Hampton L. Carson Papers, American Philosophical Society

Table of contents

Abstract

The population geneticist Hampton L. Carson spent the major part of his career at Washington University (1949-1963) and the University of Hawaii (1963-1985) investigating the cytogenetics and evolution of Drosophila. As one of the major figures in the Hawaii Drosophila project, he made particularly important contributions to the study of speciation and selective and non-selective evolutionary mechanisms.

The Carson Papers (1921-1993) contain correspondence, subject files, manuscripts of published and unpublished works by Carson, papers by colleagues and students, research notes, course material, and photographs, which document Carson's career in genetics. The collection is organized into seven series: I. Correspondence, 1944-1993 ; II. Subject Files, 1946-1989 ; III. Works by Carson, 1951-1985 ; IV. Works by Others, 1949-1987 ; V. Research Notes, 1921-1993 ; VI. Course Material, 1943-1986 ; VII. Photographs, 1948-1985.

Background note
Scope & content
Administrative information
Additional information
- Related material
- Conservation note
Added entries
Contact information
Collection overview
- Series I. Correspondence, 1944-1993
- Series II. Subject files, 1946-1989
- Series III. Works by Carson, 1951-1985
- Series IV. Works by others, 1949-1987
- Series V. Research notes, 1921-1993
- Series VI. Course material, 1943-1986
- Series VII. Photographs, 1948-1985
Collection inventory
- Series I. Correspondence, 1944-1993
- Series II. Subject files, 1946-1989
- Series III. Works by Carson, 1951-1985
- Series IV. Works by others, 1949-1987
- Series V. Research notes, 1921-1993
- Series VI. Course material, 1943-1986
- Series VII. Photographs, 1948-1985

Background note

A population geneticist best known for his work on Drosophila, Hampton Lawrence Carson was born into a distinguished Philadelphia scientific family on November 5, 1914. Carson studied zoology at the University of Pennsylvania, where his great-grandfather, Joseph Carson had been a professor of botany, receiving his AB under Robert Miller Stabler in 1936, and his PhD in 1943. His dissertation on the cytogenetics of darkwinged fungus gnats, "An Analysis of Natural Chromosome Variability in Sciara impatiens" was well received and was published a year later in the Journal of Morphology. According to Theodosius Dobzhansky, this work provided "definitive cytological proof of the chromosomal situations produced by crossing over in inversion heterozygotes."¹

Joining the faculty of Washington University in 1943, Carson rose from assistant professor in 1949 to professor in 1956. In 1951, he was appointed visiting professor of biology at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil and was a Fulbright Research Scholar in zoology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Carson began his association with the University of Hawaii in the summers of 1963 to 1967 as a visiting professor and participant in the Hawaiian Drosophila Project, a cooperative venture between tge Universities of Texas and Hawaii which had been initiated by Elmo Hardy and Wilson Stone in 1963 to study Hawaii's 600 unique drosophilid species. In 1970 Carson was appointed Manoa Genetics Professor in the Department of Entomology at Hawaii, where he continued until his retirement in 1985.

Shortly after completing his dissertation, Carson struck up a fruitful collaboration with Harrison Stalker on Drosophila robusta (see Ms. Coll. 23), and from that point on, devoted much of his scientific attention to Drosophila and to elucidating fundamental questions of selection, reproductive isolation, and speciation. Through a careful series of comparative genetic analyses of populations in New Guinea, Australia, the West Indies, Brazil, and many parts of North America, he developed the concepts of heteroselection and homoselection, but his best known research came through the Hawaiian Drosophila Project. After studying the population genetics of eight species endemic to the Hawaiian islands, Carson proposed that speciation in the island chain was tied to the formation of new islands, with new species being slightly different than those in the nearest island, and progressively more different than those in more distant islands.² Carson also contributed to the empirical study of effects and quantum selection.

A prolific writer, Carson published over 250 papers between 1934 and 1989 in journals such as Evolution, Genetics, and American Naturalist. He was active in professional societies, serving terms as president of the Society for the Study of Evolution (1971) and the American Society of Naturalists (1973). In 1979 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1985 he won the Leidy Medal for his work with the Hawaiian Drosophila Project. The International Symposium on Genetics, Speciation and the Founder Principle was held in his honor in June 1985, resulting in a festschrift, Genetics, Speciation and the Founder Principle (Oxford Press, 1994).

Although Carson retired from the University of Hawaii faculty in 1985, he remained active in research by working off a grant from the National Science Foundation. Currently he lives in Hawaii with his wife Meredith, who worked with him on several field expeditions.

Footnotes

Dobzhansky, Nomination of Hampton Carson to the National Academy of Sciences. Ser. II. National Academy of Sciences.
New York Times, July 5, 1978; see Series II, Clippings

Scope and content

The Hampton Lawrence Carson Papers (1921-1993) contain correspondence, subject files, manuscripts of published and unpublished works by Carson, papers by colleagues and students, research notes by Carson, course material, and photographs, which document Carson's career as an evolutionary geneticist.

Oversized materials follow the same series arrangement as noted above. Cross referencing to oversized material appears on the folders in the standard-sized boxes. All photographs and negatives have been removed from Series I-VI and placed in Series VII. Cross references appear in the original series. Reprints have been moved to the printed materials collection of the APS library. If a reprint was found as an enclosure, a photocopy of the title page was filed in its place. To retrieve reprints, consult the card catalog for printed materials.

The papers (31 boxes; 15 linear feet) are divided into seven series:


Series I. Correspondence	1944-1993	3.75 lin. feet
Series II. Subject files	1946-1989	1 lin. foot
Series III. Works by Carson	1951-1985	2.75 lin. feet
Series IV. Works by others	1949-1987	1 lin. foot
Series V. Research notes	1921-1993	3.5 lin. feet
Series VI. Course material	1943-1986	2.5 lin. feet
Series VII. Photographs	1948-1985	0.5 lin. feet

Administrative information

Restrictions

None.

Provenance

The Carson Papers were donated to the APS Library by Hampton Lawrence Carson in 1994 (accn. no. 1994-631ms.) and subsequently.

Accruals:

Several recent accessions have not yet been calendared and are not reflected in this finding aid.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Hampton L. Carson Papers, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Catalogued by Jan S. Ballard, 1994; rewritten and encoded 2004.

Additional information

Related material

Luther Val Giddings, Kenneth Y. Kaneshiro, and Wyatt W. Anderson, Genetics, Speciation, and the Founder Principle (New York: Oxford, 1989). Call no.: 575.1 G36g.

Conservation note

During processing, the collection was re-foldered and re-housed in acid-free folders and boxes. Metal fasteners were removed and replaced with plastic clips when necessary. A separate listing of torn or severely deteriorated manuscripts and manuscripts that need to have glue and tape removed has been compiled by series and submitted to the Conservation Department.

All newspaper clippings were photocopied onto acid-free paper; the original clippings were then discarded. Other brittle or torn items were also photocopied, and when considered valuable, were retained. Photographs have been interleaved with non-buffered, acid-free paper.