Faculty Collections 

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION    

Title
George C. Williams Papers

Collection Number
UA 2155

OCLC Number
1434254848

Creator 
George C. Williams (1926-2010)

Provenance 
The collection was donated by George C. Williams in two accessions in 2003 and 2006. A third accession was received from the family of George Williams in 2022. 

Extent,Scope, and Content Note 
The collection comprises 12.5 linear feet of George Williams' research notes; correspondence; manuscripts; framed awards and related documents created between 1954 and 2007. There are also materials in the collection pertaining to his wife Doris Calhoun Williams. 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 collection was processed by Kristen J. Nyitray and Lynn Toscano in June 2012. The third accession was processed in May 2024. Finding aid updated in May 2024.

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)

Librarian Emerita Doris Calhoun Williams began her career at Stony Brook in 1971. She most notably was the head of the biology library, a former branch library located in close proximity to the Life Sciences building. She received a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of California at Berkeley, a master’s degree in library science from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in biological sciences from Stony Brook. In 1988, Doris was recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Librarianship. She was predeceased by her husband of 60 years Dr. George Williams, an evolutionary biologist of worldwide renown and professor emeritus of Stony Brook’s Department of Ecology and Evolution. Doris and George co-authored one paper together, “Natural Selection of Individually Harmful Social Adaptations Among Sibs with Special Reference to Social Insects,” published in the journal Evolution in 1957 (vol. 11, no. 1, 32-39).

Subjects
Williams, George C. (George Christopher), 1926-2010.
Williams, George C. (George Christopher), 1926-2010 -- Archives.
Williams, Doris Calhoun.
Stony Brook University. Department of Ecology and Evolution.
Adaptation (Biology)
Evolution (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

Box 19
Correspondence, 2005-2007 (5f)
DVD, interview with George Williams, August 2001

Box 20
Manuscripts, 1939-1952
Curriculum vitae
Yearbook, Doris Calhoun Williams, 1947
Manuscript, Ph.D. dissertation, George C. Williams
Manuscript, Master of Arts thesis, Doris Calhoun Williams
Scrapbook contents of honors, George C. Williams (3f)

Box 21
1999 Crafoord Prize, George C. Williams
Files on Nesse/Williams manuscript
Manuscript, "Plan and Purpose in Nature," George C. Williams (4f)
Research and correspondence related to Iceland (2f)

Box 22
Awards, honors and degrees of Doris Calhoun Williams and George C. Williams
Awards and honors of George C. Williams

Box 23
Awards and honors of George C. Williams with photographs

Box 24
Awards and honors of George C. Williams