Rare: Chestnuts, Corn, and the Radiation Age at Blandy

It’s 1955. West Germany joins NATO. The Disneyland theme park opens in California. Patsy Cline parades through Winchester in the 31st Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival. And Blandy scientists are irradiating chestnuts to beat the blight.

The 1950s-1960s marked a colorful era at Blandy. Fresh from his role as senior geneticist at the Brookhaven National Lab, Blandy’s second Director Dr. Ralph Singleton launched an ambitious research program harnessing radiation as a tool to develop drought-, pest-, and disease-resistant plants through the generation of rare mutations.
Science historian and Blandy alumna Dr. Helen Ann Curry will give a talk reflecting on the “radiation age” and Blandy, contextualizing this period within larger national and international efforts to discover peaceful applications of nuclear technology for medicine, industry, and agriculture.

Speaker: Dr. Helen Anne Curry is Melvin Kranzberg Professor of the History of Technology at the School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology. From 2020–2026 she led the multi-researcher project, “ From Collection to Cultivation: Historical Perspectives on Crop Diversity and Food Security ” at the University of Cambridge with funding from the Wellcome Trust. Her current research centers on the histories of seeds, crop science, and industrial agriculture. She is author of Evolution Made to Order: Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth Century America (University of Chicago Press, 2016) and Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction (University of California Press, 2022).

What to expect : Talks followed by a discussion in the Blandy library.
Light refreshments provided (it’s a birthday celebration, after all!).
Audience: These programs are designed for adults.
Where to meet: The library at the Quarters building.
Can’t make it? Recordings of the program will be available online.