Sub-series 9: Reprints and offprints, 1937-1990

The History of Molecular Biology Collection was created to document the foundation and early history of molecular biology. The collection includes a comprehensive array of documents and artifacts marking significant milestones in molecular biology from discoveries on how genetic information is passed from generation to generation to discoveries on the structure and function of proteins. The materials highlight the connections and individual roles scientists played in these discoveries as well as provide context for the discovery of the structure of DNA, RNA, transfer RNA, messenger RNA, and various viruses and proteins.

The collection includes correspondence, galley proofs, lectures, reprints, manuscripts, research files, laboratory notebooks, interviews, photographs and a small number of artifacts from various scientists and Nobel Prize winners including Sydney Brenner, Donald Caspar, Francis Crick and James Watson, Max Delbrück, Maurice Fox, Rosalind Franklin, Bruce Fraser, Sven Furberg, Raymond Gosling, Rollin Hotchkiss, Aaron Klug, Barbara McClintock, Max Perutz, Leo Szilard, Maurice Wilkins, and Herbert Wilson. The collection also includes a small selection of materials created by numerous molecular biologists and scientists in allied fields such as: Oswald Avery, Sir Lawrence Bragg, Erwin Chargaff, A.D. Hershey, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, John Kendrew, Linus Pauling and Robert Corey, and Frederick Sanger, among others. The collection includes primary and secondary source materials acquired and combined together by Jeremy Norman to form the collection.

The collection is organized into series based on the original creator of the materials and their provenance. The series are alphabetical by creator. Series XIV, Various Scientists' papers, groups together materials from creators in which there is only a small amount of material. This series is organized alphabetically by creator as well. The materials within the series vary depending on the individual creator, however materials primarily include correspondence files, laboratory and research files, photographs, manuscript and typescripts, as well as offprints and reprints.

Correspondence files are arranged alphabetically according to correspondent in individual folders as well as general folders grouped alphabetically by last name. Laboratory and research files retain original titles when available and therefore often only contain abbreviations, such as TMV for tobacco mosaic virus and TYMV for turnip yellow mosaic virus. Photographs are generally organized by topic or theme and then further organized by date. Manuscripts, typescripts, reprints, offprints, and writings generated by the creator of a series can generally be found within the sub-series "Papers and Other Works" while manuscripts, typescripts, and published writings of other individuals collected by the creator of a series can be found in the sub-series "Writings by Others".

This collection is arranged into the following 16 series: