Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edward Osborne Wilson (1929-2021) span the years 1931-2015, with the bulk of the material dating from 1950 to 2007. The collection documents Wilson’s work as a biologist, including his seminal research and writings on ants and sociobiological investigations into the evolutionary and genetic basis of social behavior in animals, including humans. Also chronicled is Wilson’s leadership on environmental issues and in promoting awareness of planetary losses of biodiversity. The collection covers most aspects of Wilson’s professional activities including his widespread correspondence within and outside the scientific community, prolific writing and publishing, fieldwork studying ants, defense of sociobiology, environmental advocacy, speaking engagements and awards, and teaching career at Harvard University. A small amount of material is included from his childhood and young adulthood. The collection is arranged in nine series: General Correspondence, Subject File, Speaking Engagements, Writings, Press and Reviews, Miscellany, Papers of Others, Digital Files, and Oversize.
The General Correspondence series comprises more than half of the collection and documents most aspects of Wilson’s career. The series was compiled by Wilson’s staff and pulls together correspondence and related material dating from Wilson’s undergraduate studies in biology through 2015. Because of its breadth, the series inevitably overlaps with the contents of other series in the collection. Wilson’s work as a biologist and entomologist is documented through his correspondence with fellow biologists, as well as with scientists and scholars in other fields and disciplines including anthropology, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. The correspondence features substantive updates on research and publishing projects, exchanges of data, discussions with coauthors, commentary on Wilson’s writings and theories, his comments on the work of others, and recommendations for grants, job searches, tenure, and award nominations. Included among Wilson’s correspondents are William H. Bossert, William L. Brown, Jr., F. M. Carpenter, Napoleon A. Chagnon, Noam Chomsky, Bernard D. Davis, Jared M. Diamond, Paul R. Ehrlich, Thomas Eisner, Robin Fox, Bernd Heinrich, Bert Hölldobler, Daniel H. Janzen, Stephen R. Kellert, L. S. B. Leakey, Mary D. Leakey, Thomas E. Lovejoy, Charles J. Lumsden, Robert H. MacArthur, Robert M. May, Ernst Mayr, Charles Duncan Michener, Eviatar Nevo, George F. Oster, Michael Ruse, Oliver Sacks, Carl Sagan, Daniel Simberloff, Robert Trivers, and Mary Jane West-Eberhard, among many others. Wilson’s theories and writings on sociobiology are discussed in much of the correspondence. Included among his correspondents are some of the theory’s most vocal critics, including Stephen Jay Gould and Richard C. Lewontin. Documentation of Wilson’s work on behalf of biodiversity is extensive and ranges from his correspondence with Rachel Carson beginning in 1958 while she was writing Silent Springto a large file relating to Wilson’s role as an advisor on environmental issues to Newt Gingrich. Also included in the series is Wilson’s correspondence with public officials including United States presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton, writers such as Wendell Berry, journalists, editors and publishers, conference and event organizers, scientific and environmental organizations, learned societies, museums, zoos, botanical gardens, university presidents and administrators, and award committees.
The remainder of the collection was largely unorganized when received and has since been arranged in eight series: Subject File, Speaking Engagements, Writings, Press and Reviews, Miscellany, Papers of Others, Digital Files, and Oversize. The Subject File series focuses principally on Wilson’s entomological field studies and curatorship of the entomology collection in Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, controversies surrounding his sociobiology theories, and his academic career at Harvard. Wilson’s scientific work is documented in eleven notebooks containing his early ant records and field notes, many of them from the 1940s and 1950s; lists of entomological terms invented by him and genera and species of ants named for him; and a large file of National Science Foundation grant applications spanning several decades from the 1960s to the 1980s. Also included are notes by Wilson and newspaper accounts detailing the spread of fire ants throughout Alabama and other southern states in the late 1940s. Wilson’s reports on fire ants are preserved among the William Steel Creighton papers in the Papers of Others series. The Subject File series also contains a hand-drawn graph made by Wilson charting the significance of contributions by leading evolutionary biologists. Prominent in the series is a large file created by Wilson’s staff documenting reactions to his sociobiology theories. The file has been kept intact as it was received and includes correspondence, memoranda, conference and discussion papers, interviews, articles, reviews, editorials, letters to the editor, course material, notes, flyers, posters, and news clippings, largely dating from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The file traces the evolution of sociobiology theory, its various applications, its defense by Wilson and other proponents, criticism by scholars and organizations including the Committee Against Racism and Science for the People, and popular reporting on the topic. The remainder of the Subject File contains Wilson’s teaching and academic files. Included are academic appointments, committee files, historical materials on the Biology Department and Museum of Comparative Zoology, and material from courses taught by Wilson. The amount and type of course material varies considerably and can include syllabi, lecture notes, examinations, and reading lists. Other material relating to Wilson’s academic career can be found in the General Correspondence series filed under “Harvard University” and under the names of faculty members, staff, deans, and university presidents, among them Derek Bok and Neil Rudenstine.
