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King's College London College Archives

GATES, Professor Reginald Ruggles (1882-1962)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0100 KCLCA K/PP65

Held at: King's College London College Archives

Title: GATES, Professor Reginald Ruggles (1882-1962)

Date(s): 1896-1969

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 52 boxes

Name of creator(s): Gates | Reginald Ruggles | 1882-1962 | anthropologist, biologist, botanist and geneticist

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born Middleton, Nova Scotia, 1882; educated Middleton High School; BSc, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, 1899-1903; McGill University, 1903-1904; Vice-Principal of Middleton High School, 1904; Demonstrator in Botany, McGill University, 1905; research at Woods Hole, Massachusetts 1906-1908; Senior Fellow and graduated PhD, University of Chicago, 1908; first major visit to Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Holland and England), 1910; moved to England, 1911; research in laboratory of Farmer, Imperial College of Science, 1911; awarded Mendel Medal, 1911; Married Dr Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes, 1911 (annulled 1916); Lecturer in Biology, St Thomas's Hospital, London, 1912-1914; Huxley Medal and Prize, Imperial College, University of London, 1913; Lecturer in Cytology, Bedford College, London, 1912, 1914 and on Heredity in Relation to Cytology, Oxford University, 1914; moved to USA, 1914; Associate Professor in Zoology, University of California, [1915]; worked at the New York botanical garden [1915-1916]; returned to England and enlisted in the Artists' Rifles, 1916; Instructor in aerial gunnery, Royal Flying Corps (Corporal), 1917-1918; Reader in Botany, University of London King's College, 1919-1921; Professor of Botany, University of London King's College, 1921-1942; Society of Experimental Biology, Secretary, 1923-1928; Amazon expedition, 1925; expedition to Kola Peninsula tundra and inspecting Russian plant breeding stations, 1926-1927; Canadian Arctic expedition (the Mackenzie River) recording blood group frequencies amongst the Inuit and indigenous Canadian population, 1928, South African expedition, making photographic records of South African peoples 1929; married Jane Williams, 1929 (dissolved); Consultative Council, Eugenics Society; Royal Anthropological Institute, Council, 1927-1933, 1935-1937; Council, Linnean Society, 1928-1932, Fellow of the Royal Society, 1931; Vice-President, 1931-1932; Council Royal Microscopical Society, Secretary, 1928-1930, President, 1930-1932, Honorary Fellow, 1951; delegate from British and American Associations to Indian Science Congress, Calcutta (Kolkata), 1937 also travelled in India during this time collecting botanic material and photographing jungle tribes; De Lamar Lectures at Johns Hopkins University on Human Heredity and Society, 1932; Lecture tour in American Universities, 1940-1942; Emeritus Professor, King's College London, 1943; Fellow of King's College; Lowell Lectures on Human Heredity, 1944; Research Fellow in Biology, Harvard University, 1946-1950; Honorary President of 7th International Botanical Congress, Stockholm, 1950 and of 8th Botanical Congress, Paris, 1954, while in Sweden visited Lapland to study Arctic vegetation and the Lapps; expedition to Cuban to study mixed race families, 1952; visit to North Africa, 1953; expedition to Mexico to study mixed race people, 1953; expedition to Eastern Canada to study indigenous Canadians, 1953; expedition to Japan to study Ainu people, racial genetics of the Japanese, and mixed race Japanese children, 1954; anthropological studies in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, 1955; married Laura Greer, 1955; studies in Australia, especially of mixed race indigenous Australians, 1958, studies in New Guinea, New Zealand, 1958; studies in India, including the Kurumbas and the Kanikars in South India and the Asurs, Bihors and Muria Gonds in North India, 1959; Far East, 1960; Anthropological Studies in Iran, 1961; Guest of Indian Statistical Institute, 1961-1962; died 1962.

Publications (selection only):
The mutation factor in evolution, with particular reference to Oenothera (Macmillan & Co, New York, 1915)
Heredity and eugenics (Constable & Co, London, 1923)
A botanist in the Amazon valley (Witherby, London, 1927)
Heredity and man (Constable & Co, London, 1929)
Human genetics 2 vols(Macmillan & Co, London and New York, 1946)
Human ancestry (Harvard University Press, 1948)
Pedigrees of Negro families (Blakiston & Co, Philadelphia and Toronto, 1949)
Genetic linkage in man (W Junk, The Hague, 1955)
Taxonomy and genetics of oenothera : forty years study in the cytology and evolution of the Onagraceae (W Junk, The Hague, 1958).

