Skip to main content
Log in

Muriel Wheldale Onslow and Early Biochemical Genetics

  • Published:
Journal of the History of Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Muriel Wheldale, a distinguished graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge, was a member of William Bateson’s school of genetics at Cambridge University from 1903. Her investigation of flower color inheritance in snapdragons (Antirrhinum), a topic of particular interest to botanists, contributed to establishing Mendelism as a powerful new tool in studying heredity. Her understanding of the genetics of pigment formation led her to do cutting-edge work in biochemistry, culminating in the publication of her landmark work, The Anthocyanin Pigments of Plants (1916). In 1915, she joined Frederick Gowland Hopkin’s Department of Biochemistry as assistant and in 1926 became one of the first women to be appointed university lecturer. In 1919 she married the biochemist Huia Onslow, with whom she collaborated until his death in 1922. This paper examines Wheldale’s work in genetics and especially focuses on the early linkage of Mendelian methodology with new techniques in biochemistry that eventually led to the founding of biochemical genetics. It highlights significant issues in the early history of women in genetics, including the critical role of mentors, funding opportunities, and career strategies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Archival Sources

  • William Bateson Collection, John Innes Centre Archive, Norwich, Correspondence with Muriel Wheldale. [Typed transcripts, by Beatrice Bateson, presumably from originals in Wheldale’s possession.] Cited as: Bateson Collection, JICA

  • William Bateson Correspondence, Add. 8634, Manuscripts Room, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge. Cited as: Bateson Correspondence, CUL

Primary and Secondary Literature

  • Baldwin, Ernest. 1972. “Hopkins, Frederick Gowland.” Charles Coulston Gillispie (ed) Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 1970–1990, vol. 6. New York: Scribner, pp. 498–502

  • Bateson Beatrice (ed.) 1928. William Bateson, F.R.S., Naturalist: His Essays and Addresses, Together with a Short Account of His Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson, William. 1894. Materials for the Study of Variation Treated with Especial Regard to Discontinuity in the Origin of Species. London: Macmillan and Co

  • Bateson William. 1907. Facts Limiting the Theory of Heredity. Science n.s. 26:649–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson William. 1909. Mendel’s Principles of Heredity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson William. 1913. Mendel’s Principles of Heredity, 2d ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson William and Edith Rebecca Saunders. 1902. “The Facts of Heredity in the Light of Mendel’s Discovery.” Reports to the Evolution Committee of the Royal Society, vol. 1. London: Harrison, pp. 125–60

  • Bateson William, E. R. Saunders, and R. C. Punnett. 1906a. “Flower-Colour in Sweet Peas (Lathyrus) and Stocks (Matthiola).” Reports to the Evolution Committee, Reports to the Evolution Committee of the Royal Society, vol. 3. London: Harrison, pp. 3–5

  • Bateson William, E. R. Saunders, and R. C. Punnett.1906b. “Sweet Peas (Lathyrus odoratus),” Reports to the Evolution Committee, Reports to the Evolution Committee of the Royal Society, vol. 3. London: Harrison, pp. 31–37

  • Baur Erwin. 1908. Einige Ergebnisse der experimentellen Vererbungslehre. Beihefte zur Medizinische Klinik (Berlin) 10:265

    Google Scholar 

  • Baur Erwin. 1910. Vererbungs- und Bastardierungsversuche mit Antirrhinum. Zeitschrift für Induktive Abstammungs- und Vererbungslehre 3:34–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bendall Derek S. 2004. The Unfinished Story of Cytochrome f. Photosynthesis Research 80:265–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berg Paul, Singer Maxine 2003. George Beadle, an Uncommon Farmer: The Emergence of Genetics in the 20th Century. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowler Peter J. 1984. Evolution: The History of an Idea. Berkeley: University of California Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Buican Denis. 1982. Mendelism in France and the Work of Lucien Cuénot. Scientia 76:1–4, 129–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Cock, A. G. 1973. “William Bateson, Mendelism and Biometry.” Journal of the History of Biology 6: 1–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Creese Mary R.S. 1991. British Women of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Who Contributed to Research in the Chemical Sciences. British Journal for the History of Science 24:275–305

