Ronald Norrish: Papers and Correspondence

This small group of papers represents all that survives of the manuscript records of this distinguished chemist and Nobel Prize winner. It consists of correspondence received by Dainton and Thrush while they were working on the Royal Society memoir of Norrish, a few school and undergraduate diaries and notebooks, and some rather miscellaneous notes, drafts and correspondence. These include a complete draft for a very early (1922) unpublished paper 'Colour and Atomic Constitution ...' and some notes on disassociation which illustrate the basis of much of Norrish's classical photochemical work in the 1930s. The correspondence owes its survival to chance rather than merit and in any case is very sparse, although there are a few letters which reflect on Cambridge chemistry in the early 1900s.

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

This is an abbreviated record. An complete online catalogue, created by NCUACS, is available on the National Archives website at http://tinyurl.com/ronaldnorrish

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.