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Brief correspondence between Wilkins and biologist Jean Hanson, on topics including inadequate electron microscope provision in the Medical Research Council Biophysics Unit, King’s College London, 1962, and dealing with publishers’ representatives, 1965-1967

Correspondence between Wilkins and Robert Cormack, lecturer in Sociology, Queen’s University Belfast, including a transcript of an interview with Wilkins, 1973, and a subsequent draft article by Cormack on the history of research at King’s College London, 1963-1968, into the structure of transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA)

Papers, chiefly correspondence between Wilkins and Jerome Raymond (‘Jerry’) Ravetz, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Leeds University, relating to social ethics and science, including: correspondence between Wilkins’ and Peter Cadogan, Secretary, South Place Ethical Society, 1975, concerning a forthcoming talk by Wilkins; notes on a talk by Ravetz on the demystification of science; copy letters from Wilkins to Ravetz, 1976, commenting on Horace Freeland Judson’s and Robert Olby’s research on the history of DNA; booklet, ‘Superstar technologies’, on the problems of monitoring innovative technology companies, published 1976 by the Council for Science and Society, for which Ravetz was Executive Secretary. Original file title ‘Ravetz’

Correspondence and timetable of events relating to Wilkins’ honorary degree of Doctor of Science, from the University of London, Nov 1998

Glass slides (most captioned) of x-ray diffraction photographs of DNA and RNA, possibly used for teaching, including: examples of the earliest x-ray diffraction photographs made in the Medical Research Council (MRC) Biophysics Unit, King’s College London, c 1950; examples of DNA from different sources, including sepia and loligo sperm heads (both species of cephalopod), and locust sperm; comparisons between different DNA samples; examples of A, B and C form DNA; wire models of DNA structure; electron microscopy photographs of DNA and RNA; graphs of research data

Correspondence including requests for illustrations, chemical samples and advice on technical equipment.  Correspondence with John Kendrew, editor, Journal of Molecular Biology, relating chiefly to Wilkins’ reports on articles submitted for publication, with proof copies of some articles, and texts of Wilkins comments, CLOSED for review 2040.  Correspondence, 1958-1960, with IBM United Kingdom Ltd, concerning their support of the Biophysics Research Group, King’s College London, the allocation of computing time, and a typescript report, May 1959, on the use of the IBM 650 computer in DNA research at King’s College

Collected papers relating to the effects of nuclear attack, including: copy typescript joint Home Office and Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries memorandum, ‘Food and agriculture controls in war’ issued to local authorities in England and Wales, 1979; copy article by Kevin Lewis, ‘The prompt and delayed effects of nuclear war’, published in Scientific American, Vol 241 No 1, Jul 1979; typescript draft letter to The Times by Wilkins, May 1981 (not published), on the possibility of a starving population being driven to cannibalism following nuclear attack; article by Jonathan Schell, ‘Reflections: the fate of the earth 1: a republic of insects and grass’, published in The New Yorker, Feb 1982; undated Central Office of Information booklet, ‘Civil defence: why we need it’, with manuscript annotations. Personal data included in the file is CLOSED for review 2062. Original file title ‘Nuclear attack food etc’

Photographic prints, slides and photocopy images collected for possible use as illustrations in Wilkins’ lecture series, ‘Science and the divine’, given as the Eddington memorial lectures, Cambridge, Apr-May 1978.  Images include: examples of Egyptian, Greek and Roman art; medieval religious art; illustrations of philosophical concepts; illustrations of early technologies, including book binding and milling; anatomical illustrations; works by artists including Hans Holbein, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, William Blake, Vincent Van Gogh and Rene Magritte.  Also a manuscript list of possible illustrations, and background information on the Mary Evans Picture Library

These photographs and illustrations were originally stored separately from his other files by Wilkins. This arrangement has been preserved.

Article by Jack J Fox and David Shugar, ‘Absorption spectra and structure of barbituric acid derivatives as a function of pH’, offprint from Bulletin des Sociétés Chimiques Belges, no 61, 1952

Typescript accounts of Wilkins’ ancestry, aspects of which are used in chapter 1, ‘Distant shores’, in his autobiography, The third man of the double helix (Oxford University Press, 2003). Also related manuscript research notes and correspondence

Photographic prints relating to DNA, RNA and nucleoprotein research, Department of Biophysics, King’s College London, including: different x-ray diffraction exposures of DNA (B-form, Na [sodium] DNA, particular layer lines); x-ray diffraction exposures of RNA; electron microscope images of RNA spherulites with printed captions; prints of diagrams showing skeletal formulae and molecular models

Mounted slides of electron density mapping and Fourier transforms, probably relating to Wilkins’ membrane research. Also colour image of a laboratory interior

Photographs, including: a King’s College London Biophysics Department Christmas party; a departmental cricket match; images of x-ray diffraction laboratory equipment; a 1950s sample of stretched DNA fibre on its original mount, photographed in the 1990s