Finding Aid for Iltis Mendeliana Collection, 1841-1984 | University of Illinois Archives

By William Maher

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• 146 Library, 1408 W. Gregory Drive
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• 146 Library, 1408 W. Gregory Drive

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Collection Overview

Scope and Contents of the Materials

Biographical Note

Subject/Index Terms

Administrative Information

PDF Box/Folder List

Box and Folder Listing

Box 1

Folder 1: Transfer lists

a) “Gregor Mendel Museum, Fredericksburg, Virgina Shelf List” (original ribbon-copy typescript inventory of Iltis’ Mendel Collection, with pencil, pen, and marker annotations presumably added by the Natural History Museum).

b) handwritten list (8 pages) of original Mendel “relics” and other Mendel-related items as prepared by the Natural History Museum some time after the 1961 acquisition of the Mendel clock.

c) spreadsheet inventory prepared by the University Archives on its acquisition of the collection in 2005

Folder 2: Mendel’s birthplace in Heinzendorf, Silesia

Contains caption only.

Folder 3: The parents consent for Mendel to be priest

Contains photographic facsimile and caption.

Folder 4: Mendel’s sisters and his brother-in-law

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 5: The Common Ancestors of Mendel and Mrs. Hugo Iltis

Contains a display board.

Folder 6: The convent hall of the monastery, Brünn

Contains photograph, negative, and caption.

Folder 7: Brünn, Spielberg and Franzensberg

Contains photograph, negative, and caption.

Folder 8: Gregor Mendel, oil portrait by J.O. Flatter, London

Contains negative. See also box 9.

Folder 9: The members of the convent of the Augustines, Brünn

Contains caption only. Fredericksburg 1950 checklist indicates “on exhibit.”

Folder 10: The “Fuchsia Portrait”, 1862

Contains photographs, negative, and caption

Folder 11: Mendel in 1847

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 12: Brünn Committee of Natural Science, 1862

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 13: The “Distorted” Photo of Mendel in 1867

Contains caption only.

Folder 14: Mendel’s experimental garden

Contains negative and caption.

Folder 15: Carl Nägeli

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 16: Nägeli’s letter of reply to Mendel’s first letter, 1867

Contains photographic facsimile of a single page and caption.

Folder 17: Mendel’s Apiary Renovated, ca. 1940

Contains photograph, negative, and caption.

Folder 18: Cage for bee crossing constructed by Mendel

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 19: Mendel’s observations of the sunspots

Contains photographic facsimile and caption.

Folder 20: Mendel’s letter of protest regarding the tax bill

Photographic facsimile, negative, and caption.

Folder 21: Mendel’s telescope

Contains photograph, negative, and caption.

Folder 22: Mendel’s microscope

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 23: Rudolph Jakob Camerarius 1665-1721

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 24: Cotton Mather, 1663-1728

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 25: Paul Dudley, 1675-1751

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 26: Thomas Andrew Knight, 1759-1838

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 27: Charles Naudin, 1815-1899

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 28: William Spillman, 1863-1931

Contains photograph, negative, and caption.

Folder 29: Cotton Mather’s letter to James Petiver, 1716, photostat presented to the Mendel Museum by Prof. Conway Zirkle of the University of Pennsylvania, December 22, 1939, 1716, 1939

Folder 30: Mendel’s original experiment with the pea: Smooth x wrinkled, 2005

Contains digital photograph taken July 7, 2005 and a caption

Folder 31: The F2 hybrid

Contains caption only.

Folder 32: Mendel’s original exp. with pea: Yellow x green

Contains caption only.

Folder 33: Mendel’s original exp. with pea: Colored seed coat x white

Contains caption only.

Folder 34: Mendel’s Original Experiments with the Pea., 2005

Contains a digital photograph taken July 7, 2005 of the exhibit display board prepared by Hugo Iltis (ca. 1943). Display board was discarded in July 2005.

Folder 35: Mendel’s original exp. with pea: dihybrids: yellow smooth x green wrinkled

Contains caption only.

Folder 36: Checker board showing Mendel’s theory and its proof by the back-cross experiments with the pea

Contains caption only.

Folder 37: The experimental garden in Brünn, 1938

Contains photograph, negative, and caption.

