The principal letters in this collection are to Otto L. Mohr and concern problems and progress in genetics, the Nobel Prize, and some account of Mohr and his family under the Nazi occupation of Norway, 1940-1945. Included with this group is a partial biographical essay on Calvin Blackman Bridges.

Founded in 1931, the Genetics Society of America works to facilitate communication among scientists with an interest in research and education in genetics and cognate fields. The GSA Records provide information on the history of the Genetics Society of America from the time of its founding in 1931. Included is correspondence between various officers, members, and outside individuals and organizations, files on standing and ad hoc committees, Records concerning accounts and finances, membership data, files relating to annual meetings, local meetings, and international meetings, and information on special commissions or ad hoc groups of the Society. Among the more noteworthy files are those for the Committee on Genetics, Race, and Intelligence, 1974-1975. This note is currently under review for revision.

A geneticist and educator, Philip Macdonald Sheppard was head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Liverpool from 1963-1976. His research centered on polymorphism, mimicry, blood groups, genetic disease, and speciation, using a variety of subjects, including the gastropod Cepaea nemoralis, butterflies, and humans. He may be best remembered for his classic study of industrial melanism in the pepper moth Biston betularia. The Sheppard Papers (1911-1983; bulk dates, 1940-76) contain correspondence, subject files, notes, and manuscripts that document Sheppard's life as a geneticist. The earliest piece in the collection is a lepidopterist's notebook from 1911, possibly J. R. Hobhouse's, however the bulk dates from 1940 to 1976, Sheppard's most productive and influential years. Among other things, these materials document Sheppard's research on the Scarlet Tiger moth, swallowtail butterflies, and ABO blood groups in humans, as well as his position as head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Liverpool.

Sewall Wright ranks among the most influential figures in the field of population genetics during the 20th century, and made important contributions to biostatistics, biometrics, and evolutionary theory. These papers contain much of Wright's professional correspondence, scattered research notes, and drafts of a small number of papers.

The James V. Neel Papers document nearly every phase of the career of one of the founders of human population genetics in the United States. Neel was particularly thorough and organized, and retained virtually all of his significant scientific correspondence, committee reports, minutes of meetings, and drafts of manuscripts. The collection also includes data collected during Neel's work among the Xavante, Yanomanö and other indigenous populations. In a career that spanned the period from the late work of Thomas Hunt Morgan and Charles B. Davenport to the contemporary world of molecular genetics and nucleic acids, Neel knew, worked with, and corresponded with many of the most influential 20th century practitioners of genetics. The collection begins in earnest in 1943, after Neel had decided to focus on human genetics. Neel's work with Drosophila and none of his Drosophila manuscripts are found in the collection.

One of the seminal figures in the emergence of the Modern or Neo-Darwinian Synthesis during the mid-twentieth century, George Gaylord Simpson (1902-1984) helped define the unique contribution made by vertebrate paleontology to the life sciences. A specialist in Mesozoic and early Cenozoic mammals, Simpson's contributions to the fusion of Darwinian natural selection and Mendelian genetics were both empirical and theoretical, culminating in his major works Tempo and Mode in Evolution and The Meaning of Evolution. From his posts at the American Museum of Natural History (1927-1959), Columbia University (1945-1959), Harvard (1959-1967), and the University of Arizona (1967-1984), Simpson became one of the most influential paleontologists of the century, helped in part by his ability to write successfully for both a technical, professional audience and a popular audience. The Simpson Papers include a comprehensive assemblage of professional and personal correspondence, reflecting nealy all phases of Simpson's career. Written with charm, wit, and a sense of literary style, the correspondence touches on all aspects of modern paleontology, providing an important perspective on the emergence of contemporary evolutionary theory, biogeography, systematic theory and methodology, the relationship of science and religion, and creationism, as well as more general issues in scientific epistemology and social and political issues. The collection also includes autobiographical data and writings, lectures, class notes and papers, research data, material on his scientific expeditions (diaries in carbon form, photos, notes, etc.), publication material (he was author of some 800 publications), extensive photographic material, diplomas, and medals.

The Papers of Curt Stern include extensive correspondence, lectures (1920s-1970s, 1.5 boxes), autobiographical material, articles, zoological course notes, photographs, etc. Stern's various areas of scientific interest are documented in the collection: the chromosome theory of heredity, role of gene mutation and chromosome rearrangements in evolution, action and interaction of genes during individual development, and particularly his contribution to the development of human genetics as a discipline (centered on his popular and influential book, Principles of Human Genetics, 1949, 1960, 1973). Both his career in Germany and the United States is documented in his correspondence. After studying with T. H. Morgan at Columbia University on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (1924-1926), Stern returned to Richard Goldschmidt's lab at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute (1926-1932). There is material of note in the collection concerning this period when Stern helped to establish the cytological basis of crossing over. After a short stay at the California Institute of Technology in 1932, Stern's temporary residence in the U. S. became permanent, and his later career at the University of Rochester, 1933-1947 (Chairman, Department of Zoology) and at the University of California, Berkeley, 1947-1970 (there is abundant material on the Department of Zoology) is covered in the collection. There is other material on: American Association for the Advancement of Science Inter-Society Committee on Science Foundation Legislation, 1946-1947; American Society of Human Genetics (Pres., 1957); Atomic Energy Commission (Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine, 1950-1955); Genetics (journal); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Advisory Committee for Biology, 1955-1968); and the Rockefeller Foundation. Stern's correspondence with friends and colleagues in Germany, England, and the U. S., during the 1920s-1930s, is of particular note as it documents not only the developments in genetics and the institutional and administrative networks supporting research, but it also offers general comments and observations on science, Germany, and politics. The photographs (2 boxes) include pictures of many prominent geneticists and scientists.