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Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher,
Papers 1911-94

Access to Manuscript Collections
MSS 0013

Contents 

Correspondence Series 1, 6
Scientific papers (published) Series 2
Published books Series 3-5, 7-11
[Collected papers Series 33]
Unpublished and miscellaneous papers, 
calculations etc.
Series 12-13
Notebooks, data collections, calculations Series 14-16
Lecture notes and outlines Series 17-18
Reviews Series 19
Miscellaneous Series 20
Personal and biographical
Family papers
Series 22
Honours, obituaries, commemorations,
photographs, etc
Series 23-27

R.A. Fisher Digital Archive

Correspondence

Correspondence.  1911, 1914, 1918-62.   5 metres. Series 1
[Principally of a scientific nature.  An alphabetical list of Fisher’s correspondents is available.  A separate brief guide (incomplete) to the contents of the file(s) for each correspondent has been prepared by the Special Collections Librarian and is available for consultation.]
 
Letters from W.S. Gosset to R.A. Fisher 1915-36.  5 volumes. Series 6
[Copy of typescript for private circulation.  The Letters were published in 1962.]

Scientific papers

Published scientific papers and other writings, including contributions to discussions, comments on the contributions of others, reviews, and letters to the editor.  1912-62.  594 separately numbered items. 
see also Series 12-13 and 19.
Series 2

Published books

Statistical methods for research workers (1925-58)  Series 3
Typescript and ms. corrections for the 14th edition; Reviews of various editions, 1925-56; and variorum compilation by J.H. Bennett showing the changes over all editions.
A complete set of all 14 editions is held in the separate library of Fisher’s books donated by Professor J.H. Bennett and held in Special Collections [the second edition is in the form of a photocopy, in two parts, and the “14th edition” consists of the manuscript amendments to the printed 13th edition]
 
Genetical theory of natural selection (1930) Series 7
 Annotated copy of first edition, second revised edition, Memorandum of Agreement with the publisher Clarendon Press (OUP) 1929, Reviews 1930-31, and revisions for reprint, 1939, 1948, 1955 and undated.
See also Series 34
 
Design of experiments (1935-60) Series 4
 Reviews of various editions, 1936-52; and variorum compilation by J.H. Bennett showing the changes over all editions.
A complete set of all 8 editions is held in the separate library of Fisher’s books donated by Professor J.H. Bennett and held in Special Collections [the “8th edition” consists of the manuscript amendments to the printed 7th edition]
See also Series 18
 
Statistical Tables (1938-63) Series 8
Reviews of various editions, 1938-49 and undated file of corrections for a later edition.
 
The Theory of inbreeding (1949) Series 9
Interleaved copy with changes and revisions, drafts and data for a revised edition [1965], and Reviews  of both editions, 1950-52 and 1965.
 
R.A. Fisher, Contributions to mathematical statistics (1950) Series 10
Reviews 1951-52
 
Statistical methods and scientific inference Series 5
First (1956), second (1959) and third (1973) editions.  Second edition is Fisher’s interleaved copy, including corrections and changes/revisions in Fisher’s hand.  Also separate file of corrections and of Reviews of the first (1956) and second editions, 1956-59.
see also Series 18 (1957 address)

Collected Papers of R.A. Fisher
see Series 33
 

Statistical methods, experimental design and scientific inference. (1990)  1v. Series 11
[A re-issue of Fisher’s Statistical methods and Design of experiments and of his Statistical methods and scientific inference.]

Unpublished and miscellaneous papers

 All are by Fisher and are undated unless otherwise indicated.
 
Papers on Eugenics 1911-20, 1936 Series 12
Including papers on Heredity and Evolution and science delivered at the Cambridge University Eugenics Society November 1911 and March 1912; papers given to the Eugenics Query Club 1912 and undated; memo on the Policy of the Eugenics Society with respect to the professions and trade unions; paper 'Nationalism and Eugenics' read to Science and Arts Society;
untitled paper read at Cambridge c 1920; 'The Barbarians of Arabia' (early 1920s?); 'The National Union of Scientific Workers' (undated - while at Rothamstead); 'Current condition of the birthrate' (1936)
Also manuscript draft of book? on natural selection/eugenics  c1919 (3 chapters only, ms and typed copies); and paper by T.E. Jones on Eugenics delivered at the Cambridge University Eugenics Society, 5 March 1912.
 
