Scope and Content Note
The papers of Robert Carter Cook (1898-1991) span the years 1882-1992, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period between 1940 and 1970. The collection focuses on his work as a geneticist, demographer, editor, and author. For the most part, Cook was educated at home by his parents. He attended George Washington University and the University of Maryland, but did not complete a degree program. In his first job, he was involved with air foils and aeronautical experiments at the Bureau of Standards. After World War I, he moved to Escuela, Arizona, to work at the Tucson Indian Training School. In 1922 Cook returned to Washington, D.C., and was appointed managing editor of the Journal of Heredity, an official publication of the American Genetic Association. His appointment was made upon the recommendation of Alexander Graham Bell and David Fairchild, both of whom were close friends of his parents, Orator Fuller and Alice Carter Cook. Cook remained with the association for forty years. In 1951 he became director of the Population Reference Bureau and also editor of its publication, Population Bulletin. Cook retired in 1968. Over the next twenty years he served on various boards, acted as a population consultant, and also continued to write. Included among Cook's papers are correspondence, writings, research notes and materials, professional files, diaries, genealogical and biographical information, photographs, and other material pertaining to his work and to the history of genetics and demography during his lifetime.
The Personal Correspondence series in these papers is composed of letters to and from family members and close friends. It is divided into two sections: correspondence with Cook's mother, Alice Carter Cook, and correspondence with Cook himself. The Alice Carter Cook section represents a small batch of letters primarily to and from her brothers, sisters, and father, which wound up in Cook's personal papers. The Robert Carter Cook section, by far the larger within the series, contains letters to and from various family members, such as his mother, father, sisters, wives, and children, as well as friends. Cook's letters to his mother describe in great detail his work at the mission school in Arizona, and also the period during which he was seeking a divorce in Nevada from his first wife, Margaret L. Brown, shortly before his mother's death. David Fairchild's letters to Cook provide interesting information about botanical affairs.
The Professional Correspondence series represents the exchange of letters generated by Cook as managing editor and editor of the Journal of Heredity, director and president of the Population Reference Bureau, as editor of Population Bulletin, private consultant, and participant in various professional organizations dealing with population, eugenics, and conservation issues. Prominent correspondents include F. Fraser Darling, George J. Hecht, Clyde E. Keeler, Clarence C. Little, H. J. Muller, and Frederick Henry Osborn. Major educational foundations, philanthropic organizations, mass communications and publishing firms, and manufacturing corporations are also represented in the correspondence.
The Writings series is divided into two categories: writings by Cook and writings by others. Cook wrote or contributed to approximately twelve book-length manuscripts, most of which were never published. His most famous work, Human Fertility: The Modern Dilemma, published in 1951, was for many years a major reference in the field of population control. The drafts and research material for "Autobiography," "History of the AGA," "Incidents," and "Population: The 54th Square" provide valuable information on Cook and his contributions to the field of genetics in its early years. By far the most numerous of Cook's works are his articles and essays, of which more than two hundred are represented in the collection. Topics covered include genetics, eugenics, birth control, overpopulation, blood studies, demographics, conservation, famine, food production, heredity, disease, death, housing, medicine, peace, politics, fertility, poverty, science and technology, twins, population policy, and plant and animal breeding. Also included in the papers are numerous book reviews by Cook, interviews, letters to the editor, poems, and speeches and lectures. Writings by others include a play and several short stories by Cook's mother, in addition to various articles, essays, poems, and speeches and lectures written by Cook's contemporaries.
Cook's Professional Files are divided into three subseries: American Genetic Association (AGA), General, and Population Reference Bureau (PRB). The AGA subseries mainly documents Cook's tenure as editor of the association's Journal of Heredity. Major subjects include the Bell Collection of Historic Photographs, the Clark School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts, the AGA treasurer's reports, and correspondence with twins who were part of the pioneering studies on the effects of environmental, as opposed to genetic, factors on identical twin subjects. The subject files in the General subseries cover Cook's activities and interests after his retirement from the PRB in 1968 as well as his social and professional affiliations and activities that paralleled his careers in the AGA and the PRB. Files exist for the Cosmos Club (includes information on a McCarthy-era blackballing controversy), the National Association of Science Writers, sickle cell anemia, the Environmental Fund, and trips taken by Cook from 1942 to 1986. The files in the PRB subseries primarily cover Cook's activities as president of that organization. There are eight folders of office files containing internal memoranda, research material, drafts of annual reports, newspaper clipping services reports (with which Cook measured the organization's influence and effectiveness), and correspondence relating to the bureau's operations. An especially good overview of Cook's tenure at PRB as president and editor of the Population Bulletin can be found in the "Retirement controversy" file.
The Miscellany series contains material pertaining to Cook's personal life, including awards, certificates, honors, photographs, and biographical and genealogical information on the Cook and Carter families. Also of interest are files on Barbara Stoddard Burks, a brilliant geneticist with whom Cook became close; files on David and Marian Fairchild, especially copies of letters from Frank Nicholas Meyer in Asia to David Fairchild regarding plant exploration; Cook's classroom materials for teaching genetics at George Washington University; and his diaries, pocket notebooks, and a journal from the Tucson Indian Training School in Escuela, Arizona. The J. T. Baldwin file documents the transfer of Orator Fuller Cook's personal library, which particularly concerned palms and other plant life in Africa to the library at the College of William and Mary. The Metromask file concerns Cook's invention for reducing and enlarging photographic reproductions, which he patented. The sale of family property is documented in the estate files of his parents as well as in the files on Lanham, Maryland, and the Stronghold Foundation controversy, regarding Sugarloaf Mountain Park in Frederick County, Maryland. The file on rammed earth houses chronicles the building of Cook's own house in this fashion in Lanham, Maryland, in the late 1920s.
Oversize material consists of genealogical information, a photograph, and a floorplan and a blueprint of Cook's rammed earth house.