David Ledbetter Nanney Papers

1946-2008
13 boxes (6.5 linear ft.)
Call no.: MS 592
rotating decorative images from SCUA collections

The experimental ciliatologist David L. Nanney spent much of his career studying the protozoan Tetrahymena. Under Tracy M. Sonneborn at Indiana University, he completed a dissertation in 1951 on the mating habits of Paramecium, but soon after joining the faculty at the University of Michigan, he turned his attention to Tetrahymena. During his subsequent career in Ann Arbor (1951-1959) and at the University of Illinois (1959-1991), Nanney made a series of fundamental contributions to the cytology, genetics, developmental biology, and evolution of ciliates, influencing the work of other biologists such as Joe Frankel, Janina Kaczanowska, Linda Hufnagel, and Nicola Ricci. Since his retirement in 1991, Nanney has remained in Urbana.



The Nanney Papers include a dense run of professional correspondence with ciliatologists, geneticists, students and colleagues regarding his pioneering research on ciliates and other professional matters. Of particular note is an extensive correspondence with Sonneborn, accompanied by several biographical essays written after Sonneborn's death, and a large body of correspondence of the controversial reorganization of the biological sciences departments at the University of Illinois in the 1970s. The collection also includes a selection of Nanney's writings and a handful of photographs.

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Background on David L. Nanney


An image of: Tracy M. Sonneborn

Tracy M. Sonneborn

The ciliatologist David Ledbetter Nanney was born in Abingdon, Va., on October 10, 1925, the son of T. Grady and Pearl Ledbetter Nanney. As an infant, David's father, a Baptist minister, moved from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the oil boom town of Wewoka, Oklahoma, capitol of the Seminole Nation. Although not highly educated in a formal sense, his family was nevertheless strongly oriented toward learning. After graduating high school and being excluded from military service due to the effects of childhood ailments, Nanney entered Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Okla., with the class of 1946. Studying literature and philosophy, he racked up a mixed academic record, and when his hopes of securing funding to continue his studies in the humanities fell by the wayside, he seized the opportunity to enter a field where funding was deeper and the need for graduate students more acute: zoology.

Following this rather uncommon path into science, Nanney entered Indiana University in the fall of 1946. In the post-war years, Indiana was home to a vibrant, often fractious collection of biologists, including the future Nobel laureates Herman J. Muller and Salvador Luria and the distinguished geneticist, Tracy M. Sonneborn. Despite Nanney's meager background in biology, Sonneborn agreed to become his research advisor, and fairly soon thereafter, Nanney became immersed in research on Paramecium aurelia, the ciliate with which Sonneborn was most closely identified. The Sonneborn lab included an exceptionally talented group of researchers, including John Preer (Sonneborn's first graduate student), Richard Siegel, P.K. Chao, and Ruth Dippell, all of whom went on to notable careers, and the group of experimental ciliatologists grew to include Ko Hiwatashi, Janine Beisson, Renzo Nobili, and Klauss Heckmann, notable figures in the study of Paramecium in Japan, France, Italy, and Germany, respectively. James Watson, a Luria student and future Nobel laureate, was another frequent associate.

During Nanney's years a grad student, Indiana was at the center of vigorous debate over the nature of the evolutionary process, with Sonneborn's theory of cytoplasmic inheritance pitted against Muller's "nucleic hegemony." Nanney's contributions to this debate were somewhat unexpected. In his dissertation research on quantitative differences in kappa particles between two mating types in Paramecium, he concluded that some form of epigenetic control system (to use a term that would not be coined until several years later), rather than cytoplasmic inheritance, was at work in regulating activity states in nucleic information. Reluctantly, and graciously, Sonneborn agreed. The resulting paper on epigenetic control systems, one of the first significant contributions of his career, earned Nanney a place in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Sonneborn, without doubt, was the most significant influence on Nanney's career, not only serving as his entry point into the field, but as a mentor, sounding board, and model on whom to build a research career.

Shortly after receiving his doctorate in June 1951, Nanney married Jean Kelly, a graduate student in piano and reviewed his career options. Though tempted by the offer of a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Max Delbruck at CalTech and delve into phage genetics, Nanney declined in favor of a permanent position in the Department of Zoology at the University of Michigan, and shortly after his wedding, he packed up and moved.

By 1952, Nanney was searching for a new organism to develop into a model for genetic research, and through a colleague, Del Elliott, he began to work with Tetrahymena, the organism with he remained most closely associated throughout the rest of his career. His early research centered on the isolation of mating types, cytological studies of conjugation, and the genetics of mating type differentiation, laying the sort of solid foundation that has made Tetrahymena a model. He did, however, feel somewhat isolated in Michigan, sharing little with his colleagues, with Sonneborn continuing to serve as his primary scientific ally and critic. At Michigan, Nanney also became interested in reforming undergraduate biological education to keep pace with rapid developments in the field. His ideas for curricular reform at Michigan, however, were consistently thwarted by what he saw as an ossified system. In this aspect, too, Michigan seemed less than an ideal match.

