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Max Nicholson and Julian Huxley papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS 0054
Finding aid note: Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.

Scope and Contents

The Max Nicholson/Julian Huxley papers consist of correspondence, documents, typescripts, articles, and off-prints. The subject of the collection is primarily the materials related to Nicholson's publication efforts with other scholars, including Jacob Bronowski, Julian Huxley, Francis Williams, and Barbara Wootton, from the years 1927 to 1980s. Nicholson was active in nature conservation, which is one the strongest themes occurring throughout this collection.

Series I concerns Nicholson's collaboration with his contemporaries (including Julian Huxley) on projects such as the Idea Systems Group and consists of minutes, working papers and internal correspondence. Series II consists of correspondence and papers between Huxley and Nicholson regarding various organizations, such as the Center for the Study of Mankind; the Human Potentialities of Peace, which was a proposal for a Pugwash (COSWA) Conference; Post-War Aims Group/P.E.P. Club; and the proposed E. African Academy of Science.

Dates

  • circa 1927-1980s

Creator

Access Restrictions

This material is open for research.

Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from the Max Nicholson and Julian Huxley Papers must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University

Biographical Note

Max (Edward) Nicholson was born July 12, 1904, in County Dublin, Ireland. From his early years he was encouraged in his love of nature and became an active ornithologist. His first career, however, involved writing on socio-economic affairs; he was the first Director of the Political and Economic Planning (PEP) 'think tank,' and rose to high rank in the British Civil Service during the Second World War. He later changed careers and became active in environmental causes. He was a co-founder of the World Wildlife Fund along with Julian Huxley, Peter Scott, and Guy Mountfort. He was also a staunch supporter of the International Union for Conservation, and was instrumental in creation of the government-sponsored Nature Conservancy (now English Nature), of which he served as director-general from 1952-66. He died in London on April 26, 2003, at the age of 98. Excerpted from the Encyclopedia Britannica and from a report of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation [The World Conservation Union]).

Excerpted from the Encyclopedia Britannica and from a report of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation [The World Conservation Union]).

Sir Julian Huxley was born June 22, 1887 in London. He died Feb. 14, 1975 in London. "Julian, a grandson of the prominent biologist T.H. Huxley and the oldest son of the biographer and man of letters Leonard Huxley, was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, and saw service during World War I. His scientific researches included important work on hormones, developmental processes, ornithology, and ecology. He worked for some years at the Rice Institute in Houston, Texas; became professor of zoology at King's College, London University; served for seven years as secretary to the Zoological Society of London, transforming the zoo at Regent's Park and being actively involved in the development of that at Whipsnade in Bedfordshire; and became a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1919 he married Marie Juliette Baillot, daughter of a Swiss lawyer, by whom he had two sons: Anthony Julian Huxley, who conducted valuable operational research on aircraft, became an authority on exotic garden plants, and produced the standard encyclopaedia on mountains, and Francis Huxley, who became a lecturer in social anthropology at Oxford. Julian Huxley was the first director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1946–48. He was knighted in 1958. A biography The Huxleys by Ronald W. Clark was published in 1968."

On February 14, 1975, at the age of 87, Sir Julian Huxley died.

Excerpted from "Huxley, Sir Julian." Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Online. [Accessed August 11, 2005].

Extent

1.5 Linear Feet ( (2 boxes))

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The Max Nicholson/Julian Huxley papers consist of correspondence, documents, typescripts, articles, and off-prints (c. 1927-1980s) relating to Nicholson's collaboration with his contemporaries (including Julian Huxley) on projects such as the Idea Systems Group and publication of The Humanist Frame.

Acquisition Information

Rice University purchased the The Max Nicholson and Julian Huxley papers from the bookseller Bertram Rota Ltd. of London in 1988.
Title
Guide to the Max Nicholson and Julian Huxley Papers, circa 1927-1980s
Status
Completed
Date
2011
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Woodson Research Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas Repository

Contact:
Fondren Library MS-44, Rice University
6100 Main St.
Houston Texas 77005 USA