Hyde, James H. (James Hazen), 1876-1959

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James Hazen Hyde (1876-1959) was a businessman, francophile, and expatriate. He graduated from Harvard in 1898. In 1899 he was left in charge of his father's (Henry Baldwin Hyde, 1834-1899) life insurance company, the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. In 1905 Hyde lost control of the company in a publicity scandal that resulted in an investigation of the insurance industry by the New York State. In late December 1905 Hyde sailed for Paris, where he lived until the Nazi occupation.

From the description of Papers, [ca. 1891-1941]. (New York University). WorldCat record id: 476488247

James Hazen Hyde (1876-1959) was a businessman and philanthropist of New York City.

From the description of James Hazen Hyde papers, 1899-1934. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122532277

From the guide to the James Hazen Hyde papers, 1899-1934, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.)

Albert Francis Blakeslee, a geneticist and botanist, served as the director of Smith College Genetics Experiment Station from 1943-1954.

Albert Blakeslee's boyhood was spent in East Greenwich, Connecticut, where he early exhibited a strong liking for natural history. This leaning was not encouraged by his pragmatic father, who wanted the boy's education to plan for a financially independent career; but his mother was more sympathetic. After the two years of teaching at Montpelier Academy in Vermont, his natural inclinations were not to be denied, and he entered graduate study at Harvard with a determination to become a botanist. His Harvard professors, Farlow and Thaxter, greatly helped Blakeslee's development as a botanist. He engaged in a classification of the Mucors and discovered the positive and (sexual) zygospores and observed their sexual fusion to start the diploid phase of the Mucor life cycle. His summer in Venezuela as a plant collector for the Harvard Cryptogamic Herbarium (1903) and his two summers of teaching nature study in the Cold Spring Harbor courses broadened his knowledge of plants and generated in him a deep love of teaching. Thus, when he went to Germany for a postdoctoral fellowship in 1904, he was already becoming well known as a botanist.

At the University of Halle he worked under the distinguished mycologist Klebs for two years, with some stay during the period at the Universities of Berlin, Leipzig, and Oxford. This fellowship was supported by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Blakeslee became fluent in the German language, as became apparent in later years when such a distinguished authority as Erwin Baur, plant geneticist, sent to Blakeslee in preference to any other English-speaking biologist a copy of his proposed publication on the dysgenic effects upon German life and culture of the post-war occupation of Germany's Rhineland by the French. Baur requested Blakeslee to be so good as to translate the communication into good English, edit it, and submit it for him to some American journal, such as Eugenical Notes, edited by Davenport. The original manuscript by Baur, the translation and very extensive editing -- really a toning down -- by Blakeslee, and the subsequent letter of withdrawal of the communication by Baur are all in the Blakeslee Papers, an invaluable addition to our knowledge of the course of German eugenics in the period between the two World Wars (see B. Glass, "A Hidden Chapter of German eugenics between the two World Wars," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 125: 357-367, 1981). While in Germany Blakeslee spent much time in art museums and attendance at concerts, and formed cultural tastes that were a lifelong joy to him.

Upon returning from Germany, Blakeslee accepted an appointment as professor of botany at the Connecticut Agricultural College, later to become the University of Connecticut. He taught many courses, in summer as well as during the regular year, and collaborated with C.D. Jervis in two popular handbooks for the identification of trees in New England and in winter. He made crosses of tree species, and successfully produced the first interspecific hybrid pine. His broad concern with social applications of botany and with teaching are to be seen in his paper presented in an American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium in 1909 on the subject, "The Botanic Garden as a Field Museum of Agriculture." He also conducted research on the genetics of poultry, and found certain genetic traits with visible effects that were linked with high egg yield; also he uncovered a negative correlation between yellow color and the time of a year when the last egg is laid. He discovered that Rudbeckia hirta, the black-eyed Susan, is a frequently mutating species. Beginning what was to become his most famous genetical work, that with the jimson weed, Datura stramonium, he worked out the simple Mendelian inheritance of white versus purple flower color and of spiny versus smooth seed capsules. In 1914-1915, he gave, at Storrs, the first college course in genetics in the United States. Also, while on leave and at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as a research investigator, he resumed his early work on the Mucors; and in Datura found, in 1913, his first trisomic type, the "Globe" seedpod type, which has 2N + 1 chromosomes.

