| Description | Assorted papers and photographs relating to the Norman Lockyer Observatory and to Donald Barber's career as an astronomer.
Includes: one box containing loose research notes and notebooks, press cuttings, correspondence, 1910s-1970s; loose rolled and flat school, university and academic/professional certificates, 1950s-1980s; three b/w large photographs of students of the University College of the South West of England, 1921 and 1923, and of Seale Hayne Agricultural College, 1933; one large box containing appointments book (1982), correspondence, news cuttings, research notes, notebooks, literary works, and papers relating to the Norman Lockyer Observatory, 20th century. |
| Admin History | Donald Robert Barber (1901-2000), biophysicist and astronomer, was born in Exeter, Devon, the son of John Gutteridge Barber and Annie Simmonds. He attended Hele's School, Exeter and Royal Albert Memorial College (later University College of the South West of England). He was awarded an external degree in physics by London University in 1925, and became a lecturer in physics at Seale Hayne Agricultural College, Newton Abbott, Devon in 1928. He subsequently became involved in the work of the Norman Lockyer Observatory (1936-1956) with short breaks at the Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California, USA, and at the Kodak Research Laboratories, Middlesex. Barber was appointed Superintendent of NLO in 1956. His research continued after his retirement in 1961 and he also pursued his other interests such as photography. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 1928, and was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and of the Royal Meteorological Society (1984). In 1987 Barber was awarded an honorary degree of Master of Science by Exeter University and in 1988 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. |