Linus Pauling and the Structure of Proteins: A Documentary History - Special Collections & Archives Research Center

A Documentary History

In the early 1930s, prompted by the need to attract funding during the Great Depression, Linus Pauling moved away from his very successful program of research on the structure of crystals in favor of new pursuits on biological topics. What followed was a now legendary - and often tumultuous - multi-decade series of investigations into the structure of proteins, the nature of antibodies and antigens, and the properties of hemoglobin. Using more than 400 documents, photographs and multimedia snippets, this website tells the story of the great achievements that led Francis Crick to describe Pauling as "one of the founders of molecular biology."

Start by reading our Introduction, or choose one of the three sections:

Narrative		All Documents and Media		Linus Pauling Day-By-Day
An illustrated, forty-five page account of Pauling's revolutionary work applying chemical principles to problems in biology. Read Narrative.		A wealth of primary sources - over four-hundred manuscripts, photographs, publications, audio-visual clips and more - provide deep insight into Pauling's proteins work. View All Documents and Media.		An ambitious and expanding documentation of every day of Linus and Ava Helen Pauling's lives, including a full account of the years during which Pauling was most active in the biological realm. Browse Linus Pauling Day-By-Day.

Linus Pauling, 1950s

The contraction of muscle, 1951

The antibody-antigen framework, 1948

Antibody-azoprotein interaction, 1940s

Portrait of Linus Pauling, 1951

More Information
Introduction
Copyright Information
Credits and Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Search
Chronological List of Documents

Except where noted, all items are courtesy of the
Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University Libraries.

Special Collections & Archives Research Center, The Valley Library, Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon 97331-4501
Phone: 541-737-2083 / Fax: 541-737-8674
Email: scarc@oregonstate.edu
Web: https://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu