Curt Stern Papers, American Philosophical Society

The Papers of Curt Stern include extensive correspondence, lectures (1920s-1970s, 1.5 boxes), autobiographical material, articles, zoological course notes, photographs, etc. Stern's various areas of scientific interest are documented in the collection: the chromosome theory of heredity, role of gene mutation and chromosome rearrangements in evolution, action and interaction of genes during individual development, and particularly his contribution to the development of human genetics as a discipline (centered on his popular and influential book, Principles of Human Genetics, 1949, 1960, 1973). Both his career in Germany and the United States is documented in his correspondence. After studying with T. H. Morgan at Columbia University on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (1924-1926), Stern returned to Richard Goldschmidt's lab at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute (1926-1932). There is material of note in the collection concerning this period when Stern helped to establish the cytological basis of crossing over. After a short stay at the California Institute of Technology in 1932, Stern's temporary residence in the U. S. became permanent, and his later career at the University of Rochester, 1933-1947 (Chairman, Department of Zoology) and at the University of California, Berkeley, 1947-1970 (there is abundant material on the Department of Zoology) is covered in the collection. There is other material on: American Association for the Advancement of Science Inter-Society Committee on Science Foundation Legislation, 1946-1947; American Society of Human Genetics (Pres., 1957); Atomic Energy Commission (Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine, 1950-1955); Genetics (journal); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Advisory Committee for Biology, 1955-1968); and the Rockefeller Foundation. Stern's correspondence with friends and colleagues in Germany, England, and the U. S., during the 1920s-1930s, is of particular note as it documents not only the developments in genetics and the institutional and administrative networks supporting research, but it also offers general comments and observations on science, Germany, and politics. The photographs (2 boxes) include pictures of many prominent geneticists and scientists.

Background note

Curt Stern in his laboratory, May 1947

In the generation of great Drosophila geneticists that came of scientific age in the 1920s, Curt Stern stood out as one of the most original and most productive thinkers. A scientist who combined an exacting intellect with sterling abilities as an educator, writer, and interpreter of his field, Stern began life in the blazing days of the rediscovery of Mendel's laws and ended as molecular and biochemical techniques transformed his discipline. His career, in many ways, is a microcosm of the development of genetics in the 20th century.

Raised in the vicinity of Hamburg, Germany, by an English father and German mother, Stern saw a childhood interest in animals become a career when he enrolled in Max Hartmann's zoology course at the University of Berlin. Continuing under Hartmann for his graduate studies, Stern earned a doctorate in 1923 at the tender age of 21 for a cytological study of mitosis in the heliozoa, and that same year he became one of the first recipients of a new program of international fellowships funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Thus in 1924 Stern arrived in New York to begin work in T. H. Morgan's famed fly room at Columbia University. Leaping into Drosophila with zeal, Stern busied himself with a study of a sex-linked recessive gene that produced shortened ("bobbed") bristles. Discovering that XXY females did not express the bobbed mutation, Stern hypothesized that the Y chromosome (ordinarily found only in males) carried the wild type dominant allele, providing evidence for the first time that the Y chromosome did indeed contain genetic information. Stern subsequently explored the implications of Y-chromosome fragmentation for fertility, and when he returned to Germany in 1926 to take up a position as Richard Goldschmidt's assistant in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut, he stood on the threshold of another major discovery in genetics.

Along with the near-simultaneous work of Harriet Creighton and Barbara McClintock on maize, Stern's research on Y-chromosome fragmentation confirmed beyond all reasonable doubt the chromosome theory of heredity as well as the physical exchange of segments between homologous chromosomes by crossing over. This co-discovery was a milestone in the development of genetic theory and made Stern's name familiar throughout the field. His subsequent research on Drosophila continued to produce path-breaking results, including one of the earliest demonstrations of gene dosage effects, of genetic compensation in development, and of somatic crossing over.

At Kaiser Wilhelm, Stern also emerged as a significant figure in synthesizing ideas about his discipline, turning his attention to a review of the establishment of the chromosome theory of heredity, to the interaction of multiple alleles in animal populations (Multiple Allelie, 1930), and to an examination of linkage and crossing over (Faktorenkoppelung und Faktorenaustausch, 1933), the area to which Stern had personally contributed so substantially. Attending the Sixth International Congress of Genetics at Cornell in 1932, he found himself one of the international guiding lights in genetic research. That summer, he married the American, Evelyn Sommerfield.

The rise to power of the Nazi Party in 1933 dramatically altered the course of Stern's life. After he had arranged a six-month appointment at Cal Tech, Stern secured an appointment at the University of Rochester, wisely opting not to return to Germany. Despite his credentials, he did not become a full professor at Rochester until 1941. He never again returned to Germany. The conditions of his emigration, however, did nothing to diminish Stern's productivity. He continued his Drosophila research with vigor throughout the 1930s, examining the interaction of development and chromosomal arrangement on genetic expression, among other subjects.

During the war, Stern channeled some of his time into new pursuits. Contributing to the war effort, he became one of the heads of the genetic studies conducted at Rochester under the auspices of the Manhattan Engineering District, examining the effects of radiation on mutation rate, gene expression, and physiology. His findings, that even low doses can produce measurable rates of mutations that can be linearly extrapolated from the rates produced at higher doses, eventually, led to more stringent protection for nuclear workers. He later served on the Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine of the Atomic Energy Commission from 1950 to 1955, and remained interested in radiation biology for much of the rest of his career.

