Eugenics Record Office (ERO)

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The Eugenics Record Office was the last of three related scientific organizations established in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. The Biological Laboratory (1890), based on the European model of seaside research laboratories, was the second American field station for the study of biology. Charles Davenport, a Harvard-trained biologist, became director of the Laboratory in 1898. He was instrumental in persuading the Carnegie Institution of Washington to establish the second organization — the Station for Experimental Evolution — in 1903 on land adjoining the Biological Laboratory. The Station became one of the first American institutions to study genetics.

In 1910, Davenport further expanded his scientific empire when he persuaded the widow of railroad baron E.H Harriman to donate $10,000 to establish the Eugenics Record Office (ERO). The Office was eventually housed in a stucco building on a property adjacent to the Biological Laboratory.

To run the ERO, Davenport recruited a zealous superintendent from Missouri, Harry H. Laughlin, who shared his interest in chicken breeding. Under Laughlin's direction, the ERO became the epicenter of the American eugenics movement, amassing hundreds of thousands of family pedigrees, case studies, and indexed records. The ERO sponsored summer courses to train aspiring eugenics caseworkers and actively lobbied for the passage of state sterilization and national immigration restriction.

In the face of mounting evidence of serious flaws in eugenics research during the 1920s-30s, Laughlin's misuse of "data" and almost religious belief in his version of eugenics became an increasing embarrassment. Knowledge of the horrors of the Nazi application of eugenics sealed the fate of the American movement, and the ERO was closed in 1939.

