Collection Scope and Content Note

The Joshua Lederberg Collection comprises 304.31 linear feet (plus seven oversize boxes) of correspondence, reports, research material, published writings, photographs, committee meeting minutes, and audiovisual material chronicling the research and public service of Joshua Lederberg.

The Lederberg Collection is detailed and extensive. From the start of his career, Dr. Lederberg retained his records in a rudimentary organizational arrangement, with the hope they would be preserved for posterity. Many of the series and sub-series are interconnected. Correspondents and information about the many organizations Lederberg was involved with reappear throughout the collection. There is a large amount of correspondence of both a professional and personal nature; however, the collection does not contain a significant amount of biographical resources, such as correspondence between family members. The exception to this is a small number of letters from Lederberg's brother, Seymour Lederberg, found in Series III: Correspondence, CD sub-series.

In 1945, Lederberg took a research position with Edward Tatum at Yale University where he conducted the research on E. coli bacteria recombination that resulted in the Nobel Prize. The collection is rich in documentation of this discovery. Series IV: Research, Genetics sub-series contains Lederberg's original lab notebooks and class notes from his time at Yale University and his short stay at Columbia University as a graduate student. There are reprints, notes and correspondence in Series V: Writing, Published Writings (P Files) sub-series which pertain to Lederberg's research results from his time at the Tatum lab. There are also unpublished manuscripts, in the Unpublished Manuscripts (Q Files) sub-series, prepared in collaboration with his first wife, Esther Lederberg, describing further experiments with E. coli.

Information about Lederberg's academic teaching career at both Wisconsin and Stanford can be found in the form of notes, correspondence, reports, manuscripts, and other material in Series II: Academic Career. Between the time Lederberg graduated from Yale and received the Nobel Prize, he applied for and accepted a professorship from the University of Wisconsin. During his years at Wisconsin, Lederberg continued his research, which led to his receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to teach at Melbourne University in 1957. Upon returning to the United States, Lederberg decided to leave Wisconsin to develop and head the new genetics department at Stanford University in 1959.

While at Stanford, Lederberg moved away from pure research and teaching to take on more administrative duties within the university. He served on tenure committees and designed curricula for the department. It was also during this period that Lederberg's involvement in private and government organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the National Academy of Science, President's (Kennedy) Panel on Mental Retardation, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the Center for the Advanced Study of Behavioral Science (CASBS) surpassed his research activities. Records from many of these organizations appear throughout the collection notably in Series II: Academic Career, Series III: Correspondence, Series IV: Research, and Series V: Writing. Series VI: Public Service is the main source of information on these activities. This series includes correspondence, individual histories, reports, manuscripts, and news clippings describing the organizations and Lederberg's role in them. Several of the sub-series in Series VI comprise mini-archival collections for the organizations they document. Included are background information such as brochures, historical manuscripts, and other primary source material. Depending on Lederberg's level of involvement, there are semi-complete records of meeting minutes, correspondence, membership lists, drafts, and published reports. This series, while similar to Series VII, Consulting Work, differs from it in that the organizations documented in Consulting Work paid for Lederberg's services while those in Public Service did not.

As his extracurricular activities expanded, Lederberg widened the scope of his interests by applying his scientific knowledge to the, then, emerging space program. Lederberg developed his interest in space exploration in the late 1950s and early 1960s in reaction to the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite. He wanted to increase the scientific influence on this new field and prevent the politicization of space exploration. He served on many NASA committees and his interest would lead to the development of exobiology as a scientific discipline. The Exobiology sub-series in Series IV: Research documents this subject through correspondence, reports, articles, and meeting minutes.

Computer science was another new discipline to interest Lederberg and while at Stanford he helped develop the SUMEX (Stanford University Medical Experimental) and DENDRAL (Dendritic Algorithm) database systems. Further explanation of the databases and Lederberg's involvement in their development can be found in Series IV: Research, Computer Science sub-series. The series includes drafts, correspondence, reports, grant applications, and manuals.

During his career, Lederberg wrote articles, reports (both individually and collaboratively), and delivered numerous speeches. In the mid-1960s he wrote a weekly scientific series in the Washington Post, in which he commented on political and social concerns from a scientific perspective. The series known as Science and Man ran from 1966 to 1971. A complete run of the articles can be found in the Science and Man (SAM Files) sub-series in Series V: Writing. In addition to the original articles there are drafts, correspondence, and research material.

In 1978, Lederberg left Stanford to assume the presidency at Rockefeller University. There is information about Lederberg's transition in the form of correspondence, committee meeting minutes, and other printed material in the Rockefeller University sub-series of Series II: Academic Career. Lederberg's tenure as president is well documented in Series III: Correspondence, sub-series CE, CF, and Chronological.

There is foreign language material throughout the Collection. Translations are not available for most of these documents. The exception to this appears in Series III. Correspondence, sub-series CC.