The Speaking Engagements series features lectures and speeches given by Wilson at a wide variety of venues including universities, conferences and symposia, international forums, award ceremonies, learned societies, museums, libraries, government-sponsored events, and local community events. The type of events ranges from distinguished lecture series to local book talks, and topics often relate to the focus of Wilson’s writing at the time. Also found in the series are speeches given by Wilson on receiving major awards, including the Crafoord Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. The series contains invitations to speak, travel and logistical arrangements, programs, publicity, and the texts of his remarks, most often as handwritten drafts with the occasional inclusion of typed or printed versions. Texts of speeches, however, are not available for every speaking engagement. Also included in the series, although it was not from a public speaking event, is a transcript of a conversation between B. F. Skinner and Wilson on behaviorism and sociobiology that took place in Skinner’s Harvard University office in 1987. Many of Wilson’s speaking engagements are also documented in the General Correspondence series, usually under the name of the venue. Drafts of speeches are occasionally included. Press reporting on Wilson’s speaking events can generally be found in the Press and Reviews series.
The Writings series chronicles the drafting of many of Wilson’s books, as well as shorter works including articles and essays, forewords, prefaces, introductions, letters to editors, statements, and joint letters. Topics on which Wilson wrote include the evolution and classification of ants, caste systems in ants, character displacement, the role of pheromones in the communication system of ants, biogeography, evolutionary biology, sociobiology, and the genetic basis of altruism. Other topics include “biophilia,” an innate human attraction to nature; the environmental crisis and loss of biodiversity; consilience and the unity of knowledge; the relationship between religion and science; and an autobiographical recounting of his life as a naturalist. Most of Wilson’s books published before 2010 are represented in the series and include initial handwritten drafts, Wilson’s preferred method of writing, as well as subsequent typescripts with annotations and corrections and galley proofs. Many of the book files also contain correspondence with publishers, editors, coauthors, and, occasionally, outside readers of manuscripts. Additional correspondence with publishers and coauthors can be found in the General Correspondence series. Wilson’s Sociobiology: The New Synthesis is one of the most thoroughly documented books in the series and includes notebooks with numbered references and citations, a handwritten draft, comments by outside readers, permissions, promotional material, and reviews. The series also includes drafts and reprints of many of Wilson’s articles and essays dating from 1949 to 2008. Correspondence with editors, coauthors, and outside readers is occasionally included. Other short works, including forewords, introductions, and letters to editors, are less well documented and often include only the texts. The end of the series contains writings by others, including drafts and reprints. A few of these contain marginal notes and markings by Wilson.
The Press and Reviews series traces the scholarly and popular reception of Wilson’s work through newspaper and magazine clippings, as well as journals, newsletters, programs, and book excerpts. The chronological file spans the years 1945-2007 and includes articles, book reviews, published interviews, and major features. The series documents Wilson’s extensive publishing, speaking engagements, receipt of awards, environmental advocacy, and teaching, as well as press coverage of the sociobiology controversy.
The Miscellany series consists of awards and honors, biographical material, school and university records, family papers, interview transcripts, military applications, notes, a passport, a proposed weekly schedule, photographs, and ephemera. Files relating to Wilson’s awards and honors contain correspondence, arrangements, programs, and certificates. Material from award ceremonies at which Wilson spoke is principally filed in the Speaking Engagements series. Additional material on awards can be found in the General Correspondence series. Also included in the Miscellany series is material documenting Wilson’s childhood and young adulthood. Included are Boy Scout and Eagle Scout membership cards, a butterfly guide used by Wilson in 1940-1941, and transcripts, written assignments, and notes from elementary and high school through graduate work at the University of Alabama. Military applications, 1946-1960, document Wilson’s efforts to join the military and a passport dates from his fieldwork in South Pacific islands in 1955. Family papers include letters from Wilson’s mother, Inez Linnette Huddleston, and correspondence and a memoir titled "White Sands of Time" by Barbour ("Babs") Wilson Minhinnette, a cousin.
The Papers of Others series consists of the papers of entomologist Arthur C. Cole, myrmecologist William Steel Creighton, and biodiversity advocate Joe D. Pratt, all of which were collected and preserved by Wilson. The series, specifically the papers of Cole and Creighton, illustrate the evolution of myrmecology, the study of ants, in the early to mid-twentieth century. The correspondence documents the interpersonal relationships with the foremost entomologists and myrmecologists of their time as well as their projects and travel. The Arthur C. Cole papers and William Steel Creighton papers span a similar time frame, 1930s-1970s, and the two groups of correspondence give many complete conversations by providing the letters of both sender and receiver. Commentary on Wilson’s graduate education at Harvard and his early career is found frequently in the correspondence and suggests Wilson’s growing reputation in the field. The Joe D. Pratt papers contain a sampling of his work from the late 1980s to early 1990s promoting sociobiology and biodiversity as a program manager with the Illinois Department on the Environment and as an admirer of Wilson. Files from Pratt’s computer at the time of his death in 1992 are preserved in the Digital Files series.
The Digital Files series consists of digital files stored on compact discs, DVDs, and other media found in the collection. The series features a digitized audio recording of a lecture by Wilson during his first year of teaching in 1957 and recordings of interviews by the British Broadcasting Corporation and a Salt Lake City, Utah, public radio station in 2005 and 2007. There are also several video recordings of lectures and book talks by Wilson, including ones at the Université de Montréal, Arizona State University, and the Utah Museum of Natural History, among other places. Wilson’s appearance in 2007 at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference after winning a TED Prize is preserved in the series as well. Additional digital content was sent to Wilson from various sources, including the American Prairie Foundation, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, New York Botanical Garden, Queensland Museum in Brisbane, Australia, and Barry Bolton who sent Wilson drafts of his keys to world subfamilies and genera of ants in 1991. Analog sound and film recordings of Wilson have been transferred to the Library’s Motion Picture, Broadcast, and Recorded Sound Division where they are identified as part of this collection.