Photograph of Elmer Ernest Southard, circa 1918.
Southard, Elmer Ernest, 1876-1920
Photographs
Eugenics
Photographer unknown.
Harvard Medical School Faculty and Staff Portrait Collection: D-W, ca. 1774-2001.
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M-CL02, 00138.152, box S067.97
Concerning the study of eugenics in Massachusetts
Southard, Elmer Ernest, 1876-1920
Eugenics
Typescript
Harvard’s Bullard Professor of Neuropathology, E. E. Southard, presented this report on the desirability of eugenic research in Massachusetts, to the Board of Directors of the Eugenics Record Office, probably at its first meeting on December 12, 1910. He summarized, <em>“It is probable that Massachusetts is hardly surpassable in this country as a field for the study of eugenics, including under that name not only 1) eugenics proper, that is, the study of hereditary conditions tending to maintain society at par (the prevention of deterioration) but also 2) cacogenics, the study of hereditary forces tending to pull society down, as well as 3) the possibly Utopian variant, aristogenics, with its hope of elucidating the method by which the best stock is assembled and improved.” </em>
Southard, Elmer Ernest, 1876-1920
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text
0001954
George Washington Gay
Gay, George W. (George Washington), 1842-1931
Eugenics
Photographs
School yearbooks
Unknown
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0002117
Draft of letter to Ernest V. Scribner from George Washington Gay
Gay, George W. (George Washington), 1842-1931 (author)
Scribner, Ernest V.
Eugenics
Drafts (documents)
Correspondence
Former lecturer in surgery at Harvard and senior surgeon at Boston City Hospital, George W. Gay was approached by the Massachusetts Commission for expert advice on vasectomy and enforced sterilization: <em>“The most feasible method of controlling women at present in this state is custodial supervision in an institution. Surgery offers an effectual preventative to conception, but it is not without some danger to life. With the male, however, there is a measure which is safe, practically painless, effective and free from any objections. Vasectomy … has been done a good many times with most satisfactory results to all concerned…. Your Commission is doubtless familiar with the admirable work which has been and is now being done by Dr. H. H. Goddard at Vineland, New Jersey…. Having spent a day there last year I became much interested in the results of his labors. They seemed to furnish undeniable evidence of the folly of allowing defectives to procreate. A large proportion of them are of no comfort or use to themselves or to society in general and moreover very many of them, as you well know, become public charges, for the support of whom you and I and everybody else who pays taxes have to foot the bills. This is all wrong and any experiment which is reasonable and practicable is worthy of trial.”</em>
Gay, George W. (George Washington), 1842-1931
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text
0002109
0002110
0002111
Eugenical sterilization in the United States
Laughlin, Harry Hamilton, 1880-1943
Eugenics
Eugenics--Law and legislation
Reports
Harry H. Laughlin was director of Eugenics Record Office for thirty years and assisted Charles B. Davenport in first publishing the Eugenics Research Association’s <em>Eugenical news</em> to promote the activities of the Office. In 1922, he compiled and published this report on sterilization laws in each state and here provides the text for standard and model state laws for scientific sterilization.
Laughlin, Harry Hamilton, 1880-1943
Psychopathic Laboratory of the Municipal Court of Chicago
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English
text
0001941
An act concerning operations for the prevention of procreation
Connecticut General Assembly
Eugenics
Eugenics--Law and legislation
Laws (documents)
A bill for the sterilization of inmates of prisons and insane hospitals “by whom procreation would be inadvisable” was introduced into the Connecticut legislature by Representative Wilbur F. Tomlinson in February, 1909. The bill passed both the House and Senate in July and was approved by the Governor on August 12, 1909. Connecticut was one of the first states to adopt such a law, following Indiana in 1907.
<p>In a 1910 letter to George W. Gay, Dr. William Henry Carmalt of New Haven stated, <em>“Unless such a law is in the hands of those willing to accept the responsibilities of their positions, it becomes a dead letter. I hope the next Legislature can be induced to put the carrying out of the law in more earnest hands. The real trouble, however, with the whole matter is the absence of statistics in the genealogical histories of inmates, principally of insane asylums and almshouses, for it [is] from them rather than the prisons that the degenerates breed.”</em></p>
Connecticut General Assembly
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English
text
0002112
What can be done to better the race?
