The Repository
Contains over 380,000 online documents from Nobel laureates' James D. Watson's and Sydney Brenner's personal collections. These collections consist of correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, laboratory notebooks, administrative records, teaching files & memorabilia.
The repository and metadata were created in part, through a two-year grant funded collaboration with the Wellcome Library's Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics digitization project.
Finding Aids for the majority of the 53 collections on the history of molecular biology are available on our CSHL Archives and Digital Collections websites.
The Collections
Sydney Brenner
The Sydney Brenner Collection consists of over 300 manuscript boxes of materials documenting the life and career of Dr. Sydney Brenner, co-recipient…
James D. Watson
The James D. Watson Collection consists of over 500 manuscript boxes of materials documenting the life and career of James D. Watson, co-recipient of…
Features
Explore all 380,000+ documents of the James D. Watson and Sydney Brenner Collections using the "People & Topics" tagging system, which consists of over 14,000 tags.
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Support
Scholars are encouraged to contact our archivists with research questions, obtaining rights to use materials or to schedule an appointment.
Woods Hole (MA) Summer Course in Physiology

Photographs from Woods Hole (MA): Includes group portrait of Summer Course in Physiology attendees (includes Watson); Watson with "silly helix" model;…
Copenhagen

Various photographic prints from Watson's post-doctoral studies in Copenhagen and later meetings which were also held in the city. Of note are two…
Letter from George Gamow to RNA club tie member

This letter from George Gamow to the RNA Tie Club includes a listing of the original club members with handwritten notation from Gamow and Watson.
A.C. Barrington Brown Photos

Photographic prints of Watson and Crick at the Cavendish laboratory posing with the double helix model shortly after their discovery was announced. …