Dorothy Wrinch Papers, 1901-1983 (bulk 1919-1975)
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Sophia Smith Collection Smith College Northampton, MA
Finding aid encoded in NoteTab Pro. Encoded by Carrie Baldwin. 2008-07-29
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Dorothy Wrinch Papers
Creation of Dorothy Wrinch Papers
Time of Creation of Dorothy Wrinch Papers
Wrinch, Dorothy, 1894-1976
Biographical History for: Dorothy Wrinch Papers
Historical Note Dorothy Wrinch with students at Smith College, 1965-1966 Dorothy Maud Wrinch was a chemist, biologist, and physicist most famous for her development of the cyclol theory. Throughout her career, she used her background in mathematics to apply math to biology, and was an important early figure in molecular biology. Wrinch was born in 1894 in Rosario, Argentina to English parents Ada Minnie Souter and Hugh Edward Hart Wrinch. In 1913 Wrinch received a scholarship to Girton College, a residential women's college at Cambridge. There she studied pure and applied mathematics, earning her BA degree with first-class honors in 1916. Wrinch stayed a fourth year at Girton to study mathematical logic with Bertrand Russell. After earning her MA in 1918, Wrinch taught mathematics at University College, London while completing her MSc (1920) and DSc (1922). She moved to Oxford in 1922 after marrying John Nicholson. (They would separate in 1930.) Wrinch taught mathematics to women at Oxford and earned her second MSc in 1924. Her daughter, Pamela, was born in 1928. The next year, Wrinch was the first woman awarded a DSc from Oxford. She diverged from her more prominent mathematical writings in 1930 when she published the sociological work Retreat from Parenthood under the pseudonym Jean Ayling. In the 1930s, Wrinch expanded her studies to biology and chemistry, and traveled to several locations throughout Europe for fellowships. She came to the United States in 1935 on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, and after the outbreak of World War II, was to live in the United States for the remainder of her life. Wrinch lectured at Johns Hopkins University from 1939 to 1941, after which she became a visiting research professor for Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Amherst Colleges. Wrinch remarried in 1941, to Amherst College biology professor Otto C. Glaser, and became a U.S. citizen in 1943. It was during this time that Wrinch developed and first published her controversial cyclol theory of protein structure. Wrinch wrote extensively on this theory, and defended it enthusiastically at all points. Though she had some supporters, notably Irving Langmuir, she had many more critics, among them Linus Pauling. Though her theory was eventually applied successfully, Wrinch's overzealous and singular focus on cyclol theory alienated her from many in the scientific community. Wrinch was appointed a Smith College professor in 1942, and for the next three decades, researched, lectured, and taught graduate student seminars there. During summers, she and her family lived in Woods Hole, Massachusetts where she taught and lectured in physics. Her research during the 1940s focused on developing techniques for interpreting complex crystal structure x-rays, as well as mineralogy. In 1954 Wrinch finally won definitive support for her cyclol theory when cyclol bonds were found in ergot alkaloids. Throughout the course of her career, she published 192 works, a list of which can be found in Marjorie Senechal's Structures of Matter and Patterns in Science (in SERIES VIII. SMITH COLLEGE - Symposium). Otto Glaser died in 1951 and Wrinch's daughter Pamela was killed in a fire in 1975. Wrinch moved to Woods Hole after her retirement from Smith in 1971. She died February 11, 1976.
Dorothy Wrinch donated her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection in 1976.
Scope and Contents of the Collection The Dorothy Wrinch Papers contain original manuscripts; models; printed material; publications and writings; notebooks and scrapbooks; as well as extensive correspondence which illuminates her research and views on crystal structure, cyclols, peptides, mineral twins, x-ray methods, insulin, and polyhedra. Also included are articles by colleagues and contemporaries, lecture notes, grant correspondence, models and photographs. There are also selected letters and writings by her daughter Pamela Wrinch Schenkman (1927-75).
The papers are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection without any additional restrictions.
Permission must be obtained to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use." Copyright to unpublished materials may be owned by the creators, or their heirs or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.
Related materials in the Smith College Archives: Faculty files; President's Office files (correspondence re: appointment); and files on 1976 symposium in honor of Dorothy Wrinch.
Julian, Maureen M. "Wrinch, Dorothy Maud." Susan Ware, ed. Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the 20th Century. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 2004.
Reprocessed by Carrie Baldwin, 2008.
Biochemistry--Study and teaching--History--Sources
lcsh
Crystallography--Study and teaching
Physicists--United States--Biography--Sources
Women biochemists--United States--Biography--Sources
Women physicists--United States--Biography--Sources
Women scientists--United States--Biography--Sources
Bohrs, Niels Henrik David, 1885-1962
lcnaf
Hodgekins, Dorothy Crowfoot
Neville, Eric Harold,1889-
Pauling, Linus, 1901- --Correspondence
Russell, Bertrand, 1872-1970
Harker, David--Correspondence
Langmuir, Irving, 1881-1957--Correspondence
Sobotka, Harry, 1899-1965--Correspondence
Stoll, Arthur, b. 1887 --Correspondence
Thompson, D'Arcy Wentworth, 1860-1948--Correspondence
Wrinch family
Smith College--Faculty--History--Sources
series
I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS (1933-63, n.d.)
This series includes biographical material, clippings, and obituaries about Dorothy Wrinch; plus her legal papers, college appointments, and list of publications. There are also personal notes, diaries, and address books. Also included is information about her father Hugh Edward Hart Wrinch, and Otto Glaser (1881-1951), her second husband. For biographical material on her daughter Pamela Wrinch Schenkman, see SERIES X.
II. PHOTOGRAPHS (1964-87)
This series includes photographs of Dorothy Wrinch, Otto Glaser, Pamela Wrinch, and miscellaneous friends.
III. CORRESPONDENCE (1924-75, n.d.)
This series is organized into three subseries: Family, Individuals, and Miscellaneous. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically. Family correspondence includes letters regarding Otto Glaser's death, 1951. Individuals' correspondence is in alphabetical order by last name of correspondent. It includes both professional and personal correspondence to and from Wrinch, and occasional third party correspondence. The subseries includes copies made from the Bertrand Russell Archives, McMaster University. Significant correspondents include crystallographer David Harker (1938-46); chemists Linus Pauling (1938-41), Irving Langmuir (1938-46), Harry Sobotka (1937-65), Arthur Stoll (1955-61), Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkins (1936-69), and naturalist D'Arcy Thompson (1924-43). Correspondence with Eric Neville and Harry Sobotka includes Wrinch's notes with the letters. Miscellaneous correspondence includes correspondence between Langmuir, Huggins, Pauling, Lamb, and Harker, 1938-40; and financial and purchase orders; the Princeton project, 1946-47; reprint requests; wedding congratulations; and unidentified correspondence. Some correspondence can also be found in SERIES VI. WRITINGS, SERIES VIII. SMITH COLLEGE, and SERIES XI. NOTEBOOKS.
IV. GRANTS (1930-64)
This series includes correspondence and miscellaneous material from the Office of Naval Research (1947-1958), National Science Foundations (1961-1964), Rockefeller Foundation (1930, 1935-40), and miscellaneous grants.
V. PUBLICATIONS (1919-65)
This series includes reprints, articles, abstracts, and newspaper articles published by Dorothy Wrinch. There are also drafts of her work with comments and notes by Wrinch and others, and some diagrams and illustrations.
VI. WRITINGS (1930-1970, n.d.)
This series includes Wrinch's unpublished written work and is organized chronologically. It includes manuscripts, non-technical unpublished writings, essays concerning the direction of her work, speeches, diagrams, notes (both technical and non-technical), and marked reprints. There are notes, diagrams, and drafts relating to twinning and symmetry; early studies on peptides; notes on bacitracin and insulin, and correspondence and notes from and with P.B. Medawar, D'Arcy Thompson, and H.B. Vickery.
