The Principia Box Files

The Principia Box Files Kenneth Blackwell (bio) When Bertrand Russell’s papers were taken to London for cataloguing in 1966, some of the containers were very old and worn.They tell us, in part, how he preserved his papers in the years he worked on Principia Mathematica. The original archival crew encountered eight box files, measuring about 260 × 318 mm. Inside, some were ring binders and some used spring clips. Three of the six oldest, covered in red cloth, manufactured variously by B & G and Stone, were labelled (see the illustration) in ink on the spine in Russell’s hand: “Pamphlets | Wissenschaftslehre” (science and theory of knowledge), “Pamphlets | Mengenlehre etc.” (set theory), and “Pamphlets | Principles of Mathematics”. I recall working on them. The pamphlets are listed in B. Feinberg, ed., The Archives of Bertrand Russell (London: Continuum, 1967), pp. 113–31. “Wissenschaftslehre” is repeated there as a heading on p. 125.These pamphlets now appear individually in the McMaster Library catalogue and, in their original groups, in the Russell Archives card catalogue. Lined out are more intriguing labels, again in Russell’s hand. In order in the illustration they are: “Principia Mathematica | Obsolete MS.”, “Principia Mathematica | Rough Draft”, and “MSS on the Contradictions | 1905”. The inclusion of the year suggests retrospective labelling. In the Russell Archives there is a large quantity of rejected Principia manuscripts that are probably identical, at least in part, to the “obsolete” manuscript he had in the box. Some of that quantity might have been “rough draft”. Just what surviving manuscripts are his 1905 work on the contradictions is for Principia scholarship to determine. It is of interest that the topic warranted a box of its own with a definite year. We can only conjecture how many red box files housed Russell’s work on Principia at its peak, but the sight must have been imposing, if not also worrying to the co-author who, when he went for a walk, was “afraid that the house would catch fire and the manuscript get burnt up” (Auto. 1: 152). The labels are catalogued at https://bracers.mcmaster.ca/134009 et seq. [End Page 176] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 177] Kenneth Blackwell Russell Research Centre / McMaster U. blackwk@mcmaster.ca Kenneth Blackwell kenneth blackwell, who has a new grandson, is Hon. Russell Archivist, manages bracers and looks for acquisitions for the Russell Archives. He is revising A Bibliography of Bertrand Russell and continues to work on Volumes 24 and 25 of the Collected Papers. Copyright © 2023 Bertrand Russell Research Centre, McMaster University

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