| Notes | The Maddison book collection - catalogued in Librarysearch - consists of approximately 3000 volumes on the history of science, published from 1482 onwards. The collections includes many antiquarian, rare, and early printed books, alongside some more modern titles, foreign-language titles. Over 200 books in the collection were printed pre-1700, and the collection includes notable works by Robert Boyle and Joseph Priestley. The history of chemistry is particularly well represented.
See https://librarysearch.kent.ac.uk/client/en_GB/kent-archives. |
| Admin history | The collection was compiled by Dr Robert Edwin Maddison (1901-1993). Dr Maddison was a chemist and the librarian of the Royal Astronomical Society. This personal collection was built up over a period of 40 years by Maddison, and was considered one of the finest private collections on the history of chemistry. In later life Maddison developed a special interest in Robert Boyle, and went on to publish a number of articles and a book on Boyle. In 1988 he was awarded an honorary degree by the Univeristy of Kent.
Maddison was a personal friend of John Crow, whose collection was already at Kent at the time of the Maddison deposit, a fact which encouraged Maddison to deposit his own collection with Kent. Maddison died on 9th November, 1993.
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