Leonard D. Hamilton Collection

Collection

Identifier: LDH

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Leonard D. Hamilton Collection is focused on the contributions Hamilton made to the discovery of the structure of the DNA double helix and the disputes which arose following the publication of Watson and Crick 1953 article “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids.” The collection includes correspondence, photographs, laboratory notes, manuscript drafts, presentation slides, reprints, and clippings.

The bulk of the material pertains to Hamilton’s collaboration with Maurice Wilkins at King's College London, to whom Hamilton supplied DNA samples. Of note are the correspondence files between Hamilton and Wilkins which detail not only their scientific collaboration which led to the Nobel Prize, but also their continued camaraderie in the years following the discovery of the structure of the DNA double helix.

Dates

Creation: 1940 - 2010

Creator

Leonard D. Hamilton (Leonard Derwent Hamilton), 1921-2019 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Access is given only by appointment, 8:30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Conditions Governing Use

Archival materials must remain in the archival reading area. Item duplication is to be done by archivists. Fees are applied to copies made. Digital photography is permitted by users.

Biographical / Historical

Leonard Derwent Hamilton (1921-2019) was the head of the Division of Microbiology at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, as well as a medical professor at Stony Brook University. As a medical researcher in the 1940s and 1950s, Hamilton developed techniques for extracting and purifying mammalian DNA. His DNA samples led to the generation of X-ray crystallography images from which James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins identified the double helical structure of DNA.

Hamilton was born in Manchester, England in 1921. He earned his degree in medicine from Balliol College, Oxford University in 1945 and a PhD in biochemistry from Trinity College, Cambridge University in 1949. In 1945, Hamilton married fellow Oxford student Ann Twynam Blake. She went on to become a New Democratic Coalition activist and psychiatric social worker at the Sunrise clinic in Amityville, Long Island, NY.

In 1949, Hamilton moved to the United States on a one-year grant to research iron metabolism as the United States Public Health Service Fellow at the Department of Medicine at the University of Utah. In 1950, Hamilton joined the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York to work on nucleic acid metabolism of protozoa, leukocytes, and the effects of purine and pyrimidine anti-metabolites on hematopoiesis. Hamilton worked at Sloan-Kettering from 1950-1964 during which he collaborated with Maurice Wilkins at King’s College London on the structure of DNA, supplying DNA samples from a variety of organisms and tissues, as well as on cancer research and treatment.

In 1964, Hamilton became the head of the Division of Microbiology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, continuing his biomedical research on the health effects of different energy sources. He worked at Brookhaven until his retirement in 1994. In addition to his work with Wilkins on DNA and his research at the Brookhaven Lab, Hamilton was a professor of Medicine at Stony Brook University and worked for the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, contributing to its seminal report on that subject in 1962.

Hamilton passed way in 2019 at the age of 98 in Crane Neck, Long Island. He has three children, Jane Dorwart, Robin Hamilton, and Stephen Hamilton.

Extent

16 Boxes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Leonard D. Hamilton Collection is comprised of material relating to Hamilton’s contributions to James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins's identification of the double helical structure of DNA which earned the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. The bulk of the collection pertains to Hamilton’s collaboration with Wilkins, to whom Hamilton was the primary supplier of DNA samples. The collection includes correspondence, laboratory notes, manuscript drafts, reprints, and photographs.

Arrangement

The materials are arranged in five series, three of which have been arranged into subseries. The Correspondence series is arranged alphabetically. The remaining series are arranged by subject and then chronologically.

Series I: Correspondence

Series II: Subject Files

Series III: Writing

Series IV: Scientific Research

Series V: Ephemera