Berkeley Colloquia in History of Science and Technology - Spring 2009
Sponsored by the Office for History of Science and Technology (UC Berkeley)
Betty Smocovitis
University of Florida
"The Mating Game": A Mechanized Exhibit of Mendelian Heredity at the Golden Gate International Exposition, and Genetics in the Bay Area, 1915-1947
This paper explores the historical context of an unusual mechanical model designed for, and displayed at the Golden Gate Exposition of 1939. The outcome of a collaboration by University of California geneticist E. B. Babcock and Richard Goldschmidt, the model was part of an attempt to educate and promote the new principles of genetics to popular audiences, and was part of a more ambitious program to build genetics in the Bay area. Built out of Dionne dolls that could be moved around in various mating configurations, the exhibit served a multiplicity of functions; at the same time that it appeared to embody the principles of Mendelian heredity, it also embodied and endorsed the social norms of the period.
4:00PM
Monday, March 9, 2009
279 Dwinelle Hall
UC Berkeley
Office for History of Science and Technology, 543 Stephens Hall #2350
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2350
tel: (510) 642-4581, e-mail: ohst@berkeley.edu