When his first sabbatical cycle rolled around in 1958, Nanney was forced to turn down a Fulbright Fellowship to work with Boris Ephrussi in Paris (fearing that it would make him eligible for the draft), but he returned to thoughts of CalTech, and received funds to spend a year working there with Ray Owen. Removed from Ann Arbor, Nanney's frustrations with the pace of curricular reform reached a head, and when offered a position at the University of Illinois, where the varied departments that dealt with biology had recently been consolidated into a new School of Life Sciences (SOLS), he jumped. The presence of Luria, Marcus Rhoads, and Sol Spiegelman sweetened the deal.

Nanney's arrival at Illinois coincided with the major upsurge of support for science education in the wake of Sputnik and the Cold War, giving him an opportunity to act upon his curricular ideas. The National Science Foundation provided significant funding for Illinois to re-emphasize the undergraduate laboratory experience, stressing a model curriculum built around the "mantra" of the Cell, the Organism, and the Population. While the Illinois project never became the model for others to follow as it was intended, the new curriculum was adopted by the honors program in SOLS and was considered a long-term success. In addition to his curricular work at Illinois, Nanney also served as a member of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study group, which resulted in the publication of his widely-adopted textbook The Biology of Cells.

With the rapid evolution of the life sciences since the 1960s, reorganizations of the schools and departments became increasingly necessary, and increasingly common. Nanney was involved in several later initiatives to reformulate biological instruction at the university and reorganize the school, taking part in a systematic study of how SOLS faculty related to one another in theory and practice. The result was a series of departmental realignments and reorganizations. Returning from a Humboldt Fellowship in Munster, Germany, in 1984, Nanney discovered that his department, then called Genetics and Development, had actually been disbanded. Rather than return to the reorganizational fray, he accepted an opportunity to join the interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Studies, which eventually spawned a Science and Technology Studies program in which Nanney was active. Nanney has subsequently written at length about the history of protistology, Sonneborn, ciliate genetics, and evolutionary biology.

In Illinois, Nanney built an active research program in Tetrahymena. From the analysis of cortical pattern during the 1960s and 1970s, he and his lab studied genic control, cortical variation and the constancy that "lurks behind this variation," and by the 1970s, he and his students Dennis Borden and Elizabeth Miller, along a colleague Greg Whitt, began work on isozymes to sort out species in Tetrahymena. The precision he was able to bring in distinguishing strains paved the way for valuable work in the study of molecular evolution, including his later work comparing RNA sequences. Nanney's publications contributed to a growing debate over the rates of phenotypic versus molecular evolution, with Nanney arguing that in ciliates, at least, evolution at the molecular and morphological levels are relatively uncoupled.

During his career, Nanney served on editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Experimental Zoology, Developmental Genetics, Journal of Protozoology, American Naturalist, and Evolution, and he was active in a number of professional organizations, including the American Genetic Association (president, 1982), Genetics Society of America, Society of Protozoologists, and the International Society for Evolutionary Protistology. Nanney passed away at the age of 90 on June 4, 2016.

Scope of collection

The papers of David Nanney offer thorough documentation of the career of an innovative experimental ciliatologist and one of the key figures in the development of Tetrahymena as a model organism for genetic and evolutionary study. Featuring extensive and valuable scientific exchanges with Sally Allen, John O. Corliss, Joseph Frankel, Nicola Ricci, and Dick Siegel, among others, but most importantly with his adviser and friend, Tracy Sonneborn, the correspondence is a rich resource for study of laboratory culture, the molecularization of the biology, Tetrahymena studies, the vicissitudes of academic culture, and shifts in biological education.

The long-running professional debates in the post-Sputnik era regarding biological education play out in a series of reports and exchanges of memoranda regarding the structure (and restructuring) of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Illinois. Having long had an interest in improving undergraduate education, Nanney was deeply invested in the organizational structure of biological sciences during the 1970s into the early 1980s and kept files on the debates raging at the University.

Among other highlights in the collection are two intellectual autobiographies by Nanney, recounting his personal introduction to ciliate research, his connections with Sonneborn, Muller, Luria, and Watson at Indiana, and his subsequent career at Illinois.

Series descriptions

1950-2008
10 boxes

Beginning in the late stages of his doctoral research, the correspondence in Series 1 offers a remarkably dense, sustained perspective on the research life of a significant protistologist.

After Sonneborn's death in 1981, Nanney was called upon both to write and collect memoirs to commemorate the life and scientific contributions of one of the great geneticists of the mid-century. In addition to the extensive and valuable correspondence between Nanney and Sonneborn, the series includes correspondence with a number of other geneticists and protistologists who contributed to a commemorative volume on Sonneborn. Furthemore, the collection includes correspondence with Sonnerborn's son David, his wife Ruth, and daughter Joan Smith-Sonneborn.

Although the series does not by any means include a complete run of Nanney's publications, it does include several of his key publications, a relatively good representation of his writing on the history of science, drafts of a handful of lectures, and records of grants that help flesh out the evolution of his career and his thoughts on his discipline.

The relatively large quantity of material pertaining to the University of Illinois includes some routine paperwork, but consists largely of an interesting set of correspondence, notes, and memos relating to several administrative efforts in the 1970s and 1980s to reorganize the biological sciences departments at the university to reflect larger shifts in the discipline, and materials relating to parallel efforts to improve undergraduate education, particularly writing, in biology.

