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Collection Description
Humphrey Thomas Pledge, CBE (1903–60) spent almost the whole of his working life in the Science Museum Library and is best known for his book Science Since 1500 (HMSO,1939; 2nd ed. 1966). The Archive contains manuscript notes, drafts, working papers, and a small amount of correspondence. Throughout his life Pledge had been accumulating material for an ambitious project which would be both an encyclopedia of world history and an interpretation and synthesis of knowledge. The collection was donated to the Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre (CSAC) in Oxford by Mrs Ruth Pledge. The papers had been stored for ten years following Pledge’s death and many were marked by rust and corroded metal. The CSAC sorted and listed the collection, and deposited the papers at the ÄûÃÊÊÓƵ in 1974.