QUEKETT, John Thomas (1815-1861)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0027
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: QUEKETT, John Thomas (1815-1861)
Date(s)	: [1840-1854]
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 3 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Quekett | John Thomas | 1815-1861 | histologist
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, Langport, Somerset, 1815; educated by his father; gained an interest in microscopes early in life; at sixteen gave a course of lectures to the pupils of his school; apprenticed to a surgeon at Langport, and moved to London as apprentice to his brother Edwin; student at the London Hospital Medical College, and at Kings College; Royal Microscopical Society was founded in 1839 as the Microscopical Society of London in the house of Edward Quekett; qualified, 1840; won a three year Studentship in Human and Comparative Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons; lectured on histology; Secretary, Microscopical Society, 1841-1860; Assistant Conservator of the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1843; Demonstrator of Minute Anatomy, 1844-1852; his collection of 2,500 microscopical preparations purchased by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1846; Professor in Histology at the Royal College of Surgeons, 1852; gave some instruction to Prince Albert on the use of his microscope; Conservator of the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1856; Fellow of the Linnean Society, 1857; Fellow and President of the Royal Society, 1860; died Pangbourne, Berkshire, 1861; Quekett Microscopic Club was named in his honour, 1865.
Publications: A Practical Treatise on the Use of the Microscope (London, 1848); Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the Histological Series contained in the Museum of the Royal College, etc. Vol. 1. Elementary tissues of vegetables and animals [By J T Duckett] (London, 1850); Lectures on Histology ... Elementary Tissues of Plants and Animals ... Illustrated by woodcuts 2 vol (London, 1852-54); Lectures of Histology Vol 11 structure of the skeleton of plants and invertebrate animals (Bailliere 1854).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of John Thomas Quekett, [1840-1854], relating to his work as Conservator of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, comprising diaries, 1840-1848, which include references to prominent microscopists of the time, such as Carpenter, West, Ross, Sowerby, and Smith of Smith and Beck; notebook, containing some sketches and including notes on experiments on frogs, 1841; ?draft catalogues of the Histological Series in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and catalogue of Pathology, [c1840-1860]; catalogue of Hewson's Preparations, [c1840-1860]; unpublished part of Quekett's catalogue of histological series; Lectures on Histology delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons 1852-1854 with annotations by Quekett; notes for lectures on histology delivered in the session 1853-1853, on the structure on the skeleton of vertebrate animals, with original drawings.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The records are arranged as outlined in the scope and content.

Conditions governing access:

Open to bona fide researchers by written appointment.

Conditions governing reproduction:

At the discretion of the Librarian.

Finding aids:

Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1928) by Victor G Plarr.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The Quekett papers were presented to the Royal College of Surgeons by Mrs Quekett in 1922.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Papers, 1849-1885 (64 items) held by the American Philosophical Society, including correspondence, drawings and publications. The correspondents include James Hilton, Julian S Huxley, John Pethereck, Sir James South, and Thomas Wormald.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Sources: Dictionary of National Biography (Smith, Elder and Co, London, 1895); website of the Quekett Microscopical Club http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/quekett/JTQ.html; Molecular Expressions Website http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/quekett.html; Historical Manuscripts Commission On-line National Register of Archives; British Library Public On-line Catalogue. Compiled by Julie Tancell as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.

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 2002