About the records

Administrative Information

The collection was surveyed at the home of Lady Edith Wood in April 1987 and then subsequently transferred to the ASAP office for archival processing.

Material relating to the family from files 1/11, 4/4, 4/5, 4/6, 9/24 and 9/37 was returned to the family, at their request, in September 1987.

• The records have been allocated to 9 series. The codes used to uniquely identify each series range from WOODS001 to WOODS009.
  
  
• Through the processing of the records, 1 provenance entity was identified. The code used to uniquely identify this provenance entity, i.e. records creator or custodian, is WOODP01.
  
  
• The inventory covers items, and may include records of continuing value, records sentenced for destruction and records that have been destroyed. The codes used to uniquely identify each inventory item range from WOOD00001 to WOOD00227. The total collection occupies 217 linear cm of shelf space (or its equivalent).
  
  
• The documentation of the records at inventory level started on 26 February 2004. The latest additions were made on 26 February 2004. The latest modifications were made on 9 July 2007. This collection profile was updated on 15 November 2007.
  
  

Scope and Content

'Ian Wood's highly successful tenure as Head of the Clinical Research Unit of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute was from 1946 to 1963, during which he was also Deputy Director of the Institute. He was a founding father of clinical research in Australia. He lived for discovery, with an approach based on detailed observations on disease, intuitive and descriptive rather than reductionist, and relying strongly on clinical and histopathological correlation, and he was a great believer in technical innovations. Ian Wood was more than thorough - meticulous in fact - in organization of his Unit, research activities, preparation of results for presentation at meetings, or in writing scientific papers. He gently let this rub off onto numerous junior colleagues. His organizational flair led to his development of massive blood transfusion and establishment of blood banking in Australia, in the 1930s. He developed blood banking for the Australian Armed Forces in World War II.'

Notes on Sir Ian Wood, from I. R. Mackay.

Note: Throughout this Handlist the 'File Title' is, as closely as possible, a transcription of the title given by the creator of the file. Extra description of the file is given in square brackets. The Handlist and Index are a guide to the collection and not a comprehensive reflection of its contents.