The historian of science Robert C. Olby is a graduate of University College London and Oxford. Best known for his work on the history of genetics, especially the Bateson school, and for his study of the early history of molecular biology, Olby is currently a Research Professor in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of The Origins of Mendelism (1966), Charles Darwin (1967), The Path to the Double Helix (1974), and the Norton History of Biology. His current research is focused on the conceptual foundations of modern sensory neurophysiology and an intellectual biography of Francis Crick. The Olby Collection contains about 150 photocopies of correspondence and documents collected by Olby during research for The Path to the Double Helix. Among these is a copy of a manuscript by F. C. Crick and James D. Watson, "The Complementary Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid," prepared while Watson was at CalTech.

The maize geneticist Barbara McClintock (1902-1992) is credited with the discovery of "jumping genes," that is chromosomal "crossing over" and translocation. She received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983. The collection is organized into six series: I. Correspondence, 1931-1991; II. Subject files, 1938-1989; III. Works by McClintock, 1944-1989; IV. Works by others, 1927-1991; V. Research notes, notebooks, and card files, 1930s-1990s ; VI. Photographs, 1928-1991.