{"title":"Imperial Microbiology: The National Collection of Type Cultures and the Management of Microorganisms, 1916-1922.","authors":"James F Stark","doi":"10.1007/s10739-025-09809-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since its founding in January 1920, the National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) has played a fundamental role supporting microbiological research in Britain and globally. NCTC is an international repository for authenticated bacterial strains of medical and veterinary significance, making many available to researchers. Among the oldest collections of its kind still operating today, it presently holds almost 6,000 historically and microbiologically significant strains. Drawing on records of the Medical Research Council, which sponsored the NCTC, and uncataloged, previously unstudied archival holdings at the UK Health Security Agency, this article lays out and for the first time critically examines details of the establishment of the NCTC, and explores its far-reaching impacts on microbiology in the 20th century, and particularly on microbial taxonomy and classification.</p>","PeriodicalId":51104,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the History of Biology","volume":" ","pages":"215-246"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12245961/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of the History of Biology","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-025-09809-8","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/4/25 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Since its founding in January 1920, the National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) has played a fundamental role supporting microbiological research in Britain and globally. NCTC is an international repository for authenticated bacterial strains of medical and veterinary significance, making many available to researchers. Among the oldest collections of its kind still operating today, it presently holds almost 6,000 historically and microbiologically significant strains. Drawing on records of the Medical Research Council, which sponsored the NCTC, and uncataloged, previously unstudied archival holdings at the UK Health Security Agency, this article lays out and for the first time critically examines details of the establishment of the NCTC, and explores its far-reaching impacts on microbiology in the 20th century, and particularly on microbial taxonomy and classification.
期刊介绍：
The Journal of the History of Biology is devoted to the history of the life sciences, with additional interest and concern in philosophical and social issues confronting biology in its varying historical contexts. While all historical epochs are welcome, particular attention has been paid in recent years to developments during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. JHB is a recognized forum for scholarship on Darwin, but pieces that connect Darwinism with broader social and intellectual issues in the life sciences are especially encouraged. The journal serves both the working biologist who needs a full understanding of the historical and philosophical bases of the field and the historian of biology interested in following developments and making historiographical connections with the history of science.
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