The Genetical Society , William Bateson and The John Innes Archive

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William Bateson (1861-1926) has always been recognised, rightly, as one of the key founders of genetics, including human genetics. He was the main protagonist of Mendelism, showing among other things that Garrod’s ‘inborn errors of metabolism’ followed autosomal recessive inheritance. He coined the term ‘genetics’ and also was the principal founder of the Genetical Society and first director of the John Innes Horticultural Institution, the primary focus of plant breeding in Britain; this now, as the John Innes Centre, Norwich, holds the main archive of his work and life, as well as the records of the Genetical Society.

All of these points may be well known to many Genetics/ Genetical Society members, but I have to admit that they were not to me, despite 30 years of membership, so this note is primarily for those who, like myself, are interested in historical aspects of genetics but hazy on many details. A recent preliminary visit to the John Innes Centre Library and its archives, with kind assistance from the Library staff, made me immediately realise that this is one of the key resources of early records in genetics, as well as giving continuous documentation of both the Centre and the Genetical Society up to the present.

Fortunately a thorough catalogue is available electronically, so with this as an aid, it was easy to search the well-organised archive. Of particular interest to me, and I suspect to Genetics Society members, is the original minute book recording the setting up of the Genetical Society in 1919 and its first meetings from 1920. While referred to in the Society’s publication ‘50 years of Genetics’, I am not aware of this being reproduced before (figure 1). The names of those involved are of interest and it is good to note that, over 80 years ago, the Genetical Society had a woman as one of its founder vice-presidents.

Regarding Bateson himself (figure 2), the archive contains his personal library, extensive correspondence and research records, and a large collection of photographs; again many of these have not been reproduced, apart from the one shown here, kindly given to me previously by his descendant Professor Patrick Bateson. I was glad to hear that a biography of Bateson, based on the archive, is in progress by the John Innes Centre former archivist, Rosemary Harvey. Experimental material preserved in the Genetical Society archive (which I did not attempt to investigate) includes a collection of dog skins!.

The John Innes archive also has extensive material on JBS Haldane (the Institute’s second director) and on Cyril Darlington (third director), so altogether it is a most valuable resource for geneticists in general, not just those concerned with plant genetics. Those interested should contact the librarian, Mike Ambrose (mike.ambrose@bbsrc.ac.uk).

Peter Harper. July 2003

Reference:

• Lewis D (1969). The Genetical Society- The First Fifty years. In: Fifty years of Genetics, ed J Jinks. London, Oliver and Boyd, pp 1-7.

Postscript
Writing this piece made me wonder whether the Genetics Society has a specific group, formal or informal, interested in historical aspects of the field. On asking the Secretary, it seems that there is not, so should one be formed?. The recently launched Genetics and Medicine Historical Network (www.genmedhist.org) aims to undertake this for human and medical genetics, but would not presume to do this for genetics in general. (though there is extensive overlap between human and general genetics). With so many aspects of genetics which seemed ‘new’ not so long ago now becoming part of history, there could be a real challenge here. I should very much like to hear from any member who is working on historical topics in genetics HarperPS@Cardiff.ac.uk.

Figure legends:

• Figure 1. Pages from the original Genetical Society minute-book showing details of formation of the Society (a,b) and of its first meeting (c,d). Courtesy of the Genetics Society and the John Innes Centre.
• Figure 2. William Bateson (1861-1926). Courtesy of Professor Patrick Bateson.

This piece appeared in the Genetics Society newsletter, January 2004, pp21 - 26.