The National Physical Laboratory comprises materials that illustrate some aspects of administrative changes and of the daily life of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) during the period Sutherland worked there. Sutherland was appointed as Director of the NPL in succession to E.C. Bullard in January 1956. He took up his appointment in September of that year and remained in office until 1964 when he resigned in order to become Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. During Sutherland's Directorship the NPL underwent a period of growth and change. An increase in both staff and facilities was accompanied by the reorganisation of the Electricity, Metrology and Physics Divisions of the laboratory into Standards, Applied Physics and Basic Physics, by which he hoped to raise the calibre of fundamental research work at the NPL and attract staff of a higher quality than had previously been possible.