Background note
One of the four horsemen of the evolutionary synthesis of the 1940s, Theodosius Dobzhansky played a crucial role in bridging
the gap between theoretical and empirical approaches in genetics. His contributions to the biological species concept and
to an understanding the evolutionary dynamics of wild populations of
Drosophila were fundamental to the development of modern population genetics and evolutionary thought.
Born in Nemirov, Ukraine, on January 29, 1900, Dobzhansky came of age during the Bolshevik Revolution, but preferring the
revolution in biology to the one in politics. After receiving a degree from the University of Kiev in 1921, he stayed on as
an instructor in zoology, working initially on the anatomy and systematics of the coccinellid (ladybird) beetles. On a trip
to Moscow in 1923 or 1924, however, he obtained stocks of
Drosophila melanogaster that had been imported to the USSR by H. J. Muller and altered the taxonomic course of his research. His demonstration of
pleiotropic effects in
Drosophila soon brought him to the attention of Yuri A. Filipchenko, so that in 1924 -- the year in which he married the evolutionary
biologist Natalia (Natasha) Sivertsev -- he was rewarded with a lectureship at the University of Leningrad.
Although his position in the troubled world of Soviet genetics was rising, Dobzhansky sought out an International Education
Board fellowship in 1927 to work in the creative hothouse of T. H. Morgan's fly lab at Columbia, following Morgan to Cal Tech
two years later. The years at Cal Tech were particularly exciting ones in the history of genetics, as the largely cytogenetic
work of Morgan, Calvin B. Bridges, Alfred H. Sturtevant, and H. J. Muller had begun to unravel the mechanisms of inheritance
through the use of cytological and developmental techniques. When Dobzhansky joined the group in 1927, its members were busy
constructing linkage maps, locating specific genes on chromosomes by statistically analyzing the frequency with which certain
traits are inherited together. Furthermore, only a few months before Dobzhansky's arrival, Muller (by this time at the University
of Texas) had announced his discovery that x-ray exposure dramatically increased the natural rate of mutation in
Drosophila. Not surprisingly, then, Dobzhansky began irradiating flies during the summer of 1928, and he spent the following winter
studying the resultant chromosomal aberrations, mapping them by the use of gene markers. His long years dissecting beetles
stood him well in the enterprise, for after removing, sectioning, and staining the ovaries of a young female fly, he provided
the first cytological proof of the linear arrangement of genes on chromosomes: under the microscope, Dobzhansky saw a piece
of the long, rod-like third chromosome attached to the tiny dot-like fourth chromosome. In the
Reminiscences, he wrote: "I don't remember whether I
emitted a loud yell. No question that I felt that way." Dobzhansky was promoted
to full professor in 1936.
The cytological and developmental approach at Cal Tech continued to serve Dobzhansky well into the early 1930s as he worked
on the analysis of translocations and the nature of sex determination, however his differences with the Morgan group soon
became evident. All along, he had maintained an active field program, roaming into the California deserts, the Yosemite and
Sequoia National Parks, and as far away as Alaska and Mexico in search of wild flies. More importantly, however, he began
increasingly to conceptualize the major problems in genetics within an evolutionary and populational context. For over a decade,
R. A. Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane, and Sewall Wright had been reaching toward a quantitative methodology for uniting Mendelian
and Darwinian theory by shifting the locus of study from the individual to the population. Recognizing that morphological
change was the product of shifting gene frequencies, Fisher, Haldane and Wright developed sophisticated mathematical models
to assess the relative effects of selectional pressure, mutation, and genetic drift on evolutionary change. What they lacked,
above all, was empirical weight.
With this in mind, Dobzhansky and Sturtevant recognized that they could use chromosomal inversions in wild populations of
D. pseudoobscura to construct phylogenies and to study evolutionary dynamics at a highly refined scale. Simultaneously, in 1935 Dobzhansky
began the fundamental task of reformulating the taxonomic and morphological term "species" to bring it into line with evolutionary
theory. Aware from his studies of variability in natural populations that morphological similarity could mask considerable
genetic variability, he argued that regardless of the degree of morphological differentiation between populations, reproductive
isolation was the surest and most biologically meaningful criterion for distinguishing species. The Jessup Lectures he delivered
at Columbia University during the fall of 1936 provided him with a unique opportunity to synthesize the enormous amount of
observational, experimental, and theoretical genetics he had acquired, interpreted in light of the emerging quantitative population
genetics. These lectures were published in 1937 as Genetics and the Origin of Species, quickly becoming a classic in the emerging fields of evolution and population genetics and in the canon of the Neo-Darwinian
Synthesis.
