Bentley Glass (1906–2005, APS 1963) was born in Laichowfu, Shantung, China. As a researcher, Glass was known for his work with Drosophila, human genetics, suppressor genes, and Rh blood types. He was also a historian of genetics; the editor of Forerunners of Darwin: 1745-1859 (1959) and the Quarterly Review of Biology; the principle figure in the American Philosophical Society's History and Genetics Project (1978–1986); an educational administrator and reformer; and an outspoken public intellectual.

The son of Baptist missionaries, Glass spent his formative years in China. (For a number of years Glass relegated his first name, Hiram, to an initial, and after the 1940s seldom used even that.) One sister followed in their parents' footsteps, another worked for the United Nations, and his brother, Bryan, became a noted mammologist. Glass's childhood in China and Baptist faith informed his later interest in Asia and the role of religion in science and society.

Glass pursued higher education at Decatur Baptist College before transferring to Baylor University (AB 1926, MA 1929, LLD 1958). A gap between his bachelor's and master's studies was spent at Timpson High School, teaching biology and physics and coaching football. Glass studied under H. J. Muller at the University of Texas (PhD 1932). As a fellow of the National Research Council (1932–1934), he studied at the University of Oslo, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut, and the University of Missouri. The political climate scuttled his plans to work with Curt Stern in Berlin, so instead he studied with Otto Mohr, N. V. Timoféeff-Ressovsky, and L. J. Stadler.

Glass taught at Stephens College (1934–1938), Goucher College (1938–1948), and Johns Hopkins University (1948–1965). He then accepted an appointment as the academic vice president of SUNY Stony Brook, where his accomplishments included the establishment of a Marine Sciences Research Center and center for continuing education. Though he retired from administrative duties at the mandated age of sixty-five, he continued teaching at the university until 1976.

Glass's Drosophila work included studies of mutagenesis, chromosomal mechanics, radiation genetics, population genetics, and the developmental problems caused by radiation—an ongoing concern of Glass, government agencies, and the public during the Cold War. Glass also studied human genetics. In collaboration with population geneticist C. C. Li, he conceptualized "gene flow" between donor and recipient populations and helped shape the study of evolutionary history. Examination of Rh alleles demonstrated mixture between the black and white gene pools in Baltimore, Maryland and a lack of admixture in black and Native American populations. In his studies of the isolated Dunkers of Pennsylvania, Glass confirmed genetic drift within a human population: random variation in allele frequency is sufficient to produce genetic divergence. The inheritance of individual traits, such as "hitchhiker's thumb," also became the subject of his analysis.

Glass's time at Hopkins was his most productive as a researcher. His Drosophila laboratory was supported by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and National Science Foundation (NSF). As other activities, including administration, public lectures and curricular work, occupied more of Glass's time, his attention to scientific pursuits waned. By the late 1950s he was largely inactive as a researcher.

Glass had a longstanding interest in the history of science. His first article, about the life and work of Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, was published in 1947. After his retirement from Stony Brook, he embarked upon the cataloging of geneticists' papers held by the APS and ultimately published A Guide to the Genetics Collections of the American Philosophical Society (1988). The Guide included historical details about the work and biography of each geneticist included in the collection and, providing further context for the development of the new field, details about materials held by other repositories or intentionally destroyed.

Glass was deeply concerned with issues of intellectual freedom. He was a staunch opponent of loyalty oaths and, as a resident of Maryland, particularly outspoken in his criticism of the Ober Act. He was philosophically opposed to Thomas Kuhn's conception of science and scientists as fundamentally dogmatic. Glass's work with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) advanced his personal commitment to preserving the integrity of academics. Many of the educational reforms devised with the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) emphasized laboratory skills rather than the recitation of facts, in the hope of producing a new generation of flexible-minded scientists. His was among the voices protesting the Lysenkoism of the Soviet Union for both its human costs and its detrimental effect upon scientific pursuits.

The Cold War specter of nuclear devastation spurred his involvement with peace and disarmament efforts, notably the Pugwash Conferences, in which he participated as an organizer and presenter. His scientific diplomacy involved extensive travel and engagement with scientists from the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Japan and the Asian Pacific.