Paradoxically, Stern also developed an increasing interest in the dimly viewed field of human genetics during the war, in part through teaching students enrolled in the ASTP premedical program at Rochester, and perhaps in conjunction with the changing research interests of James V. Neel, who had been Stern's first graduate student. In 1947, when Stern left Rochester to replace Richard Goldschmidt in the Department of Zoology at the University of California, he was deeply engaged in research into the population dynamics of Rh blood incompatibility between Rh-negative mothers and their Rh-positive offspring. Equally important, he published a seminal textbook on human genetics, the Principles of Human Genetics, that for many years and through three editions was the standard in the field.

Curt Stern lecturing, 1955

An excellent lecturer, punctilious writer, and exacting thinker, Stern's career at Berkeley is reflective of many of the changes affecting American science in the post-war period. Always in great demand, Stern was forced to limit his commitments outside of Berkeley and refused all prospective graduate students in human genetics in favor of those devoted strictly to Drosophila. Particularly as he grew toward the end of his career, Stern began to take a more retrospective view of his field, writing on the rediscovery of Mendel's theory and other aspects of the history of genetics and turning to consideration of the social and philosophical implications.

Stern was recipient of numerous honors and awards during his career, including election to the American Philosophical Society (1954) and the National Academy of Sciences. He was twice recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1955, 1963), received the Kimber Aware in Genetics from the National Academy of Sciences, and was president of both the Genetics Society of American and the Social for Human Genetics. He died in Berkeley in 1981.

Scope and content

Curt Stern's most productive and original period as a geneticist spanned the years from the earliest days of researching the structure of the chromosome to the earliest days on the structure of the gene. A Drosophila geneticist who was instrumental in demonstrating crossing over, dosage effects, and position effects, Stern's papers reflect his varied research interests through correspondence with colleagues (18.5 linear feet), leavened with research notes, lectures, publications, photographs (1 linear foot), and miscellaneous other material.

Stern maintained connections with many of the major geneticists and evolutionary biologists of the 1930s through 1960s, and in most cases, he retained copies of his outgoing correspondence along with the incoming. Among the most prolific correspondents in the collection were Barbara McClintock (3 folders, 1933-1962) whose correspondence includes substantive discussions on her critical maize research of the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as a handful of letters written in 1933 when McClintock traveled to Germany as Stern emigrated to the U.S.; Ernst Mayr (4 folders, 1943-1974), whose correspondence centers largely on Stern's participation in the Committee on Common Problems in Genetics and Paleontology; L.C. Dunn (5 folders, 1933-1974), Milislav Demerec (7 folders, 1933-1947), and Sewall Wright (3 folders, 1934-1973).

Stern kept in close contact with his former student James V. Neel (7 folders, 1939-1976), and their correspondence includes some valuable letters written by Neel when beginning his work on the genetic effects of the atomic bombings in Japan. There is, as well, correspondence with his old mentors T.H. Morgan (2 folders, 1927-1941) and Richard Goldschmidt (7 folders, 1922-1948). Of special note is Stern's voluminous correspondence with H.J. Muller (15 folders, 1926-1967), which covers territory from Drosophila studies to radiation biology, mutation and mutagenesis, Lysenkoism, and American science during the Cold War. A valuable adjunct to this is Stern's more intimate correspondence with Theodosius Dobzhansky (7 folders, 1929-1975). Folders for the Scientists' Committee on Loyalty Problems (8 folders, 1948-1956) provide additional insight into the political context of American science during the Cold War, and Stern's post-war interest in radiation biology appears more generally.

From the time of his remove to Berkeley, Stern's correspondence increasingly reflects the administrative demands on his time, leaving less room for original research. Much of his correspondence during this period revolves around commentary on publications, his work on later editions of his textbook on human genetics, administrative and committee demands, and his growing interest in the history of his discipline.

The text of a substantial number of Stern's lectures have been preserved (filed mostly under Stern), dealing with topics ranging from human heredity (e.g. "Genetic resources of man," "Human inheritance," "Genetic aspects of human behavior," "Human heredity problems"); race ("Biology of the Negro," "General talk on race," "Why do people differ?," "Model estimates of the frequency of white and near white segregants in the American Negro"); Drosophila studies ("Developmental genetics of the fly Drosophila melanogaster," "Inheritance of the Y chromosome of Drosophila" (1926), "Drosophila 2x3A transplantation," "Position effect"); radiation biology and nuclear weapons ("The atomic bomb and the scientists," "Genetic consequences of radiation," "Problems of radiobiology..." (1951)); and evolutionary biology ("Evolution of genetic systems," "Gene expression in genetic mosaics," "Genetics and evolution" (1935-1938), "Genetic selection in man").

From relatively early in his career, Stern also talked on the social and philosophical issues raised by his genetic studies, including "Biology of religion" (1937), "Atomic power... eugenic power," and "Human genetics counseling." The value of these lectures in enhanced, at least in some cases, by the presence of both popular and professional versions, and by the long time span represented.

Finally, the Stern Papers includes a very important series of photos of the major figures in the history of genetics. Among these are formal and informal portraits of individual geneticists and a number of group photos taken at professional meetings and symposia. Due to Stern's interest in the history of his discipline, several of the images pre-date the period of Stern's active participation in genetics, reaching as far back as the 1880s with views of the laboratory at Annisquam, Mass., at which T. H. Morgan, Jacob Rheingard et al. first worked. Stern also collected a number of photos of Richard Goldschmidt from all phases of his career from his days at gymnasium to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut (a fine view of one of the labs)m to Berkeley.

Administrative information

Restrictions

None.

Provenance

Presented by Mrs. Curt Stern, 1981-1982.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Curt Stern Papers, American Philosophical Society.

Additional information

Related material

The papers of Stern's first graduate student James V. Neel are available at the APS, as are the papers of his collaborator Ernst Caspari, along with numerous colleagues.

References

Bentley Glass, A Guide to the Genetics Collections of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia, 1988).