Inventory

Series 1. Correspondence
1950-2008
10 boxes
Abraham, Irene
1982
Box 1
Adoutte, Andre
1978-1988
Box 1
Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung
1983-1985
Box 1
Alcorn, Robert D.
1966
Box 1
Alfert, Max
1963
Box 1
Allen, John M.
1966
Box 1
Allen, Robert D.
1969
Box 1
Allen, Sally
1958-1959
Box 1
Allen, Sally
1960
Box 1
Allen, Sally
1961
Box 1
Allen, Sally
1962
Box 1
Allen, Sally
1963
Box 1
Allen, Sally
1964-1965
Box 1
Allen, Sally
1970-1981
Box 1
Allen, Sally and Eduardo Orias: Introduction: a tribute to David L. Nanney, an experimental ciliatologist. Developmental Genetics 13
1992
Box 1
Alliance for Undergraduate Education
1988
Box 1
Alpert, Daniel
1969-1988
Box 1
Alexander, Gordon
1958
Box 1
Ambrose, Harrison
1973-1978
Box 1
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1978-1985
Box 1
American Association for Cancer Research
1988-1989
Box 1
American Genetic Association
1983-1990
Box 1
American Genetic Association. Frank N. Meyer Medal
1981
Box 1

Frederick G. Meyer

American Genetic Association. Frank N. Meyer Medal
1982
Box 1

Desmond D. Dolan

American Institute of Biological Sciences
1965-1970
Box 1
Ammerman, Dieter
1964-1984
Box 1
Angeloff, L.
1962
Box 1
Bacci, G.
1962
Box 1
Barth, Friedrich G.
1984
Box 1
Batson, B. S.
1983-1985
Box 1
Beale, Geoffrey H.
1960-1969
Box 1
Beam, Carl A.
1986-1991
Box 1
Behnke, Frances L.
1980-1981
Box 1
Behnke, John A.
1980-1983
Box 1
Beisson, Janine
1964-1978
Box 1
Berenbaum, May
1999
Box 1
Berger, Jacques
1975-1985
Box 1
Berger, James D.
1974-1978
Box 1
Berrrill, N. John
1970-1972
Box 1
Blackburn, Elizabeth
1981-1983
Box 1
Bleyman, Lea
1963-1975
Box 1
Boell, E. J.
1983
Box 2
Bogart, Elizabeth
1962
Box 2
Borden, Dennis
1973-1974
Box 2
Borst, Piet
1974-1982
Box 2
Boutin, C. F.
1992
Box 2
Bovee, Eugene C.
1983
Box 2
Bradbury, Elizabeth
1984-1988
Box 2
Brink, R. Alexander
1961
Box 2
Brothers, Janice
1979
Box 2
Brown, Susan
1998
Box 2
Bruns, Peter
1971-1982
Box 2
Brygoo, Yves
1980-1981
Box 2
Burian, Richard M.
1985-1986
Box 2
Butzel, Henry M.
1982
Box 2
Bychkovskaya, Irina Borisovna
1983
Box 2
Byers, Thomas J.
1981
Box 2
Byrne, Barbara
1975
Box 2
Campbell, Gregory R.
1976
Box 2
Carlson, Elof Axel
1987
Box 2
Carlson, Peter F.
1971
Box 2
Carson, Hampton L.
1967
Box 2
Caspari, Ernst W.
1972
Box 2
Cech, Thomas
1979-1981
Box 2
Cesario, Albert
1981
Box 2
Chao, Pao Kuo
1951-1987
Box 2
Chen, Sheng Sheng
1977-1979
Box 2
Chen, T. T.
1950-1966
Box 2
Chen, Yueh Tseung
1981
Box 2
Cho, Paula
1972
Box 2
Clark, Gordon M.
1956-1957
Box 2
Clark, William A.
1965
Box 2
Cleffmann, Gunther
1983-1989
Box 2
Cleland, Ralph E.
1967-1974
Box 2
Cohen, Larry W.
1962-1976
Box 2
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
1983-1984
Box 2
Coleman, Annette W.
Undated
Box 2
Collins, Robert L.
1976
Box 2
Conference on Extrachromosomal Heredity
1958
Box 2
Confrey, Eugene A.
1965
Box 2
Corliss, John O.
1952-1967
Box 2
Corliss, John O.
1973-1979
Box 2
Corliss, John O.
1980-1990
Box 2
Corliss, John O.: Selected references on protozoa
1963
Box 2
Creager, Angela N. H.
1988
Box 2
Cronkite, Donald L.
1978
Box 2
Crow, James F.
1969-1987
Box 2
Cutler, Preston
1963
Box 2
Dalby, Arthur
1958
Box 2
Davidson, John A.
1978
Box 2
Davis, Elizabeth
1982
Box 2
Dawson, Peter S.
1969
Box 2
Dawson, William R.
1973
Box 2
Denton, Michael
2001
Box 2
De Terra, Noel
1970
Box 2
Developmental Genetics (Journal)
1978-1988
Box 2
Din, Nanni
1977
Box 2
Dini, Fernando
1984-2001
Box 2
Dippell, Ruth V.
1956-1982
Box 2
Dippell, Ruth V.: Memorial resolution... Tracy M. Sonneborn for inclusion in the Faculty Council minutes
18981
Box 2
Doerder, F. Paul
1968-1977
Box 3
Doerder, F. Paul
1978-1985