VII. MODELS AND STRUCTURES (n.d.)
This series includes models and structures of Wrinch's work, in various forms. Most of the material is photographs, negatives, diagrams, orders for models, and descriptions of models. There are also three-dimensional models and two scrapbooks in Oversize Materials.
VIII. SMITH COLLEGE (1940-71, n.d.)
This series contains material from Wrinch's time at Smith College as a visiting professor, researcher, and lecturer in the physics department. Material includes class and seminar notes, schedules, examinations, and student recommendations.
IX. MISCELLANEOUS (1923-69)
This series contains miscellaneous material, including bibliographic references, lists of people, memorials to Bohr and Sobotka, Physical Society material, reprints and writings by others, and clippings.
X. PAMELA WRINCH (1945-54, n.d.)
This series includes biographical material and clippings about Wrinch's daughter, Pamela Wrinch Schenkman, as well as her daughter's writings on international relations and some personal writings.
XI. NOTEBOOKS (1930-69, n.d.)
This series contains Wrinch's scientific notes, clippings, reprints, and correspondence and is arranged chronologically. The numbering system on the notebooks (1-36) was done by the compiler, not Wrinch, and was used only for points of reference. The dates on some of the notebooks were determined by examining some of the dated information inside, which was sketchy at best. Some folders have subject notations on the front. These are not meant to be definitive, but rather an indication of some material within.
SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS
Contents
Biographical information 1956-77
Newspaper clippings, including obituaries 1941-76
"Dorothy Wrinch and the Rockefeller Foundation Grants" by Sibilla E. Kennedy 1983
Legal documents 1922-62
Three College appointment, announcement, and publicity 1941
Lists of publications during 1932-65
Hugh Edward Hart Wrinch (father): "Details of Career," 1901
Otto Glaser: Obituary and memorials 1951
Personal notes 1933-35, 1954-56, 1961-64, n.d.
Address books
SERIES II. PHOTOGRAPHS (1936-66, n.d.)
Dorothy Wrinch 1936-66, n.d.
Wedding photos 1941
Otto Glasern.d.
Pamela Wrinchn.d.
Miscellaneousn.d.
SERIES III. CORRESPONDENCE (1924-75, n.d.)
Family
Pamela Wrinch 1931, 1938, 1951, 1961-66
Letters re: Otto's death 1951
Otto Glaser to D.W. and others 1941-43, n.d.
Muriel Wrinch-Schulzn.d.
Individuals
American Chemical Society 1946-47, 1962-64
Anslow, Gladys 1941-43, 1963-69
Anslow with others 1946, 1951-57, 1964
Astbury, William T. 1936-7, 1951, 1953
Beevers, Arnold 1970
Bergmann, Max 1937
Bernal, J. Desmond (includes notes on a discussion) 1936-39
Bohr, Niels 1938-39, 1946, 1957
Booth, Andrew Donald (includes calculation notes) 1946-48, 1951, n.d.
Bragg, Lawrence 1943, n.d.
Brenner, Max 1960-61, n.d.
Buerger, Martin 1943-45
Clowes, G. H. A. 1938, 1955-56
Crew, Francis (includes notes on their relationship) 1934
Deutsch, Adam 1936-37
Diller, Irene Corey 1957, 1960
Donnay, Jose and Gabrielle 1946, 1951, 1956-57, 1970
Emery, Alden H. 1941-42
Evans, Howard T. 1947
Evans, R. C. 1953
Fajans, Kasimir 1942-43
Fankuchen, I. 1950-55, 1961-62
Fodor, A. (includes notes) 1937
Franklin, Rosalind (includes notes on a talk) 1955-56
Fry, Margery (includes obituary and painting) 1940-41, 1943, 1957
Glenn, Alan 1961-63, 1966-70
Harker, David 1938, 1952-54, 1967
Haskins, Caryl 1936, 1938-39, 1966, n.d.
Hassall, C. H. 1967-68
Hodgkin, Dorothy Crowfoot 1938-47, 1950-53, 1969, n.d.
