# Helen Dean King > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Helen_Dean_King > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Helen_Dean_King.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Dean_King > Source revision: 1350581647 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) American biologist (1869–1955) Helen Dean King Born (1869-09-27)September 27, 1869 Owego, New York Died March 7, 1955(1955-03-07) (aged 85) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Education Vassar College Bryn Mawr College Known for Breeding the Wistar laboratory rat Awards Ellen Richards Research Prize of the Association to Aid Scientific Research for Women Scientific career Fields Zoology Institutions University of Pennsylvania, Wistar Institute **Helen Dean King** (September 27, 1869 – March 7, 1955) was an American [zoologist](/source/Zoologist). She was involved in breeding the [Wistar laboratory rat](/source/Wistar_laboratory_rat), a strain of rats genetically homogeneous albinos intended for use in biological and medical research. ## Life and work Born at [Owego, New York](/source/Owego_(village)%2C_New_York), she graduated from [Vassar College](/source/Vassar_College) in 1892, and in 1899 she received her doctorate in [philosophy](/source/Philosophy) from [Bryn Mawr College](/source/Bryn_Mawr_College), with a thesis supervised by embryologist and geneticist [Thomas Hunt Morgan](/source/Thomas_Hunt_Morgan). She had majored in morphology. She remained at the College after graduation as a fellow and student assistant in biology from 1897 to 1904.[1] King taught [physiology](/source/Physiology) at Miss Baldwin's School, [Bryn Mawr](/source/Bryn_Mawr%2C_Pennsylvania), from 1899 to 1907, was research fellow at the [University of Pennsylvania](/source/University_of_Pennsylvania) in 1906–08, and served as an assistant in [anatomy](/source/Anatomy) in 1908–09. After 1909, she worked at the [Wistar Institute](/source/Wistar_Institute), for more than 40 years, first as an assistant and eventually becoming professor of embryology in 1927 and remaining there until her retirement in 1949.[1] She was also an assistant at [Woods Hole](/source/Woods_Hole%2C_Massachusetts), [Massachusetts](/source/Massachusetts). Her investigations dealt largely with problems of sex determination.[2] King served as vice president of the [American Society of Zoologists](/source/American_Society_of_Zoologists) in 1937, and was associate editor of the *Journal of Morphology and Physiology* from 1924 to 1927 and editor of the Wistar Institute's bibliography service from 1922 to 1935.[3][4] Helen Dean King, “The Spermatogenesis of Bufo *lentiginosus*,”   Plate 1. Page from *American Journal of Anatomy*, Vol. VII, 1907-1908. King participated in breeding the [Wistar rat](/source/Wistar_rat), a strain of genetically homogeneous albino [rats](/source/Brown_rat) for use in biological and medical research.[5][6][7] She died at age 85 on March 7, 1955, in [Philadelphia](/source/Philadelphia), Pennsylvania.[1] ## Research King's scientific research largely focused on studies of inbred rats, and she was particularly interested in human issues while using for this purpose data from meticulous experiments on laboratory rats. Through inbreeding, her rats were almost [homozygous](/source/Zygosity) to each other, which facilitated research. In later years, she moved her focus to pursue research on gray Norway rats.[1] ## Awards - Ellen Richards Research Prize of the Association to Aid Scientific Research for Women (1932) ## Selected publications - King, Helen Dean. "On the weight of the albino rat at birth and the factors that influence it." *The Anatomical Record* 9, no. 3 (1915): 213–31. - King, Helen Dean. "Studies on inbreeding. I. The effects in inbreeding on the growth and variability in the body weight of the albino rat." *Journal of Experimental Zoology* 26, no. 1 (1918): 1–54. - King, Helen Dean, and Henry Herbert Donaldson. "Life processes and size of the body and organs of the gray Norway rat during ten generations in captivity." *American Anatomical Memoirs* (1929). - King, Helen Dean. "Life processes in gray Norway rats during fourteen years in captivity." *American Anatomical Memoirs* (1939). ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:0_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:0_1-3) Ogilvie, M. B., & Harvey, J. D. (2000). The biographical dictionary of women in science: Pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century. New York: Routledge. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-415-92038-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-415-92038-4) 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Colby, Frank Moore; Williams, Talcott, eds. (1915). "King, Helen Dean". *New International Encyclopedia*. Vol. 13 (2nd ed.). Dodd, Mead. p. 240. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-Ogilvie1986_3-0)** Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey (1986). [*Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century*](https://archive.org/details/womeninsciencean0000ogil). MIT Press. pp. [108](https://archive.org/details/womeninsciencean0000ogil/page/108)–109. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-262-65038-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-262-65038-0). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-Kaufman_et_al_1996_4-0)** Kaufman, Dawn M.; Kaufman, Donald W.; Kaufman, Glennis A. (1996). ["Women in the Early Years of the American Society of Mammalogists (1919-1949)"](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1382670). *Journal of Mammalogy*. **77** (3): 642. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/1382670](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1382670). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [1382670](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1382670). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Clause, Bonnie Tocher (Summer 1993). "The Wistar Rat as a Right Choice: Establishing Mammalian Standards and the Ideal of a Standardized Mammal". *Journal of the History of Biology*. **26** (2): 329–49, SpringerLink. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1007/BF01061973](https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01061973). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [11623164](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11623164). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [12428625](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:12428625). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey (1 September 2007). "Inbreeding, eugenics, and Helen Dean King (1869–1955)". *Journal of the History of Biology*. **40** (3): 467–507. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1007/s10739-006-9117-1](https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10739-006-9117-1). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [18348398](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18348398). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [19971700](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:19971700). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Clause, B. T. (February 1998). ["The Wistar Institute Archives: Rats (Not Mice) and History"](https://web.archive.org/web/20061216054827/http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mendel/1998.htm). *Mendel Newsletter* (7): 2–7. [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [11619935](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11619935). Archived from [the original](http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mendel/1998.htm) on 2006-12-16. ## External links - [Works by or about Helen Dean King](https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%22King%2C+Helen+Dean%22+OR+%22Helen+Dean+King%22%29) at the [Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive) - This article incorporates text from a publication now in the [public domain](/source/Public_domain): Colby, F.; Williams, T., eds. (1915). "King, Helen Dean". *[New International Encyclopedia](/source/New_International_Encyclopedia)* (2nd ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND WorldCat National United States Other Open Library SNAC --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Helen Dean King](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Dean_King) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Dean_King?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.