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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION    

Title
George C. Williams Papers

Collection Number
UA 2155

OCLC Number
In-process

Creator 
George C. Williams (1926-2010)

Provenance 
This collection was donated by George C. Williams in two accessions in 2003 and 2006.

Extent,Scope, and Content Note 
The collection is comprised of six cubic feet of: research notes; correspondence; personal files; and related documents created between 1954 and 2005. Subject coverage includes natural selection, life history evolution, and the evolution of behavior.

Arrangement and Processing Note
The papers have been arranged in the original order maintained by George C. Williams. The correspondence is organized by date. The collection was processed in June 2012 by Kristen J. Nyitray and Lynn Toscano in June 2012. Updated April 2019.

Language
English 

Restrictions on Access
The collection is open to researchers without restriction.

Rights and Permissions 

Stony Brook University Libraries' consent to access as the physical owner of the collection does not address copyright issues that may affect publication rights. It is the sole responsibility of the user of Special Collections and University Archives materials to investigate the copyright status of any given work and to seek and obtain permission where needed prior to publication.  

Citation 
[Item], [Box], George C. Williams Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, Stony Brook University Libraries.

Historical Note
George Christopher Williams (1926-2010) was a leading theoretician in natural selection, life history evolution, and the evolution of behavior. He worked for many years on the evolutionary biology of fishes, and was a noted contributor to the literature on the evolution of sex. He authored the classic books Adaptation and Natural Selection, Sex and Evolution (1975), Natural Selection: Domains, Levels, and Challenges (1992), and Why We Get Sick: the New Science of Darwinian Medicine (1996 with R. M. Nesse). Williams was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Guggenheim Fellow. He served as editor of The American Naturalist and The Quarterly Review of Biology and was the president of the Society for the Study of Evolution in 1989. Williams was recognized by the Ecological Society of America as its Eminent Ecologist in 1989. He was awarded the Elliot Medal by the National Science Foundation in 1992, and shared the prestigious Crafoord Prize with Ernst Mayr and John Maynard Smith in 1999. (source: Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University)

Subjects
Adaptation (Biology)
Evolution.
Human evolution.
Natural selection.

INVENTORY

Box 1
Correspondence, 1954-1970

Box 2 
Correspondence, 1971-1975

Box 3 
Correspondence, 1976-1978

Box 4 
Correspondence, 1979-1981

Box 5 
Correspondence, 1982-1984

Box 6 
Correspondence, 1985-1987

Box 7 
Correspondence, 1988-1990

Box 8 
Correspondence, 1991-1992

Box 9 
Correspondence, 1993-June 1994

Box 10
Correspondence, July 1994-September 1995

Box 11
Correspondence, October 1995-October 1996

Box 12
Correspondence, November 1996-August 1997

Box 13
Correspondence, September 1997-June 1998

Box 14
Correspondence, July 1998-August 1999

Box 15
Correspondence, September 1999-June 2000

Box 16
Correspondence, July 2000-April 2002

Box 17
Correspondence, May 2002-March 2005

Box 18
Correspondence, April 2005-May 2005