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A few of my favourite [festive!] things
At the start of the festive period, I had the best of intentions to post a festive blog post for every day of advent. Alas, there isn’t much mention of Christmas in Thomson’s papers – even his family...
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A letter from Pip
Some of the most interesting letters in Thomson’s collection were sent to his widow following his death in 1955. The following, from psychiatrist and secretary of the Eugenics society Carlos Paton...
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The disgruntlements of old age…
Disgruntlement. The archives are full of it – though I should stress I am referring to the contents of our records rather than our lovely readers (or indeed my lovely colleagues)! This week’s letter...
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Gathering Intelligence: A free seminar regarding Thomson’s life and work
Our Wellcome Trust funded project*, ‘Documenting the Understanding of Human Intelligence: cataloguing and preserving the papers of Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson’, is on course to deliver on all its...
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The love story of Hector and Andromache…
Valentines Day. A wonderful time of year when we can indulge in levels of cynicism and sarcasm simply unacceptable at any other! However, here in the archives our hardened hearts are often...
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‘The old conditions cannot continue, and some new form of political and...
All of history seems to be contained in the letters of ordinary people living in extraordinary times. We may know what backdrop will emerge, but there are seldom enough traces to discover the fate of...
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A few of my favourite things V: a gift from ‘the Polish Teachers in Uniform’
My favourite item from all the collections I have worked with in the past 10 months is a beautiful album in the Moray House collection. The album was made for Thomson by the ‘Polish Students in...
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‘Towards a better understanding of human relations’
This week’s letter from Thomson’s collection comes courtesy of psychologist and psychoanalyst, John Carl Flügel (1884–1955): The letter was one of many sent from eminent psychologists, mathematicians,...
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The simple art of reference writing
As I am now coming to the end of my time in Edinburgh cataloguing the papers of Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson, references aren’t terribly far from my mind! But I had some pause for thought after a...
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Godfrey and Hector Thomson
(Coll-1310/1/2/2 Family Photographs) With father’s day coming up this weekend, I thought it would be interesting to blog about the father/son relationship between Godfrey and Hector Thomson. When...
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