Glass rejected arguments of the racial inferiority of blacks, such as those advanced by William Shockley. He favored environmental explanations for any disparities between racial groups and favored liberal solutions (such as desegregation) to address those issues. Glass was undisturbed by the prospect of races becoming indistinguishable should the gene flow from white to black populations continue in the manner he had documented with Li. He retained a eugenicist's hope of positively influencing human heredity, but was aware of the tension between eliminating perceived genetic defects and maintaining individual rights and freedoms.

Glass was a highly visible public intellectual, active on the lecture circuit as well as in print and other media. He originated the image of the cockroach as the survivor of a nuclear war and popularized the term "test tube baby." Despite the problematic nature of the example, hitchhiker's thumb became a standard example of classroom study and self-examination for generations of biology students. He received correspondence from many members of the public: students and teachers seeking advice about school projects or future training, individuals concerned about the effects of radiation, women seeking genetic counseling in an era before such services were established. While the popular press offered him a platform, Glass was sometimes frustrated by mangled statements and a need to clarify his position on divisive issues.

Glass's professional activities were extensive. He served on the Atomic Energy Commission's Committee on Biology and Medicine (1955–1963; chair, 1962–1963) and the National Academy of Science's Committee on the Genetic Effects of Atomic Radiation, Genetics Panel (1955–1964). He belonged to the board of trustees of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (1967–1973) and Biological Abstracts (1954–1960). He was a member of the editorial board of Science (1948–1953) and then its acting editor. He devoted decades to editing the Quarterly Review of Biology, beginning as an assistant editor in 1944; after Glass left Johns Hopkins, the journal moved to Stony Brook along with him.

He was active in numerous professional organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science (president, 1969), American Society of Human Genetics (president, 1967), American Society of Naturalists (secretary, 1950–1953; president, 1965), Genetics Society of America (vice-president, 1970), and the National Association of Biology Teachers (president, 1971).

Glass married Suzanne Smith (d. 1993); the couple met while he was a National Research Council fellow and she was earning a master's degree in biology at the University of Missouri. Their son, Alan (d. 1991), was an architect and their daughter, Lois Edgar, a biologist. Glass lived with his daughter in Boulder, Colorado during the final years of his life. He died on January 16, 2005, after being hospitalized with pneumonia.

References

Frank C. Erk, H. Bentley Glass biographical memoir, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 153, No. 3 (September 2009): 327-339.

Ronald Ladouceur, ""All With Theories to Sell": Carleton S. Coon, Bentley Glass, Marston Bates, and the strugle by life scientists in the United States to construct a social mission after World War II" (Master's thesis, Empire State College, State University of New York, 2008).

Douglas Martin, "H. Bentley Glass, Provocative Science Theorist, Dies at 98," New York Times, January 20, 2005.

John H. McDonald, Myths of Human Genetics (Baltimore, Md.: Sparky House Publishing, 2011).

George Reisch, "When Structure Met Sputnik: On the Cold War Origins of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," in Science and Technology in the Global Cold War, Naomi Oreskes and John Krige, eds. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2014), 371-392.

Sarah Brady Siff, "Atomic Roaches and Test-Tube Babies: Bentley Glass and Science Communication," Journalism & Communication Monographs Vol. 17, No. 2 (2015): 88-144.

Audra J. Wolfe, "The Organization Man and the Archive: A Look at the Bentley Glass Papers," Journal of the History of Biology Vol. 44 (2011): 147-151, doi 10.1007/s10739-011-9276-6.

The Bentley Glass Papers (1930-1995) contain professional correspondence, organizational work, editorial activities, manuscripts of published and unpublished works by Glass and others, primarily concerning the study of human genetics. Of particular note, many of the organizational papers discuss the genetic effects of radiation exposure, particularly Series V, the Atomic Energy Commission. Also of note, Series IV, the American Association of University Professors, covers the House Un-American Activities Commitee actions on university professors and Series VIII, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, presents work on improving science education. An untiring body of work reflecting all his roles: researcher, historian, editor, educator, and social advocate.

