The Founding Papers · FP·14 · 2015
2015: The Oldham Notebooks
Twenty-one notebooks, kept from 1969 to 1978, record every hope and every attempt. Most of them are in Jean Purdy's hand.
The story
In 2015 Kay Elder and Martin Johnson published six papers analysing the notebooks of the Oldham work. They tell the whole story, not only the successes: at least 282 women, 495 treatment cycles and 112 embryo transfers over nine years, leading to two healthy babies.
Those women, most of whom never had a baby from the work, made IVF possible for millions who came after them.
The notebooks also restored Jean Purdy to her place. Part five of the study concluded that her role was highly significant and under-appreciated. They name others too, including Muriel Harris and Lillian Lincoln Howell. The notebooks are kept with the Edwards papers at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge.
“Purdy's role was a highly significant and under-appreciated element in the achievement of IVF in Oldham.”Johnson and Elder, Part V, 2015
The paper
The Oldham Notebooks: An Analysis of the Development of IVF 1969 to 1978 (six papers)
Kay Elder, Martin H. Johnson
Reproductive BioMedicine and Society Online 2015;1(1):3 to 70. June 2015. Open access. Part V: The role of Jean Purdy reassessed. Read the paper.
How we know
Abstracts read in PubMed on 6 October 2026, and Part V read in full on Europe PMC.
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