The project to publish the complete correspondence of the British naturalist Charles Darwin began in 1974 under the editorial guidance of Frederick Burkhardt with the assistance of Sydney Smith. Drawing heavily on the 9,000 letters located at Cambridge University and 950 at the American Philosophical Society, the project has made efforts to locate, transcribe, and publish every known letter written by Darwin. Over 200 institutions in 20 countries have contributed to the project, yielding a total of 15,000 letters. The Darwin material was assembled in photocopy by the Darwin Papers Editorial Project, and includes a copy of nearly every letter known to have been written by Darwin and many written to him. These are arranged alphabetically by correspondent, and are inventoried thoroughly in Burkhardt, A Calendar of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821-1882.

Founded in 1946, the Society for the Study of Evolution is one of the principle organizations for the study of the evolutionary sciences. Its bimonthly journal, Evolution, publishes work of general interest to researchers in the range of evolutionary disciplines. The Records of the Society for the Study of Evolution are a growing collection that includes material on the organization and governance of the Society, its conferences, and its journal, Evolution. The largest series by far contains the editorial files for Evolution, documenting Ernst Mayr's early efforts to solicit material for the journal, but including the editors' complete files from the 1980s onward.

Pamela Mack received her doctorate in the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania in 1983. She is currently a member of the Department of History at Clemson University. Mack's essay, "The Early Years of the Cold Spring Harbor Station for Experimental Evolution," was written for a class taught by Daniel Kevles in 1979. In it, she charts the origins and first decade of the Station for Experimental Evolution (1904 to 1914) and its transformation under the leadership of Charles B. Davenport into an institution devoted to the study of eugenics.

In many ways, Jonathan Couch was a prototype of the Victorian provincial naturalist, a trained physician whose eclectic, but intensely local interests ran from the life sciences to geology, Cornish folk beliefs, and local history. His major works included a three-volume translation of Pliny's Natural History (London, 1847-1849) published by the Wernerian Club of London, The History of Polperro (Truro, 1871), and the exhaustive four-volume A History of the Fishes of the British Islands (London, 1862-1868). The remnants of a wide-ranging mind, the Couch Papers contain a sampling of correspondence, rough drafts of articles, and notes on a variety of topics of interest to the Cornish naturalist and antiquarian, Jonathan Couch. The bulk of the correspondence relates to Couch's translation of Pliny's Natural History, published by the Wernerian Club of London between 1847 and 1849. The notes are highly diverse, but include some systematic descriptions of fishes, probably used in his A History of the Fishes of the British Islands and notes Cornish folk beliefs. Of particular interest are his "Notes connected with instinct and reason" and three manuscripts relating to evolutionism: "Enquiry into the circumstances...," "On the history and development of man," and "The Natural History of the Creation of the World, with its changes to the subsidence of the flood and Noah."

An evolutionist before Darwin, an embryologist, paleontologist, and comparative anatomist, Étienne Geoffroy Saint Hilaire was a Professor of Vertebrate Zoology at the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris for the half century following the Reign of Terror. Following in the footsteps of Lamarck, Geoffroy held tenaciously to a belief in the underlying unity of organismal design, to the great change of being, and the possibility of the transmutation of species in time, amassing evidence for his claims through research in comparative anatomy, paleontology, and embryology. The Geoffroy Collection is comprised of 0.75 linear feet of lecture notes and correspondence relating to Geoffroy's diverse interests in natural history, Egypt, comparative anatomy, analogies, paleontology, and embryology, and it is particularly rich for his studies of teratology. All items are in French.

The Clayton Papers are a highly selective collection of Clayton's correspondence, research notes, and miscellaneous data, emphasizing her work on Drosophila. Her teaching and administrative commitments at the University of Arkansas are documented. Her work with Hampton L. Carson on the Hawaiian Drosophila Project is well represented with slides, notes, and specimens.

The papers of Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (1887-1975), grandson of evolutionist Thomas Henry Huxley (APS 1869), elder brother of novelist Aldous Huxley, and half-brother to Nobel-prize laureate Andrew Fielding Huxley (APS 1975) contain correspondence with Nobel laureate Hermann J. Muller and other early leaders in the field of evolutionary biology: Arthur James Cain, Hampton Carson, Ernst Mayr, Albert Blakeslee, Conrad Hal Waddington, and Philip MacDonald Sheppard. Also included in the collection are notebooks of Julian Huxley's often elaborate sketches of animals and fossils.

The Austrian biologist Paul Kammerer was an outspoken proponent of the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics (Lamarckism) during the time in which Mendelian theory was becoming deeply entrenched in biology. His major research efforts, straddling the First World War, centered on experiments performed on salamanders and on the midwife toad, and seemed to provide empirical support for a Lamarckian mechanism in evolution. He also developed a monistic "law of seriality," in which he attempted to explain coincidence as the product of a higher order natural law. A Socialist, Kammerer was widely regarded as a brilliant scientist, but for scientific, personal, and political reasons, he engendered as much antagonism as support, preventing him from ever obtaining a regular university appointment. His career ended tragically in allegations of fraud, followed by his suicide. The Kammerer Papers is comprised of photocopies of materials that document the brief, but controversial career of a non-Darwinian evolutionary biologist. The bulk of the collection consists of photocopies of articles by Kammerer, often from obscure newspapers or periodicals, along with a small number of letters to his friend Hugo Iltis, the geneticist and biographer of Mendel. Nearly all of these pertain to the Kammerer's experiments with amphibians to test Lamarckian inheritance or to his other biological theories. The collection also includes a small number of items dating from after Kammerer's death, but relating to his life and work, including two letters from his former supervisor Hans Przibram, a letter from Hugh Iltis (Hugo's son) to Arthur Koestler and the reply, and a brief biographical reminiscence of Kammerer written by Hugo Iltis.

