The award-winning, critically-acclaimed play Photograph 51, by playwright Anna Ziegler, recently finished its run at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. It tells the story of British-born scientist Rosalind Elise Franklin (1920-1958), who was a physical chemist and expert at X-ray diffraction. Through her imaging skills and techniques, technical innovations, and inductive approach, she made significant contributions to our understanding the physical structure of the DNA molecule. Watson and Crick, who published their ground-breaking paper on the topic in 1953, received the lion’s share of credit and fame for solving the puzzle, while Franklin’s work was rarely cited.
Scholarly information on Rosalind Franklin and this fascinating story (and the play) can be found online or in Collins Library, a sampling of which is provided here.
Articles and papers
- 1953 Nature articles on DNA structure by Franklin, Watson and Crick, and others.
- Rosalind Franklin Papers, National Library of Medicine
Biographical information
- Find biographical information and lists of the key primary and secondary sources on a scientist in the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
- Perform a subject (not keyword) search in the Collins Catalog or Puget Sound WorldCat on a scientist to find books and other materials about that person. (An author search will result in a list of works by a person).
Play reviews and theatre criticism
- Collins Library Subject Guide: Play Reviews
Documentary
DNA: Secret of Photograph 51 (2003)
By Elizabeth Stiles Knight, Interim Science Librarian