A botanist and historian of science at the University of Pennsylvania, Conway Zirkle published on the history of evolutionary thought and genetics, with a particular interest in the discipline as practiced in the Soviet Union. The Zirkle Papers consist of approximately one linear foot of materials accrued by Zirkle during research for his book on Lysenko-era biology in the Soviet Union, The Death of Science in Russia (1949). Among the miscellaneous materials in the collection are four volumes (0.5 linear feet) of pressed specimens of ferns and algae.

A bacteriologist from MIT, Salvador E. Luria's work with Max Delbruck on bacteriophage demonstrated that bacterial resistance to certain phages arose through genetic mutations. His later work showed that phages also mutate genetically. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969 with Max Delbruck and Alfred D. Hershey. The collection is organized into seven series: I. Correspondence, 1938-1992 ; IIa. Subject Files, 1938-1990 ; IIb. Personal Material. 1923-1991 ; III. Works by Luria, 1938-1987 ; IV. Works by Others, 1944-1990 ; V. Research Notes and Notebooks, 1941-1979 ; VI. Course Material, 1931-1991 ; VII. Photographs and Negatives, 1957-1982. Arrangement: Alphabetical by folder title and then chronological within each folder.