IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0103 PEARSON
Held at: University College London
Title: Pearson (Karl) Papers
Date(s): 1840-1972
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 238 boxes, 1 outsize box, 3 volumes, 2 rolls, 1 folder
Name of creator(s): Pearson | Karl | 1857-1936 | mathematician and biologist
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born in London, 27 March 1857; educated at University College School and King's College Cambridge; Third Wrangler in Mathematics Tripos, 1879; studied medieval and sixteenth-century German literature, Berlin and Heidelberg Universities, 1879-1880; read law, called to the Bar by Inner Temple, 1881; delivered lectures on mathematics, philosophy and German literature at societies and clubs devoted to adult education; deputised for the Professor of Mathematics, King's College London, 1881, and for the Professor of Mathematics at University College London, 1883; formed the Men and Women's Club, with some others, to discuss equality between the sexes; appointed to Goldsmid Chair of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, University College London, 1884; appointed Professor of Geometry, Gresham College, 1891; collaborated with Walter Frank Raphael Weldon, Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, in biometry and evolutionary theory, 1891-1906; elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1896; founded journal Biometrika with Weldon and Francis Galton founder of the School of Eugenics at University College London, 1901; appointed first Galton Professor of Eugenics, University College London, 1911; formed Department of Applied Statistics incorporating the Biometric Laboratory and Galton Laboratory, University College London; founded journal Annals of Eugenics, 1925; retired, 1933, died at Coldharbour, Surrey, 27 April 1936. Publications: A first study of the inheritance of vision and of the relative influence of heredity and environment on sight (London, 1909); A preliminary study of extreme alcoholism in adults with A Barrington (London, 1910); editor of The common sense of the exact sciences (Kegan Paul & Co, London, 1885); On the correlation of fertility with social value: a cooperative study with others (1913); editor of Tables of the incomplete G-function: computed by the staff of the Department of Applied Statistics, University College (London, 1922); Study of the data provided by a baby-clinic in a large manufacturing town (Cambridge, 1922); editor of Tracts for computers (London, 1919); editor of Tables for statisticians and biometricians (London, 1914); A mathematical theory of random migration (1906); A monograph on albinism in man with E Nettleship and C H Usher (1911); Charles Darwin, 1809-1882, an appreciation (London, 1923); Darwinism, medical progress and eugenics The Cavendish lecture, 1912, an address to the medical profession (1912); Enthusiasm of the market place and of the study (1885); Eugenics and public health An address to public health officers (1912); Francis Galton, 1822-1922, a centenary appreciation (London, 1922); Home conditions and eyesight: some recent misinterpretations of the problem of nurture and nature; Mathematical contributions to the theory of evolution (1904); Matter and soul (1886); Mendelism and the problem of mental defect (1914); National life from the stand-point of science An address delivered at Newcastle (A & C Black, London, 1901); Nature and nurture, the problem of the future A presidential address (1910); On a practical theory of elliptical and pseudo-elliptical arches, with special reference to the ideal masonry arch with W D Reynolds and W F Stanton (1909); On the construction of tables and on interpolation (London, 1920); On the handicapping of the first-born (1914); On the relationship of health to the psychial and physical characters in school children (Cambridge, 1923); On the skull and portraits of George Buchanan (Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, London, 1926); Reaction! A criticism of Mr Balfour's attack on rationalism (1895); Side lights on the evolution of man (London, 1921); Social problems, their treatment, past, present, and future A lecture (1912); Studies in national deterioration (1907); Supplement to the memoir (by Ethel M Elderton) entitled: The influence of parental alcoholism on the physique and ability of the offspring A reply to the Cambridge economists (1910); editor of Tables of the incomplete beta-function (The Proprietors of Biometrika, London, 1934); The academic aspect of the science of eugenics A lecture delivered to undergraduates (1911); The chances of death and other studies in evolution (E Arnold, London, 1897); The ethic of freethought: a selection of essays and lectures (T Fisher Unwin, London, 1888); The fight against tuberculosis and the death-rate from phthisis (1911); The grammar of science (1892); The groundwork of eugenics (1909); The life, letters and labours of Francis Galton (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1914); The moral basis of socialism (W Reeves, London, 1887); The new university for London: a guide to its history and a criticism of its defects (T F Unwin, London, 1892); The positive creed of freethought: with some remarks on the relation of freethought to socialism (W Reeves, London, 1888); The problem of practical eugenics (1909); The right of the unborn child (Cambridge University Press, London, 1927); The science of man: its needs and its prospects (London, 1920); The skull and portraits of Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, and their bearing on the tragedy of Mary, Queen of Scots (1928); editor of The treasury of human inheritance (Dulau & Co, London, 1909); Tuberculosis, heredity and environment (1912); A study of the long bones of the English skeleton (London, 1919); On the sesamoids of the knee-joint (Cambridge, 1922); A second study of the influence of parental alcoholism on the physique and ability of the offspring (1910); editor of A second study of the statistics of pulmonary tuberculosis: marital infection (London, 1908); editor of A history of the theory of elasticity and of the strength of materials from Galilei to the present time (University Press, Cambridge, 1886-1893); The Trinity: a nineteenth century passion-play (E Johnson, Cambridge, 1882); A statistical study of oral temperatures in school children, with special reference to parental, environmental, and class differences with M H Williams and Julia Bell (1914); On the torsion resulting from flexure in prisms with cross-sections of uni-axial symmetry only with A W Young, M A Ethel and M Elderton (1918).
