Pugwash Conferences and Other Meetings, 1957 - 2005
Scope and Contents
Records of meetings include agenda and programmes, papers presented, drafts and proofs of published proceedings and official statements issued, occasional manuscripts and drafts of talks given by Joseph Rotblat, invitations to attend and lists of attendees, correspondence concerning planning of the meeting and publication of proceedings and miscellaneous records such as notes taken during the meeting or correspondence relating to travel arrangements. The nature and quantity of records held for each meeting vary considerably from a few items to many files (representing several boxes). Much of the organisation was carried out within the host country, so the records tend to be more extensive for meetings held in the UK. In some cases no records are held at all, especially for meetings which Rotblat was unable to attend near the end of his life. For completeness however, catalogue records have been included for all meetings held to the end of 2005.
Dates
- Creation: 1957 - 2005
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
Biographical / Historical
Meetings were organised centrally by the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. These included major international conferences, sequences of workshops and study groups on specialist topics and meetings on topical issues. The meetings are those listed in the Pugwash newsletter volume 44 Number 2, October 2007 'Sixth Supplement to the History of the Pugwash Conference' (source: Pugwash Website www.Pugwash.org; accessed February 2012), which also includes a description of the different types of meeting. The ‘Sixth Supplement’ lists all the meetings in chronological order, allocating a serial number to each. The serial number is included in the catalogue entry for each meeting in the format ‘Pugwash Meeting No. 21’ (a few meetings on the list but with no serial number have been assigned a number in the format ‘No. 21a’). The meeting title used in the catalogue is based on that in the ‘Sixth Supplement ...’ , edited slightly for consistency: the records themselves sometimes refer to a particular meeting by a different name or serial number.
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
The archives are arranged as follows: RTBT 5/2/1 Conferences; RTBT 5/2/2 Symposia (smaller meetings on particular topics; the Pugwash organisation ceased to recognise this category after 1989); RTBT 5/2/3 - 11 Workshops and Study Groups (sequences of meetings on a particular topic convened over a period of time); RTBT 5/2/12 Workshops and Study Groups (short sequences of fewer than five meetings on a topic); RTBT 5/2/13 Individual Meetings; RTBT 5/2/14 Observers invited to conferences; RTBT 5/2/15 Meetings general; RTBT 5/2/16 Other Meetings and Activities (not organised by Pugwash but in which it played a significant role).RTBT 5/2/17 Files relating to Pugwash meetings received after cataloguing of the main series was complete.
Appraisal
Duplicate papers and some other items have been destroyed in accordance with the appraisal policy (for which see the introduction to RTBT 5: Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs)
Repository Details
Part of the Churchill Archives Centre Repository
Churchill Archives Centre
Churchill College
Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB3 0DS United Kingdom
+44 (0)1223 336087
archives@chu.cam.ac.uk