Editing Thomas Hunt Morgan (section)

==Early life and education==
Morgan was born in [[Lexington, Kentucky|Lexington]], [[Kentucky]], to Charlton Hunt Morgan and Ellen Key Howard Morgan.<ref name="nobelprize.org"/><ref name="p283">Sturtevant (1959), p. 283.</ref> Part of a line of [[Southern United States|Southern]] plantation and slave owners on his father's side, Morgan was a nephew of [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] General [[John Hunt Morgan]]; his great-grandfather [[John Wesley Hunt]] had been one of the first millionaires west of the [[Allegheny Mountains]]. Through his mother, he was the great-grandson of [[Francis Scott Key]], the author of the "[[Star Spangled Banner]]", and [[John Eager Howard]], governor and senator from [[Maryland]].<ref name="p283"/> Following the Civil War, the family fell on hard times with the temporary loss of civil and some property rights for those who aided the Confederacy. His father had difficulty finding work in politics and spent much of his time coordinating veterans' reunions.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

Beginning at age 16 in the Preparatory Department, Morgan attended the State College of Kentucky (now the [[University of Kentucky]]). He focused on science; he particularly enjoyed natural history, and worked with the [[United States Geological Survey|U.S. Geological Survey]] in his summers. He graduated as [[valedictorian]] in 1886 with a Bachelor of Science degree.<ref>Allen (1978), pp. 11–14, 24.</ref> Following a summer at the Marine Biology School in [[Annisquam, Massachusetts]], Morgan began graduate studies in [[zoology]] at the recently founded [[Johns Hopkins University]]. After two years of experimental work with [[morphology (biology)|morphologist]] [[William Keith Brooks]] and writing several publications, Morgan was eligible to receive a Master of Science from the State College of Kentucky in 1888. The college required two years of study at another institution and an examination by the college faculty. {{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} The college offered Morgan a full professorship; however, he chose to stay at Johns Hopkins and was awarded a relatively large<!--USD500--> fellowship to help him fund his studies.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}

Under Brooks, Morgan completed his thesis work on the embryology of [[sea spider]]s—collected during the summers of 1889 and 1890 at the [[Marine Biological Laboratory]] in [[Woods Hole, Massachusetts]]—to determine their [[Phylogenetics|phylogenetic]] relationship with other [[arthropod]]s. He concluded that concerning embryology, they were more closely related to [[Chelicerata|spiders]] than crustaceans. Based on the publication of this work, Morgan was awarded his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] from Johns Hopkins in 1890 and was also awarded the Bruce Fellowship in Research. He used the fellowship to travel to [[Jamaica]], the [[Bahama]]s and [[Europe]] to conduct further research.<ref>Allen, ''Thomas Hunt Morgan: The Man and His Science'', pp. 46–51</ref>

Every summer from 1910 to 1925, Morgan and his colleagues at the famous Fly Room at Columbia University moved their research program to the [[Marine Biological Laboratory]]. Aside from being an independent investigator at the MBL from 1890 to 1942, he became very involved in the governance of the institution, including serving as an MBL trustee from 1897 to 1945.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kenney |first1=D. E. |last2=Borisy |first2=G. G. |year=2009 |title=Thomas Hunt Morgan at the Marine Biological Laboratory: Naturalist and Experimentalist |journal=[[Genetics (journal)|Genetics]] |volume=181 |issue=3 |pages=841–846 |doi=10.1534/genetics.109.101659 |pmid=19276218 |pmc=2651058 }}</ref>