He was born in Waldo, Ohio, the son of A. V. Conklin and Maria Hull.

[4] He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1908.

He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1914.

[8] In 1995, the Society for Developmental Biology inaugurated the Edwin Grant Conklin Medal in his honor.

Some biological aspects of immigration |journal = Scribner's Magazine|volume=49|issue=3|pages=352–359