In 1940 Dobzhansky accepted a professorship at Columbia University, and moved back to New York. There he became a close friend
of the mouse geneticist, L.C. Dunn, collaborating with him on several books, and he developed close working relationships
with George Gaylord Simpson and Ernst Mayr, among others. His growing collaboration with Sewall Wright was particularly productive,
with Dobzhansky providing the critical empirical tests for Wright's mathematical insights. Together, they devised methods
for measuring the forces of natural selection in the laboratory and, further, for studying the interaction of evolutionary
forces in natural populations. With the help of his student Bruce Wallace and Wright, Dobzhansky worked out an elaborate theory
of population structure based on inherent genetic diversity. It has been said that Dobzhansky's most significant contribution
was the demonstration of vast genetic diversity within each species, a diversity that coexists with the uniformity of the
molecular model of the gene and the universality of the genetic code.
Dobzhansky traveled widely during his twenty-two years at Columbia: hunting flies in Guatemala, Brazil, Chile, Australia,
New Guinea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, and the western United States. He published prolifically on hybrid sterility, developmental
rates, enzyme polymorphisms, genetic responses to environmental change, and behavioral phenomena, such as dispersion rates
(how far flies actually fly). Among his more frequent collaborators were J. T. Patterson, C. Epling, C. D. Darlington, and
his two research assistants, Olga Pavlovsky and Boris Spassky. He left a substantial legacy, as well, through his students,
who included Bruce Wallace, R. C. Lewontin, and E. D. Spiess, as well as several colleagues and students from South America,
including A. B. da Cuhna, A. R. Cordeiro, C. Malogolowkin-Cohen, and C. Pavan.
Yet as much as Dobzhansky enjoyed the intellectual climate at Columbia, from the late 1940s on he felt underappreciated and
afflicted by the grind of university politics. As a result, he abandoned Columbia in 1962 to accept a position at the Rockefeller
Institute (soon to become the Rockefeller University), remaining there until his retirement in 1971. At Rockefeller he expanded
the scope of his work into behavioral genetics, while continuing his analysis of enzyme polymorphisms in Drosophila willistoni. In 1966, he adopted the still novel technique of gel electrophoresis to assay individual genotypes within a population,
contributing to a raging debate with Muller, James Crow, and Motoo Kimura over the amount and significance of genetic variation
in natural populations.
Retiring from Rockefeller in 1971, Dobzhansky continued to remain active in the field as an adjunct professor in the department
of his former student Francisco J. Ayala at the University of California, Davis. At the time of his death from lymphatic leukemia
in 1975, he was actively co-editing the series
Evolutionary Biology, collaborating on a textbook dealing with evolutionary topics with Ayala, G. Ledyard Stebbins, and James Valentine, and was
engaged in a series of experiments on chromosomal differences between populations of Mexican Drosophila with A. L. de Garay,
R. Félix Estrada, L. Levine, J. Powell, and V.M. Salceda.
Summarizing Dobzhansky's career on the basis of his scientific productivity does not quite capture its scope. From his days
at Cal Tech onward, Dobzhansky regularly engaged with the philosophical and social implications of his work. His view of scientific
progress was essentially Popperian -- "A scientific 'model,'" he wrote to Arthur R. Jensen in 1972, "is tested in attempts
to falsify it, and the more steps it stands successfully, the more convincing it is, until finally it is taken as 'truth.'"
He also situated himself within the "process" school of philosophy, although he was critical of mainstream Whiteheadian philosophers
for having established "a special religion... a non-Christian religion. A sort of Unitarianism on the Whiteheadian basis"
(June 15, 1974). For his own part, Dobzhansky was acutely sensitive to criticism of his philosophical (or scientific) work
by other scientists, especially with respect to the reception of his popular works Mankind Evolving and The Biology of Ultimate Concern.
