Preview
Creation Date
1939
Description
A letter of application from Keith Porter to James Murphy, 1939
Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center
On 15 June 1939, Murphy received an unusual letter from Keith Roberts Porter asking for a position in his department. He had earned his PhD in biology from Harvard University in 1938 and was then a National Research Council fellow at Princeton University under Gerhard Fankhauser. He offered his expertise to produce hybrid embryos by fertilizing the enucleated eggs of one race of frogs with sperm from another race.
Five days later, Murphy invited Porter to talk about an opportunity for cancer research in the Institute. And on 30 June, Alphonse R. Dochez, on behalf of the Board of Scientific Directors, offered Porter the position of assistant in the laboratory of Pathology and Bacteriology. Porter began work on 1 September 1939 and remained at Rockefeller for twenty-two years.
Keywords
Keith Porter, James Murphy, exhibit, library