The papers, 137 boxes, 68.5 linear feet, are divided into twelve series: Series I, Correspondence, 1932-1995, 28 boxes, 14 lin. ft.; Series II, Organizations, Foundations, Conferences, 1936-1994, 27 boxes, 13.5 lin. ft.; Series III, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1948-1981, 10 boxes, 5 lin. ft.; Series IV.American Association of University Professors, 1934-1984, 8 boxes, 4 lin. ft.; Series V, Atomic Energy Commission, 1947-1973, 10 boxes, 5 lin. ft.; Series VI, National Academy of Sciences, 1948-1995, 5 boxes, 2.5 lin. ft.; Series VII, Universities, Laboratories and Institutions, 1940-1991, 9 boxes, 4.5 lin. ft.; Series VIII, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, 1958-1988,10 boxes, 5 lin. ft.; Series IX, Works by Glass, 1935-1990, 15 boxes, 7.5 lin. ft.; Series X, Works by Others, 1947-1990, 7 boxes, 3.5 lin. ft.; Series XI, Printed Materials, 1930-1994, 7 boxes, 3.5 lin. ft.; and Series XII, Graphics, 1963-1977, 1 box. .5 lin.ft.

Native American materials note: Correspondence: John Borbridge, Jr. (Tlingit and Haida, land rights) and William S. Pollitzer (Cherokee, blood studies). Works by Glass: On the unlikelihood of significant admixture of genes from the North American Indians in the present composition of the Negroes of the United States (Chippewa, Cherokee, and Sioux data). Works by Others: Miguel Layrisse (Chibcha, blood studies).

Provenance

Presented by Dr. Lois Glass Edgar, 2000.

• American Association of University Professors
• Biological Sciences Curriculum Study
• Genetics Society of America
• Johns Hopkins University
• Phi Beta Kappa
• Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs
• State University of New York at Stony Brook

• Berg, Raisa, 1913-2006
• Blakeslee, Albert Francis, 1874-1954
• Carson, Hampton L. (Hampton Lawrence), 1914-2004
• Caspari, Ernst W., 1909-1988
• Cohen, Seymour S. (Seymour Stanley)
• Demerec, M., (Milislav), 1895-1966
• Dobzhansky, Theodosius Grigorievich, 1900-1975
• Dunn, L. C. (Leslie Clarence), 1893-1974
• Erk, Frank C.
• Gillispie, Charles Coulston
• Glass H. Bentley (Hiram Bentley), 1906-2005
• Goldschmidt, Richard, 1878-1958
• Grobman, Arnold B., (Arnold Brams), 1918-2012
• Haldane, J. B. S. (John Burdon Sanderson), 1892-1964
• Hollaender, Alexander, 1898-1986
• Kaufmann, B. P. (Berwind Peterson), 1897-1975
• Lerner, I. Michael (Isadore Michael), 1910-1977
• Li, C. C. (Ching Chun), 1912-2003
• Luria, S. E. (Salvador Edward), 1912-1991
• Mayer, William V., 1920-1989
• Mayr, Ernst, 1904-2005
• McClintock, Barbara, 1902-1992
• McInerney, Joseph D.
• Moe, Henry Allen, 1894-1975
• Mohr, Otto Louis, 1886-
• Moment, Gairdner Bostwick, 1905-1990
• Moore, John A. (John Alexander), 1915-2002
• Muller, H. J. (Hermann Joseph), 1890-1967
• Neel, James V. (James Van Gundia), 1915-2000
• Olby, Robert C. (Robert Cecil)
• Oppenheimer, Jane M. (Jane Marion), 1911-1996
• Orel, Vitezslav
• Osborn, Frederick, 1889-1981
• Painter, T. S. (Theophilus Shickel), 1889-1969
• Pauling, Linus, 1901-1994
• Pipkin, Sarah B., (Sarah Bedichek), 1913-1977
• Schultz, Jack,1904-1971.
• Shockley, William, 1910-1989
• Simpson, George Gaylord, 1902-1984
• Sonneborn, T. M. (Tracy Morton), 1905-1981
• Stalker, Harrison D. (Harrison Dailey), 1915-1982
• Steinberg, Arthur Gerald,1912-
• Stern, Curt, 1902-1981
• Tawes, J. Millard, 1894-1979
• Wallace, Bruce, 1920-2015
• Warren, Katherine Brehme, 1909-1991
• Wilson, Edwin Bidwell, 1879-1964
• Wright, Sewall, 1889-1988
• Zirkle, Conway, 1895-1972

• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• American Eugenics Society
• American Institute of Biological Sciences
• Atomic Energy Commission
• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• Drosophila -- Genetics
• Genetics -- History.
• History of science and technology.
• Human genetics
• National Academy of Sciences
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• National Association of Biology Teachers