Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Norman George Heatley OBE (b 1911),...

SECTION A LABORATORY NOTEBOOKS A.1 - A.4

SECTION B NARRATIVES AND DIARY ENTRIES B.1 - B.8

SECTION C DESCRIPTIONS AND DIAGRAMS OF APPARATUS C.1 - C.5

SECTION D CORRESPONDENCE WITH H.W. FLOREY D.1 - D.4

The core of the material is the group of three laboratory notebooks (A.1 - A.3) kept by Heatley to record the research on penicillin at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, October 1939 - June 1941, and the various sketches and diagrams of apparatus made by him in 1941 (C.1 - C.5).

These contemporary records have been usefully expanded by narratives and explanatory notes prepared by Heatley for the present collection and quoted (in part) with permission in the catalogue entries, and by extracts taken by him from his personal diaries for 1939 - 42 which refer to his research.

The correspondence and reports exchanged between Heatley and Florey at D.1 - D.4 is a set of photocopies, included here to provide a complete account of the collaboration between the two on the penicillin project.

Compiled by Jeannine Alton and Peter Harper

The work of the Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre, and the production of this catalogue, are made possible by the support of the following societies and institutions:

The Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland

The Biochemical Society

The British Pharmacological Society

The Charles Babbage Foundation for the History of Information Processing

The Institute of Physics

The Institution of Electrical Engineers

The Nuffield Foundation

The Physiological Society

The Royal Society of London

NOT ALL THE MATERIAL IN THE COLLECTION IS YET AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION. ENQUIRIES SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN THE FIRST INSTANCE TO:

THE ARCHIVIST,

CONTEMPORARY MEDICAL ARCHIVES CENTRE,

WELLCOME INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF

MEDICINE, LONDON

The material was received from Dr. Heatley at various dates between January 1980 and June 1983.

Norman George Heatley was born in 1911 and educated at Tonbridge School and at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1933. From 1933 to 1936 he worked under J. Needham at the School of Biochemistry, Cambridge, on microchemical methods applied to biological problems, and obtained his doctorate in 1936.

On 3 September 1936 Heatley came at the invitation of Professor (later Lord) Florey to the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford, initially to work with E.B. (later Sir Ernst) Chain and, later, from 1 October 1939, directly with Florey. This close collaboration continued to June 1941 when Heatley accompanied Florey to America, bearing with him his research notebooks and sketches for apparatus; he remained there until June 1942. After his return to Oxford he resumed work at the Dunn School, and was a Nuffield Research Fellow of Lincoln College 1948 - 78. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1978 for his contributions to scientific research.