Calvin Blackman Bridges Unconventional Geneticist (1889-1938)

Creative scientist, artist of genetics, social adventurer, Calvin Bridges’ life was multifaceted and unorthodox. He made major contributions to the revamped field of genetics that had been energized by the rediscovery of Mendel’s work, essentially built the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism, and systematized the genetics of Drosophila, creating genetic and physical maps of the fly chromosomes that foreshadowed FlyBase, the field of development, and modern genome projects. He was an inventor, designing much of the equipment used to study Drosophila as well as building a streamlined car, the Lightning Bug, and explored information science with his creation of a four-sided “totem” to track the genes and mutants of Drosophila. And his private life was considered somewhat unorthodox — he challenged social mores of the times, supported the nascent birth control movement, and was interested politically in the Bolshevik Revolution as well as the Spanish Civil War. He visited the U.S.S.R. in October of 1931 through May 1932 to lecture and then in the autumn of 1933 at the Institute of Genetics.

Curator, Exhibit at the Library Archives, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Visit here