Rutherford archival material now available online
Ernest Rutherford
The University of Canterbury Library has digitised its collection of archival material relating to Ernest, Lord Rutherford.
Archivist Jeff Palmer said the Rutherford Collection, which was now available on the Library’s website, contained digital representations of nearly all the original material held by the Macmillan Brown Library by and about Rutherford.
Rutherford (1871-1937) is one of UC’s most accomplished alumni, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 for his investigations into the disintegration of elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances. He attended Canterbury College from 1890-1894, obtaining three degrees: BA, MA with double first class honours in mathematics and physics, and a BSc. He was later granted a DSc and Canterbury College’s first honorary DSc.
“Users can read letters, notes and minutes written by Rutherford, view the famous, or infamous, depending on one’s perspective, Rutherford lampshades, and peruse the library’s extensive collection of Rutherford certificates, scrolls and medals,” Palmer said.
“The digitisation of this collection marks 100 years since Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize and is the first time this material has been made available to the public in such a comprehensive and accessible fashion.”
Included in the archives is a handwritten letter from Rutherford to the Canterbury College Board of Governors. Written in January 1909, Rutherford thanks the College for its kind congratulations on the Nobel Prize.
“I have a happy remembrance of my old College days and of my first researches in the basement of one of the lecture rooms. I learnt more of research methods in those first investigations under somewhat difficult conditions than in any work I have done since,” Rutherford wrote.
“If there is any credit to be apportioned for winning a Nobel Prize, I think that Canterbury College may take a fair share; for it was there that I was well trained in mathematics and physics by Professor Cook and Professor Bickerton. Both were excellent teachers and Professor Bickerton’s genuine enthusiasm for science gave a stimulus to me to start investigations of my own.”