History, Natural History & the Arts
The science of genetics took a wrong turn in the early 20th century and it ran through Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Here overlooking a former whaling port, Charles Benedict Davenport, PhD, created the Eugenics Record Office and served as director of the Carnegie Institution’s Station for Experimental Evolution.
From these posts he promoted and pushed the Eugenics Movement in the US, in Nazi Germany, and throughout the world. [Read more…] about Long Island’s Eugenics Record Office
In the early 20th century, eugenics was at the forefront of scientific discourse in the quest to understand human genetics. On Long Island and throughout the nation, eugenicists were granted unfettered access to conduct experiments on prisoners, psychiatric patients, Coney Island circus performers, Native American communities, and more, all in an effort to legitimize a false science.
The origins of the eugenics movement can be found within the Eugenics Record Office in Cold Spring Harbor, NY, under the direction of Charles Davenport from 1910-1939. [Read more…] about Long Island’s Legacy of Eugenics
Preservation Long Island, the Cold Spring Harbor-based regional historic preservation advocacy nonprofit, has announced the appointment of Jackie Powers as its new executive director, effective December 2, 2024. Powers, a resident of Glen Cove, NY, and former senior advisor with the American Museum of Natural History, will bring her experience in museum and educational leadership to Long Island’s only regional not-for-profit organization dedicated to historic preservation. [Read more…] about Preservation Long Island Names New Executive Director
The relationship between politics and science has always been complicated, and at times, disastrous.
The term eugenics was coined in 1883 by the British scientist Francis Galton who advocated that society should promote the marriage of the “fittest” individuals by providing monetary incentives.
Numerous intellectuals and political leaders (Winston Churchill and John Maynard Keynes in Britain; Woodrow Wilson and Alexander Graham Bell in the United States) came to accept the idea that society should strive for the improvement of the human race through governmental intervention. [Read more…] about Lethal Chambers: The Curse of Anglo-American Eugenics
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