Miscellaneous papers c1927-59 Series 13
Including :
Triplet children in GB and Ireland 1928
A genetic garden [proposal for creation of at Cambridge] undated - after 1943
Polyommatus icarus, 1947-48 [cf CP177]
Testing the significance of manifestation in a three-point backcross 1948
Observed frequencies, March 1949
Chromosome markers in human genetics - paper read at Milan meeting September 1949
Paper by Fisher on Gregor Mendel, 1955
[prepared as introduction to the translation of Mendel’s Experiments in plant hybridisation]
Latin Squares - draft paper? prompted by earlier publications by Bose and others, undated [after 1959]
Space travel and ageing (correspondence between Fisher, W.H. McCrea and others 1956-57)
Modes of gamete formation [part published 1962 as CP 292]

Also undated papers including
‘Stability of Veering Flight’
Combinatorial problems connected with arrangements in incomplete blocks - drafts of papers, calculations and table
Distributions (single tail) calculations, undated
Fitting curves by moments (relates to Karl Pearson and the Method of Moments), draft note and calculations  [cf CP149]
Fitting the non-cyclic 4 x 4 Latin Square with expectations
The location of a suppressor for polydactyly (Pl) in the fifth chromosome
The Petersburg problem
Polysomic inheritance with double reduction
The Rainbow
Self Sterility Allelomorphs
[includes Probability of extinction of non-advantageous genes and other untitled papers ]
Tests on samples from a wild population of Lotus corniculatus
Mathematical theory of Genetics
[Uncertainty and indeterminism] part only (p.5-15)
 

Notebooks and data collections

Lythrum data 1940-68.  24 v. Series 14
[23 v. of data and Register.  Data more limited after 1960]
 
Data records and notes Series 15
Data on Sd (dominance) in mice.  1940-45  1v.
with covering letter from Dr. Margaret Wallace, University of Cambridge 1966
[Data on mice litters] 1924-25  1v.
data is preceded by a ms story, not in Fisher’s hand, and some plant data
[Data on chicken broods] 1929-36  1v.
Untitled notebook of data relating to inheritance, containing primarily analysis of data on egg-shell size (Jourdain’s data)   1v.
Untitled early laboratory notepad
Dominula data c1941-46 and draft paper cf CP219
Grouse locusts data [includes copies of tables of Acrydium arenosum of Robert K. Nabours and draft papers on dominants and cross-overs using samples from Acrydium arenosum and other material]
Rainfall data for Cambridge 1900-53
Twin data, with typescript paper on Twins and twinning, undated (late 1920s?)
Table of ‘t’

Lecture notes/outlines

Notes of lectures attended by Fisher  undated.   2 v. Series 17
Theory of elliptic functions, Statistical mechanics [notes on lectures?]
 
Lectures and addresses given by Fisher Series 18
History of Biometry ('On the systematic fitting of curves to observations and measurements' and 'The functions of Mathematics in Biology') undated
Abstract of lectures on population c1924 (given at the invitation of A.L Bowley at the London School of Economics)
Design of experiments (October 1935-March 1936) and Theory of estimation (May 1936) - notes taken of Fisher's lectures by Churchill Eisenhart (with related correspondence between Eisenhart and Prof J.H.Bennett 1986-87)
The Logic of Experimentation: a series of six lectures given by Fisher at the University of California, September-October 1936
[photocopy of transcript made by Dr Evelyn Aylesworth for the California Forest and Range Experiment Station at Berkeley  received from Professor Bennett February 2003]
Lectures 1945-47
[including general lecture schedule, brief notes and outline of lecture on The Theory of Inbreeding 1947]
Lectures 1948 on Bases of Genetics
Statistical information [based on a lecture to the Bio-System group of the Central System Laboratory August 1962]
The Evolution of Genetics (Ramsden Memorial Lecture to Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society March 1953)
Human Genetics 1955-56 - lecture on Scoring
Lay sermons [Thy will be done and Let the dead bury their dead] given at [Gonville and] Caius College Chapel, Cambridge 11 November 1951 and  4 November 1956
Statistical Methods and Statistical Inference (address October 1957 to American Statistical Association, Twin Cities Chapter)
The Centenary of Darwinism - Paper read at a meeting held in Adelaide 1959 [included in Natural selection, heredity and eugenics ed. J.H. Bennett 1983]
Mathematical theory of Genetics (course outline/syllabus, undated)
Kinds of gentics.

