 1996
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma992990809304101631

Various texts produced or edited by Malcolm Norcliffe Jones, Reader in Physical Biochemistry at the University, who also completed his undergraduate and post-graduate degrees here.

Dobokukō yōroku / Giichi Takatsu
Tōkyō : Naimushō Dobokukyoku ; Hatsubai Yūrindō, 1881
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma992990188070501631

A handbook of civil engineering construction that merges the techniques of the Edo period shogunate’s civil engineering contractors with Western-style construction methods taught by oyatoi gaikokujin (foreigners employed to aid the “enlightenment” of Meiji-era Japan). The volumes include descriptions and illustrations of: methods of erosion control, kereppu (a water control method introduced by Dutch engineers to maintain river channels; the word kereppu is said to be derived from the Dutch word krip (water control)), a method that uses piles of wood to divert water from the rapids of a river, kuidashi (a type of water control involving driving piles into the ground), a method used to restore levees breached by floods, irihi (a flume installed across an embankment and used for intake and drainage of water), a method of protecting riverbanks by covering them with grass and clay, kagodashi (a water control system built by lining up cages filled with stones at right angles to the flow of a river), wooden frames used for water control of gravel and sandy rivers, and other construction methods used to change the flow of a river.

An Act to enable the Company of Proprietors of the canal navigation from Manchester to Bolton and to Bury, to make and maintain a railway from Manchester to Bolton and to Bury, : in the County Palatine of Lancaster, upon or near the line of the said canal navigation; and to make and maintain a collateral branch to communicate therewith. [1831]
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma992990822523801631

A copy of the act previously owned by Sir John Tobin, who was on the provisional board that founded the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

Theophrasti Paracelsi chirurgia vulnerum / Paracelsus
Basileae, : Apud Petrum Pernam., [1569]
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma992990870255801631

The first Latin edition (translated from the German by Gerhard Dorn) of Paracelsus’ work on the management of wounds and chronic ulcers. These conditions were overtreated at the time, and Paracelsus’ success lay in his conservative, noninterventionist approach, which was based upon his belief in natural healing power and mumia, an active principle in tissues.

A history of the birds of Europe : including all the species inhabiting the western palaeactic region / by H. E. Dresser.
London : Published by the author, 1871-1881.
Note: Uncatalogued; item arriving 03/26.

The author’s own unique copy with signed bookplate including Dresser’s pre-publication notes to the printers. Composed of 17 volumes (9 volumes of text including index and supplement and 8 volumes of plates) and includes additional wood engraved titles, containing the 721 hand-coloured lithographic plates by J. G. Keulemans, Joseph Wolf, Archibald Thorburn, and Edward Neale. Most plates also in uncoloured states (with or without letters, sometimes in more than one version), some plates in additional coloured state to incorporate alterations, some with manuscript annotations (predominantly in Dresser’s hand).

The Peter Mohr Collection
Note: Uncatalogued.

Dr Peter Mohr worked as a consultant neurologist at Salford Royal Hospital for 30 years and following his retirement undertook an MSc and PHD in medical history at CHSTM (Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine) under Professor John Pickstone and worked as an honorary volunteer and advisor at the Museum of Medicine and Health. The collection comprises approximately 400 volumes on the topics of polio, urology, anatomy, medical instruments, women in medicine and the history of medicine. It also includes some pre-1900 items, multivolume works and serials.

The engineer’s common-place book of practical reference : consisting of rules and tables familiarly adapted to factory and marine steam-engines : to which are added, extensive tables of circumferences, squares, cubes, areas of circles, superficies and solidities of spheres, &c. / by William Templeton.
London : Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1839
https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/permalink/44MAN_INST/1lr7mpn/alma992992346726201631

A 19th-century engineering reference manual compiled as a handy collection of rules, tables and data for working engineers. It was designed to provide quick “practical references” for calculations and measurements widely needed in engineering practice at the time.

Archive Accessions

This has generally been a quiet year with no large-scale accessions in the subject area. Accessions of note include the Martin Campbell-Kelly Collection, a history of computing collection, which relates particularly to the Manchester Mark I and Ferranti Mark I computers.  Campbell-Kelly studied the programming strategies and procedures for these computers and the archive includes his interviews with figures such as Geoff Tootill, Tony Brooker, Dietrich Prinz, Cecily Popplewell, and Alick Glennie.  

Other acquisitions include a set of lecture notes on mechanics by Professor Sam Edwards, 1963,   notebooks of student John Newton for the B.Sc. physics degree, 1936-1939 (a complete course set), unpublished essays by the Manchester doctor Reginald Luxton (1905-1984) on social and ethical aspects of medicine, and the papers of Malcolm Norcliffe Jones (1936-2023) , Reader in Physical Biochemistry at the University of Manchester from 1981 to 2001 Also accessioned is the digital archive of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Engagement (not currently accessible), this includes not only the records of the creation of the Centre, but also background material on the history of the Jodrell Bank Observatory.

Progress has been made with cataloguing HSTM collections, notably the publication of the catalogue of the Frankland Family archive, which includes the papers of the chemist Sir Edward Frankland, his son, Percy (also an academic chemist) and daughter-in-law Grace, a bacteriologist. This archive is a very important scientific collection for the period 1850-1920, and has been described in several Rylands blogs. Also catalogued are the Campbell-Kelly Collection (see above), the papers of Simon Lavington (1939-2025) relating to early initiatives in the study of the history of computing, and the correspondence of Edgar Woodall (1885-1974), a RAMC officer serving on the Western Front. In addition, a substantial group of files in the Jodrell Bank Observatory Archive has been catalogued, mainly covering the period 1980-2000. These are particularly important for the history of the Merlin/e-Merlin service. All catalogues can be found on ELGAR

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