In 1915 Blakeslee was invited by C. B. Davenport, Director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Station for Experimental Evolution at Cold Spring Harbor, to fill the place just vacated by George Harrison Shull, who was transferring to Princeton University. Blakeslee accepted, although he much regretted the loss of his opportunities to teach. He remained at Cold Spring Harbor until he retired in 1941, at the age of 67. He became greatly renowned for his work on Datura stramonium, in which he eventually found a trisomic type for every one of the twelve chromosome pairs in the species, each type recognizable by a distinctive phenotype of the seed capsule. With his assistants, he raised as many as 70,000 Datura plants in each summer. In 1920, he was joined by John Belling, a gifted cytologist, as his collaborator. They developed the skilled art of making acetocarmine stains of smeared plant chromosomes, a technique that became universally adopted as an enormous time-saver and also one productive of better microscopic differentiation of the chromosomes in the set. The typical chromosome numbers for many species of flowering plants were determined by the team.

In 1924, Dorothy Bergner replaced John Belling as Blakeslee's principal coworker. With Bergner, Blakeslee discovered a thirteenth trisomic in Datura. As there are only 12 chromosome pairs, a different explanation was sought, and found. There are also secondary trisomics, in which one arm of a primary chromosome has been doubled while its other arm is missing. Such a chromosome, added to the 12 types in which an entire chromosome is extra, greatly increases the diversity of chromosomal types. In search of the origin of these secondaries, numerous translocation types were found, types in which parts of two primary chromosomes had undergone a reciprocal interchange. In the pairing of homologous chromosomes that takes place during meiosis, these aberrations give rise to rings of four associated chromosomes, two normal plus two translocation chromosomes in the ring. Non-disjunction is a frequent consequence, and additional types of trisomics result. The discovery in natural populations of so much chromosomal diversity was a stepping-stone to the new evolutionary synthesis of the 1930s. Polyploid and triploid Daturas were also found, as populations from various parts of the world were analyzed. In 1937 it was discovered that colchicine will paralyze mitotic cell division and give rise to cells in which the chromosome number has been doubled. Using this technique, Blakeslee and Bergner produced polyploids, periclinal chimeras; and a new research assistant, Sophie Satina, collaborated in working out cell lineages during plant development.

Other collaborations, going back many years, were with E.W. Sinnott on quantitative inheritance, with I.T. Buchholz on pollen tube growth, with C.S. Gager on the use of radium to produce mutations. By means of exposures to radium or X-rays, 541 different gene loci were identified by mutation, 81 of which were mapped to a specific chromosome. It was also found that there was an increase of mutations during the storage of seeds. With I. van Overbeek, Blakeslee applied the techniques of tissue culture to the study of Datura genetic types.

In 1931, Blakeslee became deeply interested in the human inheritance of taste sensitivity to a chemical substance, PTC (phenylthiocarbamide). It is intensely bitter to most persons, but tasteless to others. Blakeslee checked this capacity in identical twins and found they were always similar in their capacity to taste PTC, or inability to taste it. He gave many popular lectures and demonstrations of this novel aspect of human heredity.

Blakeslee became involved in the administration of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as early as 1923, and moved to greater and greater responsibility as Davenport aged. Upon Davenport's retirement in 1936, Blakeslee was the natural choice to succeed him. By this time he was one of America's foremost geneticists. He had helped to reorganize the American Journal of Botany in 1935, had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and to the American Philosophical Society, and had been honored by many foreign scientific and learned organizations.

Upon retiring at Cold Spring Harbor, Blakeslee spent two years as a research associate at Columbia University, but found in 1942 an ideal situation for his "retirement" years in an appointment as a visiting professor at Smith College. Here he started up a four-college conference (Smith College, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, and Massachusetts State College -- later the University of Massachusetts) on Genetics, and a second on Human Relations. He initiated an active program of genetics at Smith College. With Miss Satina, he continued research on Datura by utilizing the technique of raising plant embryos in cell culture, in order to determine at what stage of development particular abnormal types led to deviations from normality, and just what they were. He became president of the Smith College Faculty Club, and worked to improve the conditions of retired faculty members. He spent much effort on human relations of the town-gown sort. As in previous periods of his life, he attended many foreign scientific congresses, for example, all of the Botanical Congresses (until 1950), and the Indian Scientific Congress in 1947. He was a visiting lecturer at Harvard University in 1948-1949. Upon his death, he left his estate to the National Academy of Sciences as trustee to provide continued assistance in maintaining and further developing a balanced genetics research program at Smith College. His personality was marked by great versatility, good humor, and a live social conscience. He was generous in giving credit to others in joint activities, yet in general somewhat reticent. These traits are reflected in some of his correspondence.