A prime exponent of evolutionary theory in the late nineteenth century, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace arrived independently at the theory of natural selection nearly simultaneously with Charles Darwin. The numerous publications that emerged from his extended field excusions into the Amazon Basin and the Malay Archipelago (Indonesia) Wallace resulted in major contributions to evolutionary theory, biogeography, ecology, and ethnography, and made Wallace, by the end of his life, one of the best known naturalists in Britain. A Socialist, social progressive, and Spiritualist, Wallace's distinctive take on evolutionary change differed from the Darwinian mainstream in significant ways. The Wallace Collection is a miscellaneous assemblage of letters written by and to Alfred Russel Wallace, primarily during the last twenty five years of his life. Varied in content, the letters touch on Wallace's views on evolution, Spiritualism, and to a less degree, his progressive social commitments.

The Scientists Collection is comprised of individual letters and small groups of correspondence from American, British, French, and German scientists during the past three centuries. Although the content is highly varied, there is significant strength in astronomy, natural history, conchology, and geology. Among the scientists better represented in the collection are the astronomers William Radcliffe Birt, J.F.W. Herschel, and Franz Xaver von Zach; the conchologists A.D. Brown, Fred L. Button, Otto Mörch, Alfred Newton, Christian M. Poulsen, Temple Prime, Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy, and A. G. Wetherby; the physical scientists George Biddell Airy, Arnold Sommerfeld, Ferdinand R. Hassler, and Max Planck; the archaeologist Jean François Nadaillac; the philosopher William Whewell; and the naturalists Walter Henry Bates, Robert Chambers, Edme Dupuget, Robert Kaye Greville, Joseph Henry, John Stevens Henslow, John Lubbock, and Herbert Spencer.

T. Martin Trippe was an avid amateur ornithologist from Orange, New Jersey, who spent the majority of his free time as a teenager and young man exploring the woods and observing, shooting, and collecting birds. After graduating from New York University with a degree in engineering in 1869, Trippe worked in various positions for the Iowa Central, Northern Pacific, and Albia, Knoxville, and Des Moines Railroads, continuing to devote his spare time in the interests of ornithology. The two surviving volumes of Trippe's journals document his ornithological and natural historical observations between 1865 and 1871, including meticulously detailed records of the avifauna (and to lesser degree other fauna) in central New Jersey, central Iowa, and southern Minnesota. They include detailed, and Trippe provided year-end taxonomic and meteorological indexes for 1869, 1870, and 1871.

One of the most important natural historians in nineteenth century Britain, Charles Darwin provided the first compelling mechanism to account for organismal evolutionary change. Although lacking a coherent model of heredity, Darwin's natural selection has exerted an enormous influence over the biological sciences and since the introduction of Mendelian genetics, had remained the key unifying principle in the discipline. The APS Darwin Papers are a large a valuable assemblage of Darwin's correspondence with scientific colleagues, including Charles Lyell and George J. Romanes. They are included in the print version of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge Univ. Press).

Raymond Pearl spent the majority of his academic career (1918-1940) at Johns Hopkins University, where he was Professor of Biometry and Vital Statistics and Director of the Institute of Biological Research. Founder of the Quarterly Review of Biology and Human Biology, he made significant contributions in the areas of biology, genetics, eugenics, and statistics. The Pearl Papers includes correspondence as well as notebooks, scrapbooks, diplomas, photographs, and 33 volumes of diaries. There is significant correspondence with his wife, Maud (ca. 500 letters), and mother, Ida May (ca. 300 letters), particularly for the years 1895-1934. Of special note is Pearl's correspondence with his friend, colleague, and fellow Baltimoreian, H. L. Mencken (ca. 500 letters). The collection contains important information on the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, The Baltimore Sun, the Birth Control Federation of America, Dartmouth College, the International Institute of Statistics, Johns Hopkins University, and the National Academy of Sciences. This note is currently under review for revision.

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.

Arthur J. Cain is an evolutionary biologist whose research interests have included genetics, natural selection, biogeography, and systematics. Based at Oxford University and, later, the University of Liverpool, much of Cain's research was field-based, focusing on terrestrial gatsropods. This collection contains correspondence, grant applications, reports, programs for scientific meetings, unpublished papers and lectures, research notes, charts, graphs, maps, and manuscript reviews of journal articles and books. The Cain Papers is divided into three series: I. Correspondence ; II. Subject Files ; and, III. Papers by Colleagues. Arrangement is alphabetical by folder title, and chronological within each folder.

The population geneticist Hampton L. Carson spent the major part of his career at Washington University (1949-1963) and the University of Hawaii (1963-1985) investigating the cytogenetics and evolution of Drosophila. As one of the major figures in the Hawaii Drosophila project, he made particularly important contributions to the study of speciation and selective and non-selective evolutionary mechanisms. The Carson Papers (1921-1993) contain correspondence, subject files, manuscripts of published and unpublished works by Carson, papers by colleagues and students, research notes, course materials, photographs, and biographical information, which documents Carson's career as an evolutionary geneticist. The collection is organized into nine series.

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.

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.