Box 3
Drill, Victor
1970
Box 3
Dryl, Stanislaw
1972-1989
Box 3
Duina, Andrea
1991-1992
Box 3
Eck, Michael John
1986
Box 3
Ehret, Charles
1964
Box 3
Elliott, A. M.
1974
Box 3
Ellstrand, Norman
1974-2000
Box 3
Engberg, Jan
1983
Box 3
Ephrussi, Boris
1955-1962
Box 3
Erdstrom, Jan Erik
1969
Box 3
Esposito, Fulvio
1977-1984
Box 3
Faberge, A. C.
1986
Box 3
Fava, George
1973
Box 3
Ferguson, Beth
1979
Box 3
Fine, Sidney
1971
Box 3
Finger, Irving
1969-1971
Box 3
Fitch, Walter M.
1988
Box 3
Fleck, Earl William
1976
Box 3
Flecker, Emmanuel A.
Undated
Box 3
Flint, Franklin F.
1969
Box 3
Forrest, Hugh S.
1978
Box 3
Franceschi, Tina
1963-1992
Box 3
Frankel, Arthur I.
1969
Box 3
Frankel, Joseph
1963-1972
Box 3
Frankel, Joseph
1973-1974
Box 3
Frankel, Joseph
1975-1979
Box 3
Frankel, Joseph
1980-1984
Box 3
Frankel, Joseph
1985
Box 3
Frankel, Joseph
1986-2008
Box 3
Freeman, Gary
1988
Box 3
Freiburg, Manfred
1986
Box 3
Futrelle, Robert P.
1985
Box 3
Gall, Joseph
1976-1985
Box 3
Gates, Michael A.
1975
Box 3
Genermont, Jean
1979
Box 3
Genetics (Journal)
1980
Box 3
Genetics Society of America
1967-1985
Box 3
Genetics Society of America Conference (Urbana, Ill. : 1986)
1985
Box 3
Genetics Student
1977
Box 3
George, Brother L.
1964
Box 4
Getz, Lowell
1965-2005
Box 4
Gibson, Ian
1965
Box 4
Gio-Ardez, Raul
1977-1997
Box 4
Gladiszewski, Maria
1981-1986
Box 4
Glass, Bentley
1987
Box 4
Goldstein, Wayne M.
1973
Box 4
Goldwasser, Edwin L.
1980-1991
Box 4
Good, Phillip I.
1976
Box 4
Goodwin, Carol
1963
Box 4
Gorovsky, Martin
1971-1985
Box 4
Gortz, Hans Dieter
1985
Box 4
Grant, Carroll W.
1958
Box 4
Grass, Frank
1971-1976
Box 4
Grassmick, Robert A.
1979
Box 4
Graves, Lynn
1972
Box 4
Greenburg, A. H.
1981
Box 4
Grimes, Gary W.
1979
Box 4
Grobstein, Clifford
1961-1966
Box 4
Grula, E. A.
1976-1977
Box 4
Gunslaus, I. C.
1967
Box 4
Haller, Gerard de
1984
Box 4
Halvorson, Halvor
1962
Box 4
Hammersmith, Robert
1982
Box 4
Hartman, Hyman
1983
Box 4
Harwood, J. H.
1987
Box 4
Hayes, D. H.
1977-1979
Box 4
Heckmann, Klaus
1969-1982
Box 4
Heckmann, Klaus
1983-1999
Box 4
Henderson, J. Donald
1965
Box 4
Henshaw, Robert E.
1969
Box 4
Higashinakagawa, Toru
1980
Box 4
Hildebrand, Milton
1964
Box 4
Hirsch, Jerry
1967
Box 4
Hiwatashi, Koichi
1966-1983
Box 4
Hogg, James F.
1979
Box 4
Holmquist, Gerald P.
1983-1984
Box 4
Holz, Geoge G.
1958
Box 4
Hutner, Seymour H.
1977-1985
Box 4
Inoki, Shozo
1954-1955
Box 4
International Congress of Cell Biology XI
1963-1964
Box 4
International Congress of Protozoology, 6th (Sonneborn Symposium)
1981
Box 4
International Society for Evolutionary Protistology
1991
Box 4
John Wiley and Sons
1960-1961
Box 4
John Wiley and Sons
1962-1967
Box 4
Johmann, Carol A.
1974
Box 4
Jones, Garth W
1977
Box 4
Juckett, Robert S.
1979
Box 4
Juergensmeyer, Elizabeth B.
1969-1981
Box 4
Kaczanowska, Janina
1972-1994
Box 4
Kaczanowski, Andrzej
1971-1974
Box 4
Kaczanowski, Andrzej
1975-1979
Box 4
Kaczanowski, Andrzej
1980-1984
Box 4
Kaczanowski, Andrzej
1985-1989
Box 4
Kaczanowski, Andrzej
1990-2000
Box 4
Kallio, Reino
1973
Box 5
Kaluzynski, Stanislaw
1984
Box 5
Kaneda, Masao
1963
Box 5
Kaney, Anthony R.
1982
Box 5
Kansas State University
1965-1970
Box 5
Katashima, Ryo
ca.1965
Box 5
Kazubski, Stanislaw
1982
Box 5
Keller, Evelyn Fox
1997
Box 5
Kelsus, A. S.
1971
Box 5
Kendeigh, Charles
1973
Box 5
Kevles, Daniel J.
1986-1987
Box 5
Kimball, Richard F.
1953-1963
Box 5
King, Charles E.
1982
Box 5
Kinnamon, Keneth
1975
Box 5
Kitzmiller, James B.
1958-1976
Box 5
Koffler, Henry
1971
Box 5
Koizumi, Sadaaki
1962
Box 5
Krawiec, Steven
1976
Box 5
Kresin, Daniel
1978-1993
Box 5
Kucherlpati, Raju
1972-1975
Box 5
Kuhn, Barbara C.
1982-1983
Box 5

