immunology

Mary N. Crawford, shown sitting next to blackboard

from Smithsonian Institution

• 1 older comment, and then…
• Jo Hinkel-Schneck said:

  I am the editor for a blog run by non-profit Feminist Press called UnderTheMicroscope.com. We publish stories and blogs designed to motivate girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math field.s I used this wonderful photo in a blog post today about how science careers are the "top paying" jobs for women: www.underthemicroscope.com/.
  
  Thank you for the beautiful photos, Smithsonian, of women in science from the '40s, '50s and '60s!
  
  --Joanne Hinkel

• Lauren said:

  Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Historic Heroines, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

• Alan Crawford said:

  Dr. Crawford (1923-1997) was a world-renowned immunohematologist who participated in groundbreaking work on blood groups. She was the recognized expert on the Lu (Lutheran) blood group.
  
  While she did not herself discover the Lutheran blood group, she did discover (in 1961, not 1962) the very rare Lu(a-b-) phenotype in her own blood. For many years, only one person outside the Crawford family - the patient in Great Britain - was known to carry this phenotype.
  
  A note regarding blood groups: Blood groups are often confused with blood types. Blood types are genetic expressions within blood groups. All people carry all blood groups but their phenotypes ("blood types") within those groups will differ and may even be unique for a given individual.
  
  The best-known blood groups are ABO and Rh; others include (but are not limited to) Lu (Lutheran), K (Kell), Le (Lewis), Fy (Duffy) and Jk (Kidd).
  
  An excellent treatise on this subject is Blood Groups in Man by Race & Sanger, in which Dr. Crawford's work is mentioned.

• Smithsonian Institution said:

  Hi acrawfordiii,
  
  Thanks for sharing more information about Dr. Crawford with our community!
  
  Susannah