Harriet Creighton

{{Infobox scientist

| image = HarrietCreighton1929.png

| caption = Harriet Creighton, from the 1929 yearbook of Wellesley College

| birth_date = {{birth date |1909|06|27}}

| birth_place = Delavan, Illinois, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age |2004|01|09|1909|06|27}}

| death_place = Needham, Massachusetts, U.S.

| fields = Botany, genetics, education

| workplaces = Cornell University, Connecticut College, Wellesley College

| education = Wellesley College, Cornell University (Ph.D. 1933)

| doctoral_advisor = Barbara McClintock

| known_for = Describing chromosomal crossover

| awards =

| author_abbrev_bot =

}}

Harriet Baldwin Creighton (June 27, 1909 – January 9, 2004) was an American botanist, geneticist and educator. She worked with Barbara McClintock on cytogenetics in the 1930s, and was elected president of the Botanical Society of America in 1956.

Early life and education

Creighton was born in Delavan, Illinois, the daughter of Cyrus Murray Creighton and Bertha Baldwin Creighton. Her father was born in Canada.1910 United States census, via Ancestry. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1929,Wellesley College, [https://repository.wellesley.edu/object/wellesley641 Legenda] (1929 yearbook). where she found botanist Margaret Clay Ferguson an encouraging faculty mentor.Kass, Lee B. [https://pix.botany.org/userdata/IssueArchive/issues/originalfile/PSB_2005_51_4.pdf "Harriet B. Creighton: Proud botanist"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250616203925/https://pix.botany.org/userdata/IssueArchive/issues/originalfile/PSB_2005_51_4.pdf |date=2025-06-16 }} Plant Science Bulletin 51(4) (December 2005): 118–125.

She completed her Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1933. At Cornell, she worked in the field of maize cytogenetics with Barbara McClintock. The pair published an influential paper in 1931,{{Cite journal |last=Creighton |first=Harriet B. |last2=McClintock |first2=Barbara |date=August 1931 |title=A Correlation of Cytological and Genetical Crossing-Over in Zea Mays |url=https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.17.8.492 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=17 |issue=8 |pages=492–497 |doi=10.1073/pnas.17.8.492 |pmc=1076098 |pmid=16587654 |archive-date=2025-06-16 |access-date=2025-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250616203925/https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.17.8.492 |url-status=live }} in which they described chromosomal crossover for the first time.{{Cite book |last=Comfort |first=Nathaniel C. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Tangled_Field/h0QCIfcFYx8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Harriet%20Creighton&pg=PA56&printsec=frontcover |title=The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock's search for the patterns of genetic control |last2= |first2= |date=2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-02982-8 |pages=56 |language=en}} This paper, part of her Ph.D. research, provided key evidence that chromosomes carried and exchanged genetic information and hence that genes for physical traits are carried on chromosomes.{{Cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Moira Davison |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Women_Scientists/xkaLjEuHPq8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Harriet%20Creighton&pg=PA72&printsec=frontcover |title=American Women Scientists: 23 Inspiring Biographies, 1900-2000 |date=2004 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-2161-9 |pages=72 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Buckingham |first=Susan |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gender_and_Environment/rn3zsUGw9ToC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Harriet%20Creighton&pg=PA24&printsec=frontcover |title=Gender and Environment |date=2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-70396-8 |pages=24 |language=en}}

Career

After completing her doctoral studies, Creighton taught at Cornell University and Connecticut College, and then returned to Wellesley College where she taught until her retirement in 1974. During World War II, she took leave from teaching to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Creighton was elected in 1940 a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.{{cite web |title=Historic Fellows |website=American Association for the Advancement of Science |url=https://www.aaas.org/fellows/historic |access-date=2022-11-14 |archive-date=2023-09-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230914080017/https://www.aaas.org/fellows/historic |url-status=live }} In 1956 she was elected president of the Botanical Society of America.Kass, Lee B. (2007). [https://aspb.org/wipb-pioneer-biographies/#tab-id-2 "Women Pioneers in Plant Biology"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315000613/http://aspb.org/wipb-pioneer-biographies/#tab-id-2 |date=2017-03-15 }} American Society of Plant Biologists website, Ann Hirsch editor. She held two Fulbright lectureships, which took her to the University of Western Australia in 1952, and to the Cusco, Peru, in 1959.{{Cite news |last=Schoetz |first=David |date=May 19, 2004 |title=Harriet Creighton, botanist, Wellesley professor, at 94 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-harriet-creighton-bota/174645749/ |access-date=June 16, 2025 |work=The Boston Globe |pages=40 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=June 16, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250616203925/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-harriet-creighton-bota/174645749/ |url-status=live }}

Publications

"A Correlation of Cytological and Genetical Crossing-Over in Zea mays" (1931, with Barbara McClintock)
"Three Cases of Deficiency in Chromosome 9 of Zea mays" (1934){{Cite journal |last=Creighton |first=Harriet B. |date=February 1934 |title=Three Cases of Deficiency in Chromosome 9 of Zea mays |url=https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.20.2.111 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=111–115 |doi=10.1073/pnas.20.2.111 |pmc=1076352 |pmid=16587851 |archive-date=2025-06-16 |access-date=2025-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250616203925/https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.20.2.111 |url-status=live }}
"Production and Distribution of Growth Hormone in Shoots of Aesculus and Malus, and Its Probable Role in Stimulating Cambial Activity" (1937, with George S. Avery Jr. and Paul R. Burkholder){{Cite journal |last=Avery |first=George S. |last2=Burkholder |first2=Paul R. |last3=Creighton |first3=Harriet B. |date=1937 |title=Production and Distribution of Growth Hormone in Shoots of Aesculus and Malus, and Its Probable Role in Stimulating Cambial Activity |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2436958 |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=51–58 |doi=10.2307/2436958 |issn=0002-9122 |archive-date=2025-06-16 |access-date=2025-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250616203925/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2436958 |url-status=live }}
"Nutrient Deficiencies and Growth Hormone Concentration in Helianthus and Nicotiana" (1937, with George S. Avery Jr. and Paul R. Burkholder){{Cite journal |last=Avery |first=George S. |last2=Burkholder |first2=Paul R. |last3=Creighton |first3=Harriet B. |date=1937 |title=Nutrient Deficiencies and Growth Hormone Concentration in Helianthus and Nicotiana |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2437079 |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=24 |issue=8 |pages=553–557 |doi=10.2307/2437079 |issn=0002-9122}}

Personal life and legacy

Creighton's companion later in life was Gertrude Dever; they met in the WAVES and lived together for many years. Creighton died in 2004, at the age of 94, in Needham, Massachusetts.{{Cite web |date=January 18, 2004 |title=Harriett Creighton Obituary |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/harriett-creighton-obituary?id=27303999 |access-date=June 16, 2025 |website=Boston Globe, via Legacy.com}} Wellesley College has a collection of her personal papers.{{Cite web |title=Collection: Harriet B. Creighton papers |url=https://archives.wellesley.edu/repositories/2/resources/86 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316060932/https://archives.wellesley.edu/repositories/2/resources/86 |archive-date=March 16, 2023 |access-date=June 16, 2025 |website=Wellesley College Archives |language=en |url-status=live }} Creighton's close personal and professional relationship with Barbara McClintock was dramatized in a 2023 play by Carolyn Gage, In McClintock's Corn.{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Jeremy |date=February 23, 2023 |title=‘In McClintock’s Corn’ makes its world debut in Tampa |url=https://watermarkonline.com/2023/02/23/in-mcclintocks-corn-makes-its-world-debut-in-tampa/ |access-date=June 16, 2025 |website=Watermark Out News |language=en-US}}

References

External links

Kass, L. B. and Chomet, P. 2009. Barbara McClintock, Pgs. 17–52, in J. Bennetzen and S. Hake, Editors, Handbook of Maize: Genetics and Genomics. Springer
[http://www.bookrags.com/research/creighton-harriet-plsc-02/ Macmillan Science Library: Plant Sciences – Bookrags: "Harriet Creighton: American Botanist"]
Kalte, Pamela M. and Nemeh, Katherine H. (2005) "Creighton, Harriet Baldwin (1909–)" American Men & Women of Science: A biographical directory of today's leaders in physical, biological and related sciences (22nd ed.) Thomson Gale, Detroit
McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch (1998) Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries Carol Publishing Group, New Jersey

{{Presidents of the Botanical Society of America|state=collapsed}}

Category:1909 births

Category:2004 deaths

Category:20th-century American educators

Category:American geneticists

Category:American women botanists

Category:American women geneticists

Category:Botanical Society of America

Category:Cornell University faculty

Category:Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni

Category:Wellesley College alumni

Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II