Gay, George W. (George Washington), 1842-1931
Eugenics
Articles
Eugenics--Law and legislation
This letter by Gay summarizes the state of eugenics and alludes to the states which have enacted sterilization laws but concedes that an educational program is the most practical means to promote eugenic policy. The article was reprinted as “Practical aspects of eugenics” in the <em>Boston medical and surgical journal</em> a few weeks later.
Gay, George W. (George Washington), 1842-1931
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text
0002108
Map of eugenic sterilization laws by state
Laughlin, Harry Hamilton, 1880-1943
Eugenics
Eugenics--Law and legislation
Maps
<em><br id="tinymce" class="mceContentBody " /></em>
Laughlin, Harry Hamilton, 1880-1943
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0001939
Brain of an alcoholic vagrant
Canavan, Myrtelle M. (Myrtelle May), 1879-
Eugenics
Photographs
Dr. Myrtelle May Canavan, pathologist with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Diseases and a member of the staff of the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, displayed enlarged photographs of fifty brains of criminals and feeble-minded individuals at the exhibition attached to the meeting of the Second International Congress in 1921. The exhibition catalog entry states that the criminal brains <em>“were, for the most part, either very long or very round, with well developed pattern, probably indicating that the criminal is potentially well endowed but improperly uses his endowment. Most of the crimes were minor ones—breaking and entering, drunkenness, vagrancy, now and then a major crime of murder. It was striking, perhaps fortunate, that the majority of these men were unmarried.”</em> This specimen, no. 576, shows the brain of a Canadian alcoholic vagrant whose mother died insane. Dr. Canavan and Louise Eisenhardt published this series of photographs as <em>The brains of fifty insane criminals : shapes and patterns</em>, in 1942.
Canavan, Myrtelle M. (Myrtelle May), 1879-
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0001956
The Second International Exhibition of Eugenics
International Congress of Eugenics (2nd : 1921)
Eugenics
Title pages
Frontispieces (illustrations)
Harry Hamilton Laughlin was chairman of the Committee on Exhibits associated with the Second International Congress and organized this display at the American Museum of Natural History in the fall of 1921. A gift of $2,500 from Mrs. E. H. Harriman made the exhibit possible. There were 131 exhibitors from 22 states and 16 foreign countries, mounting displays on subjects of heredity, race, and applied eugenics.
International Congress of Eugenics (2nd : 1921)
Williams & Wilkins Company
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English
text
0002114
Eugenics, genetics and the family : scientific papers of the Second International Congress of Eugenics
International Congress of Eugenics (2nd: 1921)
Eugenics
Title pages
There were three international meetings of eugenics researchers during the period of the movement’s greatest influence and activity. This volume reprints the scientific papers from the Second Congress, held at the American Museum of Natural History. Alexander Graham Bell was the honorary president of the Congress and Major Leonard Darwin, one of Charles Darwin’s sons and president of the Eugenics Education Society, delivered a keynote address.
<p>Henry Fairfield Osborn, in his address of welcome, states, <em>“In the United States we are slowly waking to the consciousness that education and environment do not fundamentally alter racial values. We are engaged in a serious struggle to maintain our historic republican institutions through barring the entrance of those who are unfit to share the duties and responsibilities of our well-founded government. The true spirit of American democracy that all men are born with equal rights and duties has been confused with the political sophistry that all men are born with equal character and ability to govern themselves and others, and with the educational sophistry that education and environment will offset the handicap of heredity.”</em></p>
International Congress of Eugenics (2nd : 1921)
Williams & Wilkins Company
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text
0002113
Certificate of appreciation from the Second International Congress of Eugenics
International Congress of Eugenics (2nd: 1921)
Canavan, Myrtelle M. (Myrtelle May), 1879-
Eugenics
For her contribution to the Second International Congress of Eugenics exhibit, Dr. Canavan was presented with this certificate of appreciation.
International Congress of Eugenics (2nd : 1921)
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text
0001952
Charles Fremont Dight
Dight, Charles Fremont, 1856-1938
Eugenics
Photographs
Picture of Charles Fremont Dight from <em>Bulletin no. 1 of the Dight Institute</em>
Unknown
University of Minnesota Press
1943
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0002103
Reactivation of the Dight Institute, 1947-1949: Counseling in human genetics
Reed, Sheldon C. (Sheldon Clark), 1910-2003 (author)
Dight, Charles Fremont, 1856-1938
Eugenics
Dight Institute of the University of Minnesota
Title pages
Journals (periodicals)
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.
