The collections catalogued as part of the ‘Towards Dolly’ and ‘Making of Dolly’ projects relate to a long history of animal breeding and genetics research in and around Edinburgh. Many different organisations and individuals have played their part; this is a brief history of just some of them.

Edinburgh first became established as a centre for animal breeding through the work of James Cossar Ewart, professor of natural history at the University of Edinburgh between 1882-1927. As well as his pioneering cross-breeding experiments, Ewart also helped establish a lectureship in genetics at the University in 1911 (the first of its kind in Britain), to which Arthur Darbishire was appointed.

Notebook of A.D. Darbishire, c.1902-1910, EUA IN1/ACU/A1/5/1

Government plans to fund a national centre for animal breeding research in Edinburgh stalled during the First World War, but were resumed afterwards. In 1920, the Animal Breeding Research Station was established with the aim to apply the emerging science of genetics to the improvement of livestock and agricultural production. Darbishire, a natural choice for director, had died in a military camp in 1915, so the directorship went to one of his former students, F.A.E. Crew. Over the next two decades, the small experimental ‘station’ was transformed into the University’s Institute of Animal Genetics with an international reputation, attracting leading geneticists such as H.J. Muller to Edinburgh to carry out research. The work of the Institute was diverse, from classical genetics using Drosophila fruit flies to large scale livestock experiments. Crew was also the first Buchanan Professor of Animal Genetics at the University.

Staff and resources were scarce during the Second World War, although it was in this period when Charlotte Auerbach and J.M. Robson made their ground-breaking discovery of the mutagenic properties of mustard gas. After the end of the war, it was decided that the newly formed National Animal Breeding and Genetics Research Organisation (NABGRO, later simply ABRO) would be located in Edinburgh, under the directorship of R.G. White. A Poultry Research Centre (PRC) was also established under the directorship of Alan Greenwood. Both organisations were sponsored by the Agricultural Research Council. The ‘genetics section’ of ABRO staff, directed by C.H. Waddington, occupied the Institute of Animal Genetics building, while the rest of ABRO was occupied with breeding experiments on a variety of farms.

Visitors and staff at the Institute of Animal Genetics, c.1924, EUA IN1/ACU/A1/8/2

By 1951, the genetics section formally separated from ABRO to become its own unit within the Institute of Animal Genetics, with Waddington as de facto director of the whole Institute (Crew had resigned in 1944), as well as Buchanan Professor of Animal Genetics.

Over the following decades, the Institute housed a number of additional units, aside from the original core of University staff (the Department of Genetics), which conducted research in a variety of areas: from the genetic effects of radiation through to reproductive physiology, mutagenesis and protozoan genetics. Waddington resigned as director of the Unit in 1968, with Douglas Falconer his successor until the Unit was disbanded in 1980.

A reorganisation in 1986 saw ABRO and most of PRC combine to form the Edinburgh Research Station of the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics Research, sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council. The new Station was based at Roslin, with its sister organisation at Babraham, near Cambridge. Roger Land was appointed Head of Station in Edinburgh, with Grahame Bulfield taking over in 1988.

In 1993, Roslin became independent from Babraham to become Roslin Institute, with Bulfield as director. A series of experiments to produce cloned and transgenic sheep led to Roslin becoming internationally famous in 1996, when Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues created Dolly the sheep, the first animal to be cloned from an adult body cell.

Dolly the sheep, photograph courtesy of the 'Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS, University of Edinburgh'

The Institute of Animal Genetics was formally shut down in 1990, as part of a widespread reorganisation which gave rise to the University of Edinburgh’s Division (later School) of Biological Sciences. The Department of Genetics became part of the Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, which split in 2004 to form the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and the Institute of Immunology & Infection Research.

In 2008, Roslin Institute became incorporated with the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies within the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine of the University of Edinburgh, under the director David Hume. It moved into new premises on the University’s Easter Bush site in 2011, where it continues to conduct research into the health and welfare of animals, and applications of basic animal sciences in human and veterinary medicine, the livestock industry and food security.