Collection completed
Following a valiant fund-raising effort that failed to raise enough cash and a nail-biting auction months ago, wartime code breaking hero Alan Turing's collection of research papers has finally been saved and will remain in Britain.
The rare collection of offprints relating to Turing's life and work was finally purchased for the Bletchley Park Trust and its museum after the National Heritage Memorial Fund stepped in to provide a hefty £213,437.
The campaign to safeguard the collection was spearheaded by one supporter called Gareth Halfacree, who collected £28,500 of donations from the public as well as $100,000 from Google and another big sum from a private donor. Yet despite such an effort, there was not enough money to buy the collection at auction as it failed to meet its asking price.
It has been a tense wait for fans of Turing's work as it was feared the offcuts could have been broken up and sent overseas.
The articles, which include offprints of 15 of Turing's 18 published works, had belonged to Turing's friend and fellow code breaker, Professor Max Newman. Among the articles is Turing's famous paper ‘On Computable Numbers' as well as annotated works and the Newman household visitors' book too with lots of codebreakers' signatures.
Peter Barron, director of external relations for Google, said, "Turing is a hero to many of us at Google for his pioneering work on algorithms and the development of computer science. We're delighted that this important Collection will now be accessible to everyone visiting Bletchley Park."
Simon Greenish, CEO of the Bletchley Park Trust, said: "The acquisition of this hugely important collection has been made possible only by the astonishing support demonstrated by the public, the media, Google, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Christies the auctioneers, whose help in brokering the purchase is gratefully acknowledged."
The Turing-Newman Collaboration Collection will be on display in the Bletchley Park Museum later this year once conservation work on the collection is complete.
Spot the signature: Here is a page from the visitor's book.
