Henry Howard Houston II (1895-1918) was the son of a prominent Philadelphia family, the Houstons. He enjoyed a privileged upbringing, graduating from Chestnut Hill Academy in 1912 and from the University of Pennsylvania in 1916. Upon his graduation date, he enlisted in Battery C of the First Field Artillery, Pennsylvania National Guard, and was sent to the Texas and New Mexico borders in response to Pancho Villa's raids from Mexico. In January 1917, he volunteered with the American Field Ambulance Service in France during World War I, stationed near Verdun, where he was constantly under fire when performing his duty to pick up wounded soldiers from the trenches. Henry took a commission in the French Army and enrolled in its transportation school. The French government awarded him the Croix de Guerre for gallantry under fire. When the U.S. entered the war, Henry resigned his commission in the French army and rejoined the Pennsylvania National Guard, his unit being the 53rd Field Artillery Brigade, 28th Division. He returned to the U.S. and received training as an aerial observer at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Early in 1918 he returned to France as a staff member of the 53rd Field Artillery Brigade, commandedn by General William Price. In August 1918, Lt. Houston was killed south of Arcis-le-Ponsart while returning from an air field. He was 23. The bulk of this eight linear feet collection reflects Henry's personal life as a son, soldier, friend and lover, during the last three years of his life 1916 to 1918.

The James V. Neel Papers document nearly every phase of the career of one of the founders of human population genetics in the United States. Neel was particularly thorough and organized, and retained virtually all of his significant scientific correspondence, committee reports, minutes of meetings, and drafts of manuscripts. The collection also includes data collected during Neel's work among the Xavante, Yanomanö and other indigenous populations. In a career that spanned the period from the late work of Thomas Hunt Morgan and Charles B. Davenport to the contemporary world of molecular genetics and nucleic acids, Neel knew, worked with, and corresponded with many of the most influential 20th century practitioners of genetics. The collection begins in earnest in 1943, after Neel had decided to focus on human genetics. Neel's work with Drosophila and none of his Drosophila manuscripts are found in the collection.