American geneticist Calvin Blackman Bridges, 1889–1938, collaborated with T. H. Morgan, A. H. Sturtevant, and H. J. Muller, the group that developed many of the concepts of modern genetics through their study of the fruit fly, Drosophila. He continued with the Morgan group as a research associate of the Carnegie Institution in Washington from 1919.

His contributions to modern genetics include the proof of the chromosome theory of heredity, formulation of the theory of genic balance, and the detailed study of giant salivary chromosomes in relation to the positions of genes. He was co-author of The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity (1915).

Physical description

4 volumes.

Provenance

Gift of H. Bentley Glass.

Upon his death, Calvin Bridges' papers were destroyed by T. H. Morgan and A. H. Sturtevant. So far as is known, there is no correspondence or manuscript material remaining, except for the four notebooks preserved in the possession of Jack Schultz, and whatever may be found in the papers of other correspondents. These notebooks now form the present collection, having come to the American Philosophical Society with the Jack Schultz Papers.

Related material

There are 175 letters to and from Bridges in the Demerec Papers (B D394), 40 in the Dunn Papers (B D917), and 21 in the Stern Papers (Ms. Coll. 5). The total in the collections of the archives of the American Philosophical Society is almost certainly greater than anywhere else.

Genetics Note

This collection contains materials which relate to the history of genetics.

• Chromosomes -- Analysis
• Drosophila -- Genetics