From the guide to the Albert Francis Blakeslee papers, 1904-1954, 1904-1954, (American Philosophical Society)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Hyde, James H. (James Hazen), 1876-1959. James Hazen Hyde papers, 1899-1934. Campbell University, Wiggins Memorial Library
referencedIn Blakeslee, Albert Francis, 1874-1954. Papers, 1904-1954. American Philosophical Society Library
referencedIn Gropius, Walter, 1883-1969. Papers, 1925-1969 (bulk: 1937-1969) Houghton Library
referencedIn Henry T. Allen Papers, 1806-1933, (bulk 1883-1933) Library of Congress. Manuscript Division
referencedIn Hudson, Manley Ottmer, 1886-1960. Papers, 1894-1960 Harvard Law School Library Langdell Hall Cambridge, MA 02138
referencedIn William Roscoe Thayer papers, 1762-1927 (inclusive), 1872-1921 (bulk) Houghton Library
referencedIn Walter Hines Page letters from various correspondents, American period Houghton Library
referencedIn John Mason Brown papers, 1922-1967. Houghton Library
creatorOf Hyde, James H. (James Hazen), 1876-1959. Papers, [ca. 1891-1941]. Churchill County Museum
referencedIn Autograph File, H Houghton Library
referencedIn Irvine Luther Lenroot Papers, 1858-1971, (bulk 1900-1944) Library of Congress. Manuscript Division
referencedIn Edward Mandell House papers, 1885-2007, 1885-1938 Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
referencedIn Wendell family papers Houghton Library
referencedIn Sheldon Glueck papers Harvard Law School Library Langdell Hall Cambridge, MA 02138
referencedIn Sachs, Paul J. (Paul Joseph), 1878-1965. Papers, 1903-2005. Harvard University Art Museum
creatorOf James Hazen Hyde papers, 1899-1934 New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division
referencedIn Abraham Flexner Papers, 1865-1989, (bulk 1900-1959) Library of Congress. Manuscript Division
creatorOf Albert Francis Blakeslee papers, 1904-1954, 1904-1954 American Philosophical Society
referencedIn Mark Anthony De Wolfe Howe additional papers Houghton Library
referencedIn William James letters to his son Henry James and others, 1882-1910. Houghton Library
referencedIn John H. Finley papers, 1892-1940, 1913-1935 New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division
referencedIn Papers of Paul J. Sachs, 1903-2005 Harvard Art Museums. Archives
referencedIn Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States records, (inclusive), (bulk)., 1870-1919, 1869-1906 Baker Library, Harvard Business School
referencedIn Delano, William Adams, 1874-1960. William Adams Delano papers, 1902-1960 (inclusive), 1939-1960 (bulk). Yale University Library
creatorOf Finley, John H. (John Huston), 1863-1940. John H. Finley papers, 1892-1940, bulk (1913-1935). New York Public Library System, NYPL
creatorOf James, William, 1842-1910. William James letters to his son Henry James and others, 1879-1910. Houghton Library
referencedIn Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Records, 1870-1919 (inclusive). Harvard Business School, Knowledge and Library Services/Baker Library
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Allen, Henry T. (Henry Tureman), 1859-1930. person
associatedWith American Association for the Advancement of Science. corporateBody
associatedWith American Field Service. corporateBody
associatedWith American Philosophical Society. corporateBody
associatedWith American Red Cross in France. corporateBody
associatedWith Ames, Winthrop, 1870-1937. person
associatedWith Andrew, A. Piatt (Abram Piatt), 1873-1936. person
associatedWith Astruc, Gabriel, 1864-1938. person
associatedWith Azan, Paul, b. 1874. person
associatedWith Barres, Maurice, 1862-1923. person
associatedWith Barthou, Louis, 1862-1934. person
associatedWith Bergson, Henri, 1859-1941. person
associatedWith Berthelot, Philippe, 1866-1934. person
associatedWith Blakeslee, Albert Francis, 1874-1954. person
associatedWith Breasted, James Henry, 1865-1935. person
