Reginald Crundall Punnett (1875–1967)
Plaster models of chicken heads

Pressure to establish a permanent chair in genetics came to a head in 1909 during the celebration of Charles Darwin’s bicentenary, when the University Chancellor made a speech: ‘During the last generation, Cambridge … has been active in biological work. … At the present time it is desired, among other things, to establish a Chair of Genetics – a subject closely associated with the name of Darwin.’ Reginald Punnett was appointed the first Balfour Professor of Genetics in 1912. Punnett used selective breeding to develop a strain of chickens, the Cambar, where male and female chicks were different colours from birth. He had first suggested this during the First World War in order to concentrate resources on raising the more useful egg-laying females.

Whipple Wh.6547
Objects on loan from the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge