The Second International Conference on Eugenics, held in New York in 1921, produced one concrete result: the American Eugenics Society. Although the eugenics movement had been gaining strength in the United States for over a decade, there was at the time no formal organization through which to pursue its broader political and educational agenda. As a result, a group of prominent eugenicists founded the Eugenics Committee of the U.S.A., which became the Eugenics Society of America, and finally, in 1925, the American Eugenics Society (AES).

From its base in New Haven, Connecticut, the AES soon attracted the support of nearly every major American eugenicist and for the first decade of its existence, at least, was very successful at promoting eugenic ideas to the American public. More an advocacy group than a scientific organization, the AES promoted its ideals of racial betterment, eugenic health, and genetic education through public lectures, conferences, publications, and exhibits at county and state fairs. Among its most popular promotions were a contest for the best sermon on eugenic theme and a series of "fitter family contests" in which participants' families (divided into small, medium, and large family classes) were ranked based on information provided on the mental, physical, and moral health of family members. The AES also sponsored eugenic health exhibits, featuring such exhibits as Mendel's Theater, a presentation of basic principles of genetics and heredity, and the "flashing light exhibit," a board titled "Some people are born to be a burden to the rest," on which lights were set to blink at periodic intervals representing how often a "defective" was born in the United States (rapid blinking) and how often a "high grade" individual was born (slow blinking).

Beginning in the 1930s, the AES began a slow transformation into a less programmatic organization. This figure most often credited with bringing about this shift was Frederick Osborn, Secretary of the Society from 1928 until 1972. Osborn had a clear impact on the reformulation of AES policies and a greater focus on issues of population control, genetics, and, later, medical genetics.

During the early 1950s, the AES left New Haven for New York City, taking offices and funding from the Population Council. They remained active in promoting scientific investigation into eugenic topics, sponsoring five conferences at Princeton University between 1964 and 1969 on population genetics and demography, and drawing an international cast of scientists. In 1972, the Society was reorganized and rechristened the Society for the Study of Social Biology. Its journal, Eugenics: A Journal of Race Betterment, was renamed Social Biology.

The Records of the American Eugenics Society document the varied promotional activities of the foremost organization for eugenic education and advocacy in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Consisting of 9 linear feet of administrative records, correspondence, and formal and informal histories of the Society, the Records span the entire history of the organization from 1921 through 1972, though weighted rather heavily toward the years before the Second World War.

The main body of records includes routine correspondence relating to AES activities and membership, including membership records from the beginning of the Society, correspondence relative to publications and orders for publications.

At the end of the collection is a file of 4x6" index cards representing a eugenic study of Shutesbury, Massachusetts, a town selected for eugenic study due to its visible decline over the previous decades and for the suspected high proportion of "degenerate" residents.

Between 1926 and 1928, the AES held contests for the best sermon preached on the subject of eugenics. In addition to the nine folders labeled AES Sermon Contest, the collection includes 45 submissions filed under the name of the minister, preached before Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational, Baptist, Unitarian, and Jewish congregations across the country.

A particularly valuable part of the collection is the series of scrapbooks maintained by the Society. The most important of these if the photograph album containing 97 images of Eugenic Health Exhibits at the Kansas Free Fair, 1925, and in fairs in Michigan and Texas, including images of the exhibits themselves (Mendel's Theater, the flashing light exhibit, guinea pigs, and other exhibits), exterior views of the Eugenic Health buildings, images of eugenicists, including Charles B. Davenport, Judge Harry Olson and Professor Henry P. Fairchild, as well as most of the members of the AES Board of Directors over the years, and a number of images of winners of fitter family contests. The other three scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings of articles of eugenic interest, reflecting the AES effort to stay abreast of public perceptions of the field.

Many of the photographs in the scrapbook from Series II. have been digitized. Links to the digital versions of the images are included in the inventory. You may also view a gallery of all images here.

This note is currently under review for revision.

Provenance

Gift of the American Eugenics Society, through Frederick Osborn, Leon Whitney, and Jonathan Marks, 1967-1995.