Howard, Evelyn 1941-43
Hughes, Edward 1954, 1956, 1958
Hunt, W. F. 1951
Ing, H. Raymond 1936-38
Kaempffert, Waldmar 1941, 1944, 1947
Karle, Jerome and Isabella 1961-62
Kenner, G. W. 1961-66
Langmuir, Irving 1938-46
Loeb, Arthur and Lotje 1960, 1969-70
Masoero, Marcella 1951, 1954-58, 1960-66
Mauger, Tony 1962-67, 1969
Neville, Eric and Maynard
Pacsu, Eugene 1958-65
Patterson, A.L. 1941, 1951
Pauling, Linus
Perutz, Max 1947-1952, 1963
Polanyi, Michael 1935, 1948
Reimann, Stanley 1942
Russell, Bertrand (copies from Bertrand Russell Archives, McMaster University) 1917-1919, 1930
Scott, William and Linus Pauling 1956
Marjorie Senechal 1974-75
Sobotka, Harry
Stallybrass, C.O. 1948-1950
Stoll, Arthur 1955-56, 1961
Swann, W.F.G. 1941-43
Szent-Gyorgyi, A. 1935-36
Thompson, D'Arcy 1924, 1943
Vickery, Hubert Bradford 1939-70
Williams, J.W. 1938, 1941, 1949
Correspondence and notes with Nevilles (Eric and Maynard) and Sobotka
Wrinch to Eric Neville 1940-60, n.d.
Eric Neville to Wrinch 1940-61, n.d.
Notes placed with Neville lettersn.d.
With Maynard Neville regarding Eric Neville's death 1961
Wrinch to Harry Sobotka 1937-65
Harry Sobotka to Wrinch 1937-65
Notes placed with Sobotka lettersn.d.
Miscellaneous
Correspondence between Langmuir, Huggins, Pauling, Lamb, and Harker 1938-40
Financial papers and purchase orders 1948-66
Job-hunting 1940-41
Letters of congratulations on the NSF grant 1959
Princeton project 1946-47
Reprint requests 1943-69
Wedding congratulations 1941
Unidentified
Between Walter Dyer and Waldemar Kaempffert re: article by Otto Glaser 1941
SERIES IV. GRANTS (1935-66)
National Science Foundation grants 1961-64
Office of Naval Research: technical reports, progress reports, annual and semiannual reports, and proposals 1947-58
Rockefeller Foundation grants correspondence 1935-40
Applications and correspondence: Rockefeller Foundation grant and Rhodes Traveling Fellowship 1930
Miscellaneous grants including abstracts 1940-66
SERIES V. PUBLICATIONS (1919-66, n.d.)
Early math and philosophy reprints, articles, and abstracts 1919-39
Reprints, articles, and abstracts 1940-65, n.d.
Newspaper articles
Monographs
"Fourier Transforms and Structure Factors" and correspondence 1946, 1961-66
"Chemical Aspects of the Structure of Small Peptides" and correspondence and reviews 1960
"Chemical Aspects of the Structure of Small Peptides" and "Chemical Aspects of Polypeptide Chain Structures and the Cyclol Theory:" letters and miscellaneous material 1960-69
"Chemical Aspects of Polypeptide Chain Structures and the Cyclol Theory:" correspondence and reviews 1965
"Chemical Aspects of Polypeptide Chain Structures and the Cyclol Theory:" appendix and revisions 1965
Miscellaneous correspondence and notes regarding publications of her monographs 1959-66, n.d.
Monograph notes marked "monograph II"n.d.
Monograph notes and outlinesn.d.
Wrinch, Dorothy. "Fourier Transforms and Structure Factors." The American Society for X-ray and Electron Diffraction, February 1946. (ASXRED Monograph #2) (Reprinted by the American Crystallographic Association1966)
Wrinch, Dorothy. Chemical Aspects of the Structure of Small Peptides: An Introduction. Copenhagen: Munksgaard 1960. 2 copies
Wrinch, Dorothy. Chemical Aspects of Polypeptide Chain Structures and the Cyclol Theory. Copenhagen: Munksgaard 1965. 2 copies
"The Geometrical Attack on Protein Structure" (includes comments by Pauling and Niemann) 1941
"The Geometrical Attack on Protein Structure:" comments and notes by Wrinch and notes between Pauling and Wrinch 1938
"The Geometrical Attack on Protein Structure:" referee reports 1939, n.d.
