Eugenics Societies

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Eugenical News

One of the early periodical publications devoted to eugenics, the Eugenical news started in 1916 and was, at various times, the official organ of the Eugenics Research Association and then the American Eugenics Society. Appearing monthly, the Eugenical news was published by the Eugenics Record Office at this period and includes articles on the heredity of historical figures as well as items of news related to the eugenics movement, birth control and birth rate, and immigration and sterilization laws and other legislation.

The Eugenical news later became the Eugenics quarterly and appears now as the journal Biodemography and social biology.

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The Eugenics Review

The official organ for the Eugenics Society in England, The eugenics review first appeared in 1909 and was published continuously until this, its final volume under that title. In 1969, the publication was reformulated as the Journal of biosocial science and continues today. As part of the change, the Society encapsulated the rise and fall of the eugenics movement by stating that “the initial drive behind it, as behind the Society, came from those concerned with social evils, rather than with human biology. This orientation was understandable in the context of 1909 when social evils were obvious to all but knowledge of human genetics was rudimentary and human cytogenetics was unknown. The overall result was that in those early days the eugenic ideals of the few vastly outran knowledge and both outran the motivation of the many.”

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Reactivation of the Dight Institute

Physician Charles F. Dight (1856-1938) was the first president of the Minnesota Eugenics Society and promoted the state’s adoption of a law for the sterilization of the feeble-minded and insane in 1925. He bequeathed his fortune to the University of Minnesota and so established the Charles Fremont Dight Institute for the Promotion of Human Genetics in 1941 to provide lectures, educational opportunities, and genetic counseling services to the public and foster research. In 1948, the Institute received 40,000 pedigrees—the working files of the Eugenics Record Office—from the Carnegie Institution. The Dight Institute was active until 1991.

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Charles Fremont Dight

Picture of Charles Fremont Dight from Bulletin no. 1 of the Dight Institute

Galton's Children
Eugenics Societies