The documents contained in this section of the website establish irrefutably that Esther M. Lederberg was the researcher who developed the method for implementing replica plating. One other researcher who claims to have developed replica plating has as evidence, only his own claims. However, details related to implementing replica plating do not appear on this other person's website. The reason is obvious: this other person never did the detailed work, thus never thought of other complications that did in fact arise, and which were solved by Esther Lederberg. Thus no other researcher aside from Esther Lederberg has evidence to support a claim of implementing replica plating.
Although the correspondence in this section takes place in the mid-1960s – approximately 15 years after Esther M. Lederberg developed replica plating, and published a paper about replica plating with Joshua Lederberg as her co-author – the documents below show that Esther M. Lederberg continued to be involved with problems with replica plating as they arose. Note that even here, Joshua Lederberg played no part in the ongoing problems with replica plating: obtaining velveteen that had not been ""Scotchgard"ed" (treated to repel water).
As a small note, one should also recall Joshua Lederberg's statement to Bill Hayes shortly after 1958, that he (Joshua Lederberg) would no longer be engaged in microbial genetics research. By 1963/1964, in fact, his research in genetics effectively ended. Thus Joshua Lederberg no longer being involved with problems associated with replica plating should come as no surprise.