Introduction to the Nutrition Collection
The Nutrition Collection is a rich and varied resource consisting of historical records relating to scientific investigations in the field of nutrition created and collected by LSHTM staff between the 1920s and 1990s. The collection reflects the global and collaborative nature of the School’s work in the field of nutrition, with records relating to countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe and to projects with a range of organisations, including WHO, FAO, UN, BMA and the MRC.
Records include:
- Reports of surveys and research in applied nutrition.
- Anthropometric data, extensive dietary survey material, studies of agricultural practices and records of clinical surveys.
- Documents relating to Second World War nutrition in the UK as well as records kept by Dr Dean Smith and Dr Alan Woodruff in the Changi internment camp in Singapore and Stanley internment camp, Hong Kong, 1942-1945.
- Personal letters, memoranda and reports relating to the School's work with WHO, FAO, UN, BMA and MRC.
- Papers of the LSHTM Department of Human Nutrition and Applied Nutrition Unit staff and leading figures in the field of nutrition research, including: Benjamin Platt, Patty Fisher, Philip Payne, Erica Wheeler, Prakash Shetty and Mary Griffiths.
Nutrition is one of the most important public health agenda items of the 21st century and the completion of this cataloguing project has opened up this previously inaccessible resource to the medical research community and researchers in associated areas, including epidemiology, anthropology, geography and social, colonial and military history.
A catalogue of the collection is now available on the archive on-line database. Further information about accessing our archive collections can be found here.