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Reginald Ruggles Gates, 1896-1969, including diaries and research notebooks, papers relating to Botanical Biology; Gates' research files; photographs; appointment diaries; correspondence; papers relating to professional memberships and conference material; press cuttings and published articles on his research interests. Including diaries and research notebooks, 1906-1962. Papers relating to Botanical Biology, an unpublished work by Gates, including manuscript notes, statistics, photographs and plant seeds. Research files, including draft papers by Gates such as notes from publications, articles, lecture transcripts, lecture notes, chapters of books, book reviews and others. Also photographs, articles, tables of data on physical characteristics of various peoples, graphs and charts, press cuttings and correspondence, on a variety of subjects including botany, oenothera, ethnic groups, race, genetics, biology, anthropology and Gates' anthropological studies in Australia, Canada, Cuba, India, Japan, Mexico, New Guinea, Okinawa, South Africa and Taiwan. Photographs from Gates' travels to Algeria, the Amazon river, Andamanese Islands, Australia, California, Canada, Canadian Arctic, Cuba, England, Gibraltar, Italy, India, Japan, Kenya, Morocco, New Guinea, Russia, Sicily, South Africa, South Rhodesia, Spain, Swedish Lapland and Tunisia; photographs of plant life, particularly oenothera; lecture slides; photographs used for publication in various books and articles by Gates; photographs of human and ape skulls and skeletons, photographs of people suffering from genetic diseases and personal photographs. Appointment diaries, 1921-1962. Personal and professional correspondence, including personal financial papers, 1903-1962. Papers relating to professional memberships and conference material, 1922-1962; press cuttings collected by Gates, 1915-1962 and printed material collected by Gates and his widow, 1928-1966, on subjects relating to his research including oenothera, botany, race, blood groups, physical anthropology, human biology, genetics, prehistoric man and population.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

The original order of the collection has been maintained as much as possible, although some alterations have been implemented. The research files retain their original order in a series of 114 files divided by subject. Appointment diaries and notebooks, professional memberships and conference material, papers relating to Botanical Biology, and press cuttings have retained their original order. Photographs have retained their original order where possible, many photographs were loose within the boxes and some attempt has been made to return these to their original groupings. Gates' correspondence lies in 31 chronological bundles: 7/11-7/30 are in their original order, arranged by year and alphabetically by name of correspondent. All others have been arranged chronologically. Printed material has been arranged chronologically by subject.

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive Services.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Detailed Catalogue available online and in hard copy in the College Archives reading room.

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Gates' papers were, among his library of books and pamphlets, presented to the library of King's College London in 1968 by his widow Mrs Laura Ruggles Gates.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

King's College London Library Special Collections holds Gates' library of books and pamphlets.

Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, holds correspondence, 1911-1940, between Gates and Dr Charles Chamberlain Hurst, geneticist (Reference: Acc MS 7955).British Library holds papers relating to Reginald Ruggles Gates and his marriage with Marie Carmichael Stopes; 1962-1973, n.d. (Reference: MS59848). Oxford University, Bodleian Library holds correspondence with C D Darlington related to the John Innes Institute; c1924-1962. Royal Botanic Garden, Kew holds correspondence, 1930-1940.

Publication note:

A full bibliography of Gates' works was published in the Biographical memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society, vol 10, Nov 1964.

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Sources: Who's Who; Dictionary of National Biography; National Register of Archives; British Library OPAC. Compiled by Robert Baxter. Revised by Sarah Drewery.

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: Aug 2000; Oct 2008


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Diaries | Nonfiction | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Eugenics | Heredity | Genetics
Photographs | Visual materials
Plant genetics | Botany
Press cuttings | Newspaper press | Press
Cytology x Cell biology
Physical anthropology x Anthropology
Biology
Ethnic Groups
Primary documents
Research work

Personal names
de Vries | Hugo Marie | 1848-1935 | botanist
Gates | Reginald Ruggles | 1882-1962 | anthropologist, biologist, botanist and geneticist
Lehmann | Hermann | 1910-1985 | biochemist and human geneticist

Corporate names
Bose Institute
Harvard University
Indian Statistical Institute
King's College London | Department of Botany
Royal Society

Places
Algeria | North Africa
Amazon River | South America
Andaman Islands | Andaman and Nicobar | India | South Asia
Australia | Oceania
California | USA | North America
Cuba | Caribbean
Japan | East Asia
Kenya | East Africa
London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe
Morocco | North Africa
New Guinea | Asia and the Pacific
Northwest Territories | Canada | North America
Ontario | Canada | North America
Russia | Eastern Europe
South Africa | Southern Africa
Spain | Western Europe | Europe
Sweden | Northern Europe | Western Europe | Europe
Taiwan | East Asia
Tunisia | North Africa
Zimbabwe | Southern Africa
Crimea x Krym