Preferred citation

Cite as: American Eugenics Society Records, American Philosophical Society.

Separated material

Books and journals materials transferred to Printed Materials, including:

1. Eugenical News (1916-1953, except 1939)
2. Eugenics, A Journal of Race Betterment(1928-1931)
3. Eugenics Quarterly [title later changed to Social Biology] (1954-1970, except 1968, 1969, 1971)
4. Eugenics Review (1909-1914)
5. Bibliographica Eugenica(1927-1934)
6. Blacker, C. P., Eugenics, Galton and After
7. Bonar, James, Malthus and His Work
8. Darwin, Leonard, What is Eugenics?
9. A Decade of Progress in Eugenics --Third International Congress of Eugenics
10. East, Edward M., Mankind at the Cross Roads
11. Galton, Francis, Hereditary Genius
12. Galton, Francis, Essays in Eugenics
13. Haller, Mark H., Eugenics
14. Hammons, Helen G., Hereditary Counseling
15. Holmes, Samuel J., The Trend of the Race
16. Huntington, Ellsworth, Tomorrow's Children
17. Huntington, Ellsworth, and Whitney, Leon F.,The Builders of America
18. Laughlin, H. H., Eugenical Sterilization in the United States
19. Lorimer, Frank, and Osborn, Frederick, Dynamics of Population
20. Osborn, Frederick, Preface to Eugenics,1940 and 1951
21. Osborn, Frederick, The Future of Human Heredity
22. Pickens, Donald K., Eugenics and the Progressive
23. Redfield, Casper L., Control of Heredity
24. Schwesinger, Gladys C., Heredity and Environment
25. Terman, Lewis M., Genetic Studies of Genius, vols. 1 and 2
26. Wiggam, Albert Edward, The Fruit of the Family Tree

Related material

See also the Frederick Henry Osborn Papers (Ms. Coll. 24).

The autobiography of Leon F. Whitney (B W613b) contains additional information on the AES.

The Charles B. Davenport Papers (B D27) contain 114 letters regarding the American Eugenics Society and its Council, and 183 letters to or from Frederick Osborn.

Images from the AES scrapbook are included in the Dolan DNA Learning Center Eugenics Archive on the Cold Spring Harbor website.

Bibliography

African American History Note

Eugenics was inevitably entangled in many aspects of American social and political life, and particularly in setting and supporting national policy with regard to immigration and the treatment of ethnic and racial minorities. The records in this collection may prove useful to students of African American history in this regard.

This note is currently under review for revision.

Genetics Note

This collection contains materials which relate to the history of genetics. The AES Papers comprise 50 boxes of correspondence, manuscripts, and other materials, and include an extensive collection of photographs and a file of index cards carrying the information about a eugenic study made in Shutesbury, Massachusetts. A scrapbook entitled 'Samples' includes printed forms used by the Society, and various pamphlets. Three volumes of the Frederick Osborn correspondence are also included. These contain memos, minutes of meetings, correspondence, press clippings, and drafts of articles by Osborn. Five notebooks contain materials relating to the five conferences held at Princeton between 1964 and 1969 on the general subject of "Population Generics and Demography." There is also a loose-leaf notebook titled "AES: Position and Aims of the AES, 1961 Statement." This notebook documents the important changes in the goals and emphases of the Society beginning in the 1930s, involving a shift from hereditarian views toward a more environmentalist view. This shift was one for which Osborn himself took much credit. Garland Allen claims that this collection of the AES Papers reveals that Osborn did not change his fundamental views and was not so fully responsible for the evident decline and moderation of American eugenics during the 1930s. [See Barry Mehler and Garland E. Allen in the Mendel Newsletter 14: 9-15, 1977.]

• American Eugenics Society
• Population Council
• Princeton Conferences

• Osborn, Frederick, 1889-1981
• Whitney, Leon Fradley, 1894-19

• Biology, genetics, eugenics
• Eugenics -- Societies, etc.
• Eugenics -- United States
• Fitter Family Contests
• Genetics -- Societies, etc.
• Race, race relations, racism