Gerd Buchdahl Collection
An important collection of books and papers from the library of Gerd Buchdahl (1914–2001), our first Head of Department, was donated to the Whipple by Nancy Buchdahl in 2002. An historian of philosophy and internationally distinguished Kant scholar, Buchdahl was also responsible for the development of the Whipple from 'a library for which a bare forty-three books had been purchased in the five years before his appointment to the first-ever comprehensive collection of the discipline'.
The books include Buchdahl's collection of works by and relating to Immanuel Kant, and many are heavily annotated. The Kant collection has been fully catalogued and is now housed in the Library Store under the classmark STORE BUCHDAHL. The other books are being catalogued and added in to the general collections. Also of note are books formerly owned by G.E. Moore and Ernst Mach, some with annotations. As well as general works on philosophy and the philosophy of science, the collection also includes a number of books on logic and the history and philosophy of physics.
The manuscripts include items relating to the early history of the Department, as well as unpublished lectures and papers. A listing of selected papers was published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 34 (2003): 209–227. The manuscripts are not catalogued on Newton, but a full listing is available to download here: