Spear, Frederick Gordon, (1895-1980)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0120 PP/FGS
Held at	: Wellcome Library   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://wellcomelibrary.org/ ›
Full title	: Spear, Frederick Gordon, (1895-1980)
Date(s)	: 1908-1980
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 14 boxes, 3 large boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Spear | Frederick Gordon | 1895-1980 | radiologist
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Frederick Gordon Spear (1895-1980) MRCS, LRCP, DTM and H, DPH, was a radiologist. Spear originally studied tropical medicine, and spent some time at the Baptist Mission Hospital at Yakusu in the Belgian Congo in the early 1920s. In 1923 he returned to England and joined the Strangeways Research Laboratory, where he worked until his retirement, serving latterly as Deputy Director.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Frederick Gordon Spear, 1908-1980. These papers fall naturally into several distinct groups; items pertaining to his radiological research conducted in Cambridge at the Strangeways Laboratory, materials about the Strangeways Laboratory as an institution, presumably accumulated during his many years as deputy director, papers relating to his connections with other bodies associated with radiology, such as the Hospital Physicists Association and the British Institute of Radiology, of which he was president in 1961, publications and unpublished papers by him, and also some publications by others on subjects related to the work he was doing.

A very small amount of material, not classifiable under these headings, has been put together in a 'Personal' section. While Spear originally studied tropical medicine, and spent some time at the Baptist Mission Hospital at Yakusu in the Belgian Congo in the early 1920s this aspect of his career is not represented in these papers. Received along with Spear's papers were a number of notebooks formerly belonging to his first wife Ada Louisa Sowerby, which she kept during her nurse and midwifery training in London in the later 1920s.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The collection is divided into sections as follows:
A Personal [1/2 box]
B Radiological research at the SRL [11/2 boxes + 1 oversize]
C Strangeways Research Laboratory: historical items [4 boxes, 2 oversize]
D Other bodies [2 boxes]
E Writings: by Spear [3 boxes] and by others [11/2 boxes]
F A. Sowerby's notebooks [11/2 boxes]

Conditions governing access:

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

These papers of Dr Spear were given to the Wellcome Library in 1986 by his daughter, Mrs G.M. Carpenter. Some additional material (originally in Mrs Carpenter's possession) was received from David Cantor in April 1991. A bound set of "tissue culture" reprints belonging to Spear was received from Dr. R. Lawrence of the Strangeways Research Laboratory in November 1995 (Acc. 601: PP/FGS/C.59-65).

Allied Materials

Related material:

In the Wellcome Library: The archives of the Strangeways Research Laboratory are held as SA/SRL. The papers of Dr A. Glucksmann (GC/91) also have relevant material.

In other repositories: Additional Spear papers on radiation martyrs are held at the British Institute of Radiology.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Copied from the Wellcome Library catalogue by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions:
In compliance with ISAD (G): General International Standard Archival Description - 2nd Edition (1999); UNESCO Thesaurus, December 2001; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Jan 2009