Re: OT: "Sturtevant" irises
- To: <iris-talk@onelist.com>
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] OT: "Sturtevant" irises
- From: J* a* C* W*
- Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 17:26:13 -0600
From: "Jeff and Carolyn Walters" <jcwalters@bridgernet.com>
> From: Bill Shear
> Alfred Sturtevant, a pioneer of genetics, figures in the early
> chapters. On p. 81-82, we find:
>
> "Morgan himself was long since dead, but Alfred Sturtevant, the old
veteran
> of Morgan's Raiders, still came around often, a pipe clenched between his
> teeth, to see what was new and interesting in genetics, and to tend an
> experimental bed of irises that he had planted just outside the
building."
>
> This was at CalTech, time uncertain. Wonder what happened to that bed of
> irises...
Bill,
Alfred H. Sturtevant (1891-1970) was Professor of Biology at CalTech from
1928-51 and T.H. Morgan Professor of Genetics there from 1951-62.
His mentor, Thomas Hunt Morgan, the "Father" of Drosophila (fruit fly)
genetics lived from 1866-1945.
It would seem that the most likely time frame for the events you cite in
your quotation would be from 1962 to 1970.
The relationship of Alfred H. Sturtevant to Miss Grace Sturtevant, the
pioneer hybridizer of bearded irises, is unclear, though the Sturtevant
family website claims that all American Sturtevants are descended from the
same ancestor, who emigrated from old England to New England in the first
half of the 17th century.
There is a photo of Alfed H. Sturtevant (with pipe clenched between his
teeth) at
http://www.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/arctohtml?1.47-1
Jeff Walters in northern Utah (USDA Zone 4/5, Sunset Zone 2)
jcwalters@bridgernet.com
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