Series 2: Correspondence, 1965-1999

The material in this series consists of Anfinsen's professional correspondence with individuals and organizations, discussing a wide range of subjects. Although there are some files from the late-1960s and 1970s, the majority come from the last decade and a half of Anfinsen's life, after he retired from NIH and had become a professor at Johns Hopkins University. Divided into four subseries, alphabetical, chronological, recommendations, and peer reviews, the arrangement reflects Anfinsen's filing system. The content of this series reflects Anfinsen's professional activities outside of the laboratory. The files contain materials from various conferences, including lecture notes and class notes from his tenure with Johns Hopkins University. Some files document his support of certain political and humanitarian causes, such as Committee of Concerned Scientists. Correspondence with the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) and the other editors of "Advances in Protein Chemistry" shows his longtime association with both endeavors. This series contains chronological files that provide ample documentation of Anfinsen's many correspondents. As an editor and scholar, Anfinsen collected a number of recommendation files and peer reviews. Because of their sensitive nature, some of these items in this series are restricted.

The alphabetical files make up the first of the four subseries. Retaining their alphabetical order, these files refer to Anfinsen's correspondence with organizations, individuals, events, places, or other subjects. The larger topics covered include humanitarian work, conference materials, affiliations with private businesses, patent applications, editorial board responsibilities, and work with several colleges and universities. This subseries also contains several name files, but the second subseries, the chronological files provides fuller documentation of Anfinsen's many correspondents. These files begin in the mid-1960s and conclude with correspondence from Libby Anfinsen, dating from 1995-1999. There is no name index but some of the correspondence is duplicated in the first subseries. The third subseries contains alphabetically arranged recommendation letters from Anfinsen in support of colleagues or students. The fourth subseries consists of alphabetically arranged files containing peer reviews. These files include Anfinsen's peer reviews for "Advances in Protein Chemistry" and other journals, as well as peer review of his own publications. All of the four subseries contain some restricted material.