Deeply imbued with his faith in the Eastern Orthodox church, and steeped in an evolutionary world view, Dobzhansky held to
a transcendent, cosmic evolutionism deeply influenced by the writings of the Jesuit priest, Teilhard de Chardin. His interests
drew regularly him into public debates on the intersection of religion and science, criticizing Pope Paul for his antievolutionary
views in the 1960s, and assailing the growing tide of Protestant creationsim of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1972, he wrote J.
Kunamoto, that for him "The evolution of life, and the evolutionary origin of mankind, are scientifically established as firmly
and completely as any historical event not witnessed by human observers. Any concession to anti-evolutionists, suggesting
that there are scientific reasons to doubt the facticity of evolution, would be propagating a plain untruth."
The great problems of the century -- totalitarianism and racism -- also weighed heavily on Dobzhansky's conscience. With L.C.
Dunn, a political fellow traveler, and later with Ashley Montagu, Dobzhansky produced a number of works on the biology of
race, highlighted by the book
Heredity, Race, and Society (1946). Dobzhansky argued that
modern genetic studies had demonstrated that eugenical claims about the
biological basis of personality and behavior were at best grossly simplified,
and were more likely simply wrong. A strong critic of eugenics in the interwar
period, he continued to combat "scientific" efforts to establish the facticity
of racial differences, participating in the debates over IQ during the 1960s
and 1970s. He was particularly adamant that a scientist working on projects
concerning the genetics of behavior must remain honest and committed to the
logic of his discipline, and he often wrote to scientists to remind them of
this fact. At the same time, his own experiences in Russia made Dobzhansky
keenly aware of the problems of intellectual freedom and the necessity of
supporting even unpopular modes of speech. He bore an unwavering hatred for the
Soviet system and took an active role in writing about the Lysenko controversy.
Scope and content
The Dobzhansky Papers are a remnant of the correspondence and writings of the geneticist and evolutionary biologist, Theodosius
Dobzhansky. Offering far richer documentation for the last decade of his career than the first three, the correspondence (7.5
linear feet) provides insight into Dobzhansky's scientific, philosophical, and social views. Equally valuable are the 54 notebooks
(ca.1917-1975) which comprise an almost uninterrupted personal commentary on Dobzhansky's entire career, replete with typescripts
of personal letters and short essays sent to colleagues and friends. The collection also contains two unbound volumes of annotated
transcripts from the Columbia Oral History Project, 1962; two bound volumes of papers dedicated to him on his 70th birthday;
and 1.5 linear feet of photographs.
"There is in this office a letter-filing cabinet," Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote to a friend in 1968, "where letters are kept
for some time, usually two or three years, and then most are either discarded or placed on a back shelf" (Dansereau, 1968).
The periodic destruction of files which Dobzhansky described was further accentuated by five major moves during his career,
once from Russia to the United States and three times across the North American continent. At each remove, he further weeded
out materials that he considered superfluous, uninteresting or unimportant. Thus the majority of the surviving papers either
date from after his move to Davis in 1971, or reflect those memories he consciously wished to preserve. The majority of letters
concern his ongoing genetic projects from 1971 to 1975; philosophical, ethical and religious issues (including problems raised
by behavioral genetics and the IQ debate); and political issues, but routine office correspondence is also abundant. Above
all, the Papers display the mix of scientific pugnacity and warm personal relationships with friends and former students that
characterized Dobzhansky's writing.
The forty-four page summary of Dobzhansky's career prepared by R. C. Lewontin, M. M. Green, F. J. Ayala, and I. M. Lerner
for G. W. Beadle's nomination of Dobzhahsky to the Nobel Committee in 1975 gives a comprehensive analysis of Dobzhansky's
scientific accomplishments, and contains his complete bibliography, 1918-1975.