Folder 38: The Mendel Memorial, Brünn

Contains photograph and negative (8" x 10").

Folder 39: Gregor Mendel Plaque by Theodor Charlemont of Vienna, 1910

Contains framed plaster (?) plaque and caption. See also box 8.

Folder 40: Part of the Mendel Museum in the monastery Brünn

Contains photograph.

Folder 41: Carl W. Eichling, New Orleans, La., the only American who knew Mendel personally.

Contains photograph, negative, and caption.

Folder 42: Hugo de Vries

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 43: Carl Correns

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 44: Erich Tschermak

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 45: Original letter of August Weisman to Hugo Iltis, 1906

Contains caption and transcription.

Folder 46: Original letters of Hugo de Vries of the Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, 1911, 1922

Folder 47: Original letter of Carl Correns to Hugo Iltis, 1907

Folder 48: Two original letters of Erich Tschermak to Hugo Iltis, November 10, 1905 and July (?) 8, 1906

Folder 49: Theodor Boveri

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 50: Oscar Hertwig

Contains photograph.

Folder 51: August Weismann

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 52: Lang’s Snail Crossings, 2005

Contains a digital photograph taken July 7, 2005 of the exhibit display board prepared by Hugo Iltis (ca. 1943). The original was discarded July 2005.

Folder 53: Honor roll of corn, captioned portrait photographs

2 folders

Box 2

Folder 1: William Bateson

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 2: Charles Davenport

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 3: H. Nilsson-Ehle

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 4: Jean de Lamarck

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 5: Charles Darwin

Contains a photograph (copy of # 132) and caption.

Folder 6: Charles Darwin

Contains an original photo (1878?). Presented to Hugo Iltis by Leonard Darwin ca. 1939-40.

Folder 7: Sir Francis Galton

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 8: Wilhelm L. Johannsen

Contains a photograph.

Folder 9: Eleven pear leaves with Mendel’s handwriting, framed

See also Box 10.

Folder 10: Gregory Mendel, “Experiments in Hybridisation,” with an introductory note by William Bateson, 26 Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, 1901

Folder 11: Gregor Mendel, “Recherches sur des hybrides vegétaux,” translated by A. Chappellier, in unidentified journal pages 372-419.

Folder 12

Item 1: Translation into Russian, 1935

Item 2: Gregor Mendel, “Bemerkungen zu den graphisch-tabellarischen Ubersicht der meteorologischen erhaeltnisse von Brunn,” 1 Verhandlungen des naturforscheneden Vereines in Brünn,, 1862-63

Folder 13

Item 1: Gregor Mendel, “Uber einige aus kunstlicher Befruchtung gewonnenen Hieracium Bastarde,” and “Meteorlogische Beobachtungen aus Mähren und Schelesien im Jahre 1869,” 8 Verhandlungen des naturforscheneden Vereines in Brünn, 1869-70

Item 2: Gregor Mendel, “Ueber die Windhose am 13. October” 9 Verhandlungen des naturforscheneden Vereines in Brünn, 1871

Folder 14: “Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden von Gregor Mendel,” 4 Verhandlungen des naturforscheneden Vereines in Brünn, 1865

Note: journal title page and first page of Mendel article only, bound into 23-24 Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, 1909-10, apparently for display purposes. Also, the ribbon copy of ca. 1950s typescript inventory of the collection and a handwritten list (see first folder in Box 1) describes item 168 as simply “‘Versuche uber Pflanzen-Hybriden’ von Gregor Mendel” and carries felt-tip marginal marking suggesting the document was transferred to the Rare Book Room, but it is unclear whether the current Item 168 (Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science) is what was transferred and later returned or whether it was used by the Natural History Museum as a surrogate.

Folder 15: Hugo Iltis, Life of Mendel

Contains caption only.

Folder 16: One of Mendel’s original notes given to Hugo Iltis by Father Dr. Clemens Janetschek, one of the closest of Mendel’s friends in the monastery.

Appears to be list of page numbers. Contains original photo, negative, and caption.

Folder 17: Letter of Prof. Herbert Adolphus Miller of Oberlin College to Hugo Iltis regarding provenance of photo in item 171, June 2, 1922

Folder 18: The “Deutsche Staats-Realschule”/German State Modern school/Brünn in 1860 showing the building as it looked when Mendel was teaching there from 1854 to 1868

Contains a photograph, negative, and caption.

