Physician and statistician Joseph Berkson was born in New York City in 1899. He received a B.S. (1920) at City College, New York; an A.M. (1922) at Columbia University; and an M.D. (1927) and Sc.D. (1928) at the Johns Hopkins University. Berkson was employed as Professor of Biometry at the University of Minnesota as well as head of the biometry and medical statistics division at the Mayo Clinic from 1932-1964.

Berkson was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1979.

This collection (1930-1983, undated) contains correspondence, writings, and publications. The majority of the correspondence is with Frederick Mosteller (MS-610), a professor of mathematical statistics at Harvard University. The collection includes correspondence, photographs, published and unpublished writings, lectures and speeches, clippings, honors, and research materials. Correspondents include Francis J. Anscombe, Peter Armitage, George A. Barnard, M. S. Bartlett, Yvonne Bishop, David Blackwell, George W. Brown, Herman Chernoff, William G. Cochran, Jerome Cornfield, A. W. F. Edwards, Bradley Efron, Churchill Eisenhart, Thomas G. Ferguson, D. J. Finney, John Gart, J. K. Ghosh, Leo A. Goodman, David R. Goddard, Bernard Greenberg, James E. Grizzle, E. J. Gumbel, William E. Hall, Bruce M. Hill, David V. Hinkley, Joseph L. Hodges, Jr., Oscar Kempthorne, John F. Kennedy, Maurice Kendall, Ancel Keys, Gary G. Koch, William Kruskal, Richard G. Krutchkoff, S. Kullback, Lucien Le Cam, Rupert G. Miller, Jr., Frederick Mosteller, Jerzy Neyman, E. S. Pearson, R. L. Plackett, C. R. Rao, I. J. Savage, William F. Taylor, John W. Tukey, Jean Pierre Vigier, and C. P. Winsor. Organizations and corporate bodies represented in the collection include the American Public Health Association, Army Air Force, Federal Security Agency, Food and Drug Administration, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, International College of Surgeons, Mayo Clinic, and the National Academy of Sciences.

The collection is unarranged.