Cambridge University Library have opened a new personal archive dedicated to the life of Stephen Hawking.

The archive will hold both scientific papers and personal correspondence belonging to Hawking, including letters and “personal mementos,” including photographs with public figures and scripts from the episode of The Simpsons in which Hawking featured.

This comes following a three year project to collate a scientific and personal archive of the Trinity Hall alumnus, after these documents were donated to the nation in 2021.

Stephen Hawking was a theoretical physicist who is widely credited as one of the most important thinkers in studies of quantum physics. He studied for a PhD at Trinity Hall, before becoming a fellow at Gonville & Caius College.

He passed away in in 2018 after living with Motor Neurone disease for 55 years, in which time he progressed his academic career with the help of a speech generating device.

The archives hold letters that detail Hawking’s activism beyond academia, including his opposition to nuclear weapons and his advocacy for disabled rights.

In a letter to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, from 1978, Hawking wrote that there were “no facilities at all for disabled people,” and cited the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, demanding better access to the building.

The documents will be available to “all who might benefit from access to it at Cambridge University Library”.

Susan Gordon, the archivist who put together the collection, said the papers revealed how “the same tenacity Hawking displayed in his professional career was applied to advocating for causes he believed in”.

“The archive will be a unique resource for researchers interested in Hawking’s scientific work and academic life, his personal life, popular science communication, disability rights, assistive technology, and celebrity,” she said.

“I hope the release of the catalogue and the improved access it provides will allow others to be as rewarded as I was by interacting with the archive,” Gordon added.