The Morgan papers contain correspondence, technical and course material, papers relating to the formation of the Biology Division at Caltech and other administrative matters, and a small amount of biographical material.

Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945) is best known for his study of heredity in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. He also contributed significantly to descriptive and experimental embryology, cytology, and evolutionary theory. For his work in establishing the chromosome theory of heredity--the idea that genes are located in a linear array on chromosomes--Morgan was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1933.

Copyright has not been assigned to the California Institute of Technology Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the California Institute of Technology Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Collection is open for research.