Frank Macfarlane Burnet Guide to Records

Full description

The Frank Macfarlane Burnet Guide to Records documents and contextualises the records of Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who was Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne 1944-1966 and was awarded the Nobel Prize with Peter Medewar for Physiology and Medicine in 1960. The collection documented by the Guide consists of 852 inventory items, mostly paper format files, grouped into 19 series, covering Burnet's career where he not only played a major role in the development of medical research in Australia but also contributed consistently to the public debate of many social issues including nuclear energy and weapons, environmental concerns and the philosophy of the modern world. This is the first comprehensive set of personal records to be preserved of an Australian Nobel Prize winner in science. The total collection occupies 616.6 linear cm of shelf space (or its equivalent).

The Guide is the output of a research database. It was first produced in paper form by the Australian Science Archives Project in 1993. In 2001 it was published online by the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre.

The records are held by the University of Melbourne Archives. The collection was listed by Gavan McCarthy, Oscar Manhal, Lisa O'Sullivan and Rachel Tropea, with Tim Sherratt.