Ashley Montagu (1905-1999), physical anthropologist, was a prominent figure in American intellectual life. British by birth, educated at University College London and the London School of Economics, then Columbia University in New York City, Montagu was a persistent advocate for gender and racial equality. He was a tireless activist for human understanding and child welfare in particular. Departing from academe in 1955, a victim of McCarthyite hysteria, he was a remarkably prolific writer and speaker, eventually publishing more than 50 books, over 40 of them after he left the academy. Montagu continued to lobby passionately against the primacy of race in discussions of intellect and skill, and undertook works in a wide variety of fields, from evolution to parenting. Some of his most significant works include Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race (1942), the UNESCO Statement on Race (1951), Man and Aggression (1968) and his novel The Elephant Man (1971), which became the basis for an award winning play and movie. Ashley Montagu's contributions to the spread of scientific knowledge and human understanding make him one of the most important intellectuals of the 20th century.

L.C. Dunn was one of the most significant figures in the emerging field of developmental genetics in the 20th century. His T-locus work with the mouse established a number of important genetic principles, including ideas of gene interaction, the distribution of alleles in wild populations, and the factors that influence fertility. He wrote an important textbook of genetics, Principles of Genetics (1925), in collaboration with Sinnott (and later Dobzhansky); other significant books authored or co-authored by him include Heredity, Race and Society (1946), and A Short History of Genetics (1965). He worked in poultry genetics for eight years at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Storrs, CT, from 1920-1928. The remainder of his career was spent at Columbia University, where he worked with rats, mice, and fruit flies, and proved himself to be an inspiring teacher as well. His interest in international scientific collaboration led him to establish ties to Soviet scientists, and to help relocate refugee scientists during World War II. He remained active in his profession to the end of his life. This collection includes correspondence, reports, notebooks, lectures, and photographs. It is a rich collection, documenting the development of American genetics as well as Dunn's interests in humanitarian efforts and international affairs. There is significant material relating to American-U.S.S.R. contacts, particularly in the files on the American-Soviet Friendship Council and the American-Soviet Science Society. There is much, as well, on the impact of the Lysenko controversy in the U. S. Dunn's interest in European scientists can also be seen in the sizable amount of material on the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars. Material relating to the Kilgore and Magnusson bills for the support of science (predecessors to the NSF) are also in the collection. Of note are data on the following: National Research Council Committee on Experimental Animals and Plants; research on the population study of the Jewish community in Rome; and Columbia University. There is much in the correspondence concerning Drosophila, poultry genetics, and other such topics; Walter Landauer is Dunn's major correspondent.