Robert C. Olby Collection, American Philosophical Society

Table of contents

Abstract

The historian of science Robert C. Olby is a graduate of University College London and Oxford. Best known for his work on the history of genetics, especially the Bateson school, and for his study of the early history of molecular biology, Olby is currently a Research Professor in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of The Origins of Mendelism (1966), Charles Darwin (1967), The Path to the Double Helix (1994), and the Norton History of Biology. His current research is focused on the conceptual foundations of modern sensory neurophysiology and an intellectual biography of Francis Crick.

The Olby Collection contains about 150 photocopies of correspondence and documents collected by Olby during research for The Path to the Double Helix. Among these is a copy of a manuscript by F. C. Crick and James D. Watson, "The Complementary Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid," prepared while Watson was at CalTech.

Background note
Scope & content
Administrative information
Additional information
- Bibliography
Added entries
Contact information
Collection inventory

Background note

A graduate of the University College London and Oxford, Robert C. Olby (b. 1933) earned a reputation as an innovative historian of genetics with the publication of first book The Origins of Mendelism in 1966. When a former undergraduate friend of his, John Preble, suggested that he study the history of molecular biology, Olby gained an introduction to Francis Crick, the British biophysicist and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, who became both a scientific informant and close friend. Olby's The Path to the Double Helix (1974) provided an overview of the intellectual and institutional background that resulted in Watson and Crick's "physical and chemical account of the gene." In his introduction, Olby stated simply that his hope was that the book would "afford the historian, sociologist and scientist a guide to the source material relating to the origins of molecular biology, with special reference to DNA," but in fact it presented a masterful use of both primary written sources and oral histories. Ironically, Olby claimed that as a student at the University College London in the fifties, he could not remember hearing the word DNA ever being uttered.

Olby taught history of science at the University of Leeds from 1969-1993 and in the department of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh from 1994-2001, where he remains as Research Professor.

Scope and content

The Olby Collection (23 folders, ca.97 items) is comprised almost entirely of photocopies of correspondence from scientists involved in the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA in 1953. The correspondents include Sydney Brenner, Francis Crick, Max Delbruck, Rosalind Franklin, Roger Herriott, Alfred Hershey, Salvadore Luria, Marshall Matthaei, Mathew Meselson, Linus Pauling, Alexander Rich, and James Watson. The topics discussed within the correspondence include but are not limited to the structure of DNA, Pauling's theory, RNA backbone, Jonathan Warner, and the RNA central code.

Administrative information

Restrictions

None.

Provenance

Gift of Robert C. Olby, June 1969 and October 1970 (acc. No. 1976-344ms and 1976-345ms).

Preferred citation

Cite as: Robert C. Olby Collection, American Philosophical Society.

Other finding aids

The Robert Olby Papers are briefly described in Bentley Glass's A Guide to the Genetics Collections of the APS.

Additional information

References

Olby, Robert C., The Origins of Mendelism (London: Constable, 1966). Call no.: 575.1 OL1o.

Olby, Robert C., The Path to the Double Helix (Seattle: Univ. of Washington, 1974). Call no.: 574.19 OL1p.