Reed, Sheldon C. (Sheldon Clark), 1910-2003
University of Minnesota Press
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English
text
0002106
0002107
The Eugenics Review
Eugenics
Eugenics Review
Journals (periodicals)
Eugenics Society (London, England)
The official organ for the Eugenics Society in England, <em>The eugenics review</em> 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 <em>“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.”</em>
Eugenics Society (London, England)
Eugenics Education Society
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English
text
0002102
Eugenical News
Eugenics
Eugenical News
Journals (periodicals)
Eugenics Research Association
One of the early periodical publications devoted to eugenics, the <em>Eugenical news</em> 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 <em>Eugenical news</em>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.
<p>The <em>Eugenical news</em> later became the <em>Eugenics quarterly</em> and appears now as the journal <em>Biodemography and social biology</em>.</p>
Eugenics Research Association
Eugenics Record Office
1918 May
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text
English
text
0002097
Heredity and human progress
McKim, W. Duncan
Eugenics
Title pages
In this radical work, Washington physician, William Duncan McKim, proposed moving beyond sterilization of the <em>“very weak and the very vicious”</em> to liquidation by the state through the use of carbonic acid gas. In his chapter “A remedy,” McKim states, <em>“The surest, the simplest, the kindest, and most humane means for preventing reproduction among those whom we deem unworthy of this high privilege, is a gentle, painless death; and this should be administered not as a punishment, but as an expression of enlightened pity for the victims—too defective by nature to find true happiness in life—and as a duty toward the community and toward our own offspring.”</em> Numbered among McKim’s <em>“unworthy”</em> are imbeciles, epileptics, drunkards, murderers, house-breakers, and the insane.
McKim, W. Duncan
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
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English
text
0001938
The Kallikak family : a study in the heredity of feeble-mindedness
Goddard, Henry Herbert, 1866-1957 (author)
Eugenics
Frontispieces (illustrations)
Title pages
Kallikak, Deborah
Henry Herbert Goddard’s study, <em>The Kallikak family</em>, tracks 480 descendants of Martin Kallikak, known as the “Old Horror,” the illegitimate son of a feeble-minded girl. Among the descendants were alcoholics, prostitutes, epileptics, criminals, illegitimate children, and children who died in infancy. As Goddard states, <em>“The surprise and horror of it all was that no matter where we traced them, whether in the prosperous rural district, in the city slums to which some had drifted, or in the more remote mountain regions, or whether it was a question of the second or the sixth generation, an appalling amount of defectiveness was everywhere found.”</em> Legitimate Kallikak descendants, however, proved to be prosperous and upright citizens.
Goddard, Henry Herbert, 1866-1957
Macmillan
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text
0001940
Fifth generation of the Juke Family
Dugdale, R. L. (Richard Louis), 1841-1883
Eugenics
Genealogical tables
Juke family
One of the first and most influential of the eugenic studies of a pseudonymous family, Richard L. Dugdale’s <em>The Jukes</em> traces the origins of imprisoned members of the same family back to the colonial period to examine inherited and environmental tendencies to poverty, crime, and disease. Dugdale estimates the financial cost to society of maintenance of the Jukes and concludes with, <em>“Over a million and a quarter dollars of loss in 75 years, caused by a single family 1,200 strong, without reckoning the cash paid for whisky, or taking into account the entailment of pauperism and crime of the survivors in the next generation, and the incurable disease, idiocy and insanity growing out of this debauchery, and reaching into the third and fourth generations. It is getting to be time to ask, do our courts, our laws, our alms-houses and our jails deal with the question presented?”</em>
<p>Arthur H. Estabrook, a field worker of the Eugenics Record Office, later used Dugdale’s original research and traced Juke descendants to produce a follow-up study, <em>The Jukes in 1915</em>. Estabrook displayed photographs of the Jukes along with some of his data at the 1921 International Exhibition of Eugenics in New York.</p>
Dugdale, R. L. (Richard Louis), 1841-1883
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
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text
0001946
A group of deaf-mute families from Maine
Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922
Eugenics
Genealogical tables
As part of his research on deafness, Alexander Graham Bell made statistical analyses of the deaf-mutes and determined that deafness was hereditary and that the number of intermarriages between deaf-mutes was high and growing. He concluded that <em>“if the laws of heredity that are known to hold in the case of animals also apply to man, the intermarriage of congenital deaf-mutes through a number of successive generations should result in the formation of a deaf-mute variety of the human race…. The indications are that the congenital deaf-mutes of the country are increasing at a greater rate than the population at large; and the deaf-mute children of deaf-mutes at a greater rate than the congenital deaf-mute population.”</em>Bell went on the speculate about the possibility of legislation to forbid the intermarriage of deaf-mutes but favored determining the causes of intermarriage and discouraging or removing them.
<p>Bell presented his findings to the National Academy of Sciences on November 13, 1883, and his work was subsequently printed as part of the Academy’s Memoirs series. This copy of Bell’s Memoir formerly belonged to Dr. Henry Pickering Bowditch.</p>
Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922
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English
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0001936
Heredity in relation to eugenics
Davenport, Charles Benedict, 1866-1944
Eugenics
Frontispieces (illustrations)
Title pages
Dedications (documents)
Harvard graduate, Charles Benedict Davenport, was one of the leaders of the American eugenics movement. In 1904, he became the director of the Carnegie Institution’s Station for Experimental Evolution at Cold Spring Harbor, on Long Island, and worked on applying Mendelian genetics concepts to man. With the philanthropic support of Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Davenport developed the Eugenics Record Office in 1910 to educate field workers, promote public lectures, sponsor local societies, collect family histories and surveys, and even offer “heredity counseling” to married couples.
<p><em>Heredity in relation to eugenics</em>, with its emphasis on the study of inherited traits and dispositions to disease, is dedicated to Mrs. Harriman <em>“in recognition of the generous assistance she has given to research.”</em> This particular copy was presented to the American Social Hygiene Association by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1930.</p>
Davenport, Charles Benedict, 1866-1944
Henry Holt and Company
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English
0002099
0002100
0002101
Heredity : its relation to human development
Moody, Loring (author)
Thompson, Elizabeth, 1821-1899
Eugenics
Correspondence
In 1880, Bostonian Loring Moody, familiar with Galton’s work, issued a circular to form an Institute of Heredity, part school, part library, to promote lectures and interest in addressing social ills through eugenic principles. The circular caught the interest of Elizabeth Thompson, a New York philanthropist. She and Moody became correspondents, and this volume reproduces a selection of their letters.
<p>In his letter of October 31, 1881, Moody states, <em>“As a means of eliminating the inherited effects of disorders from posterity, I would have the government establish and maintain good, comfortable, attractive hospital homes for the care, treatment and life residence of all habitual drunkards, confirmed criminals, idiots and incurable lunatics, who should be treated as people suffering from dangerous congenital diseases, liable to propagation through heredity; and so they should be strictly guarded from having any offspring, as far as possible by moral, and the remainder by legal, restraint. So the hereditary transmission of innumerable disorders would soon come to an end.”</em> The Institute of Heredity was founded on November 27, 1880, <em>“to reconstruct and establish the foundations of social order upon natural laws of human life and relations”</em>; it was still sponsoring lectures as late as 1888.</p>
Moody, Loring
the Institute of Heredity
Thompson, Elizabeth, 1821-1899 (coauthor)
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0001935
Letter to Henry Pickering Bowditch from Sir Francis Galton
Bowditch, H. P. (Henry Pickering), 1840-1911
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911 (author)
Eugenics
Correspondence
Galton admires the composites of Saxon and Wend soldiers done by Bowditch. He says: <em>“The composites are indeed beautiful and quite different in ‘type’ from both American and English. The Saxon & Wends being more alike to one another than either of them to the former two. I congratulate you on having added in this way to the too slowly collecting of typical forms. I suppose you will co-composite the Saxons & Wends respectively. One really ought to get a large collection in this way of racial types. I wish I were a better photographer myself to help in the matter. Your composites are sent today to exhibition at the Portrait Association at Edinburgh, partly for their direct interest and partly for the indirect advantage of supporting a proposal that will be made of obtaining photos of the inhabitants of selected typical villages in various parts of the British Isles where from historical reasons, the breed is likely to have been local for a long time. This is part of a larger scheme briefly designated as an ethnographic survey, which others are interested in and may take adequate pains to do effectively.”</em>
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
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0001942
0001943
A group of Wend soldiers and their composite
Bowditch, H. P. (Henry Pickering), 1840-1911
Eugenics
Composite photographs
Portraits
Bowditch reproduced and described this composite image of Wend soldiers, as well as a composite image of Saxon soldiers, in his article, “Are composite photographs typical pictures?” printed in McClure’s magazine in September 1894. Of them he says, <em>“A study of the faces here presented certainly suggests the conclusion that there must be some racial peculiarities showing themselves in the composite portraits. The two composites of each race are clearly more like each other than like those of the other race, and the squarely cut jaw and brow of the Wend composites give the impression of greater vigor and strength of character than the more rounded features of the Saxons.”</em>
