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.

This collection includes documents (correspondence, drafts of talks, personal data sheets, and transcripts) relating to the Conference on Evolutionary Synthesis, which met in Boston in May and October 1974, and was sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. There is background material on the organization of the conference, as well as correspondence, especially with William B. Provine, on the editing and publication of the proceedings (Mayr and Provine, eds., "The Evolutionary Synthesis..." 1980).

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 This collection contains correspondence, grant applications, reports, programs for scientific meetings, unpublished papers and lectures, research notes, charts, graphs, maps, and manuscript reviews of journal articles and books.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 correspondence in this collection concerns behavior genetics, evolution, heredity, etc. There is material relating to the congresses of the Permanent International Committee on Genetics, and the IXth (Bellagio, 1953), Xth (Montreal, 1958), and XIth (The Hague, 1963) International Congress of Genetics. There is also correspondence pertaining to the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology (1955), the Mendel Semi-Centennial Symposium (1950), the Soviet geneticists' visit to the U.S. in 1967, and to Anton R. Zhebrak.

Robert Cushman Murphy (1887-1973), one of the twentieth century's great ornithologists, was curator of mammals and birds at the Brooklyn Museum (1911-1917) and was curator of birds and later chairman of birds at the American Museum of Natural History (1917-1973). The world's foremost authority on sea birds, in 1936, he penned Oceanic Birds of South America, a two volume set. An ardent traveler and explorer, he kept copious notes of his travels, which he typed up, illustrated and had bound. The APS library owns forty-two bound journals. Murphy was made an APS member in 1946. A pioneer in the study of the ecology, a louse, fish, plant, lizard, an Antarctic inlet, spider, and two mountains have acquired his name. This collection contains diaries, journals, articles, addresses and observations of Murph;, generously illustrated with newspaper clippings, photographs, letters, sketches, maps, and charts.