Letters between various family members of Franz Boas, nearly all in German. Although the topics relate primarily to personal, familial matters, information about Boas's career and (more generally) his intellectual formation and beliefs.

Papers consist of letters, reports, addresses and lectures, relating to biological chemistry and other scientific topics, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, refugee scientists, professional associations, etc.

This collection includes correspondence, research data, reviews of grant proposals, organizations participated in, laboratories worked for, and student recommendations. The correspondence in the collection dates primarily to the 1960s-70s, when Mildred Cohn worked at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia, later renamed, Fox Chase Cancer Center. The letters are professional in content, discussing biochemistry, molecular biology, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. The letters also concern lectures and participation in conferences and symposia, and there are materials relating to recommendations for students and colleagues for positions and promotions. Dr. Cohn's interest and involvement in the issue of women in science is presented, of particular note, her work with the University of Pennsylvania's Gender Equity Committee. The notebooks, by Cohn, her colleagues and students, contain extensive experimental data.

A pioneer biochemist, Carl Neuberg (1877-1956) spent over thirty years of his productive career as a professor at the University of Berlin (1903-1937) and as Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes of Biochemistry and Experimental Therapy. His varied research interests resulted in important contributions to the understanding of fermentation processes, solubility and transport phenomena in cells, the chemistry of carbohydrates, sugars, enzymes, and amino acids, and photochemistry. Neuberg was forced out of his position after the Nazi rise to power, and taking refuge in the United States. For the last several years of his life, he worked at New York University. The Neuberg collection consists of correspondence, lab notebooks, documents, photographs, and reprints, nearly all dating from after Neuberg's departure from Germany in 1940. The correspondence documents Neuberg's late-career work and the contacts he developed with American chemical manufacturers and industries involved in fermentation, as well as the burgeoning post-war relationship between scientific research and the federal dollar. Files for the American Cancer Society, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and the U.S. Public Health Service in particular contain useful information for study of the politics and mechanics of government grants.

During the half century leading up to the Second World War, Franz Boas helped to define academic anthropology in the United States. Trained as a geographer at the University of Heidelberg, Boas worked initially on the Inuit of Baffin Island and subsequently on the cultures of the Indians of the Northwest Pacific Coast, becoming a leading figure in American anthropology by the first decade of the twentieth century. As Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, Boas made significant theoretical contributions to ethnology, linguistics, and physical anthropology, helping to ingrain the four fields approach in his discipline and introducing the concept of cultural relativism into wide currency. He was, as well, a committed Socialist and an ardent opponent of both racism and fascism. This collection includes correspondence that Boas carried on with his colleagues in anthropology, as well as with those in the other social sciences and sciences. This correspondence is rich as a source for twentieth-century historians interested in "radical" social causes, since Boas was a socialist and an outspoken voice for progressive social causes.

The Franz Boas Personal and Professional Papers contain a diverse assemblage of professional correspondence, family letters, and diaries, with a valuable series of essays and lectures by Boas on both professional and political topics (democracy, race, etc.). (NOTE: This collection is not to be confused with the much larger Franz Boas Papers collection (Mss.B.B61), which contains the vast majority of Boas's professional correspondence and was referred to as the "Professional Papers" in earlier decades.) During the half century leading up to the Second World War, Franz Boas helped to define academic anthropology in the United States. Trained as a geographer at the University of Heidelberg, Boas worked initially on the Inuit of Baffin Island and subsequently on the cultures of the Indians of the Northwest Pacific Coast, becoming a leading figure in American anthropology by the first decade of the twentieth century. As Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, Boas made significant theoretical contributions to ethnology, linguistics, and physical anthropology, helping to ingrain the four fields approach in his discipline and introducing the concept of cultural relativism into wide currency. He was, as well, a committed Socialist and an ardent opponent of both racism and fascism.