Collection Summary
Information for Researchers
Administrative Information
Biographical Information
Scope and Content of Collection
Collection Summary
Collection Title: Allan Wilson papers
Date (inclusive): 1953-1998,
Date (bulk): bulk 1962-1991
Collection Number: BANC FILM 3175
BANC MSS 95/22 c
Creators :
Wilson, Allan (Allan Charles), 1934-1991
Extent:
Microfilm: 50 reels
Number of containers: 15 cartons, 1 box, 1 volume, 1 oversize folder
Linear feet: 20
Repository: The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
Abstract: The Allan Wilson Papers, 1953-1996 document Wilson's career as a
biochemist. The bulk of the collection focuses on his twenty-six year tenure at the
University of California, Berkeley, but his education is also well documented within the
collection. Included are copies of his publications and those of his lab as well as working
papers for both published and unpublished manuscripts. Also included are his lecture notes
and other teaching materials. Wilson's correspondence files are especially rich, documenting
not only his dialogues with colleagues but his close work with his students and numerous
protégés.
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite
and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Information for Researchers
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must
be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University
of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000. Consent is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as
the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from
the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. See:
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html .
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of
digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Allan Wilson Papers, BANC MSS 95/22 c, The Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley.
Alternate Forms Available
The collection is available on microfilm with the exception of Series I which consists of
materials that can be found in published journals.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Wilson, Allan, (Allan Charles),
1934-1991
Faculty papers
History of science and technology collection
University of California,
Berkeley. Dept. of Biochemistry
University of California,
Berkeley. Dept. of Molecular and Cell Biology
Human evolution
Mitochondrial DNA--Research
Human genetics
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
The Allan Wilson Papers were given to The Bancroft Library by Leona Wilson on December
12, 1994.
Accruals
No additions are expected.
System of Arrangement
Arranged to the folder level.
Processing Information
Processed by Teresa Mora in 2007.
Biographical Information
Allan Wilson was born in Ngaruawahia, New Zealand, on October 18, 1934 and raised on a farm
at Helvetia, Pukekohe. He began his education in New Zealand where he earned a B.S. in
Zoology and Chemistry from Otago University. Wilson moved to the United States to pursue his
graduate education, earning a M.S. from Washington State University in Zoology and
Physiology and completing his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of California,
Berkeley (1961).
Upon completing his Ph.D., Wilson worked as a post-doctorate fellow at Brandeis University.
In 1964, Wilson joined the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry (now the Department of
Molecular and Cellular Biology) at UC Berkeley.
Allan Wilson first came to world attention when he published a paper titled
Immunological Time-Scale For Human Evolution in
Science magazine in December 1967. Together with doctoral student
Vincent Sarich, Wilson argued that the origins of the human species could be seen through,
what he termed, a "molecular clock" and, using this reasoning, the two deduced that the
earliest proto-hominids evolved only five million years ago. Most contemporary
anthropologists, who favored a date of around 25 million years, dismissed his work.
In the early 1980s, as his findings for the age of the proto-humans were starting to be
more widely accepted, Wilson again dropped a bombshell on traditional anthropological
thinking with his best known work with Rebecca Cann and Mark Stoneking on the so-called
"Mitchocondrial Eve" hypothesis. By comparing differences in the mtDNA Wilson believed it
was possible to estimate the time, and the place, modern humans first evolved. With his
discovery that human mtDNA is genetically much less diverse than chimpanzee mtDNA, he
concluded that modern human races had diverged recently from a single population while older
human races such as
Neanderthal,
Java
erectus
and
Pekin erectus had become extinct. He and
his team compared mtDNA in people of different racial backgrounds and concluded that all
modern humans evolved from one "lucky mother" in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
Despite the initial controversy of many of his theories, Wilson was well respected. He
trained more than 200 graduate students and post-docs in his Berkeley laboratory. His lab
published more than 300 papers. He was elected to the Royal Society of London, to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was awarded the 3M Life Sciences Award and the
MacArthur Prize.
Wilson was diagnosed with leukemia in 1990 and died on July 21, 1991, at the age of 56,
while undergoing treatment for the disease.
-Largely taken from the Allan Wilson Centre Web Page
(http://awcmee.massey.ac.nz/)
Scope and Content of Collection
The Allan Wilson Papers, 1953-1996, document Wilson's career as a biochemist. The bulk of
the collection focuses on his twenty-six year tenure at the University of California,
Berkeley, but his education is also well documented within the collection. Included are
copies of his publications and those of his lab as well as working papers for both published
and unpublished manuscripts. Also included are his lecture notes and other teaching
materials. Wilson's correspondence files are especially rich, documenting not only his
dialogues with colleagues but his close work with his students and numerous
protégés.
The collection was compiled after Wilson's death by Ellen Prager, a member of the Wilson
laboratory. Dr. Prager made comprehensive notes on individual folders and documents further
putting specific documents in context. Material was often duplicated throughout the
collection and for the most part duplicates, including proofs and camera ready artwork for
Wilson's publications, have been discarded.
The basic series structure instituted by Dr. Prager has been retained and comprises eleven
series: Publications; Manuscript Preparation; Correspondence; Sabbaticals and Special Trips;
Lectures; Teaching Materials; Education; Professional; Early Career; Research; and Death and
Fate of Lab. The final series, Death and Fate of Lab, consists of only a few folders of
materials compiled by Dr. Prager documenting Wilson's illness, the academy's reaction to his
death, and the fate of his laboratory. Also included in the collection are numerous
scientific papers authored by the lab after Wilson's death.