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Royal Statistical Society

Pearson Papers


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 1060 DP002 Pearson

Held at: Royal Statistical Society

Title: Pearson Papers

Date(s): 1933-1934; 1955

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 1 box

Name of creator(s): Pearson | Egon Sharpe | 1895-1980 | statistician

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Egon Sharpe Pearson was born in Hampstead, London, in 1895, the middle child of Karl Pearson and his wife Maria Sharpe. He was educated at Winchester College and Cambridge University, graduating in 1920 and joined his father's Department of Applied Statistics at University College London in 1921 becoming assistant editor of Biometrika, the statistical journal co-founded by Karl Pearson, in 1924. In 1933 Pearson succeeded his father as Head of Department at UCL; three years later, when Karl Pearson died, he also became Managing Editor of Biometrika.

In 1930, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS). During a visit to the USA in 1931, Pearson met Walter Shewart of the Bell Telephone Laboratory with whom he discussed quality control in industry. The following year he presented a paper to the RSS on industrial applications of statistics which led directly to the formation of the Industrial and Agricultural Research Section (IARS) of the Society. He was on the Council of the RSS from 1934 to 1951, serving as Vice-President in 1945/6 and again in 1947/8 and was elected President for 1955-1957.

He married in 1934 and had two children; his wife died in 1949. Pearson died in 1980.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Egon Pearson papers,1933-1934, 1955: paper 'Sampling Problems in Industry' given at the 3rd meeting of IARS, Mar 1934, manuscript draft and typescript of text; manuscript notes introducing discussion at the meeting; correspondence relating to the collection of sampling data from industry and other information for preparation of the papers; invitations to attend and post-meeting comments, Dec 1933-Mar 1934.

Some Aspects of the Geometry of Statistics, 1955 RSS Presidential Address, manuscript and typescript with diagrams.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

As indicated in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

Generally available to bona fide researchers.

Conditions governing reproduction:

At the discretion of the Archives Consultant and subject to copyright.

Finding aids:

Summary list.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited with the Society by E S Pearson in 1971.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material:

University College London Special Collections hold 30 boxes of professional and personal papers and correspondence of Egon Sharpe Pearson.

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Compiled by Janet Foster, Archives Consultant, RSS.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: October, 2008


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Industry
Statistics

Personal names
Pearson | Egon Sharpe | 1895-1980 | statistician

Corporate names
Royal Statistical Society

Places