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| Series I |
Correspondence,
1927-1975
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15 boxes (7.5 linear
feet)
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| Series II |
Correspondence with Ernst Mayr,
1937-1975
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1 box (0.25 linear feet) |
| Series III |
Research notebooks,
ca.1917-1975
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3 boxes (1.5 linear
feet)
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| Series IV |
Human Culture
(manuscript)
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1 box (0.25 linear feet) |
| Series V |
Papers dedicated to Dobzhansky,
1970
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2 vols. (0.25 linear
feet)
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| Series VI |
Reminiscences, 1962 |
2 vols. (0.25 linear
feet)
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| Series VII |
Journal, 1926 |
1 vol. (0.1 linear feet) |
| Series VIII |
Awards and memorabilia,
1935-1975
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3 boxes (1.25 linear
feet)
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| Series IX |
Photographs,
ca.1929-1974
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3 boxes (1.5 linear
feet)
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Administrative information
Restrictions
Materials in Series VIII, correspondence between Ernst Mayr and Dobzhansky, 1937-1975, may not be published without the permission
of Ernst Mayr.
Provenance
The Dobzhansky Papers have come to the APS in several distinct
donations. The bulk arrived as a bequest of Theodosius Dobzhansky in 1976, with
later accruals from Ernst Mayr (Series II) and Francisco J. Ayala.
Photocopies of Dobzhansky's correspondence sent to Vavilov (1931), Filipchenko (1925-1930), and Medvedev (1963-1975) were
obtained from the M. E.
Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia.
Preferred citation
Cite as: Theodosius Dobzhansky Papers, American Philosophical Society.
Alternate formats
The originals of Dobzhansky's correspondence with Filipchenko, Vavilov, and Medvedev housed at the M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin
State Public Library, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia, has been microfilmed on Film 1484.
Additional information
Related material
Dobzhansky appears as a correspondent in many APS collections, some
in substantial quantity. Among the more important sources for Dobzhansky are
the papers of Hampton Carson (22 items), Ernst Caspari (36 items), Milislav
Demerec (171 items), L. C. Dunn (353 letters), I. Michael Lerner (280 items),
Ashley Montagu (125 items), George Gaylord Simpson (88 items), Alexander
Sokoloff (100 items), Curt Stern (101 items), and Bruce Wallace (114
items).
References
Mark B. Adams, ed.,
The Evolution of Theodosius Dobzhansky: Essays on His Life and Thought in Russia and America (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton, 1994).
Francisco Ayala, Obituary of Theodosius Dobzhansky, National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs 55 (1985), 163-215.
Bentley Glass, The Roving Naturalist: Travel Letters of Theodosius Dobzhansky, APS Memoir 139 (1980).
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Series I. Correspondence
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ca.1920-1975 |
7.5 lin. feet |
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The bulk of the correspondence in the Dobzhansky collection is
comprised of invitations, letters of recommendation, travel arrangements,
referee reports, requests for visits, reprints, etc., inquiries concerning
fellowships, scholarships, graduate study, and postdoctoral work. His travel
itinerary was astounding; his letters abounding with comments on the marvels of
jet-age transportation.
Many of the letters between Dobzhansky and his former students
date from his years at Davis. In addition to the correspondence with L. Ehrman,
R.C. Lewontin, J. Powell, R.C. Richmond, E.B. Spiess, and B. Wallace,
correspondence with W.W. Anderson (14 items, 1971-75), D.W. Crumpacker (24
items, 1969-75), and D. Weisbrot (12 items, 1971-75) has survived. Dobzhansky
considered his graduate students to be his "intellectual progeny," and he
remained actively concerned for their work and careers long after they had
received their degrees.
Dobzhansky had strong opinions about current political issues, and
especially the effect of politics on the freedom of scientists to pursue their
work. His letters to J. Powell and his diaries during the early 1970s contain
numerous comments on Richard Nixon and Watergate, moreover, he addressed
himself to the situations in Chile (Koref-Santibañez, 1970-74; see also
Ehrman), Greece (Kastritsis, 1970), and Israel (Weisbrot).
Between 1969 and 1975, Dobzhansky also dealt with the conditions
under which Russian geneticists in general, and Zhores Medvedev in particular,
were working (see correspondence with M. M. Green, M. D. Grmek, A. Gustafsson,
T. H. Jukes, D. G. Kenefick, I. M. Lerner and Medvedev (many in Russian);
Muntzing, and van Gelder). Correspondence between Dobzhansky and his Russian
colleagues was severely restricted by Soviet authorities for many years,
nevertheless he was able to reestablish contact with several of them in the
late 1960s, and approximately 175 letters in Russian are preserved in the
collection. All date either from 1927-1935 or from 1968-1975, and among the
significant correspondents are Y.A. Filipchenko, N.I. Dubinin, I.I.
