Amano, Tsunehisa to Lederberg, J.
Esther's Lederberg's Handwritten Response to Amano, Tsunehisa
March 28, 1961 (Date of the Handwritten Response)

(Lederberg, Esther is the only known researcher dealing with this research and correspondence)

Why the date of March 28, 1961?

Dr. Esther M. Lederberg was very busy with research. Personal computers were not yet available. Typewritters with "memory" had yet to be invented, but even had they been invented, researchers had very limited budgets and could not have afforded such advanced technology. With large volumes of correspondence, Esther and her colleagues devised a simple expedient. Esther and her colleagues typed correspondence, but rather than having the time for perfect copy, they penned in corrections, even scotch-taped return addresses from correspondence received onto return envelopes. Crude, but fast. For those who like perfection, not acceptable, and their mundane correspondence is spotlessly "correct" at the cost of much time. The typewritter was meant to be used, but not as a form of compulsive behaviour.

Why is this piece of correspondence dated "March 28, 1961", when the date March 14, 1961 is clearly printed on the letter? Esther penned in her response in red at the bottom of the page, dating her penned in response as "sent March 28, 1961". A copy of this correspondence with Esther's reply was typed and sent off, but this copy with Esther's response was kept and filed. Saves time and money if carbon-copies were hard to obtain (perhaps due to limited budgets). Later on, when copying machines became available, carbon copies were no longer used, and a copy of the correspondence with penned in response could be reproduced and sent to the correspondent. When personnal computers (with email) were cheap and became available to researchers, the entire problem of correspondence disappeared.

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