Tuesday, October 11 2022. 4:00pm.

Lecture Hall – 1 (Haapus) Auditorium, NCBS

Details: https://bit.ly/apls-mss 

 

Free and open to the public

 

 

Overview:

We are delighted to welcome you to the opening of the MS Swaminathan Papers at the Archives at NCBS on Tue, October 11, 2022, at 4:00 PM. This new collection captures the life and work of MS Swaminathan, the plant geneticist, agricultural scientist, humanist, and scientific administrator. It contains over 48,000 archival objects spanning 80 years, in the form of research notes, correspondence, unpublished writings, media clippings, photographs, published works, and administrative notes from dozens of institutions and committees.

 

Programme:

4:00 PM: Introductions

4:15 PM: Collection overview

4:45 PM: Reflective talk on the Swaminathan Papers and their relevance to agricultural histories.

5:15 PM: Q&A

5:45 PM: Tours of the Archives at NCBS + Refreshments

 

About the Archives at NCBS and the new collection:

Besides its role as a research centre, the Archives at NCBS has three main objectives going forward: continuing to build up the archives to strengthen public spaces, a focus on education through archival material, and to build a broader collective of archives across the country (https://milli.link/). In 2020, NCBS formalized the creation of a Chair in the History and Culture of Science which also supports the activities of the Archives via a generous grant from TNQ Technologies. The 2000-square-feet physical centre includes space for research, processing, exhibitions, recording, and a leading-edge storage facility with monitors for temperature, light, humidity, air quality, water, fire, pests, and noise. Over 50,000 processed objects across 18 collections are in various forms, ranging from paper-based manuscripts to negatives to photographs, books, fine art, audio recordings, scientific equipment, letters, and field and lab notes. By the end of this year, this will increase three-fold to a publicly accessible catalogue for 150,000 objects. This is significantly due to this generous donation from the Trustees of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation of the archival papers of Professor MS Swaminathan. We are grateful to the Trustees for their trust and we look forward to making this national resource publicly accessible.