Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Nobel Prize Award Ceremony
December 10, 1958

Box2 009 photo NobelPrize UWisc Genetics bldg
1958 Nobel Prize (University of Wisconsin Genetics Building)

According to the published policy statement of the Nobel Foundation regarding the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, "The names of the nominees and other information about the nominations cannot be revealed until 50 years later".

Click here for evidence that this is not true.

All of Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg's photographs and other material used on this website are copyright protected © as prescribed by the U.S. Copyright Office. Use of these images is available without fee, with the sole requirement that each image carry clear attribution to Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg and this memorial website.

The original photographs and objects in this special collection are part of the Stanford University archive for Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg.

Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg always maintained that Joshua Lederberg was a great scientist.

Esther told her second husband, Matthew Simon, that during the Nobel Prize Award ceremony she was seated next to the Queen of Norway. Her highness told Esther that her daughter (a princess) could not attend that night's ceremony. Esther asked why, and the noblewoman explained that her daughter was attending school, studying to become a medical doctor. The queen remarked that the people in her family were just like other people, and did not want to rely upon their titles. Esther told Matthew that this conversation greatly increased her respect for the Norwegian Royal family.

Protocol required the men attending the Nobel Prize Award ceremony to wear white tie and tails; women were to wear full-length evening gowns, and needed to carry three different pairs of white gloves, of varying lengths. Esther told Matthew that she neither had the time nor wanted to waste the money to get proper dress for the Nobel Prize Award ceremony. (Perhaps this was due to her early life growing up during the Depression, having barely enough to eat?) She capitulated to the demand for three different sets of white gloves, but instead of buying a full-length formal adult gown, little Esther (barely 5'3" tall) purchased a teenager's "prom" dress for the ceremony. To complete her ensemble, she found a pair of simple 'ballet slipper'-style shoes which she hand-dyed to match.

Esther looked beautiful at the Nobel Prize ceremony.

  1. Nobel Prize: Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg and Joshua Lederberg
  2. Joshua Lederberg and Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
         (Before the Ceremony)
  3. Joshua Lederberg accepts the Nobel Prize
  4. Nobel Prize Award winners
         George Wells Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum (far left)
         Joshua Lederberg (far right)
  5. At the Nobel Prize Ceremony
  6. Ed. Tatum at the Nobel Prize award dinner
  7. George and Marion Beadle (Nobel Prize Award Dinner)
  8. Viola and Ed. Tatum
  9. Nobel Dinner #1
  10. Nobel Dinner #2
  11. Other Nobel Festivities: Nobel Wives
          Co-researcher Esther at far right

When the award of the Nobel prize was announced in late October, 1958, Joshua Lederberg said he was "abashed" to receive the award because it over-emphasized individual achievement. This attitude is both true and generous. While Joshua Lederberg's Nobel prize award acceptance speech on December 10, 1958 makes no mention of his wife and "close associate in the laboratory", Esther M. Lederberg, Joshua made a point of mentioning the major importance of Esther M. Lederberg at his Madison, Wisconsin press conference on October 31, 1958, less than two months earlier. What happened to Joshua Lederberg psychologically between October 31st and December 10th that caused such a drastic change?

To read the transcript of the October 31, 1958 press conference, click here .

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