Archives of the Department of Chemistry

The University created a Chair of Chemistry for Giovanni Francisco Vigani in 1702. Successive professors lectured and demonstrated before the University, but formal study of the subject at undergraduate level did not enter the curriculum until the establishment of the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1851. The professor was given an official lecture room, shared with the Professor of Anatomy, in the newly vacated printing house on Queens' Lane between 1716 and 1786. In that year he moved into a new building in the Botanical Gardens; now shared with the Jacksonian Professor of Natural (Experimental) Philosophy and the Professor of Botany. The site of the Botanical Gardens was steadily developed, as the 'New Museums site', from the mid nineteenth century onwards for the study of sciences of all kinds. A purpose-built Chemistry laboratory fronting Free School Lane, Downing Street and Pembroke Street was completed in 1888. In the 1920s it was twice extended. In 1958, the Department moved to new, much more spacious accommodation on Lensfield Road. For historical information, see the following printed sources:- W.H. Mills, 'Schools of Chemistry in Great Britain and Ireland, 6: the University of Cambridge', Journal of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, 77 (1953), pp.423-31, 467-73 [ULC classmark P360.c.230.30]; John Read, Humour and humanism in Chemistry (G. Bell and Sons Ltd.; London, 1947) pp.284-300 [ULC classmark 360:13.c.90.7]; U.R. Evans and W.C. Lister, 'Memories of the Chemical Laboratory' in ACUA Review 1954, pp.30-4 [University Archives classmark ACUA 24).

The archives are patchy in their coverage of Departmental affairs; the largest proportion being records of the building of the new laboratories on Lensfield Road, including photographs.

The records were transferred to the University Archives in two batches by Mrs C. Cook and Mr D. Watson, Department of Chemistry Library, on 20 May 1986 and 6 Feb. 1987. CHEM 2/4-5 and 4/8 were transferred by P.Fox, University Librarian, on 12 July 2000.

CHEM 3: number not used.

Certain personal records are closed to scholars for 80 years from the date of creation under the terms of the Data Protection Act, 1998.

Requests to publish text should be addressed to the Keeper of Manuscripts and University Archives, photographs to the Head of Imaging Services. Both at Cambridge University Library, West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DR.

Please cite as Cambridge University Archives, Archives of the Department of Chemistry, CHEM

For further records relating to Chemistry among the University Archives, see: BCHEM; CUR 39.11-39.11.1, 39.50, 39.55, 113.1, 125; FB M309/1; Min.V.83-8, 147-57; O.XIV.15-19, 283; P.II.8, 10, 23-4, XIV, XX, XLVI; PC; Prem.VII.11; Synd.IV.11; VCCorr.VI.1/3.

The online catalogue for Janus was completed in October 2005 and emended in May 2007.