Folder 19: Original letter of August Weismann to Hugo Iltis, July 9, 1911

Box 3

Folder 1: Gregor Mendel, “Meteorlogische Beobachtungen aus Mähren und Schelesien im Jahre 1863,” 2 Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereines in Brünn, 1863-64

Folder 2

Item 1: Gregor Mendel, “Meteorlogische Beobachtungen aus Mähren und Schelesien im Jahre 1864,” 3 Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereines in Brünn, 1864-65

Item 2: Gregor Mendel, “Meteorlogische Beobachtungen aus Mähren und Schelesien im Jahre 1863,” 5 Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereines in Brünn, 1866-67

Folder 3

Item 1: vol. X of Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereines in Brunn with “Table of Contents” of the volumes I to IX showing Gregor Mendel’s contributions to the journal

Item 2: vol. XI of Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereines in Brunn for the year 1872: containing the request of the Academy of Sciences in Chicago for a second delivery of all the volumes of the preceeding years published by the Brünn Society

Folder 4: Abraxas grossulatia, gift from Prof. Darlington of the John Innes Horticultural Institution, 1951. Box of specimens of moths transferred to the Illinois Natural History Survey, 30 June 2005.

Contains transmittal letters and 2005 photograph only.

Folder 5: Book-plate of Carl Correns

Folder 6: Genetics Volume 35 (1950) “The Birth of Genetics”

Includes publication in English translation of Gregor Mendel’s letter to Carl Nageli, 1866-1873, and articles by Hugo De Vries, C. G. Correns, and E.Tschermak on Mendel and genetics

Folder 7: Harrison Shull to Donald Hoffmeister and John Laughnan, accession correspondence for Mendel Clock, 1961.

Clock is on display in University Archives Reference Room, (Room 146 of the Main Library)

Folder 8: Metal engraving plate, Thomas Hunt Morgan, Genetics, January 1947

Folder 9: Mary Washington College Mendel Museum Guest Book, 1948-56

Folder 10: Genetics Editorial Board, Galton and Mendel Memorial fund prospectus and certificate

Folder 11: Gregor Mendel Medallion, from Museum Moraviae, Brünn, to Museum of Natural History

Folder 12: Verscuche über Pflanze-Hybriden, facsimile of original Mendel’s manuscript, 2012, (17 leaves), donated October 30, 2012 by Michaela Jarkovská, Mendelovo Muzeum of Masrykova Univerzita, Brno, Czech Republic

Box 4

Series 1: Natural History Museum Mendeliana Collection Resource Files

Folder 1: Photocopies of Hugo Iltis correspondence and Iltis transcriptions of Mendel documents, 1841, 1859,1883-84,1905-06, 1909, 1911-12, 1922-24, 1930-31, 1935, 1938

Folder 2: Hugo DeVries to Charles Zeleny, February 28, 1928

Folder 3: Lecture and Symposium Announcements, 1965, 1969, 1970

Folder 4: Photographs of University of Illinois Natural History Museum Mendel Displays, ca. 1974

Contains negatives and contact sheets.

Sub-Series 1: Reprints and Articles Concerning Mendel

Folder 5: General, 1956, 1973-74

Folder 6: Folia Facultatis Scientiearum Naturalum Universitatis Purkynianae Brunensis

Contains XIV (1973) and XV (1974)

Folder 7: G. Czihak, Johann Gregor Mendel (1822-1884): Dokumentierte Biographie und Katalog zur Gedächntnisausstellung anlässlich des hundersten Todestages mit Facsimile seines Hauptwerkes: “Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden, (Salzburg, 1984), 1984

Folder 8: Donald F. Hoffmeister and Harry C. Hendriksen, “The Collection of Mendeliana at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,” 44 Acta Musei Moraviae (1979) Folia Mendeliana 14, pp. 281-284., 1979

Folder 9: Vitezslav Orel, 1965, 1984

Folder 10: Vitezslav Orel and Anna Matalová, eds., Gregor Mendel and the Foundation of Genetics: Proceedings of the Symposium The Past Present and Future of Genetics Kupa_ovicem Czechoslovakia, August 26-28, 1982, (Brünn: Mendelianum of the Moravian Museum, 1983)., 1983

Folder 11: Josef Sajner, Gregorii Mendel Autobiographia Iuvenilis,(Brünn: Universitas Purykynian Brunensis, 1972), facsimile of manuscript and typeset transcription of Mendel’s April 17, 1850 autobiographical statement for teaching license.

