Lecture Notes in Biology, Rice Institute, (1915-1918)

The Wheeler materials include biology lecture and laboratory notes, correspondence, an autobiography and a scrapbook. The bulk of this collection are two bound copies of the notes from the biology classes that George Wheeler took as a student at the Rice Institute through the years 1915 to 1918. His professors from these classes are the ones that make up all the correspondence in this manuscript collection. While at Rice, Wheeler enrolled in the following courses, which include both lectures and laboratory work: Elementary Biology (lecture: J. Huxley, lab: H. Muller and J. Davies), Cellular Biology (lecturer and lab: H. Muller), Heredity and Evolution (lecturers: H. Muller and E. Altenburg, lab: H. Muller) and Morphology of Animals (lecturer and lab: H. Muller). Please note, on the inside cover of the lecture notes, Wheeler pasted a postcard sent to him by Julian Huxley.

Wheeler kept in touch with three of his undergraduate professors from the Rice Institute - Huxley, Muller and Davies - during and well after his graduation. In the letters from Huxley, Wheeler received continuing advice, career counseling and encouragement from his former academic advisor. Huxley left the Rice Institute in 1916 to fight in the First World War and was stationed on the Italian front where he wrote several letters to Wheeler expressing his nostalgic feelings for Rice which persists in his later correspondence. The letters from Muller and Davies equally express fond memories of Wheeler and Rice Institute and provide Wheeler with motivation for his career and gossip on affairs at Rice.

In 1986, Wheeler authored a brief autobiography of his early career in biology entitled My Association with William Morton Wheeler. In this work, he describes vividly the reasons why he became a biologist, his studies and experiences at Rice Institute and his work at Harvard's Bussey Institute.

Also included with George Wheeler's records is the memory book that he maintained during his stay at Rice Institute. In this scrapbook, Wheeler kept photographs of the biology staff, field trips and the campus, as well as newspaper and magazine clippings and memorabilia from social events.