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Rice University Julian Huxley Symposium records

 Collection
Identifier: UA 099
Finding aid note: Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.

Scope and Contents

Documents related to the planning and execution of the symposium titled "Julian Huxley, Biologist and Statesman of Science" and was held September 25-27,1987 at Rice University. Formats include correspondence, grants proposals, publicity materials, photographs, and audiotapes and transcripts of symposium presentations.

Dates

  • 1985 - 1988

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.

Access Restriction

This material is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish materials from the Huxley Symposium records must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.

Historical Sketch

The symposium "Julian Huxley, Biologist and Statesman of Science" was sponsored by Scientia of Rice University and planned by Albert Van Helden, Dept. of History, Rice University. The speakers included Huxley scholars from universities in the United States and Great Britain.

Julian Sorell Huxley (b. June 22, 1887, d. February 14, 1975) was a lecturer in Zoology at Oxford (1910-1912), Research Associate and later Assistant Professor of Biology at Rice Institute (1913-1916), and fought in World War I before returning to Oxford in 1919, where he conducted the famous axolotl experiments and participated in the university's expedition to Spitsbergen. He became Professor of Zoology at King's College, University of London in 1925, but resigned his position in 1927 to collaborate on what would become The Science of Life with H.G. Wells. He was Fullerian Professor of Physiology in the Royal Institution (1927-1929) while working with Wells, however after 1929 he held no academic position. For ten years he was a private person working to advance his ideas about the biological sciences not as a researcher nor as a teacher, but as a writer on scientific developments and their relationship to contemporary social issues.

From 1935-1942 he served as Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, allowing him to encourage solid research on animal behavior while introducing innovative methods for implementing his vision of the zoo as an educational institution. He continued his work as a writer and lecturer and was known throughout war-time Britain for his participation as a panel member of the BBC Brains Trust program. After World War II he helped form Unesco, serving as the organization’s first Director-General (1946-1948). Here he set out a program cosmopolitan in vision, one concerned with mankind in relationship with nature and with its past, one in which art and science were equally valued. He also began to articulate fully the concerns which would occupy the later years of his life: the relation of overpopulation to poverty and ignorance, the necessity for the conservation of wilderness and wildlife, and the importance of the renunciation of parochial views on religion and politics. The remainder of his life was spent traveling, lecturing and writing in support of the causes to which he was devoted. Throughout his long career, he contributed significantly to the fields of ethology, ecology and cancer research, and acted as a powerful proponent of neo-Darwinism.

Extent

1 Linear Feet ( (2 boxes) )

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract:

Documents related to the planning and execution of the symposium titled "Julian Huxley, Biologist and Statesman of Science" and was held September 25-27,1987 at Rice University. Formats include correspondence, grants proposals, publicity materials, photographs, and audiotapes and transcripts of symposium presentations.

Arrangement note

Missing Title

  1. Series I: Symposium administration, 1985-1988
  2. Series II: Symposium presentations, 1987

Acquisition Information

These records were transferred to the Woodson Research Center, 1988.

Related Materials

See Julian S. Huxley Papers, MS 50, Woodson Research Center.

Juliette Huxley Papers, MS 474, Woodson Research Center.

Grover Smith Collection, MS 462, Woodson Research Center.

Solly Zuckerman Papers, MS 56, Woodson Research Center.

Huxley letter to G.W.N. Eggers, MS 57, Woodson Research Center.

Huxley letter to Mr. Dyke, MS 58, Woodson Research Center.

Huxley letter to Dawkins, MS 472, Woodson Research Center.

Aldous Huxley letters, MS 498, Woodson Research Center.

Subjects

Record Groups

Related Names

Creator

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Rice University Julian Huxley Symposium records, 1985-1988
Status
Completed
Date
2004
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Woodson Research Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas Repository

https://library.rice.edu/woodson
Contact:
Fondren Library MS-44, Rice University
6100 Main St.
Houston Texas 77005 USA

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Harmful Content Statement
© 2023 Woodson Research Center
Fondren Library, Rice University
Physical Address: 6100 Main, Houston, Texas 77005-1827
Mailing Address: MS-44, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251-1892