George Edward Shuttleworth (1842-1928): archives

Collection of note-books, etc. on mental disease and learning difficulties, especially in children.

Author's holograph MSS.

Produced in Lancaster & London.

The collection has been divided into groups, chiefly by subjects but with one final, more miscellaneous group that was aqcuired after the main body of the material:

MS.4566: Clinical notes

MSS.4567-4578: Mental disease and learning difficulties, general

MSS.4579-4586: Mental disease and learning difficulties in children

MS.4587: Bacteriology

MSS.4588-4591: Diaries

MS.4592: notes on "idiocy", by Shuttleworth and Fletcher Beach (1846-1929)

MSS.5134-5136: Correspondence, notebooks and miscellaneous papers.

The author received his medical education at King's College Hospital Medical School, and obtained his M.D. degree at Heidelberg in 1869.

After a short period at Earlswood Asylum, he was appointed Superintendent of the Royal Albert Asylum at Lancaster in 1870, a post which he held for twenty-three years.

On retirement in 1893, he devoted himself to the study of insanity, and was particularly interested in the problems of so-called "mentally-defective" children and their treatment. His important work on that subject was published in 1895, and a fifth edition appeared in 1922. As consultant in London, he was active in the training of personnel for service with the care of these children, and was also responsible for important changes in the lunacy laws.