Rosalind Franklin, a chemical physicist (1920-1958), used x-ray diffraction to determine the structure of DNA. What exactly could she read out from her x-ray pattern, shown in Fig. 1? In lecture notes dated November 1951, R. Franklin wrote the following: "The results suggest a helical structure (which must be very closely packed) containing 2, 3 or 4 co-axial nucleic acid chains per helical unit, and having the phosphate groups near the outside." This was 16 months before J. D. Watson and F. Crick published their description of DNA, which was based on R. Franklin's x-ray photos. How they gained access to her x-ray photos is a fascinating tale of clashing personalities and male chauvinism. (Contains 1 table and 5 figures.)