Reviews

Reviews of writings and comments by Fisher*, and Fisher’s reviews of books and papers by others**.  1926-59.  2 cm.
Series 19
* other than his major published works, for reviews of which see with the relevant publication in series 3 –11.  Includes review of Fisher's 1959 article 'Smoking - the cancer controversy’.
** see also Series 2, which contains many reviews among Fisher’s published writings.
 
Miscellaneous
Series 20 
Including:
Mailing list for reprints/papers
Lists of books in Fisher’s library

Personal and biographical papers

Scrap book re Willis’s Rooms 1892-1900.  1v. Series 22
[Willis’s Rooms was an auction house in St. James’s Square, London, run by Messrs Fisher and Robinson]
 
Scrap book re school and later awards.  1901-10, 1920, 1926-33.  1v. Series 23
Examination lists, reports, letters of congratulation to his parents and later to Fisher re appointments and honours, photograph.
 
Cuttings book re [early] career.  1930-[38].  1v. Series 24
Copies of his scientific articles, reviews and work, general news items of interest (especially re the birthrate), a few letters.
see also Series 26
 
Photographs.  2 albums and loose items. Series 25
Family album c1900-55; album of official functions (conferences, dinners, etc) 1945-62; and loose photos of similar occasions 1936-61; also 1932 photo of V.I. Vavilov and E.M. East; also framed photograph of Fisher at Iowa State University (?) given to A.M. Brunson 1956. Donated by Wyman Nyquist May 2006.
 
Obituaries, appreciations and commemorations.   1938-78, 1990. Series 26
Includes W.E. Dick 'Professor R.A. Fisher' Discovery March 1944; Statistics and research: a colloquium on the contribution of R.A. Fisher [reprint from the March 1951 issue of Journal of the American Statistical Association], extensive obituary notices 1962-63 and papers re Centenary Dinner at Gonville and Caius College 1990
see also Series 2 and letters re Knighthood in Series 1.
 
Reproduction of 1946 oil painting of Fisher by Leontine Camprubi Series 27
[framed copy of original held in the Institute of Statistics, Raleigh University of North Carolina, commissioned by Professor J.H. Bennett] Oversize
 
 Articles about Fisher and/or his work.  1928-88.
Including articles by G.A. Barnard, H.A. David, A.F. W. Edwards, Churchill Eisenhart, Nancy Hall, H. Hotelling, Ina Jephson, E.J. Maskell, Sewall Wright, Frank Yates.
 

Miscellaneous papers relating to Fisher’s colleagues and correspondents

  • List of the papers and correspondence of Sir Francis Galton held at University College London.  1978.  1v.
  • The Charles Darwin Memorial at Down House, Downe, Kent (undated) and Lady Barlow 'Charles Darwin as author' (Proceedings of the Annual Conference of The Library Association, 1959), received 2/10/2000, were both added to Charles Darwin file
  • Prospectus for Heredity: an international journal of genetics April 1947
  • Leonard Darwin 1850-1943
  • Folia Mendeliana 26-27 (Moravian Museum, 1993) and Gregor Mendel and the Foundation of Genetics (symposium Brno 1983)
[Other published works by Fisher, his colleagues and from Fisher’s library donated by Professor Bennett have been separately catalogued]