Photo Essay | The Papers of Microbiologist Jeanne Poindexter

“This file contains lecture notes, experiment instructions and supply lists, and data from Poindexter’s Introductory Laboratory in Microbiology. She organized her meticulous class records by the different exercises she assigned to her lab students, and this folder focuses on ‘Exercise 6: Enzyme Extraction Island Assay: Alkaline Phosphatase from Escherichia coli.’ Because the folder is organized in reverse chronological order by year, you can see the evolution of this assignment, which is useful for pedagogical research.”

“This transmission electron micrograph negative exemplifies a prominent way in which Poindexter conducted her Caulobacter research. Transmission electron microscopes beam electrons through specimens, such as bacteriophages, to create a magnified image of the specimen. The notation on the negative slip suggests that this is a specimen of E. coli in the B2 group.” 

“These are slides of petri dishes, well plates, and test tubes from the Introductory Lab in Microbiology. There are several different experiments represented, including one by Talia Swartz ’00 (indicated by the label ‘THS’). She was testing how agitation impacted the luminescence of bacteria in liquid food, which is why the pictures were taken in the dark and some of the circles in the well plates have a bright glow. Other slides on the sheet show bacteria growth on agar or slant test tubes (top row of the sheet) and antibiotic resistance to different drug discs (bottom of the sheet).” 

“This set of slides is also from Poindexter’s Introductory Laboratory in Microbiology. The slides feature images of various petri dishes with bacteria on agar, with labels that indicate the contents: ‘e coli added,’ ‘carrots (no coli),’ etc. Some of the plates have antibiotic discs. These slides could have been used for both recordkeeping and teaching purposes.” 

“This file contains the elements of a poster presentation, called ‘Interludes of Exponential Growth in Chemostat Cultures of Caulobacter crescentus,’ that Poindexter gave to the American Society for Microbiology in 1990. It includes the text of the presentation, handwritten notes, and hand-drawn graphs on Poindexter’s study of linear versus exponential growth of chemostats. She kept the presentation together with correspondence to Andy Sage at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Biology Department and Dr. Paul Dunlap at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. These materials showcase the ways in which Poindexter presented and discussed her research, as well as her professional relationships across the scientific community.”

“This is a graph from Poindexter’s Introductory Laboratory in Microbiology. Depicting part of ‘Exercise 7: Bacteriophages: Pseudomonas aeruginosa,’ the graph shows the class average for counts of plaque forming units (PFUs), which measured the infection virus units in a culture. The graph is not without context, as it sits alongside Poindexter’s exercise instructions, as well as her lab and lecture notes specific to the exercise. These types of carefully hand-drawn graphs, which are numerous among the files in this collection, reflect research traditions and showcase Poindexter’s meticulous dedication to her day-to-day work as a researcher and a professor.” 
 

“This projector transparency is from Poindexter’s Introductory Laboratory in Microbiology. It highlights a common bacteriology procedure, the Gram stain. These types of transparencies are one of the many teaching tools that Poindexter used in her biology labs and lectures.”

“These film prints are from Poindexter’s records on the Introductory Laboratory in Microbiology. The prints show the various types of research documentation that Poindexter kept in addition to notes. The photo of the empty vials with handwritten labels may have served as a reference to determine what was in each vial once they were full. The underexposed film on the left shows the possible mishaps that could occur in the process of documenting research.” 

“These index cards contain Poindexter’s handwritten instructions, or ‘recipes,’ for preparation of various solutions and indicators for experiments. As with her meticulous note taking, she dated all the handwritten edits she (or her students and research assistants) made to the cards, so researchers are able to see changes in methods over time.”