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Jeanne Stove Poindexter

Jeanne Stove Poindexter was a research scientist, Barnard professor, and mentor for numerous students. She was known widely in the scientific community for her research on the stalked bacterium Caulobacter crescentus, an important organism for studying the regulation of the cell cycle, asymmetric cell division, and cellular differentiation.

Over the course of her career, Poindexter taught and completed research at a variety of institutions, including 16 years as a professor of biological sciences at Barnard, from 1991 to 2007. 

After Poindexter died, in July 2020, her family generously donated her papers to the Barnard Archives and Special Collections. Archives Processing and Pedagogy Fellow Sarah Barlow-Ochshorn ’20 took the lead in processing Poindexter’s papers, cataloging them in step with the Barnard Year of Science, a celebration of all things related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) at the College. 

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Sarah Barlow-Ochshorn looks at archival files
Sarah Barlow-Ochshorn ’20

Poindexter was a member of a variety of microbiology organizations, and in 2012, the New York State Senate gave her the honor of Woman of Distinction. In 2020, she had a bacterial virus named after her: the Poindextervirus. While at Barnard, she received the Emily Gregory Teaching Award and was recognized in 2014 by the Barnard Alumnae of Color organization as a supportive and influential professor for alumnae of color. She also garnered the American Society of Microbiology’s Carski Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award.

One of Poindexter’s daughters, Carla Poindexter White, facilitated the donation of her mother’s papers. Talia Swartz ’00, a former mentee and student of Poindexter’s, provided assistance by sharing her knowledge of Poindexter’s field of research and her own experiences as a student. The collection focuses on Poindexter’s professional research and teaching materials and provides insights into her approach to teaching and how research methods can evolve over time.
 
Below, Barlow-Ochshorn, informed by conversations and correspondence with Swartz, shares select files from Poindexter’s archives and explains their significance. 

Select files from Poindexter’s archives

Jeanne Poindexter Papers, 1978-2007; Box 3 Folder 2; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College

“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.”

Jeanne Poindexter Papers, 1978-2007; Box 5 Folder 1; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College

“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.” 

Jeanne Poindexter Papers, 1978-2007; Box 5 Folder 5; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College

“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).” 

Jeanne Poindexter Papers, 1978-2007; Box 5 Folder 2; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College

“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.” 

Jeanne Poindexter Papers, 1978-2007; Box 1 Folder 8; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College

“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.”

Jeanne Poindexter Papers, 1978-2007; Box 3 Folder 6; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College

“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.” 
 

Jeanne Poindexter Papers, 1978-2007; Box 5 Folder 5; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College

“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.”

Jeanne Poindexter Papers, 1978-2007; Box 5 Folder 3; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College

“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.” 

Jeanne Poindexter Papers, 1978-2007; Box 3 Folder 1; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College

“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.” 

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text saying "Year of Science" surrounded by various scientific paraphernalia, such as beakers, gears, and nuclear symbols