Thomas Hunt Morgan as an Embryologist: The View from Bryn Mawr

Abstract

Thomas Hunt Morgan taught at Bryn Mawr College from 1891 until 1904. During his years there he concentrated his research interests on embryology; he included regeneration as an integral part of development. This article maintains that Morgan did not abandon his interest in embryology when he became a geneticist at Columbia, but it deals mainly with his teaching and research while at Bryn Mawr. He worked on the development of a great diversity of organisms, plant and animal, he used widely differing experimental methods to investigate them, and he concerned himself with many different general and special problems. He strove to investigate problems that were directly soluble by experimental intervention, and was highly critical, in the best possible way, of the experiments and interpretations made by his contemporaries, who regarded him as a leader. He exerted his influence on developmental biology not only through his research, but also through a number of fine textbooks, and by his teaching. During his Bryn Mawr years he encouraged his students, undergraduate and graduate, to carry out independent research. He sometimes published with them as co-author, but dozens of articles by his students were published without carrying Morgan's name as co-author.

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