Centre for Family Research: archive

The following is an interim description that may change once detailed cataloguing takes place in the future.

The collected research papers, working documents, and unpublished reports of the Centre for Family Research from its establishment in 1966, to present. The current accession includes the papers of the inaugural director Martin Richards.

The Centre conducted original research into topics such as:

Surrogacy

Single parent families

Caesarean sections

Maternal Mental Health

Breastfeeding

Same sex parent families

Prenatal screening

1960s-2000s

106 MAT001 Deepstore boxes

Donated to Wellcome in May 2018

The research group that grew into the Centre for Family Research was established in 1966 by Martin Richards and was based in the Unit for Research on Medical Applications of Psychology (URMAP) at the invitation of Oliver Zangwill, Professor of Experimental Psychology (University of Cambridge). The research group expanded and took the name URMAP for itself, with Martin Richards as the de facto Director. URMAP was jointly administered by the Department of Experimental Psychology and the (then) Post Graduate Medical School. The Nuffield Foundation funded the group's early research on mother-infant relations, child development, medical services and family life through grants awarded to Martin Richards.

In 1977, URMAP (by then shortened to the Medical Psychology Unit) moved to the Old Cavendish Building in Free School Lane, Cambridge which was shared with Social and Political Sciences. By this time, Martin Richards had become University Lecturer in Social Psychology. The move effectively ended the association with the Department of Experimental Psychology. The group retained its somewhat informal, but autonomous, status but now with ties to Social and Political Sciences and the Department of Paediatrics, and became known as the Child Care and Development Group. It was renamed the Centre for Family Research a decade later (c.1987). Its core staff were now funded by the University but most of the research staff were contract researchers funded through project grants. Over successive decades, these funders included the Medical Research Council, the Economic and Social Science Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Health Education Council, the Health Promotion Research Trust, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Department of Health and Social Security, the Home Office, the Lord Chancellor's Department, Nuffield Provincial Hospital Trust and the Cancer Research Campaign.

In 1999, the Centre for Family Research was formally incorporated by the University into the Statutes and Ordinances, and the post of Director established, together with a Management Committee. Martin Richards, then University Professor of Family Research, formally became Director of the Centre. Martin Richards retired from his University post in 2005 and Professor Susan Golombok became Professor of Family Research and Director in 2006. In 2012, the Centre moved administratively to the School of Biological Sciences as part of the merger between the Department of Social and Developmental Psychology and the Department of Experimental Psychology. The Centre for Family Research remains an independent Institution of the University based in Free School Lane but with links to the new Department of Psychology. In addition to University funding for two Professorial positions and the Administrator, the Centre has been funded in recent years largely by the Wellcome Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council, the United States National Institutes for Health and charitable foundations. Helen Statham, who had been Deputy Director since the mid-1990s continued in this role until her retirement in 2014. She was succeeded by Professor Claire Hughes. Jill Brown served as Administrative Secretary from 1979 until 2004. Abby Scott is currently Administrator of the Centre and PA to the Director.

The administrative papers of the Centre are held by the University of Cambridge. This collection at Wellcome concerns the Centre's research activities.

This collection is currently uncatalogued and cannot be ordered online. Requests to view uncatalogued material are considered on a case by case basis. Please contact collections@wellcomecollection.org for more details.