https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/manuscripts-university-archives/significant-archival-collections/papers-sir skip to content University of Cambridge * Study at Cambridge * About the University * Research at Cambridge Search site [ ] Search [ ] Search Home * Study at Cambridge * Undergraduate + Courses + Applying + Events and open days + Fees and finance + Student blogs and videos * Postgraduate + Why Cambridge + Course directory + How to apply + Fees + Funding + Frequently asked questions * International students * Continuing education * Executive and professional education * Courses in education * About the University * How the University and Colleges work * History * Visiting the University * Term dates and calendars * Map * For media * Video and audio * Find an expert * Publications * International Cambridge * News * Events * Public engagement * Jobs * Giving to Cambridge * Research at Cambridge * For staff * For current students * For alumni * For business * Colleges & departments * Libraries & facilities * Museums & collections * Email & phone search * Home * Collections * All collections & departments * Manuscripts & University Archives * Significant archival collections Cambridge University Library * Home * Using the Library + Using the Library overview + Your library membership o Your library membership overview + Online resources and services + Zero contact services o Zero contact services overview + Visit the University Library o Visit the University Library overview + Faculty and Department Libraries + Library Service Updates + Accessibility and disabled library users o Accessibility and disabled library users overview * Research + Research overview + University Library Research Institute o University Library Research Institute overview + Digital Preservation o Digital Preservation overview + Digital Humanities o Digital Humanities overview + Futurelib Innovation Programme o Futurelib Innovation Programme overview * Teaching and Learning + Teaching and Learning overview + Information Literacy Teaching at Cambridge * What's On + What's On overview + Exhibitions o Exhibitions overview + Events o Events overview + The Really Popular Book Club + Friends Events + Annual Lectures o Annual Lectures overview + Google Arts and Culture * Search and Find + Search and Find overview + LibGuides - 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papers c. 1850 to 1990 + Bourke, Richard Southwell (1822-1872) 6th Earl of Mayo + Butterfield, Herbert (1900-1979) knight, historian + Buxton family - papers 1160 to 1926 + Cambridge University Greek Play Committee + Cambridge poetry archives + Cholmondeley (Houghton) Papers + Churchill, John Winston Spencer (1822-1883) 7th Duke of Marlborough + Churchill, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer (1849-1895) politician + Coke family of Weasenham Hall (Norfolk) - estate papers from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century + Covid-19 Collection + Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882) naturalist + Dent, Edward Joseph (1876-1957) Professor of Music - World War I correspondence + Ely Dean and Chapter Archives + Ely Diocesan Records + Eyre Family - papers and correspondence 1782-1916 + Haddon, Alfred Cort (1855-1940) anthropologist + Hardinge, Charles, (1858-1944) 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, statesman + Hengrave Hall Collection + Heym, Stefan (1913-2001) writer + Hoare, Samuel John Gurney (1880-1959) 1st Viscount Templewood, statesman + Jardine Matheson Archive + Jardine Skinner archives + Milnes, Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe (1858-1945) 1st Marquess of Crewe, statesman + Mitchell, Joseph Stanley (1909-87), radiotherapist, physicist + Moore, George Edward (1873-1958) philosopher + Needham, Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery (1900-1995) biochemist and sinologist + Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727) knight, natural philosopher and mathematician + Parkes, Harry Smith (1828-1885), knight, diplomatist + Perceval, Spencer (1762-1812) statesman + Peterborough Dean and Chapter Archives + Printers' papers + Royal Greenwich Observatory Archives + Rutherford, Ernest (1871-1937) Baron Rutherford of Nelson, physicist + Sassoon, Siegfried Loraine (1886-1967) poet and author + Schnitzler, Arthur (d. 1931) writer + Smith, William (1756-1835) politician, and the Smith family 1678 to 1951 + Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) + Society for Psychical Research + Stokes, Sir George Gabriel (1819-1903) 1st Baronet, physicist + Thomson, William (1824-1907) Baron Kelvin, mathematician and physicist + Vanneck family + Young, Edward Hilton (1879-1960) 1st Baron Kennet, politician * Access Policy * Services * Search the Collections * Visiting the Manuscripts Reading Room * Subject Guides * Ordering Images * Contact us [ms_add] Isaac Newton (1642-1727) came up to the University of Cambridge in 1661, graduating in 1665. In 1669 he succeeded Isaac Barrow in the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics. In 1699 Newton was appointed Master of the Mint, resigning the Lucasian Chair and his Trinity College Fellowship in 1701. He was elected President of the Royal Society in 1703, which post he occupied until his death. Newton's papers in the University Library--many of which have been digitised and are available freely online through the Cambridge Digital Library--fall into three categories. * Copies of his lectures deposited in the University Library in the seventeenth century under the regulations for the Lucasian Chair. These, and some correspondence relating to the University, were assigned the classmarks Dd.4.18, Dd.9.46, Dd.9.67, Dd.9.68, and Mm.6.50. * The 'Portsmouth collection' (MS Add. 3958-4007) of manuscripts in Newton's possession at the time of his death were transferred to the University by the fifth early of Portsmouth in 1872 for cataloguing by a syndicate and the mathematical and scientific papers were donated to the University in 1888. (The papers were inherited by Newton's neice Catherine whose daughter married John Wallop, second Earl of Portsmouth, and thus subsequent generations of the Portsmouth family.) Newton's mathematical papers were assigned UL classmarks MS Add. 3958-3964, 3968; manuscripts relating to the Principia MS Add. 3965, 3967; astronomy and optics MS Add. 3969-3972; chemistry MS Add. 3973-3975; with correspondence at MS Add. 3976-3986. Other manuscripts were assigned classmarks MS Add. 3987-4006, although some annotated printed works in this run have since been transferred to the Adversaria Class in the Rare Books Department. Copies of further letters are at MS Add. 4007. * A substantial number of Isaac Newton's papers are in the Macclesfield Collection (MS Add. 9597,) acquired from the Earl of Macclesfield in 2000, which includes many other significant mathematical and scientific papers of the eighteenth century. To aid preservation, the Portsmouth Collection of Newton's original manuscripts is rarely produced for consultation. Readers who feel it essential that they consult the original collection must first apply, in writing, well in advance of any proposed visit to the Library. Permission to use the original papers may only be granted by the Keeper of Manuscripts and Archives. The remainder of the Portsmouth papers, many concerned with alchemy, theology and chronology, were returned to Lord Portsmouth. These manuscripts were sold at auction at Sotheby's in London in 1936. Many have been returned to scholarly and public collections at King's College, Cambridge and the National Library of Israel. Further items are held at Trinity College, Cambridge, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Royal Society, London. A large number of Newton papers including many of those held in the University Library have been transcribed and published online by the Newton Project and the Chymistry of Isaac Newton. A helpful and entertaining introduction is Sarah Dry, The Newton Papers, Oxford University Press, 2014. For more information contact Dr Katrina Dean (kjd32@cam.ac.uk). 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