Cambridge University Library Acquires Stephen Hawking's Vast Archive of Scientific and Personal Papers

NEW YORK, May 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the world's oldest university libraries and home to one of the world's great collections of cultural treasures and research materials, Cambridge University Library today announced its acquisition of Stephen Hawking's archive of scientific and personal papers.

The acquisition results from a partnership with the University, Britain's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Arts Council England, the London-based Science Museum Group, and the Hawking Estate.

One of the most renowned scientists of the last century and beloved by millions across the world for his contributions to science and to popularizing science, Hawking leaves a legacy that transcends scientific and popular culture. His achievements are even more impressive given his decades-long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), diagnosed while he was a Cambridge University PhD student. He was later appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, a position he held for three decades. 

Professor Hawking's papers now join those of his idol Sir Isaac Newton and of Charles Darwin at the Cambridge University Library, bringing together three of the most critical scientific archives in history under one roof, freely accessible to scholars and scientists of today and tomorrow.  

The Hawking archive contains letters dating from the 1940s, a first draft of A Brief History of Time, scripts from his appearances in The Simpsons, and autographed scientific manuscripts from the early phase of his brilliant career. Also included is a major collection of photographs, papers and his correspondence with popes, U.S. presidents, and such Nobel Prize winning scientists as Kip Thorne and Roger Penrose.

Cambridge University Librarian Dr Jessica Gardner said: "The archive allows us to step inside Stephen's mind and to travel with him round the cosmos to, as he said, 'better understand our place in the universe.' This vast archive gives extraordinary insight into the evolution of Stephen's scientific life, from childhood to research student, from disability activist to ground-breaking, world-renowned scientist. I am so grateful that the Hawking family and the AIL scheme have entrusted us with this precious archive."

Artifacts such as Hawking's wheelchairs, speech synthesisers, and personal memorabilia from his former Cambridge office will be housed at the Science Museum with the intention to display some objects in 2022.

For more information about the acquisitions, please find the full announcement here.

Photos and video are available upon request by contacting [email protected].

About Cambridge University Library

Cambridge University Library (the UL) is one of the world's oldest university libraries – and home to one of the world's great collections of cultural treasures and research materials.

Since its first recorded beginnings in 1416 as a small chest of manuscripts for Cambridge scholars, the Library is now home to a physical collection of nearly ten million books, maps, manuscripts, photographs, and priceless objects, spanning thousands of years of human thought and discovery, in more than 2,000 languages– from a 4,200-year-old Sumerian clay tablet to 19th and 20th century posters demanding equal rights for women. Alongside the works of Newton, Darwin, and Shakespeare – and some of the world's earliest fragments of the Quran – is one of the most comprehensive collections of British books anywhere in the world.

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