eugenics

Katharine Bement Davis & America’s First Sexual Revolution

September 29, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Decades before Alfred Kinsey released his famous “Reports” on human sexuality, Katharine Bement Davis (1860-1935) conducted a pioneering study of female sexuality.

Published in 1929, Factors in the Sex Life of Twenty-Two Hundred Women was notable not only as the first major study of women’s sexuality and the first such study conducted by a woman, but also as the first published study of “normal” women’s sexuality ― what Davis defined as the study of women who were “not pathological mentally or physically.” [Read more…] about Katharine Bement Davis & America’s First Sexual Revolution

Italian-Americans as Alien Enemies: Westchester Opera Star Ezio Pinza

February 16, 2025 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

In 1766 jurist William Blackstone published his Commentaries on the Law of England in which he defined the term “enemy alien” as it was understood in common law. He confirmed that during a time of war “alien enemies have no rights, no privileges.” The Crown exercises absolute power. In a simple turn of phrase, the Oxford professor anticipated the agony of millions of migrants. [Read more…] about Italian-Americans as Alien Enemies: Westchester Opera Star Ezio Pinza

Long Island’s Eugenics Record Office

January 22, 2025 by Chris Kretz 1 Comment

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

Long Island’s Legacy of Eugenics

January 12, 2025 by Editorial Staff 4 Comments

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

Crania Americana: Phrenology, Slavery, Crime & Removal

May 10, 2024 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

On August 30, 1851, the New York Evening Post carried an advert that promised visitors free access to the Phrenological Cabinet at Clinton Hall, 131 Nassau Street, in Manhattan, which displayed a collection of busts, casts and skulls of celebrities, pirates and murderers.

Those who entered the premises were given the opportunity to consult professional examiners for a verbal or written description of character. [Read more…] about Crania Americana: Phrenology, Slavery, Crime & Removal

Joe Gould: Bohemian Misfit of Greenwich Village

April 27, 2024 by Rebecca Rector Leave a Comment

There are many ways to look at Joe Gould (1889-1957), the eccentric New York City character and poet who has been profiled in numerous books and articles for over a century. He was often described as a bearded, disheveled bohemian slouching through Greenwich Village, sometimes homeless, scribbling in a notebook, and mooching off anyone who would give him a handout. He hung out at the Minetta Tavern and other bars and cafeterias, often scooping up free packets of tomato ketchup. He also had a darker side.
[Read more…] about Joe Gould: Bohemian Misfit of Greenwich Village

Orson Squire Fowler & New York’s Octagon Houses

December 3, 2023 by Rebecca Rector 4 Comments

Octagon houses date back to ancient Greece, where they were symbols of rebirth and renewal. In the United States they were mostly built during the 1850s and 1860s, many of them in New York State. [Read more…] about Orson Squire Fowler & New York’s Octagon Houses

‘Vermont for the Vermonters’: A History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State

October 1, 2023 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

“Vermont for the Vermonters”: A History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State (Vermont Historical Society, 2023), written by Mercedes de Guardiola, is a new examination of one of Vermont‘s darker chapters, and sheds new light on the factors that helped bring it about.

Eugenics is a pseudo- scientific field of selective human breeding that rose to prominence in the early 1900s and was the foundation of Nazi Germany. [Read more…] about ‘Vermont for the Vermonters’: A History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State

Lethal Chambers: The Curse of Anglo-American Eugenics

November 8, 2021 by Jaap Harskamp 3 Comments

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

eugenics

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