American Genetic Association

Kung, Ching
1975-1979
Box 5
Lanier, Lyle
1965
Box 5
Lanners, Norbert
1972
Box 5
Larsen, Joseph R.
1972-1981
Box 5
Lederberg, Joshua
1978-1981
Box 5

Tracy M. Sonnerborn

Lefevre, George
1980
Box 5
Leick, Vogn
1979
Box 5
Leiner, Michael
1963
Box 5
Leone, Charles A.
1962
Box 5
Levine, Norman
1972
Box 5
Lewis, Herman W.
1972
Box 5
Lewontin, Richard
1961-1966
Box 5
Lieb, Margaret
1972
Box 5
Lindholm, Tore
1980
Box 5

Includes photograph

Lindquist, David L.
1969
Box 5
Little, James W.
Undated
Box 5
Loefer, John B.
1961
Box 5
Lom, Jiri
1973-1974
Box 5
Lopez-Ochoterena, Eucario
1980
Box 5
Luce, William M.
1959
Box 5
Luporini, Pierangelo
1977-1988
Box 5
Luria, Salvador E.
1959
Box 5
Lynn, Denis H.
1971-2003
Box 5
Lyo, John
1994
Box 5
Maly, Roland
1961
Box 5
Maresca, Bruno
1986
Box 5
Margolin, Paul
1956-1958
Box 5
Margulis, Lynn
1971
Box 5
Markert, Clement L.
1962-1985
Box 5
Martindale, Duane
1989
Box 5
Matsushiro, Aizo
1957-1958
Box 5
McDonald, Barbara B.
1957-1965
Box 5
McKeachie, Wilbert J.
1954-1989
Box 5
McKoy, J. Wynne
1968-1969
Box 5
McKoy, J. Wynne
1970-1973
Box 5
McKoy, J. Wynne
1976-1979
Box 5
McKoy, J. Wynne: Recombination in Tetrahymena thermophila (Dissertation, Univ. of Illinois)
1976
Box 5
McQuade, A. B.
1989
Box 6
Medvedev, Zh. A.
1963
Box 6
Meins, Frederick
1979-1983
Box 6
Melton, Douglas
1974
Box 6
Meredith, A.
1980-1981
Box 6
Miceli, Cristina
1985-1992
Box 6
Mikami, Kazuyuki
1981
Box 6
Milkman, Roger
1957-1985
Box 6
Miller, Arnold R.
1980
Box 6
Miller, James G.
1971
Box 6
Miyake, Akio
1976-1985
Box 6
Mobley, Dale O.
1994-2001
Box 6
Morin, Peter
2006-2008
Box 6
Muhlbock, O.
1962
Box 6
Murphy, Donald G.
1970
Box 6
Myohara, Koji
1979
Box 6
Myohara, Maroko
1981
Box 6
Najamuzzaman
1969
Box 6
Nanney laboratory
1983-1984
Box 6