"Recent Advances in Cyclol Chemistry:" illustrations and notes 1963
Drafts of molecular diagrams for publicationsn.d.
Cut-outs and diagrams from various articlesn.d.
Referee comments on various articles 1939-58
SERIES VI. WRITINGS (1936-70)
Manuscripts
Miscellaneous technical writings 1936-65, n.d.
Essay "On the Structure of DNA" with notes and diagrams and correspondence from Harry Sobotka and Tony Sonneborn 1954-55
Non-technical unpublished writings
"Tender Emotions," n.d.
"A Problem Play for the Adult Young," n.d.
Essays concerning the directions of her work, some used for application purposes 1941-43, 1953-57, n.d.
Miscellaneous writings and speeches 1935, 1938-41, 1951, 1954, n.d.
Notecardsn.d.
Notebooks containing manuscripts for her book
Research notes
Diagrams: symmetry and twinning
Symmetry
Twinning
Twinning: notes for companion paper with Donnay
Symmetry and Twinning: "Closest Packing"
Symmetry and Twinning notebook contents
6 notebooks 1930s-40s
Early peptide studies 1937-39
Technical 1930s
Marked reprints 1930, 1933-39
Cold Spring Harbor Symposia 1938
Technical
Proteins and genetics 1940s
Crystallography, insulin, proteins, and cyclols 1940s
Non-technical 1940s
Marked reprints 1940s
Non-technical 1950s
Technical: amino acids and crystallography 1950s
Marked reprints
With notes 1950s
Insulin 1950s
Bacitracin 1950s
Peptides, proteins, cyclols, and insulin 1960s
Notes re: D'Arcy Thompson and P.B. Medawar 1960s
Discussion with H.B. Vickery 1960s
Non-technical 1960s
Marked Reprints
Articles by Griot, Frey, Ott, and Hoffman 1963
Articles by Shemyakin, Antonov, Shkrob, Sheinker, Senyavina, Shchelokov 1962-63
Miscellaneous articles 1960s
Technical: Geometry in Molecular Biology, cyclohexane conformation, "whole number geometry," and miscellaneous 1970s
Non-technical
Miscellaneous notes: polyhedra, tobacco mosaic virus
Technicaln.d.
Non-technicaln.d.
Miscellaneous marked reprints by Wrinch and others
Marked reprintsn.d.
SERIES VII. MODELS AND STRUCTURES
Miscellaneous photographs and negatives
Diagrams of nets, cyclol, polyhedra, and patterns
Photographs of twinned structures
Photographs, possibly related to twinning theory
Photographs and diagrams of twin crystals, leaves, twin models, misc.
Photographs of Bohr's cyclol model
Electron density maps
Models of original cyclols
Orders, receipts and descriptions
SERIES VIII. SMITH COLLEGE MATERIAL
Proposed seminars, lectures, class descriptions, schedules, reading and class lists, notes 1940-42, 1953, 1956-57, 1970-71
Seminar examinations 1942-61
Smith student recommendations 1961-67
Class and seminar lecture notes 1946-48, 1954-55, 1961, 1965, n.d.
Miscellaneous administration documentsn.d.
Symposium inspired by the life and works of D. Wrinch
Correspondence, program, quotes and speech 1976-77, 1982
Senechal, Marjorie, ed. Structures of Matter and Patterns in Science: A Symposium inspired by the work and life of Dorothy Wrinch, 1894-1976. Schenkman Publishing Co., Cambridge MA 1980.
