Conway Zirkle Collection
1948-1966
(1.5 linear feet)

B Z67

© American Philosophical Society
105 South Fifth Street * Philadelphia, PA 19106-3386
 American Philosophical Society 105 South Fifth Street Philadelphia, PA 19106-3386
Table of contents Abstract
A botanist and historian of science at the University of Pennsylvania, Conway Zirkle published on the history of evolutionary thought and genetics, with a particular interest in the discipline as practiced in the Soviet Union.

The Zirkle Papers consist of approximately one linear foot of materials accrued by Zirkle during research for his book on Lysenko-era biology in the Soviet Union, The Death of Science in Russia (1949). Among the miscellaneous materials in the collection are four volumes (0.5 linear feet) of pressed specimens of ferns and algae.
Background note
A botanist and historian of science at the University of Pennsylvania, Conway Zirkle published on the history of evolutionary thought, with a particular interest in the discipline as practiced in the Soviet Union. His major works included The Death of Science in Russia (Philadelphia, 1949) and Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene (Philadelphia, 1959).


Scope and content
Consisting largely of newspaper clippings and translations from Pravda, the Zirkle Collection was assembled by Conway Zirkle while preparing his book on Soviet biology during the Lysenko era, Death of Science in Russia. It focuses primarily on the Soviet rejection of the chromosomal theory of inheritance and Mendel-Morgan genetics in favor of the biology of Michurin and Lysenko, and the social and political context. In addition to a small volume of correspondence, the collection includes typescript essays on Lysenko by L.C. Dunn, H.J. Muller, Theodosius Dobzhansky, and N.I. Vavilov.

Among the even smaller number of miscellaneous items in the collection is an important 10 page letter from James McKeen Cattell addressed to Allyn A. Young of the Committee on Academic Freedom regarding Cattell's dismissal from Columbia in 1917. There are, in addition, a group of 22 letters of congratulations to Zirkle upon his retirement from the University of Pennsylvania, a copy of Henry H. Dale's resignation from the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1948, materials used by Zirkle in research for his article "Animals impregnated by the wind," and four volumes containing specimens of pressed ferns and algae.

Administrative information
Restrictions
None.

Provenance
The Zirkle Papers were presented to the APS by the Bryn Mawr College Library, 1972.

Preferred citation
Cite as: Conway Zirkle Collection, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information
Recatalogued by rsc, 2002.

Other finding aids
Also described in Bentley Glass, Guide to the Genetics Collections at the American Philosophical Society.

Additional information
Related material
Additional material on Soviet biology and Lysenko is located in the papers of L. C. Dunn, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Michael Lerner, and Curt Stern, among others.

References
Zirkle, Conway, Death of Science in Russia: the Fate of Genetics as Described in Pravda and elsewhere (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1949).
Call no.: 575.12 Z6d.

Zirkle, Conway, Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1949).
Call no.: 575 Z6

Added entries
Subjects
  • Agriculture--Soviet Union
  • Algae
  • Evolution (Biology)--Soviet Union
  • Ferns
  • Genetics--Soviet Union
  • Lysenko, Trofim Denisovich, 1898-1976

    • Contributors
  • Cattell, James McKeen, 1860-1944
  • Dale, Henry H. (Henry Hallett), 1875-
  • Davitashvili, L.
  • Demidov, Sergei Federovich
  • Deutsch, Albert, 1905-1961
  • Dimitrova, Elena
  • Dobzhansky, Theodosius Grigorievich, 1900-1975
  • Dunn, L. C. (Leslie Clarence), 1893-1974
  • Goldschmidt, Richard Benedict, 1878-1958
  • Muller, H. J. (Hermann Joseph), 1890-1967
  • Nachtsheim, Hans, 1890-
  • Shmalgauzen, I. I. (Ivan Ivanovich), 1884-1963
  • Vavilov, N. I. (Nikolai Ivanovich), 1887-1943
  • Zirkle, Conway, 1895-1974

    		•
    Contact information
    American Philosophical Society
    105 South Fifth Street
    Philadelphia, PA 19106-3386
    [http://www.amphilsoc.org/]

    ©2002


    Detailed inventory

    		 Correspondence and manuscripts 1948-1966 2 boxes

    		Academic Freedom of Science in Russia

    		Box 1

    		Animals Impregnated by the wind. [see also: Impregnation by the wind]

    		Box 1

    		An Appraisal of Science in the USSR

    		Box 1

    		Biological Abstracts

    		Box 1

    		Biology in the USSR

    		Box 1

    		Birthday Greetings, 1966

    		Box 1

    		British literature in the Eighteenth Century

    		Box 1

    		Cattell, J. McKeen

    		Box 1

    		Checkmenev, E. M.

    		Box 1

    		Communist Pseudo-Science in Agriculture

    		Box 1

    		Conant, George H.

    		Box 1

    		Concerning a hemophiliac family

    		Box 1

    		Concerning the inheritance of acquired characteristics

    		Box 1

    		Dalet, Henry H.

