Letter to Henry Pickering Bowditch from Sir Francis Galton

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: “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.”

Letter written by Sir Francis Galton in London, England to Henry Pickering Bowditch in Boston, Massachusetts, concerning the composite portraits of Wend and Saxon soldiers done by Bowditch

Galton, Francis, 1822-1911

1892 August 02

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Papers of Henry Bowditch, 1806-1957 (inclusive), 1858-1910 (bulk). H MS c5.2

text

1 letter, recto and verso

English

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0001942

0001943

Gift of Mrs. Harold Bowditch to the Library of Harvard Medical School, 1968