Nobel Prize Winning Scientist Carl Cori's Letters to Family, Nobel Congratulations, and Commentary on the Persecution of Jews in Prague, 1920s-50s

Carl Cori

Manuscript & Autographs

[Science and Medicine][Nobel Prize] Cori, Carl Ferdinand and Cori, Gerty Theresa. Large correspondence archive spanning the scientific ascent and forced displacement of a Central European Jewish intellectual family whose work reshaped twentieth-century biochemistry. The archive traces Carl F. Cori’s development from émigré researcher to recipient of the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded jointly with Gerty Cori for their work on carbohydrate metabolism and the enzymatic conversion of glycogen. At the same time, letters from Carl's father, Carl I. Cori, in Prague and later exile record the disintegration of Central European academic life under National Socialism and the precarious survival of Jewish scholars during and after the war.
Cori, Carl Ferdinand; Cori, Gerty Theresa; and Cori, Carl Isidor. Archive of over 120 handwritten and typed letters. 1923–1954. Vienna, Prague, Buffalo, and St. Louis area. The majority of letters are in German, with additional English-language correspondence and wartime Red Cross forms. Early letters from Carl F. Cori, written on the letterhead of the State Institute for the Study of Malignant Disease in Buffalo, describe conference travel, publication efforts, and professional decisions shaped by family circumstances. A 1930 letter references declining an academic offer while noting Gerty’s professional progress: “Dass Greti die Schule mit Erfolg absolviert hat und nun bereits in Ihrem Beruf tätig ist freut mich sehr.” During the war years, correspondence from Prague and later from exile in Norden details forced departure and material loss; in 1947 Carl I. recounts leaving Prague in April 1945 “nur mit Handgepäck,” and describes postwar deprivation after the loss of professional standing and property. Two 1944 Red Cross forms confirm the survival of family members, listing relatives as “Gesund, unbeschädigt.” Post-1947 letters include numerous congratulations on Carl F. Cori’s Nobel award, one correspondent expressing “das aufrichtige Bedürfnis” to congratulate him and his wife, while another writes from a nearly destroyed Münster of rebuilding zoological collections amid ruins. Letters from Carl I. to Gerty acknowledge the singular nature of her distinction as a woman scientist, emphasizing the symbolic importance of her recognition. The archive concludes with English-language letters from the Coris’ son Tom to his grandfather, describing school science lessons in entomology and anatomy, extending the family’s scientific engagement into a third generation.
Letters exhibit light handling wear and mailing folds; Red Cross forms show minor corner wear and filing holes; envelopes and institutional stationery retained; text generally clear and legible. Overall very good. As a continuous documentary record linking Nobel Prize–winning laboratory research with Jewish exile, wartime survival, and postwar reconstruction, this archive provides substantial primary evidence of how mid-century biomedical science developed within families shaped by migration, loss, and international recognition.

Item #22300

Price: $4,500.00