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers, 1840-1972, of and relating to Karl Pearson, comprising personal and family papers, 1844-1937 (Ref: 1-45); lectures and lecture notes, 1874-1972 (Ref: 46-84); papers relating to literary and scientific work [1870]-1936 (Ref: 85-229); papers relating to the history of the Department of Applied Statistics, University College London, 1895-1936 (Ref: 230-258); papers relating to the work of the Department of Statistics and of Pearson's colleagues, 1895-1962 (Ref: 267-346); papers relating to the journal Biometrika, 1900-1954 (Ref: 347-570); papers relating to Pearson's The life, letters and labours of Francis Galton, 1840-1931 (Ref: 571-598); papers relating to Pearson's wartime research (1914-1918), 1905-1923 (Ref: 599-612); acquired papers, 1842-1923 (Ref: 613-623); general correspondence [1843-1972] (Ref: 624-933). The collection also includes papers of Walter Frank Raphael Weldon (Jodrell Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at University College London), 1860-1935 (Ref: 259-266).
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English, and some German
System of arrangement:
Arranged in 11 sub-fonds as indicated in Scope and content.
Conditions governing access:
Mainly open, though parts of the correspondence sub-fonds remain closed. Access to some of the material in this collection is restricted or closed. See the description of each item for further information
Conditions governing reproduction:
Normal copyright restrictions apply.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Online catalogue now supersedes the printed handlist: A list of the papers and correspondence of Karl Pearson (1857-1936) held in the Manuscripts Room, University College London Library compiled by M Merrington, B Blundell, S Burrough, J Golden, J Hogarth (University College London, 1983). Note that the reference numbers in the printed handlist are no longer in use.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
The papers were presented to University College London Library between 1967 and 1980 by Karl Pearson's son and daughter, Egon Sharpe Pearson and Helga Sharpe Hacker.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
University College London Special Collections also holds Pearson's correspondence with Sir Francis Galton, 1893-1911 (Ref: GALTON); papers and correspondence of Pearson's son, Egon Sharpe Pearson, Professor of Statistics at University College London (Ref: E S PEARSON); and the Hacker papers, 1860-1975, being materials collected for a biography of Karl Pearson by his youngest daughter Helga Sharpe Hacker (Ref: HACKER).
Kings College Modern Archive Centre at Cambridge University holds letters to Henry Bradshaw, 1880-1885, (Ref: Bradshaw papers/2/72), and letters to Oscar Browning, 1877-1884, (Ref: OB); the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine holds correspondence with the Eugenics Society, 1921-1932, (Ref: SA/EUG); the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland holds correspondence with M L Tildesley, [1920-1936], (Ref: MS 294/17); the Royal Society holds some letters (see HMC MS papers of British scientists 1600-1940, 1982).
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Biographical details compiled using: Joanne Woiak, 'Pearson, Karl (1857-1936)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35442, accessed 30 Jan 2013].
Date(s) of descriptions: Sep 2000. Updated 2018.