Correspondence with laboratory during sabbatical at the University of Munster

National Research Council
1965-1989
Box 6
Neel, James V.
1982
Box 6
Nelsen, E. Marlo
1978
Box 6
New York Academy of Sciences
1969
Box 6
Ng, Stephen
1976-1985
Box 6
Nielsen, Henrik
1983-1986
Box 6
Nobili, Renzo
1979-1994
Box 6
North Texas State University
1981
Box 6
Nyberg, Dennis
1972-1973
Box 6
Nyberg, Dennis
1974-1978
Box 6
Nyberg, Dennis
21979-2001
Box 6
Ohio State University
1969-1973
Box 6
Oklahoma Baptist University
1972-1996
Box 6
Oregon State University
1967
Box 6
Orel, V.
1987
Box 6
Orias, Eduardo
1958-1970
Box 6
Orias, Eduardo
1973-1979
Box 6
Orias, Eduardo
1980-1985
Box 6
Osmundsen, John A.
1962
Box 6
Owen, Ray D.
1954-1995
Box 6
Paigen, Kenneth
1963-2005
Box 6
Palmer, Graham A.
1981
Box 6
Palmer, R. R.
1965
Box 6
Pang, Yan Bin
1981-1986
Box 6
Paramecium Conference, 2nd (Bloomington, Ind.)
1951
Box 6
Pardi, C. L.
1986
Box 6
Patterson, David J.
1964-1984
Box 6
Payne, Fernandus
1975
Box 6
Perkins, David D.
1965-1980
Box 6
Perlman, Bruce S.
1972
Box 6
Phelps, Austin
1954-1956
Box 7
Phi Kappa Phi
1967
Box 7
Phillips, Ruth
1969-1972
Box 7
Pierce, James M.
1973
Box 7
Portnoy, Stephen
1980
Box 7
Preer, John R.
1952-1995
Box 7
Preer, John R.: Nomination of Tracy M. Sonneborn for the Nobel Prize
Undated
Box 7
Preer, John R.: Tracy Morton Sonneborn, October 19-1905-January 26, 1981
1981
Box 7
Preparata, Rose Marie
1978-1981
Box 7
Prescott, David
1980
Box 7
Quastler, Henry
1951
Box 7
Rao, M. V. Narasinha
1958-1964
Box 7
Rasmussen, Leif
1984-1992
Box 7
Ray, Charles
1956-1958
Box 7
Reeve, John N.
1979
Box 7
Reissig, Jose L.
1975-1977
Box 7
Remondini, David J.
1980-1986
Box 7
Rhoades, Marcus
1985
Box 7
Ricci, Nicola
1977-1979
Box 7
Ricci, Nicola
1980-1984
Box 7
Ricci, Nicola
1985-2001
Box 7
Ricci, Nicola. In memoriam
2001
Box 7
Rice, Stanley
2001
Box 7
Richmond College, CUNY
1971
Box 7
Riley-Kresin, Catherine E.
1981
Box 7
Ringertz, Nils
1979-1984
Box 7
Roberts, Dennis
Undated
Box 7
Roderick, Tom
1961
Box 7
Roman, Herschel L.
1981
Box 7
Roque, Madeline
1956
Box 7
Rotheim, Minna B.
1981
Box 7
Rubin, Harry
1989
Box 7
Rudzinska, Maria A.
1957
Box 7
Russell, Elizabeth S.
1975
Box 7
St. Marys College
1964
Box 7
Salceda, Victor M.
1981
Box 7
Sand, Seaward A.
1961
Box 7
Sangsoda, Siddhichoke
1976
Box 7
Sapp, Jan
1983-1992
Box 7
Sargent, M. L.
Undated
Box 7
Satir, Birgit
1971-1983
Box 7
Savard, Edward
1972
Box 7
Schewe, Edgar R.
1978
Box 8
Schloegel, Judy Johns
1995-1998
Box 8
Schloegel, Judy Johns: From anomaly to unification: Tracy Sonneborn and the species problem in protozoa, 1954-1957. Journal of the History of Biology 32
1999
Box 8
Schmidt, Helmut
1986-1996
Box 8
Schmitt, Gail K./
2001
Box 8
Schull, William J.
1982
Box 8
Schulmann, Murray
1963
Box 8
Schuster, Frederick L.
1969
Box 8
Schwartz, Viktor
1979
Box 8
Serre, Arlette
1961
Box 8
Seyfert, Hans-Martin
1976-1978
Box 8
Seyfert, Hans-Martin
1979-1988
Box 8
Shi, Xin Bai
1982
Box 8
Shulman, Richard
1969
Box 8
Siegel, Richard
1960-1981
Box 8
Siegel, Richard
1997-2006
Box 8
Siegel, Richard: A personal panegyric (on the life of Tracy M. Sonneborn)
1981
Box 8
Silverman, Paul H.
1965
Box 8
Simon, Ellen M.
1973-1988
Box 8
Simon, Ellen M. et al.: The Tetrahymena pyriformis complex of cryptic species
2006
Box 8
Slater, Donal W.
1970-1971
Box 8
Small, Eugene B.
1965
Box 8
Smith, Hobart
1969
Box 8
Smith-Sonneborn, Joan
1980-1983
Box 8
Smithies, Oliver
1975
Box 8
Snell, William J.
1969-2005
Box 8
Society of Protozoologists
1962-1988
Box 8
Sogin, Mitchell
1985
Box 8
Soldo, Anthony T.
1976
Box 8
Sonneborn, David
1972-1983
Box 8
Sonneborn, Ruth
1982
Box 8
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1951-1952
Box 8
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1953
Box 8
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1954
Box 8
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1955
Box 8
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1956
Box 8
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1957
Box 8
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1958-1959
Box 8
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1960-1964
Box 8
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1965-1967
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1968-1970
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1971-1973
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1974
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1975-1977
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M.
1978-1980
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M.: Autobiography (2)
Undated
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. Biographical
1978-1981
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. Biographical: A la memoire de Tracy M. Sonneborn, by Jean-Michel Labouygues
1981
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. Biographical: Annual Review of Genetics (correspondence)
1981
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. Biographical: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, by G. H. Beale
ca.1981
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. Biographical: Developmental Genetics
ca.1981
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. Biographical notes and drafts
ca.1981
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. Biorgaphical: Yearbook of the American Philosophical Society, by Bentley Glass
1982
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M.: Ethical issues arising from the possible uses of genetic knowledge
1973
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. : Genetics and man's vision, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 109, 4
1965
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. Honorary degree presentation, University of Munster, by Klaus Heckmann
1979
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. : Implications of the new genetics for biology and man, AIS Bulletin 13, 2
1963
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. : My intellectual history in relation to my contributions to science
1978
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. Remarks of Lee Sonneborn, Gros Louis, James Ebert, John R. PReer, and David Sonneborn
1981
Box 9
Sonneborn, Tracy M. Sonneborn Bibliography
ca.1980
Box 9
Spiegelman, George B.
1966
Box 9
Stadler, David R.
1973
Box 9
Stahl, Franklin
1983
Box 9
Stebbins, G. Ledyard
1978
Box 9
Steffensen, Dale M.
1982
Box 9
Stern, Curt
1969
Box 9
Stern, Herbert
1966
Box 9
Stocum, David
1979
Box 9
Streisinger, George
1983
Box 9
Strick, James
2001-2002
Box 9
Sturtevant, A. H.
1957
Box 9
Suhr-Jessen, Peter B.
1983-1984
Box 9
Suzuki, David
1981
Box 9
Tan, C. C.
1982
Box 10
Tarr, George E.
1974
Box 10
Tartar, Vance
1969-1975
Box 10
Taylor, Saundra
2001
Box 10
Temple University
1966
Box 10
Tepe, William
1964
Box 10
Tetrahymena News
1972-1974
Box 10
Thompson, Guy A.
1978
Box 10
Tiedtke, Arno
1989
Box 10
Tohutski, Linda
1979
Box 10
Trends in Genetics
1984-1990
Box 10
Uhlenhopp, Elliott L.
1978
Box 10
University of California Davis
1969
Box 10
University of Iowa
1963
Box 10
University of Toronto
1981
Box 10
Uzzell, Thomas
2001-2005
Box 10
Van Bell, Craig
1984-1986
Box 10
Van der Kloot, William G.
1981-1982
Box 10
Villiers, T. A.
1965
Box 10
Viterbo College
1969
Box 10
Viza, Dimitri
1978-1979
Box 10
W. W. Norton
1975
Box 10
Wahls, Wayne
1982-1991
Box 10
Wallace, Bruce
1975
Box 10
Washburn, Jan O.
1991
Box 10
Waterman, Talbot H.
1961
Box 10
Watson, James D.
1968-1992
Box 10
Watson, M. R.
1963
Box 10
Wee, Beth
1985
Box 10
Wells, Carolyn
1961
Box 10
Weindruch, Rick
1973-1982
Box 10
Weir, Morton W.
1978
Box 10
Wellnitz, Bill
1971
Box 10
Whitt, Gregory S.
1969-1986
Box 10
Who's Who in America
1981
Box 10
Wiggenhorn, Anthony W.
1969
Box 10
Williams, Norman E.
1965
Box 10
Willis, Judy
1969-1984
Box 10
Wilson, Katherine S.
1966-1998
Box 10
Wilson, Rob
1998-2005
Box 10
Woese, Carl
1969-1973
Box 10
Woodard, John
1962
Box 10
Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory
1966-1989
Box 10
Yao, Meng Chao
1980-1982
Box 10
Zieg, R. G.
1972
Box 10
Ziegler, Bonnie
Undated
Box 10
Zuckerkandl, Emil
1988
Box 10
Unidentified recipients
1970-1989
Box 10
Series 2. Teaching and Writing
1948-2008
3 boxes
Conferences
1969-1989
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Academic profile
1988
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Apologia vitae [autobiography]
1983
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Bibliography
1976
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Biographical
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Book reviews
1978-1996
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Candide in academe [autobiography]
2000
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Candide in academe meets Tracy agonistes [autobiography]
2004
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: The cell, the organism, the population: reflections on a career experienced
1986
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Charging windmills [autobiography]
2005
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Correspondence with publishers
1958-1999
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Cortical patterns in cellular morphogenesis Science 160
1968
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Cytogenes and cytotaxis
1966
Box 11