Schmalhausen, N.W. Timoféeff-Ressovsky, and Dobzhansky's former
students, Julius Kerkis and M. Levit. Photocopies of Dobzhansky's letters
received by Filpchenko, Vavilov, and Medvedev have been added to the collection
courtesy of the State Public Library, Leningrad.
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Series II. Correspondence with Ernst Mayr
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1937-1975 |
0.25 lin. feet |
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Revealing correspondence between Dobzhansky and the evolutionary biologist, Ernst Mayr, regarding speciation, evolutionary
theory, and genetics.
Permission to quote from Series II must be obtained in advance from Ernst Mayr.
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Series III. Research notebooks
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ca.1917-1975 |
1 lin. feet |
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The fifty-four notebooks and diaries give a virtually uninterrupted first-hand commentary on Dobzhansky's life and career,
save for the period 1936-1941. Although the earliest dates are 1934, the first entries (sketches and data on coccinellid beetles)
may have been made as early as 1917. With few exceptions, the entries are all in Russian, although two long stretches written
in English occur during the late 1940s and early 1950s (presumably the years during which he felt most alienated from Russia)
and from 1971 until his death. In an entry from this period, he commented that he was again writing in English so that his
last thoughts would be accessible to friends and relatives unable to read Russian.
Throughout the notebooks, Dobzhansky included extracts or copies of personal letters to or from family members and close friends.
These record details of Dobzhansky's day-to-day life often lacking in his professional correspondence, and serve to round
out the picture of his personality. These preserved items become increasingly numerous as he became older, particularly after
the death of his wife in 1968. Among the manuscripts in the collection are 46 essays Dobzhansky wrote about his travels and
sent home to his friends. He was often urged to publish these in collected form, but failed to do so. Excerpts from one
appeared in 1970; but they were not published in their entirety until edited by Bentley Glass in 1985.
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Series IV. Human Culture (manuscript) |
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0.25 lin. feet |
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Manuscript of Dobzhansky's
Human Culture: A Moment in Evolution (N.Y.: Columbia, 1983), with proofreader's notations.
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Series V. Papers dedicated to Dobzhansky
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1970 |
0.5 lin. feet |
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Two bound volumes of published articles dedicated (and usually
inscribed) to Dobzhansky on the occasion of his 70th birthday in 1970, written
by colleagues, former students, and friends.
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Series VI. Reminiscences
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1962 |
0.25 lin. feet |
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With the paucity of material from early in Dobzhansky's life, the Reminiscences assume a considerable importance for documenting
the early parts of his career and, apart from some materials in Russia, are the only source for his life prior to emigration.
The two volumes of "Reminiscences," transcripts from the Columbia Oral History Project interviews conducted by Barbara Land
in 1962, give a remarkably coherent and self-conscious picture of Dobzhansky's life. Encompassing descriptions of his childhood
and student years in Russia, candid and anecdotal accounts of the people he had known throughout his career, and the places
where he had worked and the experiments he had done, the reminiscences also include thoughts on various historical and political
issues. Dobzhansky annotated them between 1962-1975, supplying names and dates as he remembered them, and adding information
about his family background. The final notes are dated December 17, 1975, the day of his death.
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Series VII. Journal
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1926 |
0.25 lin. feet |
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Journal, in Russian, kept during the year prior to Dobzhansky's departure from the Soviet Union.
Due to the fragility of the original, photocopy must be used.
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Series VIII. Awards and Memorabilia
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1935-1975 |
1 lin. feet |
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A miscellaneous collection of awards and memorabilia, including major awards such as the Kimber Award in Genetics, the National
Medal of Science, and the Daniel Elliot Giraud Medal.
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Series IX. Photographs
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ca.1929-1974 |
1.5 lin. feet |
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A mixture of candid photographs of Dobzhansky, his wife Natasha, and their friends, and photographs taken during field excursions
and at meetings from throughout his career. Includes some formal portraits of Dobzhansky at various stages of life.
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