    		Box 1

    		Davitashvili, L..
    An Institute's Serious Mistakes

    		Box 1

    		Death of a Science in Russia

    		Box 1

    		Death of a Science in Russia [Preface to the Japanese Edition]

    		Box 1

    		Death of a Science in Russia [Manuscripts - not used]

    		Box 1

    		Degeneration of plants

    		Box 1

    		Domidov, S. F.

    		Box 1

    		Destruction of Science in Russia

    		Box 1

    		Deutsch, Albert.
    Degradation of Soviet Science

    		Box 1

    		Dimitrova,Elena.
    Lysenko in Bulgaria

    		Box 1

    		Divergent attitudes toward science in east-west tension

    		Box 1

    		Dobzhansky, Theodosius

    		Box 1

    		Dobzhansky, Theodosius.
    End of genetics in the Soviet Union

    		Box 1

    		Dunn, L.
    Concerning the Lysenko report

    		Box 1

    		Early ideas of inbreeding crossbreeding and hybrid-vigor

    		Box 1

    		Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene

    		Box 1

    		Evolution: Miscellaneous notes

    		Box 1

    		Fall of a charlatan

    		Box 1

    		Fast, Howard.
    I write as I please... the Lysenko theory and the Saturday Review

    		Box 1

    		Genetics in Russia

    		Box 1

    		Genetics: the science of heredity

    		Box 1

    		Glushchenko, I

    		Box 1

    		Goldschmidt, Richard.
    Presidential address to Phi Sigma Societies

    		Box 1

    		Havas, László

    		Box 1

    		Herbert, Danby

    		Box 1

    		Herbert, Henry L.

    		Box 1

    		How to find a book in a Library

    		Box 1

    		Howard, Milton.
    Column In Daily Worker

    		Box 1

    		Impregnation by the wind - Miscellany.

    		Box 1

    		Items in the history of biology.

    		Box 1

    		Kaftanov, S.

    		Box 2

    		The knowledge of generation in the Renaissance

    		Box 2

    		Life of science. Introduction

    		Box 2

    		Lysenko, Trofim Denishovich

    		Box 2

    		Lysenko miscellaneous notes

    		Box 2

    		Marxism and the arts

    		Box 2

    		Mitin, M.

    		Box 2

    		Moore, Barrington, Jr..
    "Terror and Progress, USSR"

    		Box 2

    		Mossige, Jeanne Coyne

    		Box 2

    		Muller, H. J..
    Destruction of a science in the USSR (Manuscript)

    		Box 2

    		Muller, H. J..
    (Published)

    		Box 2

    		Muller, H. J..
    Genetics in relation to modern science

    		Box 2

    		Muller, H. J..
    Rise and fall of genetics in the USSR

    		Box 2

    		Nachtsheim, Hans.
    Das Ende der sowjetischen Pseudogenetik

    		Box 2

    		Nemchinov, V.

    		Box 2

    		Newspaper clippings

    		Box 2

    		Pravda: At the Session of the V.I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences

    		Box 2

    		Pravda: Higher the Banners of Advanced, Michurinist Biological Science

    		Box 2

    		Pravda: [Lysenko] various dates

    		Box 2

    		Pravda: Editorial

    		Box 2

    		Pravda: Reply to Muller; 1948 December 14

    		Box 2

    		Prezent, I. I..
    Creative Darwinism in the Soviet Union

    		Box 2

    		Printed items on Lysenko

    		Box 2

    		Refutation of Joravsky's review of his book

    		Box 2

    		Rehabilitating a Soviet scientist

    		Box 2

    		Return of quackery to Russian medicine

    		Box 2

    		Review of Alexander G. Korol: Soviet Education for Science and Technology

    		Box 2

    		Review of Darwin's Biological work

    		Box 2

    		Review of Evolution of Life

    		Box 2

    		Review of Robert Nachtweg: Der Irrweg des Darwinismus

    		Box 2

    		Roberts, Brian.
    A visit to the USSR on behalf of the Scott Polar Research Institute

    		Box 2

    		Schmalhausen, I. I.

    		Box 2

    		Science and the Scientist in the Soviet Union

    		Box 2

    		Science in Russia

    		Box 2

    		Scientific method in communist lands

    		Box 2

    		Scientists and the visa problem

    		Box 2

    		Soviet science and technology

    		Box 2

    		Soviet scientific and technological capabilities

    		Box 2

    		Status and trends in Soviet scientific and technical manpower resources

    		Box 2

    		Stoletov, V. N.

    		Box 2

    		Strohm, John L.
    Excerpt from "Just tell the truth.''

    		Box 2

    		Unknown

    		Box 2

    		Vasilenko, I. F.

    		Box 2

    		Vavilov, N. I..
    Botanical-geographic principles of selection

    		Box 2

    		Warecki, A.

    		Box 2

    		Weterynaryjna, Med

    		Box 2

    		Yudin, V. M.

    		Box 2

    		Zhuravsky, V.
    Agrotechnical research on the sidewalk

    		Box 2

    		Botanical specimen books
    		4 volumes

    		Ferns, part 1

    		Vol. 1

    		Ferns, part 2

    		Vol. 2

    		Algae, part 1

    		Vol. 3

    		Algae, part 2

    		Vol. 4