SERIES IX. MISCELLANEOUS
Bibliographic references
Lists of people
Physical society 1937, 1939
Memorials: Niels Bohr, Harry Sobotka 1963, 1966
Kaempffert, Waldemar. "If science sat at the peace table," 1944
Nicholson, J.W. "Oblate spheroidal harmonics and their applications," 1923
Pearson, William B. Preprint of paper and draft of book Crystal Chemistry of Metals 1969
Storycraft, Inc, "Prescription for living: report on cancer," 1954
SERIES X. PAMELA WRINCH (1927-1975)
Clippings, biographical information, government documents, and miscellaneous 1945, 1951-54, 1962-66
"What price ideological conformity? Soviet Science, A Symposium," reviewed by Pamela Wrinch. Problems of Communism, vol. 3, no. 2 1954.
"Public Policy, a yearbook of the Graduate School of Public Administration," Harvard University 1958. Contains "Sir Winston Churchill on the Military Requirements of Great Britain" by Pamela N. Wrinch
"Research Note: Science and Politics: a commentary" by Kurt P. Tauber. Reprinted from World Politics vol. IV, no. 31952.
"Science and Politics in the USSR: The Genetics Debate" by Pamela N. Wrinch, reprinted from World Politics vol. III, no. 41951.
"The military strategy of Winston Churchill" by Pamela Wrinch, Department of Government, Boston University.
"On the quest for 'science' in international politics" by Pamela Wrinch, Some Problems in the study and teaching of international politics. Ed. Charles Ol Lerche Jr. and Burton M. Sapin. P. 68.
"Pamela's own book of pipe tunes and pipe games," n.d.
Sir Winston Churchill on Britain's Role Towards Europe: Detachment and Combination. by Pamela Nicholson Wrinch, A dissertation to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Yale University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1954
SERIES XI. NOTEBOOKS
"Water," contains some diagrams 1950-51, n.d.
Diagrams and notesn.d.
Reprints, notes and diagrams, mostly on mineral structure 1938-1956, n.d.
Modelsn.d.
Clippings of pictures 1956-61, n.d.
Notes and pictures of modelsn.d.
Marked copy of "An organic chemical formulation of the amide and cyclol theories," n.d.
Marked copy of "Structures for small peptides within the amide and cyclol systems" and clippingsn.d.
Lectures, diagrams, and class notesn.d.
Reprints and diagrams 1939, 1952-53
Notes, diagrams, and class materials 1951-56, n.d.
Notes, diagrams, and figure descriptionsn.d.
Model and diagram photographsn.d.
Notes, figures, and diagrams 1954, 1958, n.d.
Writings on vector functions, and reprints 1955, n.d.
Writings on hemoglobins 1948, n.d.
Writings on vector maps and diagramsn.d.
Writings on compounds, diagramsn.d.
Reprints by Wrinch and others, and notes 1939-47
Clippings, reprints, and miscellaneous notes 1938-1947, n.d.
Clippings and correspondence 1930-1940
Guest registry
Notes and reprints regarding vector maps 1946-55, n.d.
On psychotherapy 1956, 1961-66
Notes 1945
Reprints 1948-53
Correspondence and reprints 1953-57, 1963-65
On proteinn.d.
Correspondence, reprints, and notes - marked "utmost importance," 1945-53
Correspondence and reprints 1954-60
Clippings, reprints, and correspondence 1950-53, 1959, 1962, 1967-68
Clippings, reprints, and correspondence 1952-67
Correspondence and research grant proposals 1957-61
Class and miscellaneous notes and diagrams 1956-57, 1965-67, n.d.
Notes and reprints 1963-67
Clippings and notes on Woods Hole 1962-69
Structures and vector mapsn.d.
Diagramsn.d.
Writing on mineralogy, symmetry, and twinning1965
Woods Hole notes and clippings1966-68
OVERSIZE MATERIAL
Data scrapbooks (2)n.d.
Three-dimensional models
Master of Science and Doctor of Science diplomas
BOOKS ON SHELF
Ayling, Jean (pseudonym). The Retreat from Parenthood. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Ltd.1930.
Stoops, R. Les Protéines: Rapports et Discussions. Brussels1953.