associatedWith Brieux, Eugène, 1858-1932. person
correspondedWith Brown, John Mason, 1900-1969 person
associatedWith Buchholz, J. T., (John Theodore), 1888-1951 person
associatedWith Bush, Vannevar, 1890-1974 person
associatedWith Carnegie Institution of Washington. corporateBody
associatedWith Carrel, Alexis, 1873-1944. person
associatedWith Cercle français (Harvard University) corporateBody
associatedWith Cleland, Ralph E., (Ralph Erskine), 1892-1971 person
associatedWith Clemenceau, Georges, 1841-1929. person
associatedWith Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 1866-1928. person
associatedWith Davenport, Charles Benedict, 1866-1944 person
associatedWith Davis, Bradley M., (Bradley Moore), b. 1871 person
associatedWith Delano, William Adams, 1874-1960. person
associatedWith Depew, Chauncey M. (Chauncey Mitchell), 1834-1928. person
associatedWith Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. corporateBody
associatedWith Federation of French Alliances in the United States and Canada. corporateBody
associatedWith Ferrero, Guglielmo, 1871-1942. person
associatedWith Finley, John H. (John Huston), 1863-1940. person
correspondedWith Flexner, Abraham, 1866-1959. person
associatedWith Flynn, John E., (John Edward), 1897-1965 person
associatedWith Foch, Ferdinand, 1851-1929. person
associatedWith Forain, Jean Louis, 1852-1931. person
associatedWith Frick, Henry Clay, 1849-1919. person
associatedWith Glueck, Sheldon, 1896- person
correspondedWith Gropius, Walter, 1883-1969 person
associatedWith Guitry, Lucien person
associatedWith Guitry, Lucien. person
associatedWith Guitry, Sacha, 1885-1957. person
associatedWith House, Edward Mandell, 1858-1938. person
correspondedWith Howe, M. A. De Wolfe (Mark Antony De Wolfe), 1864-1960 person
correspondedWith Hudson, Manley Ottmer, 1886- person
associatedWith Hyde, Annie F. person
associatedWith Institut de France. corporateBody
associatedWith James, William, 1842-1910. person
associatedWith Lebrun, Albert, 1871-1950. person
associatedWith New Theatre (New York, N.Y.) corporateBody
associatedWith New Theatre (New York, N.Y.) corporateBody
associatedWith Ochs, Adolph S. (Adolph Simon), 1858-1935. person
associatedWith Page, Walter Hines, 1855-1918 person
associatedWith Peabody, Endicott, 1857-1944. person
associatedWith Pershing, John J. (John Joseph), 1860-1948. person
associatedWith Poincaré, Raymond, 1860-1934. person
associatedWith Prévost, Marcel, 1862-1941. person
associatedWith Richepin, Jean, 1849-1926. person
associatedWith Robbins, William Jacob, 1890-1978 person
associatedWith Rodin, Auguste, 1840-1917. person
associatedWith Sachs, Paul J. (Paul Joseph), 1878-1965. person
associatedWith Shull, George Harrison, 1874-1954 person
associatedWith Sinnott, Edmund W. (Edmund Ware), 1888-1958 person
associatedWith Smith College. Genetics Experiment Station. corporateBody
associatedWith Stokes, Anson Phelps, 1874-1958. person
correspondedWith Thayer, William Roscoe, 1859-1923 person
associatedWith University of Connecticut. corporateBody
associatedWith Untermyer, Samuel, 1858-1940. person
associatedWith Waksman, Selman A., (Selman Abraham), 1888-1973 person
associatedWith Ward, John Quincy Adams, 1830-1910. person
associatedWith Weill, Felix, b. 1871. person
correspondedWith Wendell family. family
associatedWith Westinghouse, George, 1846-1914. person
associatedWith Wilson, Edwin Bidwell, 1879-1964 person
associatedWith Winthrop, Henry R person
associatedWith Winthrop, Henry R. person
Place Name Admin Code Country
New York (State)
France
France
New York (State)--New York
New York (N.Y.)
Germany
Subject
Theater
Theater
Theater
Theater
Beans
Blood groups
Colchicine
Datura
Embryology
Geneticists
Genetics
Horticulture
Insurance companies
World War, 1914-1918
Occupation
Businessmen
Activity

Person

Birth 1876-06-06

Death 1959-07-26

Americans

English,

French

Information

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