The historian of science Robert C. Olby is a graduate of University College London and Oxford. Best known for his work on the history of genetics, especially the Bateson school, and for his study of the early history of molecular biology, Olby is currently a Research Professor in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of The Origins of Mendelism (1966), Charles Darwin (1967), The Path to the Double Helix (1974), and the Norton History of Biology. His current research is focused on the conceptual foundations of modern sensory neurophysiology and an intellectual biography of Francis Crick. The Olby Collection contains about 150 photocopies of correspondence and documents collected by Olby during research for The Path to the Double Helix. Among these is a copy of a manuscript by F. C. Crick and James D. Watson, "The Complementary Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid," prepared while Watson was at CalTech.

Between 1968 and 1978, the historian of science Horace Freeland Judson conducted extensive oral history interviews with biochemists and molecular biologists relating to the development of their field. The correspondence, transcripts of interviews, and taped interviews that comprise the Judson collection formed the research material used by Judson in his book, The Eighth Day of Creation (New York, 1979). Permission to quote must be obtained from Dr. Judson and access to some files is restricted.