Woods Hole evening lecture series

Nanney, David L.: Developmental Genetics 13, 1-3 [festschrift numbers]
1992
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Disciplinary strategies of genetics: a revisionist history
1986
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Drafts of articles
Undated
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Epigenetic factors affecting mating type expression in certain ciliates
1958
Box 11

"Drafts of presentation on epigenetics near the time of the PNAS paper"

Nanney, David L.: Experimental Ciliatology: correspondence and reviews
1980-1981
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Frontier connections [manuscript]
1994
Box 11

Read at University of Pisa, Oct. 4, 1994, in return for an honorary degree (honoris causa). Published with minimal changes in Rev. Soc. Mex. Hist. Nat. 47: 201-216.

Nanney, David L.: Frontier connections, Rev. Soc. Mex. Hist. Nat. 47: 201-216
1997
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Genetic studies of Paramecium aurelia. Dissertation, Indiana University
1951
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Grants
1960-1969
Box 11
Nanney, David L.: Grants
1971-1978
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Grants
1982-1988
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Grants
1990-1994
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Historical perspectives in Tetrahymena genetics
1982
Box 12

Appendix to an NIH grant application

Nanney, David L.: I rapporti con la frontiera [Frontier connections]
1994
Box 12

Lecture on receipt of honorary degree from University of Pisa

Nanney, David L.: Innocents abroad
1985
Box 12

"Faculty report on tenure of preistrager sojourn to Europe, hosted by Klaus Heckmann in Munster, Germany, with side trips to Italy and Poland. Plus sabbatical report to Dept. of Genetics and Development"

