Frances Elizabeth Clayton (1922-1998) was born in Texarkana, Texas. After a degree from Texarkana College, she attended Texas State College for Women, receiving a B.A. in 1944. The following year she began graduate work at the University of Texas in Austin with Professor Wilson S. Stone. She finished her Ph.D. in Zoology-Genetics in 1951, staying on at Austin as a postdoctoral fellow in the Genetics Group.

From 1951-1954, her research ranged from the expression of the alleles at the lozenge locus in Drosophila melanogaster to the effects of ionizing radiation on the production of chromosomal aberrations in Drosophila virilis. Clayton continued with these areas of research when she joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas, working in collaboration with Professor Marshall Wheeler. At both universities, she taught graduate and undergraduate classes in Genetics and Zoology.

The Hawaiian Drosophila project, launched in 1963 by Wilson Stone and Elmo Hardy, brought together seven scientist, of which Dr. Clayton was one. For the next twenty-five years, she characterized the metaphase karyotypes of hundreds of closely related species of drosophilids, culminating in a metaphase catalog summary for the family Drosophilidae. In addition, Clayton sought out, recorded, and documented numerous exceptions, supernumeraries, intra-specific polymorphisms, and heterochromatin variations within and among these closely related species. She was involved in the discovery of nutritional requirements of these species, enabling rearing Drosophila in the laboratory. Known as the Wheeler/Clayton method, this technique continues to be used with little modification.

The Frances Elizabeth Clayton Papers (1938-1995) contain professional correspondence, research notes, manuscripts of published and unpublished works by Clayton and others, and notebooks on Hawaiian Drosophila. Also, laboratory and lecture notes on Genetics, Zoology courses from the University of Texas and the University of Arkansas. Includes detailed slides, photographs, tapes, and specimens of Drosophila.

The papers 40 boxes, 20 linear feet are divided into seven series: Series I. Correspondence, 1951-1994, 2 boxes, 1 lin. ft.; Series II. Works by Clayton, 1948-1986, 5 boxes, 2.5 lin. ft.; Series III. Works by Others, 1954-1988, 2 boxes, 1 lin. ft.; Series IV. Research data, 1965-1993, 5 boxes, 2.5 lin. ft.; Series V. Printed Material, 1938-1995, 6 boxes, 3 lin. ft.; Series VI. Graphics, undated, 13 boxes, 6.5 lin. ft.; Series VII. Card files and Specimens, undated, 7 boxes, 3.5 lin.ft.

Physical description

20 linear feet.

Provenance

Bequest of Frances E. Clayton, 2000.

• Carson, Hampton L. (Hampton Lawrence), 1914-2004
• Clayton, Frances E.
• Kaneshiro, Kenneth Y.
• Spieth, Herman T.
• Stone, Wilson Stuart, 1907-1968
• Wheeler, Marshall

• Drosophila-Behavior-Hawaii
• Drosophila-Hawaii-Classification
• Drosophila.
• Evolution (Biology)
• Genetics--Study and teaching
• University of Arkansas
• University of Hawaii
• Zoology -- Study and teaching