University of Manchester - Science correspondence released

An archive of 19th-century science has been acquired by the University of Manchester's John Rylands University Library after being stored in obscurity for more than 100 years. The collection of papers belonging to Sir Edward Frankland, one of Britain's greatest chemists, includes thousands of pieces of correspondence with such figures as Robert Bunsen, Michael Faraday, Thomas Huxley and more than 30 letters from Charles Darwin. The material had been dispersed among members of the Frankland family, but has now been donated to the library by Sir Edward's descendants.