Nanney, David L. Job offers
1965-1982
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Lectures and lecture notes
1984, Undated
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Ciliate systematics Part I: Varieties, syngens, and cryptic species (incomplete)
Undated
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Ciliate systematics Part II: Approaches to tetrahymenid evolution
Undated
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: The domestication of Tetrahymena
Undated
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Evolutionary genetics of the ciliates
Undated
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Organisms are technologies too
Undated
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Why study ciliates (incomplete)
1984
Box 12

Munster lecture

Nanney, David L.: Organistic technology
Undated
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Notes: Ciliates, why?
Undated
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Notes: The time of ciliate origins (incomplete)
Undated
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Notes on Tetrahymena
Undated
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Metaphor and mechanism: epigenetic control systems reconsidered
1989
Box 12

Original paper presented at symposium on "The epigenetics of cell transformation and tumor development"

Nanney, David L.: Nanney clan reunion
1995
Box 12

"Account of a trip made by David and Jean Nanney to Dolgellan, Wales, in 1980s, but written up later"

Nanney, David L.: Night thoughts, the confessions of a manic depressive
1946
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Notes
1960s?
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Nucleo-cytoplasmic interaction during conjugation in Tetrahymena. Biological Bulletin 105
1953
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: On nocodazole
Undated
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: On winning in science BioScience 32, 3
1982
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Personal
1955-1957
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: The radiation of eukaryotic protists: string analysis of 5S ribosomal sequences, with Chaeryung Park and Ellen M. Simon
1994
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Research reports
1981-1986
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Retirement scrapbook 1
1991
Box 12
Nanney, David L.: Retirement scrapbook 2
1991
Box 13
Nanney, David L.: Reviews of articles and grant applications
1965-1996
Box 13
Nanney, David L.: Sabbaticals
1973-1985
Box 13
Nanney, David L.: Shifting ditypic site analysis: heuristics for expanding the phyolgenetic range of nucleotide sequences, with Rose Marie Preparata, E. B. Meyer and Ellen M. Simon
1987-1988
Box 13
Nanney, David L.: String analysis of eukaryotic evolution [grant application Department of Health and Human Services]
1994
Box 13
Nanney, David L.: Tetrahymena genetics at Illinois
Undated
Box 13
Nanney, David L.: Tracy agonistes: personal interactions: footnotes to a biography of T. M. Sonneborn
1982
Box 13
Photographs
1955-1957
Box 13
Gordon Research Conference: Molecular Biology of ciliated protozoa, Laconia, N.H.: Group shot of participants
1989
Box 13
Gordon Conference participants
ISEP 7 [International Society for Evolutionary Protistology, 7th Conference, London, England]: Group shot of participants
1987
Box 13
ISEP-7
Sonneborn, Tracy M., standing in laboratory, photo by Dellenback
ca.1970s
Silver print
Box 13
Tracy M. Sonneborn
Sonneborn, Tracy M., seated at desk
ca.1970s
3 black and white prints
Box 13

One copy autographed

Tracy M. Sonneborn
Sonneborn, Tracy M. and wife
ca.1980s
Color print
Box 13
Tracy M. Sonneborn and wife
Ricci, Nicola, with tulip in his teeth
1980s
Color print
Box 13
Nicola Ricci with tulip in teeth
University of Illinois: Economic realities and ecological strategies. Presentation to the Priorities Committee
1988
Box 13
University of Illinois: Administrative
1969-1992
Box 13
University of Illinois: Appointment to faculty
1959
Box 13
University of Illinois. Department of Genetics and Development
1974-1988
Box 13
University of Illinois. Faculty Advisory Committee
1987-1988
Box 13
University of Illinois. School of Life Sciences
1972-1988
Box 13
University of Illinois. School of Life Sciences academic history, by David L. Nanney
1982
Box 13
University of Illinois: Undergraduate education
1961-1992
Box 13
University of Illinois: An undergraduate laboratory teaching facility
ca.1962
Box 13

Administrative information

Access

The collection is open for research.

Provenance

Gift of David Ledbetter Nanney, November 2008.

Digitized content

Selected material in the collection has been scanned and are available online through our digital repository, Credo.

Processing Information

Processed by Dex Haven, February 2009.

SCUA houses the papers of several other protistologists, including Nanney's correspondents Lea Bleyman, Seymour Hutner, and Greg Antippa.

The papers of Nanney's dissertation supervisor, mentor, friend, and colleague, Tracy M. Sonneborn are housed in the Lilly Library, Indiana University.

Bibliography

Biographical and autobiographical works on Nanney, see:

Language:

English

Copyright and Use (More information )

Cite as: David L. Nanney Papers (MS 592). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Search terms

Subjects

  • Developmental biology.
  • Evolution (Biology).
  • Protozoans--Genetics.
  • Tetrahymena--Genetics.

Contributors

  • Nanney, David Ledbetter, 1925- [main entry]
  • Nanney, David Ledbetter, 1925- .
  • Allen, Sally.
  • Bleyman, Lea K.
  • Corliss, John O.
  • Frankel, Joseph, 1935- .
  • Kaczanowski, Andrzej.
  • McKoy, J. Wynne.
  • Nyberg, Dennis Wayne, 1944- .
  • Orias, Eduardo.
  • Ricci, Nicola.
  • Siegel, Richard.
  • Sonneborn, T. M. (Tracy Morton), 1905- .

Genres and formats

  • Autobiographies.
  • Photographs.

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