Folder 12: George Harrison Shull, 1912, 1951

Folder 13: Folia Mendeliana Supplementum ad Acta Musei Moraviae, Scientiae Naturalis, Folia issues, 1-13, 15-21, 1966-86

Box 5

Folder 1: Unidentified photograph possibly not from Ittis

Folder 2: Gregor Mendel’s home country

Contains a display board.

Folder 3: The monastery and the church in Altbrünn

Contains a photograph, negative, and caption.

Folder 4: Mendel’s autobiography

Contains a photograph of the manuscript's last page and caption.

Folder 5: Autobiography

Contains a photograph of the third page and caption.

Folder 6: The “handsome” portrait

Contains photographs, negative, and caption.

Folder 7: Mendel and the faculty of the Realschule

Contains photograph of “original.” See 171 for “original” print, and caption.

Folder 8: The small prelate portrait, 1882

Contains photograph, negative, and caption.

Folder 9: The great prelate portrait

Contains photograph, negative, and caption.

Folder 10: First page of Mendel’s manuscript of “Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden”

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 11: Mendel’s apiary

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 12: The Mendel Memorial in Brünn

Contains photograph and caption.

Folder 13: Prof. Baur, Berlin, speaking on the occasion of the International Gregor Mendel Centennial in Brünn, Sept. 1922

Contains photographs, negative, and caption.

Folder 14: Fertilization. Round-worm Ascaris (Th. Boveri)

Contains a display board.

Folder 15: Mitosis. Consecutive stages of the division of a cell and its nucleus in the root of the onion.

Contains a display board.

Folder 16: Mitosis in Animals and Plants

Contains a display board.

Folder 17: The Increase in the Acreage Planted with Hybrid Corn in the USA During the Period of 1940 to 1946

Contains a display board created by Hugo Iltis and Jo Alys Downs.

Folder 18: A Gene Mutation Forms a New Species, fly Amaloptereix Maritima Eaton, 1949

Display Board by Hugo Iltis and Jo Alys Downs.

Folder 19: Bud mutation II, 1948

Display Board by Hugo Iltis and Margaret Shropshire.

Folder 20: Graft-hybrids II

Display Board by Hugo Iltis and Jo Alys Downs.

Folder 21: Mendel confirms the receipt of the questions for his examination in geology, 1850

Contains an original Mendel manuscript and negative of manuscript.

Folder 22: Mendel acknowledges the receipt of the questions for his examination in physics, 1850

Contains an original Mendel manuscript, negative of manuscript, and caption.

Folder 23: Record about Mendel’s oral examination in physics, 1850

Contains an original Mendel manuscript, negative of manuscript, and caption.

Folder 24: Mendel orders several varieties of pear trees, 1880

Contains an original Mendel manuscript, photographs and negative of manuscript, and caption.

Folder 25: Order for Pear trees, “sheet 2"

Contains an original Mendel manuscript and negative of manuscript

Folder 26: Original drawing Mendel’s for a trellis

Contains an original Mendel manuscript, photograph and negative of manuscript, and caption.

Folder 27: Mendel among the faculty of the Brünn Realschule, 1863

From the monastery. Contains an original Mendel image and photographic copy and negative of image.

Folder 28: Metal engraving plate, H. S. Jennings, Genetics

Box 6

Folder 1: Mendel Collection Display Boards-matted facsimile and photographic copies of photographs and original Mendel Documents

Box 7

Folder 1: "The Story of Corn"

Folder 2: Pedigree of Johann Gregor Mendel

Contains a display board by Hugo Iltis and Jo Anne Campbell.

Folder 3: Professor Portrait (“life size”)

Contains retouched photograph and caption.

Folder 4

Item 1: The Numerical Ratio and the Various Kinds of Gametes, Zygotes and Individuals in the F2 Generation of Mendelian Crossing, 1946

Contains a display board by Hugo Iltis and Ruth Snell.

