A manual of the Mollusca: a treatise on recent and fossil shells

This book has a fascinating history. It was borrowed from the Adelaide Circulating Library more than 100 years ago by a young Lawrence Bragg (1890-1971), who wrote his name in it. In 2012 it was returned to the State Library by a member of the Bragg family living in London.

The book has an appendix by Ralph Tate who is notable as the Foundation Professor of Natural History at the University of Adelaide in 1875, and a key figure in establishing the Royal Society of South Australia.

William Lawrence Bragg (known as Lawrence) was born and educated in Adelaide, then studied and taught Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his work with his father, William Henry Bragg, on X-rays was published in 1915. Soon afterwards, Lawrence realised that X-rays had a dual wave/particle nature-one of the most significant concepts in 20th century physics. He was later to work with Crick and Watson to help reveal the structure of DNA. Father and son jointly won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915, making Lawrence the youngest ever winner at the age of 25.

Bragg was also interested in shell collecting and had a collection from about 500 species that were collected in South Australia. His mother, Gwendoline Todd, a talented painter, was the daughter of astronomer, meteorologist and electrical engineer Sir Charles Todd.

Permission to use this item for any purpose, including publishing, is not required from the State Library under these conditions of use.

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