Special Collections: Rare Books and Archives – Psychology
The archives cover the work of the Department and its eminent psychologists with items including photographs, notebooks, lecture notes, minutes and accounts. Material dates from 1875 with James Ward, up until 1987 with Oliver Zangwill. The collection has largely been assembled by John Mollon, DSc FRS, Professor of Neuroscience. The image on the right shows the notebooks of Dr W.S. Stiles, OBE, FRS whose papers are held in the Archive. Of particular importance is the correspondence spanning many years with the Cambridge physiologist, W.A.H. Ruston, FRS, which he carefully pasted into these notebooks.
The Archive is kept as a storage for the existing information produced in the department intending to inform, support and document our history. This gives the opportunity for scientists to access the source of when everything started.
The Departmental Archive contains rare and unique materials from key figures working in Experimental Psychology at Cambridge from 1870 onwards. Materials include personal papers and correspondence, minutes and notebooks, photographs and pamphlets/reprints.
Catalogued collections include:
- Kenneth Craik
- W.H.R Rivers and his work with Henry Head
- Frederic Bartlett
- R.C. Oldfield
- George Humphrey
- A.J. Watson
To access our repository, visit the Department of Psychology Repository.
Please note that a number of collections are at present uncatalogued, including the papers of Oliver Zangwill, Alice Heim, and W.S. Stiles. These collections will likely be unavailable to consult at this time.
For further enquiries or to arrange a visit, contact us at psychology@lib.cam.ac.uk.