The papers of Sir Thomas Barlow, BT, KCVO, FRS, PRCP (1845-1945).

Sir Thomas Barlow, specialist in childhood diseases and sometime physician to Queen Victoria, Edward VII and George V, was one of a remarkable group of doctors and medical scientists who trained at University College Hospital in the early 1870s. Qualifying in 1870, MD in 1874, his contemporaries included Rickman John Godlee (1849-1925), Alfred Pearce Gould (1852-1922), William Smith Greenfield (1846-1919) and Edward Albert Schafer, later Sharpey-Schafer (1850-1935). He is remembered chiefly for his work in identifying infantile scurvy-so-called Barlow's disease-in the early 1880s. Although widely known and admired during his lifetime, Barlow has not received much notice from students of medical history, and it has been left largely to members of his own family to draw attention to his contributions to medical science and practice.' It was through these same family members that Barlow's surviving papers came to the Western Manuscripts collection of the Wellcome Institute Library. His daughter Helen donated a quantity of papers in her possession, enough to fill six archive boxes, some years ago. In 1990 the then Curator of Western Manuscripts Dr Richard Palmer discovered that additional correspondence and papers were still held at Barlow's London home, 10 Wimpole Street, in the care of Dr Andrew Barlow, Sir Thomas's grandson. Thirteen boxes and packets of papers were subsequently deposited in the Wellcome Library and in 1992 Dr Barlow generously arranged for this second accession to be converted into a gift. The way was now clear to reunite the two parts of a collection which seemed to have been divided somewhat arbitrarily. The second accession included almost all the family correspondence and papers, including papers of Barlow's wife Ada, and of his children.2 Professional and research papers were to be found in both places, as were Helen Barlow's notes, which provided invaluable information about the identity of various family members and other