    Google Scholar 

  • Creese Mary R.S. 1998. Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800–1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research. Lanham, Md. and London: Scarecrow

    Google Scholar 

  • D.J.L. 1932. “The Hon. Mrs Huia Onslow (Muriel Wheldale).” The Newnham College Roll Letter, January 1932, pp. 59–61

  • Dunn, L.C. 1991 (1965). A Short History of Genetics: The Development of Some of the Main Lines of Thought: 1864–1939. Reprint edition. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press

  • Everest, Arthur E. 1914a. “The Red and Blue Pigments of Flowers.” Gardeners’ Chronicle ser. 3, 55 (30 May 1914):369

  • Everest Arthur E. 1914b. The Production of Anthocyanins and Anthocyanidins, Pt. 1. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B 87:326–332

    Google Scholar 

  • Everest Arthur E. 1914c. The Production of Anthocyanins and Anthocyanidins, Pt. 2. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B 87:444–452

    Google Scholar 

  • Everest Arthur E. 1914d. A Note on Wheldale and Bassett’s Paper On a Supposed Synthesis of Anthocyanin. Journal of Genetics 4:191–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Everest Arthur E. 1915. Recent Chemical Investigations of the Anthocyan Pigments and their Bearing upon the Production of these Pigments in Plants. Journal of Genetics 4:361–367

    Google Scholar 

  • Froggatt P., N.C. Nevin 1971. The ‹Law of Ancestral Heredity’ and the Mendelian-Ancestrian Controversy in England, 1889–1906. Journal of Medical Genetics 8:1–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Geison Gerald. 1978. Michael Foster and the Cambridge School of Physiology. Princeton: Princeton University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenwood Arion, Edith Rebecca Saunders 1894. On the Role of Acid in Protozoan Digestion. Journal of Physiology 16:441–467

    Google Scholar 

  • Harwood Jonathan. 1993. Styles of Scientific Thought: The German Genetics Community, 1900–1933. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Hickman Mark, John Cairns. 2003. The Centenary of the One-Gene One-Enzyme Hypothesis. Genetics 163:839–841

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins Frederick Gowland 1923. Obituary Notice: Victor Alexander Herbert Huia Onslow. Biochemical Journal 17:1–4

    Google Scholar 

  • Kay Lily E. 1993. The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim Kyung-M. 1994. Explaining Scientific Consensus: The Case of Mendelian Genetics. New York: Guilford

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler Robert E. 1976. Walter Fletcher, F. G. Hopkins, and the Dunn Institute of Biochemistry: A Case Study in the Patronage of Science. Isis 69:331–355

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler Robert E. 1982. From Medical Chemistry to Biochemistry: The Making of a Biomedical Discipline. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler Robert E. 1991. Systems of Production: Drosophila, Neurospora, and Biochemical Genetics. Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 22:87–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler Robert E. 1994. Lords of the Fly: Drosophila Genetics and the Experimental Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence W.J.C. 1950. Genetic Control of Biochemical Synthesis as Exemplified by Plant Genetics – Flower Colours. Biochemical Symposia 4:3–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipset David. 1980. Gregory Bateson: The Legacy of a Scientist. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

    Google Scholar 

  • Lock, Robert Heath. 1906. Recent Progress in the Study of Variation, Heredity, and Evolution. London: John Murray

  • Mendel, Gregor. 1950. Experiments in Plant Hybridisation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press

  • McWilliams-Tullberg Rita. 1975. Women at Cambridge. A Men’s University – Though of a Mixed Type. London: Victor Gollanz

    Google Scholar 

  • Needham Joseph, Ernest Baldwin (eds.) 1949. Hopkins and Biochemistry. Cambridge: Heffer

    Google Scholar 

  • Olby Robert. 1974. The Path to the Double Helix. London: Macmillan

    Google Scholar 

  • Olby Robert. 1987. William Bateson’s Introduction of Mendelism to England: A Reassessment. British Journal for the History of Science 20:399–420