<p>Galton admired these composites; some years after Bowditch’s death, they were also displayed at the exhibition at the Second International Congress of Eugenics in 1921.</p>
Bowditch, H. P. (Henry Pickering), 1840-1911
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image
0001945
A group of Saxon soldiers and their composite
Bowditch, H. P. (Henry Pickering), 1840-1911
Eugenics
Composite photographs
Portraits
Bowditch reproduced and described this composite image of Saxon soldiers, as well as a composite image of Wend soldiers, in his article, “Are composite photographs typical pictures?” printed in <em>McClure’s magazine</em> in September 1894. Of them he says,<em> “A study of the faces here presented certainly suggests the conclusion that there must be some racial peculiarities showing themselves in the composite portraits. The two composites of each race are clearly more like each other than like those of the other race, and the squarely cut jaw and brow of the Wend composites give the impression of greater vigor and strength of character than the more rounded features of the Saxons.”</em>
<p>Galton admired these composites; some years after Bowditch’s death, they were also displayed at the exhibition at the Second International Congress of Eugenics in 1921.</p>
Bowditch, H. P. (Henry Pickering), 1840-1911
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0001944
Twelve Boston physicians and their composite portrait
Bowditch, H. P. (Henry Pickering), 1840-1911
Eugenics
Composite photographs
Portraits
Dr. H. P. Bowditch took photographs of himself and eleven colleagues—all members of a physician’s dining club, the Kappa Pi Eta—in 1887 and again in 1892 and then devised a composite portrait of all twelve to isolate the common characteristics of a typical physician. <em>“The face is distinctly intellectual in its character, and the apparent age is not far from the average age of the components…. The method of composite photography has, therefore, in this case, at any rate, produced a portrait which may be regarded as typical of the components, since its features fairly represent the group in respect to the only two qualities, namely, age and intelligence, in which the individual faces resemble each other.”</em>
<p>The original of this photograph was displayed with a number of other Bowditch composites at the Second International Exhibition of Eugenics in 1921.</p>
Bowditch, H. P. (Henry Pickering), 1840-1911
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0001947
Henry Pickering Bowditch
Bowditch, H. P. (Henry Pickering), 1840-1911
Eugenics
Portraits
Photographs
A picture of Henry Pickering Bowditch. Bowditch was appointed Assistant Professor of Physiology in 1871, Professor of Physiology, 1876, and became the first George Higginson Professor of Physiology in 1902, Emeritus, 1906. Bowditch served as Dean of the Medical School from 1883-1893.
Unknown
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BowditchPortrait
Composite Portraits
Bowditch, H. P. (Henry Pickering), 1840-1911
Eugenics
Composite photographs
An arrangement of composite portraits by Henry Pickering Bowditch (1840-1911) in the publication from the second International Exhibition of Eugenics in 1921. While the composite photographs on display here as well as others in the collections of the Countway were created by physiologist Henry Pickering Bowditch, the development and original interpretation of the composite process with its eugenic implications was the work of Sir Francis Galton, who first published his research as “Composite portraits,” in Nature in 1878. Galton said, <em>“The photographic process of which I there spoke, enables us to obtain with mechanical precision a generalised picture; one that represents no man in particular, but portrays an imaginary figure, possessing the average features of any given group of men. These ideal faces have a surprising air of reality. Nobody who glanced at one of them for the first time, would doubt its being the likeness of a living person. Yet, as I have said, it is no such thing; it is the portrait of a type, and not of an individual.”</em>
Bowditch, H. P. (Henry Pickering), 1840-1911
Williams & Wilkins Company
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0001955
Life History Album
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Eugenics
Excerpts
Rare books
Intended to chart the medical history of an individual from birth until the age of 75, the <em>Life history album</em>, edited by Francis Galton, allows for notes on the genealogy, life, development, marriage, children, height and weight observations, anthropometric information, and photographs in five-year increments. <em>“A trustworthy record of past illnesses will enable your medical attendants to treat you more intelligently and successfully than they otherwise could, for it will give them a more complete knowledge of your ‘constitution’ than could be obtained in any other way…. The record will further be of great value to your family and descendants; for mental and physical characteristics, as well as liabilities to disease, are all transmitted more or less by parents to their children, and are shared by members of the same family.”</em> Galton, at 80, was dissatisfied with this production and rewrote and republished the <em>Album</em> in 1902, extending its duration to the age of 100. This copy of the <em>Life history album</em> was given by his grandmother to George Kimball Clement (1888-1951) soon after his birth; Clement was a member of the Class of 1912 of Harvard College.
