Forgotten Turing treasure trove rescued from attic goes under the hammer

[justaprogressive]

Precious scientific papers once belonging to wartime codebreaking genius Alan Turing – rescued from an attic clear-out where they faced destruction – are set to fetch a fortune at auction next month.

The incredible archive, tipped to rake in tens of thousands, includes a rare signed copy of Turing's 1939 PhD dissertation, Systems Of Logic Based On Ordinals [PDF]. Experts reckon this manuscript alone could go for between £40,000 and £60,000 (c $54-$81,000).

Also among the finds is Turing's legendary 1937 paper, On Computable Numbers [PDF] – dubbed the first-ever "programming manual" and introducing the world-changing concept of a universal computing machine.

The papers, originally gifted by Turing's mother Ethel to his mathematician pal Norman Routledge, vanished from public view and were stashed forgotten in a family loft after his death.

As one of Routledge's nieces tells it in The Independent: "When he died in 2013, two of his sisters had the unenviable task of sorting through and emptying the contents.

"There were lots of personal papers which one sister carted away and stored in her loft. The papers lay dormant until she moved into a care home almost a decade later.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/24/turing_papers_auction/

[Deuxcents]

1. This makes me wonder what other treasures are waiting to be discovered in an attic or basement