This program is a luncheon address given by George Washington Corner at the 8th Annual Conference of The Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, held at the Barbizon Plaza Hotel, New York City, November 6, 1965.

The Linguistic Society of America was organized in 1924 in New York City, but there is little, if any, material in the archive relating to its early history. The bulk of the collection dates after 1960, although there is scattered correspondence and material for the decades prior to that time. There are administrative records (records of the officers, secretariat, committees, general correspondence); records concerning the summer linguistics institutes run by the LSA; annual meeting records; membership records; material relating to the publications of the LSA; and substantial material concerning affiliations with other organizations (ACLS, NAS, NRC, NEH, Social Science Research Council). There are also financial records of the Society.

Apart from its importance for the study of Hale's personal and professional life, the collection is one of the richest sources for the history of science in the United States in the early twentieth century. It contains a good deal of significant material relating to the theoretical and instrumental development of astrophysics and the history of the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories. The collection is of singular importance for the study of science and government, particularly with respect to the affairs of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council. It documents much of the early history of the California Institute of Technology. Finally, it contains substantial material on the general affairs of the scientific community in the United States and Europe [from Kevles 1968].

The Corner collection includes correspondence, biographical and research data, lectures, publications, notebooks and drawings, and also photographs. He was both a scientist, specializing in mammalian reproduction and the female reproduction cycle (being a co-discoverer of the hormone progesterone along with Willard M. Allen), and a medical historian writing both biography and institutional history.

William Jacob Robbins (1890-1978, APS 1941) was a botanist and physiologist. From 1937 to 1957 he was director of the New York Botanical Garden. His research focused on culture methods of plants in relation to biochemistry and nutrition, especially on the synthetic abilities of fungi. His studies paralleled the scientific agenda of the Rockefeller Foundation, an agency with which he was closely associated for years as adviser and trustee. He was perhaps the most influential botanist in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) during the early postwar era, and a principal participant in the plans for the global reconstruction of science. Robbins served as president of the American Philosophical Society from 1956 to 1959.

These are chiefly working papers on subjects requiring statistical analysis and letters, reports, and papers relating to professional organizations. There is little personal material.