Kidd, John (1775-1851)

Autograph (no.1) and 10 autograph letters by John Kidd (1775-1851) numbered 2-11. Correspondents include Thomas Allan (1727-1833), a Scottish mineralogist (no.2); a letter to unknown recipiant of 19 Aug 1831 (no.3); Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842), a Scottish surgeon, anatomist, neurologist and philosophical theologian (no.4); William Clift (1775–1849), British naturalist, museum curator and scientific illustrator (no.5); James Paxton (1786–1860), surgeon (no.6); a letter to unknown recipiant of 6 Dec 1837 (no.7); medical opinion by J Kidd of 26 Jan 1838 (no.8); letter to a bookseller 14 Feb 1840 (no.9); JT Hester, probably a bookseller (no.10); and a letter to unknown recipiant of 17 July 1842 (no.11).

Purchased from: Stevens, London, January 1929 (acc.74959); Sotheby's, London, July 1931 (acc.57468); Glendining, London, September 1933 (acc.67769); Stevens, London, September 1933 (acc.68336); Sotheby's, London, July 1933 (acc.66163); Sotheby's, London, November 1933 (acc.67474); Mrs. Watson, Burnley, March 1945 (acc.72200), presumably once part of the Thomas Madden Stone autograph collection. Provenance details not recorded (acc.67430).

John Kidd was born on 10 September 1775, an English physician, chemist and geologist. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He also studied medicine at Guy's Hospital, London, as a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper.

Kidd became reader in chemistry at Oxford in 1801, and in 1803 was elected the first Aldrichian professor of chemistry. He lectured on minerology and geology and was a founder member of the Geological Society of London (1807).

In 1818 Kidd became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and in March 1822 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1822 he became regius professor of medicine in succession to Sir Christopher Pegge. In 1834 he was appointed keeper of the Radcliffe Library and stayd in the job until his death.

Kidd's long-lasting legacy was his contribution to science education. He took an active part in defining a role for the natural sciences at a time when natural sciences were marginalised by the examination reforms..

John Kidd died on 17 September 1851.

In the Wellcome Library

Books: An answer to a charge against the English universities contained in the supplement to the Edinburgh encyclopedia by J Kidd (Closed stores EPB Suppl. B 59611/B); An introductory lecture to a course in comparative anatomy, illustrative of Paley's Natural theology by John Kidd (Closed stores EPB Tracts T.601); On the adaptation of external nature to the physical condition of man: principally with reference to the supply of his wants and the exercise of his intellectual faculties by John Kidd (Closed stores EPB / B 31109/B) various editions of this book available in the Library (1834, 1836, 1837, 1852); Observations on medical reform by J. Kidd (Closed stores EPB / P 31110/P); A geological essay on the imperfect evidence in support of a theory of the earth, deducible either from its general structure or from the changes produced on its surface by the operation of existing causes by J. Kidd (Closed stores EPB / B 31105/B); Catalogue of the works in medicine and natural history contained in the Radcliffe LibraryCommenced by G. Williams and completed by J. Kidd (Rare Materials Room YHSA.4426); The personalities of the Oxford Medical School from 1700 to 1880 by Sir Humphry Rolleston 1862-1944 (Serials /ANN N.s., v. 8 1936).

Archive material: Letters by John Kidd in other collections: Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892) papers MS.7364/44-48 no.48; John Hodgkin junior (1800-1875) papers PP/HO/E/A2534; Thomas Hodgkin MD (1798-1866) papers PP/HO/D/A1677, A1776.