<p>This digitised material is free to access, but contains information or visuals that may:</p><ul><li>include personal details of living individuals</li><li>be upsetting or distressing</li><li>be explicit or graphic</li><li>include objects and images of objects decontextualised in a way that is offensive to the originating culture.</li></ul>By viewing this material, we ask that you use the content lawfully, ethically and responsibly under the conditions set out in our <a href="https://wellcomecollection.cdn.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/d4817da5-c71a-4151-81c4-83e39ad4f5b3_Wellcome+Collection_Access+Policy_Aug+2020.pdf">Access Policy</a>.

You must accept the terms to view the content.

Papers of M H F Wilkins: draft text on the immediate impact of the Crick and Watson DNA double helix model, 1953, with related manuscript notes

item

Galleries and Reading Room

Library

Shop

Café

We’re undertaking some research with website visitors to learn more about how people find access-related information provided by museums. This survey shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes to complete. Thank you for your time!

Help us organize our website content.

Four typescript early draft partial copies of chapter 8, ‘The double helix’, from Wilkins’ autobiography, <i>The third man of the double helix</i> (Oxford University Press, 2003), with annotations. Also manuscript notes written Oct 1995-Dec 1996, relating to his perception of events that occurred during X-ray diffraction studies of DNA and the creation of the Watson-Crick double helix model 1950-1953, including: his working relationships with Rosalind Franklin, Francis Crick, James Watson and John Randall; his reasons for turning down co-authorship of Watson and Crick’s DNA double helix hypothesis article published in Nature, Apr 1953; how the work of the Biophysics Unit, King’s College London, connected with other research being undertaken in the early 1950s; Wilkins’ feelings  relating to the Watson-Crick double helix model. Original file title ‘HELI 1’.

Content advisory

Papers of M H F Wilkins: draft text on the immediate impact of the Crick and Watson DNA double helix model, 1953, with related manuscript notes

Licence and re-use