Beginning around the turn of the 20th century, embryologists started to realize the potential of experimental approaches to investigating development. By intervening in normal development—shaking embryos, splitting them apart, soaking them in various solutions, transplanting pieces of one onto another, and so on—researchers discovered aspects of embryogenesis that they were unable to see with purely descriptive studies. The success of these experimental approaches depended on visual media to document experimental outcomes and describe exactly how experiments were done. Johannes Holtfreter and Viktor Hamburger were highly skilled experimentalists who established many of the techniques and tools that are still used to manipulate embryos. Many of the pioneering experiments they did with amphibian and chick embryos, respectively, laid the foundation modern day research in these organisms.
Seeing with Multiple Mediums
- Landecker, H. (2006). Microcinematography and the History of Science and Film. Isis, 97(1), 121–132. http://doi.org/10.1086/501105
- Brauckmann, S. (2011). Cultures of seeing embryos and cells in 3-dimensions and flatness. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 42(4), 365–367. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.07.010
- Brauckmann, S. (2012). On Fate and Specification: Images and Models in Developmental Biology. In N. Anderson & M. R. Dietrich (Eds.), The Educated Eye: Visual Culture and Pedagogy in the Life Sciences (pp. 213–234). Dartmouth College Press.
- Maienschein, Jane. 1991. “From Presentation to Representation in E. B. Wilson’s The Cell.” Biology and Philosophy 6 (2): 227-54.
Staging Development
- Hamburger, Viktor and Howard L. Hamilton. (1951). “A Series of Normal Stages in the Development of the Chick Embryo.” Journal of Morphology 88(3): 49-92.
- Hopwood, N. (2005). Visual Standards and Disciplinary Change: Normal plates, Tables and Stages in Embryology. History of Science, 43, 239–303.
Looking at Cells
Wilson and Conklin: Tracing Cell Lineages
- Conklin, E. G. (1897). The Embryology of Crepidula: A Contribution to the Cell Lineage and Early Development of Some Marine Gasteropods. Journal of Morphology, 13(1), 1–226.
- B. Wilson, E. (1892). The cell-lineage of Nereis: A contribution to the cytogeny of the annelid body. Journal of Morphology, 6(3), 361–481.
Holtfreter: Observing Cells
- Holtfreter, Johannes. (1943). “A study of the mechanics of gastrulation Part I.” Journal of Experimental Zoology 94: 261-318.
- Holtfreter, Johannes. (1944). “A study of the mechanics of gastrulation Part II.” Journal of Experimental Zoology 95: 171-212.
- Hamburger, Viktor. (1996). “Introduction: Johannes Holtfreter, Pioneer in Experimental Embryology.” Developmental Dynamics 205: 214-216.
- Gerhart, John. (1998). “Johannes Holtfreter: January 9, 1901–November 13, 1992,” Biographical Memoirs National Academy of Sciences 73: 209–28.
Trinkaus: Filming Embryos
- Trinkaus, John Philip. "Surface activity and locomotion of Fundulus deep cells during blastula and gastrula stages." Developmental Biology 30 (1973): 68–103.
- Trinkaus, John Philip. "The yolk syncytial layer of Fundulus: Its origin and history and its significance for early embryogenesis." Journal of Experimental Zoology 265 (1993): 258–84.
Experimenting on Embryos
Exogastrulas
- Gerhart, John. (1998). “Johannes Holtfreter: January 9, 1901–November 13, 1992,” Biographical Memoirs National Academy of Sciences 73: 209–28.
Transplating Limb Buds
- Allen, Garland E. (2004). “A Pact with the Embryo: Viktor Hamburger, Holistic and Mechanistic Philosophy in the Development of Neuroembryology, 1927-1955.” Journal of the History of Biology 37: 421-474
- Hamburger, Viktor. (1934). ‘‘The Effects of Wing Bud Extirpation on the Development of the Central Nervous System in Chick Embryos.’’ Journal of Experimental Zoology 68: 449–494.
- Hamburger, Viktor. (1938). ‘‘Morphogenetic and Axial Self-differentiation of Transplanted Limb Primordia of Two-day Chick Embryos.’’ Journal of Experimental Zoology 77: 379–397
