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Dunn in Germany 1928, in Dunn Papers, folder: “Photographs #1”. Courtesy of APS Library.

The Situation in Genetics: Leslie Clarence Dunn’s 1927 Russian Tour

In 2003, I co-authored publication of a transcription of Leslie Clarence Dunn‘s 1927 report on genetics research facilities in Russia. This appeared in the Mendel Newsletter, published by the American Philosophical Society Library as Joe Cain […]

Sergei Chetverikkov, Russian population geneticist

Sergei Sergeevich Chetverikov (1880-1959) Russian population geneticist

Sergeĭ Sergeevich Chetverikov (=Tschetwerikoff) was a Russian entomologist, an expert on butterflies, and a pioneer of population geneticists. Born into a well-educated, professional family, Chetverikov entered the University of Moscow in 1900, graduating six years […]

Statue from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the British Museum

The statue from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the British Museum is a beautiful, captivating object. It is a “moai”. Its name is Hoa Hakananai’a (loosely translated to “Stolen Friend”, sometimes spelled Hoa Haka Nanai’a). […]

Plesiosaur skeleton (Thalassiodracon hawkinsi) cast at UCL Grant Museum of Zoology.

Thalassiodracon – Plesiosaur at UCL Grant Museum of Zoology

Humans came to understand the significance of fossils only in the early nineteenth century: their extraordinary variety and quantity, forms unlike anything seen in the world today, incomprehensibly vast periods of time for layer upon […]

Portraits of Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin. 1840. By George Richmond

Darwin in London – Commemorative Plaques and Family Baptism Records

During research concerning Charles and Emma Darwin’s life at number 12 Upper Gower Street, Bloomsbury, London, I identified several errors and vagaries in biographical material found in standard reference works. This note communicates corrections and […]

Joseph Henry Woodger (1894-1981) Papers at University College London (UCL)

Some years ago I searched for archival materials, or papers, related to Joseph Henry Woodger, philosopher, biologist and advocate of logical positivism (Cain 2000) (obituary). The hope was to assess the extent of informal contact […]

Professor Cross's Phrenological Chart, 1892

Phrenology Consultation with Professor Cross

Professor W. Cross was a phrenologist who gave popular public performances at London’s Royal Aquarium in the 1880s and 1890s. Phrenology was the quack medical practice of studying bumps on the head under the false pretence of […]

Closed sign during Covid Lockdown, from "When the Roof Blew Off," in Lockdown Cultures - Photo Essay - ProfJoeCain

When The Roof Blew Off – Photoessay – Covid Lockdown Cultures

This photo essay was written in 2021 for a volume about the closure of communities associated with covid pandemic lockdowns. It began as a photoessay to document the closure of my town (Hove, UK) during […]

Benjamin Harrison Cain. 1960. Town and Country Pulpit coverart

Benjamin Harrison Cain (1889-1972) biography and bibliography

Named for the recently elected Indiana-born US President, Benjamin Harrison Cain (“Ben”) was born in Pulaski County, near San Pierre, Indiana. He had five brothers and four sisters. All were raised in a rural culture, […]

Evolution - A Journal of Nature - sample covers

Pro-Evolution Magazine “Evolution: A Journal of Nature,” 1927-1938

This page provides information about this pro-evolution magazine, otherwise lost, from the 1920s and 1930s. It was devoted to promoting the teaching of evolution in US public schools. It was titled, Evolution: A Journal of […]