    Google Scholar 

  • Onslow, Muriel Wheldale. See Wheldale, Muriel [Onslow]

  • Provine William B. 1971. The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Rayner-Canham, Marelene and Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey. 2002. “Muriel Wheldale Onslow (1880–1932): Pioneer Plant Biochemist.” The Biochemist, April, 49–51

  • Rentetzi Maria. 2004. Gender, Politics, and Radioactivity Research in Interwar Vienna: The Case of the Institute for Radium Research. Isis 95:359–393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rheinberger Hans-Jörg. 2000a. Ephestia: The Experimental Design of Alfred Kühn’s Physiological and Developmental Genetics. Journal of the History of Biology 33:535–576

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rheinberger Hans-Jörg. 2000b. Mendelian Inheritance in Germany Between 1900 and 1910. The Case of Carl Correns (1864–1933). Comptes Rendu de l’Académie des Sciences, ser. 3, Sciences de la vie 323:1089–1096

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richmond Marsha L. 1997. ‹A Lab of One’s Own’: The Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women at Cambridge University, 1884–1914. Isis 88:422–455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richmond Marsha L. 2001. Women in the Early History of Genetics: William Bateson and the Newnham College Mendelians, 1900–1910. Isis 92:55–90

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richmond Marsha L. 2006. The ‹Domestication’ of Heredity: The Familial Organization of Geneticists at Cambridge University, 1895–1910. Journal of the History of Biology 33:565–605

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richmond Marsha L. 2007. William Bateson’s Pre- and Post-Mendelian Research Program in ‹Heredity and Development’. In Staffan Müller-Wille, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (eds.) A Cultural History of Heredity IV: Heredity in the Century of the Gene, Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, preprint series

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossiter Margaret W. 1982. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University

    Google Scholar 

  • Saha, Margaret Samosi. 1984. “Carl Correns and an Alternative Approach to Genetics: The Study of Heredity in Germany Between 1880 and 1930.” Ph.D. Diss., Michigan State University

  • Sapp Jan. 1987. Beyond the Gene: Cytoplasmic Inheritance and the Struggle for Authority in Genetics. New York: Oxford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Saunders Edith Rebecca. 1897. On a Discontinuous Variation Occurring in Biscutella Laevigata. Proceedings of the Royal Society 62:11–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott-Moncrieff Rose. 1930. Natural Anthocyanin Pigments. I. The Magenta Flower Pigment of Antirrhinum Majus. Biochemical Journal 24:753–766

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott-Moncrieff Rose. 1981–83. The Classical Period in Chemical Genetics: Recollections of Muriel Wheldale Onslow, Robert and Gertrude Robinson and J.B.S. Haldane. Notes and Records of the Royal Society 36–37:125–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Spillman W.J. 1911. Notes on Heredity. American Naturalist 45:507–512

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spillman W.J. 1912. Heredity. American Naturalist 46:110–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stamhuis Ida H. 1996. The Rediscovery of Mendel’s Laws Was not Important to Hugo de Vries (1848–1935): Evidence from His Letters to Jan Willem Moll (1851–1933). Folia Mendeliana 30:13–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Stamhuis Ida H. 2005. Hugo de Vries’s Transitions in Research Interest and Method. In Staffan Müller-Wille, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (eds.), A Cultural History of Heredity III: 19th and Early 20th Centuries, pp. 115–136. Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, preprint series

    Google Scholar 

  • Stephenson Marjory. 1932. Obituary Notice: Muriel Wheldale Onslow. 1880–1932. Biochemical Journal 26:915–916

    Google Scholar 

  • Sturtevant Alfred H. 1965. A History of Genetics. New York: Harper and Row

    Google Scholar 

  • Vardy I. Winifred. 1928. King Edward VI High School for Girls Birmingham 1883–1925. London: Ernest Benn Ltd. Mrs. E. W. Candler

    Google Scholar 

  • Weatherall Mark, Harmke Kamminga. 1992. Dynamic Science: Biochemistry in Cambridge, 1898–1949. Cambridge: Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine

    Google Scholar 

  • Weldon W.F.R. 1902a. Mendel’s Laws of Alternative Inheritance in Peas. Biometrika 1(2):228–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weldon W.F.R. 1902b. On the Ambiguity of Mendel’s Categories. Biometrika 2(1):44–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weldon W.F.R. 1903. On the Ambiguity of Mendel’s Categories. Biometrika 2(3):286–298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1907. The Inheritance of Flower Colour in Antirrhinum Majus. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 79:288–304. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1909a. The Colours and Pigments of Flowers, with Special Reference to Genetics. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 81:44–60. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1909b. Note on the Physiological Interpretation of the Mendelian Factors for Colour in Plants. In William Bateson, E. R. Saunders, R. C. Punnett (eds.) Reports to the Evolution Committee of the Royal Society, vol. 5, pp. 26–50. London: Royal Society of London. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1909c. On the Nature of Anthocyanin. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 15:137–68. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1910a. Die Vererbung der Blütenfarbe bei Antirrhimun majus. Zeitschrift für Induktive Abstammungs- und Vererbungslehre 3:321–333. Onslow

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1910b. Plant Oxidases and the Chemical Inter-Relationships of Colour-Varieties. Progressus Rei Botanicae 3:457–473. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1911a. The Chemical Differentiation of Species. Biochemical Journal 5:445–456. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1911b. On the Direct Guaiacum Reaction Given by Plant Extracts. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 84:121–124. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1913. The Flower Pigments of Antirrhinum Majus. I. Method of Preparation. Biochemical Journal 7:87–91. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1914a. The Chemical Interpretation of Some Mendelian Factors for Flower Colour. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 87(1914):300–311. Onslow

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1914b. Our Present Knowledge of the Chemistry of the Mendelian Factors for Flower-Colour. Part 1. Journal of Genetics 4:109–129. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1915a. Flower Pigments. American Naturalist 49:256. Onslow

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1915b. Our Present Knowledge of the Chemistry of the Mendelian Factors for Flower-Colour. Part 2. Journal of Genetics 4:369–376. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1920. Practical Plant Biochemistry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1916. The Anthocyanin Pigments of Plants. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1924. Huia Onslow: A Memoir. London: Edward Arnold. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1925. The Anthocyanin Pigments of Plants. 2d ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel. 1931. Principles of Plant Biochemistry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Onslow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel, Harold Llewellyn Bassett. 1913. The Flower Pigments of Antirrhinum Majus. 2. The Pale Yellow or Ivory Pigment. Biochemical Journal 7:441–444

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel, Harold Llewellyn Bassett. 1914a. The Chemical Interpretation of Some Mendelian Factors for Flower-Colour. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B 87:300–311

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel, Harold Llewellyn Bassett. 1914b. The Flower Pigments of Antirrhinum Majus. 3. The Red and Magenta Pigments. Biochemical Journal 8:204–208

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheldale Muriel, Harold Llewellyn Bassett. 1914c. On a Supposed Synthesis of Anthocyanin. Journal of Genetics 4(1914):103–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Willstätter Richard. 1958. Aus meinem Leben, 2d ed. Weinheim/Bergstrasse: Verlag Chemie

    Google Scholar 

  • Willstätter Richard and A. E. Everest. “Über den Farbstoff der Kornblume.” Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie 401(1913): 189–232

Download references

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Anne Thomson, Archivist, Newnham College, Cambridge; Annette Faux, former Assistant Librarian, and Hazel Zheng, Assistant Librarian, Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge; Elizabeth Stratton and Kenneth Dick, former Archivists, the John Innes Centre, Norwich; and Godfrey Waller, Head of Manuscripts, Cambridge University Library. The paper was presented at the 2003 meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology in Vienna; I thank Garland Allen for encouraging me to publish it. I also thank three anonymous reviewers for insightful comments and suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marsha L. Richmond.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Richmond, M.L. Muriel Wheldale Onslow and Early Biochemical Genetics. J Hist Biol 40, 389–426 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-007-9134-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-007-9134-8

Keywords

Navigation