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Macmillan and Co.
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0002098
Memories of My Life
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Eugenics
Title pages
At the conclusion of this autobiographical account, Galton considers the goal of his work on eugenics and its contrast to Darwinian natural selection: <em>“Man is gifted with pity and other kindly feelings; he has also the power of preventing many kinds of suffering. I conceive it to fall well within his province to replace Natural Selection by other processes that are more merciful and not less effective. This is precisely the aim of Eugenics. Its first object it to check the birth-rate of the Unfit, instead of allowing them to come into being, though doomed in large numbers to perish prematurely. The second object is the improvement of the race by furthering the productivity of the Fit by early marriages and healthful rearing of their children. Natural Selection rests upon excessive production and wholesale destruction; Eugenics on bringing no more individuals into the world than can be properly cared for, and those only of the best stock.”</em>
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Methuen and Co.
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0001933
Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Eugenics
Title pages
Frontispieces (illustrations)
Composite photographs
In the notes to the introduction of this work, which assembles and revises his writings since the publication of Hereditary genius, Galton coins the neologism which gave its name to a movement:<em> “That is, with questions bearing on what is termed in Greek, eugenes, namely, good in stock, hereditarily endowed with noble qualities. This, and the allied words, eugeneia, etc., are equally applicable to men, brutes, and plants. We greatly want a brief word to express the science of improving stock, which is by no means confined to questions of judicious mating, but which, especially in the case of man, takes cognisance of all influences that tend in however remote a degree to give to the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable than they otherwise would have had. The word eugenics would sufficiently express the idea.”</em>
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Macmillan and Co.
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English
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0001932
Men of Science
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Eugenics
Excerpts
Rare Books
Francis Galton, influenced by the work of Charles Darwin, came to believe that, following research into the biographies and genealogies of 400 famous individuals—judges, statesmen, poets, painters, scientists and athletes—genius was hereditary. He then proceeds to speculate about the comparative worth and abilities of different races and nations. This excerpt lists "Men of Science," including Charles Darwin.
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Macmillan and Co.
The Boston Medical Library does not hold copyright on all materials in this collection. For use information, consult Public Services at chm@hms.harvard.edu
text
English
text
0001931
Hereditary genius : an inquiry into its laws and consequences
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Eugenics
Excerpts
Rare books
Francis Galton, influenced by the work of Charles Darwin, came to believe that, following research into the biographies and genealogies of 400 famous individuals—judges, statesmen, poets, painters, scientists and athletes—genius was hereditary. He then proceeds to speculate about the comparative worth and abilities of different races and nations: <em>“A native chief has as good an education in the art of ruling men, as can be desired; he is continually exercised in personal government, and usually maintains his place by the ascendancy of his character…. A traveller in wild countries also fills, to a certain degree, the position of a commander, and has to confront native chiefs at every inhabited place. The result is familiar enough—the white traveller almost invariably holds his own in their presence. It is seldom that we hear of a white traveller meeting with a black chief whom he feels to be the better man.”</em>
<p>This is a first edition of Galton’s influential study of the subject which proved to be a cornerstone in the beginnings of the eugenics movement.</p>
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Macmillan and Co.
The Boston Medical Library does not hold copyright on all materials in this collection. For use information, consult Public Services at chm@hms.harvard.edu
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English
text
0002096
Sir Francis Galton
Photographs
Eugenics
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Photograph of Sir Francis Galton from his book <em>Memories of my life</em>. Found on the plate facing page 244.
Galton, Francis, 1822-1911
Methuen and Co.
The Boston Medical Library does not hold copyright on all materials in this collection. For use information, consult Public Services at chm@hms.harvard.edu
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0001937