Waller family papers

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 1530 D11
Held at	: Royal Free Hospital Archives Centre   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/a?_ref=1530 ›
Full title	: Waller family papers
Date(s)	: c1890-1969
Level of description	: Collection (Fonds)
Extent	: 0.6 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Waller | Mary Désirée | 1886-1959 | physicist Waller | Augustus Desiré | 1856-1922 | physiologist

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Mary Désirée Waller: Born 21 Oct 1886, daughter of Professor Augustus Waller and Alice (née Palmer); educated at Cheltenham Ladies College, 1901-1903 and Bedford College, London, 1906-1911; BSc, University of London, 1911; carried out research work in physics at the University of London Physiological Laboratory and the Royal College of Science, 1912; Demonstrator (1912-1915), Lecturer (1915-1942) and Senior Lecturer (1942-1947) in Physics, London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women; PhD, University of London, 1941; died 11 Dec 1959. Publications: Chladani Figures, A Study in Symmetry, (G Bell & Sons, London, 1961); more than 30 articles, mainly on Chladani figures and the vibration of free plates in the Proceedings of the Physical Society, the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Nature, Acustica and other journals.

Augustus Desiré Waller: Born Paris, 1856, son of Augustus Volney Waller, MD, FRS; educated at Collège de Genève; University of Aberdeen, (MB, 1878, MD, 1881); lecturer in Physiology at London School of Medicine for Women, 1883 and St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, 1884; FRS 1892; Director, University of London Physiology Laboratory, 1903-1922; Professor, University of London, 1912; married 1895, Alice Mary, dau. of George Palmer MP; died in London, 1922. His research interests were in the emerging field of electro-physiology, in which he made useful contributions to the study of fatigue in muscle, and the nature of cardiac potentials. He made the first recording of the human electrocardiogram in 1887. Publications: Introdution to Human Physiology, 1891, Animal Electricity, 1897; Signs of Life, 1903; Physiology, the Servant of Medicine, 1910; The Psychology of Logic, 1912.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Dr Mary Désirée Waller, 1908-1969; comprising personal correspondence, photographs and papers relating to her education, research and teaching at Bedford College and the London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women (LSMW), 1908-1952, comprising:
note on the establishment of Bedford College Science Demonstration Club, c1908;
papers on the life and work of her father, Professor Augustus D Waller (1856-1922), head of the University of London Physiological Laboratory and lecturer at LSMW, particularly his discovery of the electrocardiogram in 1887, and her mother, Alice (née Palmer) a former student at LSMW;
notes for speeches by Waller, mainly at LSMW Prizegivings and dinners;
scrapbook, 1912-1952, containing notes, offprints of articles, correspondence, press cuttings, including papers on Waller's appearance on BBC Television in 1937 and 1938, giving a demonstration of the properties of frozen carbon dioxide;
correspondence, papers and proofs relating to the posthumous publication of Waller's book Chladani Figures, A Study in Symmetry, 1957-1969; including correspondence between Waller's literary Executor, Dr Bertha Turner and the publishers, G Bell & Sons, London and with the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine on income from the book being credited to the Augustus and Alice Waller Research Fund, 1960-1969;
photographs of the Waller and Palmer families, c1890-1949, figures and illustrations for books.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Unsorted

Conditions governing access:

Researchers wishing to consult the Archives should first contact the Archivist, Royal Free Hospital Archives Centre, 'The Hoo', 17 Lyndhurst Gardens, London NW3 5NU, for an appointment.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish, or to quote from. original material should be submitted to the Archivist.

Finding aids:

None

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Given by Dr Waller's executors, date unknown.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The Centre also holds Records of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine.

University of London (Library - Senate House) holds a medical notebook (Ref MS 605) complied by Augustus Desiré Waller in the late 19th century with numerous citations from German medical authorities, a list of Waller's own publications, printed papers by him and other printed notices of his experiments and a sketchbook of William Waller, son of Augustus Desiré Waller, containing pen and ink drawings of rural scenes in Derbyshire (Ref MS 606).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled May 2001, revised by Alan Kucia as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project, Dec 2001.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G), 2nd edition, 2000. National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Created 17 May 2001, revised Dec 2001