Item 2: Mendel’s Pea Crossings I: Survey and Discussion, 1946

Contains display board by Hugo Iltis and Margery Vreins.

Folder 5

Item 1: Fundamentals of Mendelism, 1947

Contains a display board by Hugo Iltis and Wilma Johnston.

Item 2: The Reasons for Mendel’s success, 1947

Contains a display board by Hugo Iltis and Jo Hutton.

Folder 6: “The New World Honors Mendel”, September 12, 1950

Hand lettered and painted scroll presented to the American Genetics Society by the scientists of the New World at the Golden Jubilee meeting of the Genetics Society of America at Columbus, Ohio.

Folder 7

Item 1: Janssen’s Chiasmatypy Hypothesis, 1951

Contains a display board created by Hugo Iltis and Mary Ann Hellberg.

Item 2: Cross-over Frequency and Gene Distance: The Mapping of the Genes, 1951

Contains a display board created by Hugo Iltis and Mary Ann Hellberg.

Folder 8

Item 1: Sex Cells and Chromosomes of Man: Sex determination by sex chromosomes, 1947

Contains a display board created by Hugo Iltis and Margery Vriens.

Item 2: Boy or girl? The solved riddle of sex determination, 1947

Contains a display board by Hugo Iltis and Ruth Snell.

Folder 9

Item 1: Th. R. Malthus and Darwin’s Selection Theory, 1952

Contains a display board created by Hugo Iltis and Anne Powell.

Item 2: The foundation of Biometry, 1950

Contains a display board created by Hugo Iltis and Jo Anne Campbell.

Folder 10

Item 1: Certificate about Mendel’s examination in geology by Professor Rudolph Kner, 1850

Contains an original manuscript, negatives, and prints.

Item 2: Director Auspitz’ proposal regarding the appointment of Gregor Mendel as teacher of science at the “Realschule” in Brünn

Contains an original manuscript, negatives, and prints.

Folder 11: Poster Johann Gregor Mendel, 1822-1884 Leben-Werk-Wirkung, Gedächtnisaustellung Anlässucg der 100. Wiederkehr Seines Todestages, Salzburg, Vienna, Graz, Klagenfurt, Innsbruck, 1984

Box 8

Folder 1

Item 66: Gregor Mendel Plaque by Theodor Charlemont of Vienna, 1910

Contains framed plaster (?) plaque. See also box 1.

Box 9

Folder 1: Gregor Mendel, oil portrait by J.O. Flatter, London

See also box 1

Box 10

Folder 1: Eleven pear leaves with Mendel’s handwriting, framed

See also box 2

Box 11

Folder 1: Explanation of Mendel’s dihybrid crossing by his theory

Modern checker board method. Contains a display board.

Folder 2: Mendel’s pea crossing II

Contains a display board.

Folder 3

Box 12

Folder 1: Four ways hybrid chickens are produced by Hy Line Poultry Farms, November 1951

Contains a display board created by Hugo Iltis and Patricia Hatfield.

Folder 2: The Ptolemies, kings of Egypt, 1947

Contains a display board created by Hugo Iltis and Margery Vriens.

Folder 3: Inheritance of political talent: The Roosevelt family

Contains a display board by Hugo Iltis and Jo Alys Down.

Folder 4: Two American scientists who won the Nobel Prize for their work in genetics: Thomas H. Morgan, Herman J. Muller, 1948

Contains a display board by Hugo Iltis and Jo Alys Down.

Box 13

Folder 1: Mendel Memorial in Brünn

Contains an oversize photograph.

Folder 2: The Limits of Eugenics

Contains a display board with hand colored cartoon drawings by Theodor Heine.

Box 14

Folder 1: Multiple birth: Quadruplets and Quintuplets, 1947

Contains a display board by Hugo Iltis and Ruth Snell.

Folder 2: The ancestry of Queen Elizabeth of England and Philipp, Duke of Edinbourgh, 1948

Contains a display board by Hugo Iltis and Jo Alys Down.

Folder 3: Inheritance of missing incisors, 1948

Contains a display board by Hugo Iltis and Mary Gray Craig.