Off Prints

Over the years, Dr. Needham amassed a unique and extremely valuable collection of off-prints, many of them unpublished. Now housed according to subject in some 650 box-files, and amounting to over 20,000 items, it is a veritable treasure-trove for visiting scholars. The sections on astronomy, alchemy and medicine are very comprehensive for western language works up to the middle of the 1980’s, while other sections contain unpublished manuscripts and translations relevant to the history of Chinese science. There are also many interesting items concerning modern science in China during the 2nd World War, collected by Dr. Needham during his time in Chungking. The collection continues to be enriched constantly by monographs sent in by scholars from around the world.

Access to the off-prints is on-site only.

Dr. Needham accumulated a tremendous wealth of photographic material relating to the history of Chinese science from printedsources and from his many visits to East Asia, beginning in 1942. Those from his time as Director of the Sino-British Science Co-operation Office in Chungking from 1943-46 have recently been catalogued, and are available for viewing on our website here. Many, many more remain to be professionally catalogued, however, and so access to them is not currently available. Illustrations used in the Science and Civilisation in China series are available for reproduction, though usually subject to a reproduction fee of BP50 per item. Please direct all enquiries to the Librarian.