• Harry H. Laughlin, Superintendent of Eugenics Record Office, Cold Spring Harbor; President, American Eugenics Society, 1928-29
• Harry H. Laughlin, Superintendent of Eugenics Record Office, Cold Spring Harbor; President, American Eugenics Society 1928-29
• Charles B. Davenport, Director of Biological Laboratory, Carnegie Department of Genetics and Eugenics Record Office, Cold Spring Harbor
• Eugenics Record Office, field-worker's monthly report
• "Eugenics seeks to improve the natural, physical, mental and tempermental qualities of the human family," Eugenics Record Office
• Eugenics Record Office and AMA survey about hereditary blindness
• AMA/Eugenics Record Office survey about hereditary blindness
• Minutes of the first meeting of directors of Eugenics Record Office
• Charles Davenport letter to Mrs. E.H. Harriman about recruitment of first class
• "Notes on the history of the Eugenics Record Office"
• Minutes of the Eugenics Records Office's first board of directors' meeting
• "The system of indexing traits used at Eugenics Records Office"
• Eugenics Record Office, lantern slide
• Eugenics Record Office, board of scientific directors and functions
• Archives at the Eugenics Record Office
• Harry H. Laughlin
• Harry Laughlin and Charles Davenport outside new Eugenics Record Office (ERO)building
• Callie Black (pseudonym) of the Win Tribe, from Arthur Estabrook's scrapbook of field photographs from Amherst County, Virginia
• Susan Brown (pseudonym) from Arthur Estabrook's scrapbook of field photographs from Amherst County, and corresponding entry in Mongrel Virginians
• Field work for Mongrel Virginians in Amherst County, Virginia, Arthur Estabrook's scrapbook
• Dick Johnson (pseudonym) of the Win Tribe, from Arthur Estabrook's scrapbook of field photographs from Amherst County, Virginia
• "Triple Mixtures" (Caucasian-Indian-Negro) in Robeson County, North Carolina, from from Arthur Estabrook's scrapbook of field photographs
• "Dr. Crispell of Hurley, N.Y., who helped Dugdale in his study and source of most of his disease, etc., information. AHE"
• Field work for The Jukes in 1915, Arthur Estabrook photographs from Ulster County, New York
• Prison mug shot of VII20 and corresponding entry in Estabrook's typescript "The Jukes Data" (photo laid in Estabrook's copy of R. Dugdale's The Jukes)
• Prison mug shot of VI153 and corresponding entry in Estabrook's typescript "The Jukes Data" (photo laid in Estabrook's copy of R. Dugdale's The Jukes)
• Prison mug shot of V265 and corresponding entry in Estabrook's typescript "The Jukes Data" (photo laid in Estabrook's copy of R. Dugdale's The Jukes)
• I. McDougle letter to A. Estabrook, about research on mixed race marriages for Mongrel Virginians (5/3/1924)
• "Degenerate Family Cost State Heavily," about rediscovery of Dugdale's charts of real names of Jukes family members (1/18/1912)
• Brochure advertising Mongrel Virginians, by Arthur H. Estabrook and Ivan E. McDougle
• Mongrel Virginians: The Win Tribe, by A.H. Estabrook and I.E. McDougle, typescript corresponding to pp16-19 of book, w/ hand-written pseudonyms
• Mongrel Virginians: The Win Tribe, by A.H. Estabrook and I.E. McDougle, introduction of Estabrook's copy with added keys to pseudonyms
• Prison mug shot of Edgar (V428) and corresponding entry in The Jukes in 1915, by A.H. Estabrook (photo laid in copy of R. Dugdale's The Jukes)
• The Jukes in 1915, by Arthur H. Estabrook, selected pages
• The Nam Family, by A. Estabrook and C. Davenport, pedigree of V470 (p. 18) and corresponding field portraits from back of Estabrook's copy
• The Nam Family, by A. Estabrook and C. Davenport, pedigree of V87, V127, V155 (p. 21) and corresponding field portraits from back of Estabrook's copy
• The Nam Family, by A. Estabrook and C. Davenport, pedigree of V106-V109 (p. 26) and corresponding field portraits from back of Estabrook's copy
• The Nam Family: A Study in Cacogenics (Eugenics Record Office Memoir No. 2), by A.H. Estabrook and C.B. Davenport, introduction and early history
• The Nam Family, by A. Estabrook and C. Davenport, field photographs and portraits with pedigree numbers from back of Estabrook's copy
• The Nam Family, by A. Estabrook and C. Davenport, field photographs and portraits with pedigree numbers from back of Estabrook's copy.
• "This Boy Needs Care," S.C.A.A. News, item about feebleminded boy in pedigree VI422-VI133, from back of Estabrook's copy of The Nam Family
• Irving Fisher, T.H. Morgan, and Alexander Graham Bell at Eugenics Record Office Board Meeting, April 10, 1915, Eugenical News (vol. 14:8)
• "Alexander Graham Bell as Chairman of the Board of Scientific Directors of the Eugenics Record Office," Eugenical News (vol. 14:8)
• O.F. Lewis (NY Prison Association) letter to A.H. Estabrook, congratulating him on the publication of The Jukes in 1915 (10/26/1916)
• E.R. Evans letter to A. Estabrook, providing information about the Nam family child placed in foster care (2/14/1917)
• "The Tribe of Ishmael," by Arthur H. Estabrook, in Eugenics, Genetics and the Family (vol. 1)
• Eugenics Record Office (ERO) soon after construction
• Eugenics Record Office, archives room with card index on far wall and field worker files on right
• Stewart House, an existing Victorian structure that housed the Eugenics Record Office (ERO) 1910-1913 while new building was constructed next door
• Eugenics Record Office, about 1925
• Eugenics Record Office, interior with workers
• Eugenics Record Office, Field Worker Training Class of 1913, with Harry H. Laughlin (1) and Charles B. Davenport (6)
• Eugenics Record Office, Field Worker Training Class of 1913 (Laughlin in foreground, center, Davenport at blackboard, Stewart House in background)
• Eugenics Record Office, Field Worker Training Class of 1913 (Davenport lecturing at blackboard)
• Eugenics Record Office, Field Worker Training Class (Davenport lecturing)
• Eugenics Record Office, Field Worker Training Class of 1914 (Davenport and Laughlin seated 3rd and 5th in front row)
• Eugenics Record Office, Field Worker Training Class of 1916 (Davenport in front with Laughlin in rear with white tie)
• Eugenics Record Office, Annual Meeting of the Eugenics Research Association, 1918 (Laughlin in front, Stewart House in background)
• Eugenics Record Office, Field Worker Training Class of 1918 (Laughlin at back)
• Eugenics Record Office, Field Worker Training Class of 1920 (postcard)
• Field Worker Training Class of 1922 on field trip to Kings Park State Hospital (Laughlin on far right)
• "Homokak Family: A Nut Study," pedigree parody by Eugenics Record Office Field Worker Training Class of 1923
• Charles B. Davenport, Director of Biological Laboratory, Carnegie Department of Genetics and Eugenics Record Office, Cold Spring Harbor
• Charles B. Davenport, Director of Biological Laboratory, Carnegie Department of Genetics and Eugenics Record Office, Cold Spring Harbor (signed)
• Charles B. Davenport, Director of Biological Laboratory, Carnegie Department of Genetics and Eugenics Record Office, Cold Spring Harbor
• Albert F. Blakeslee memo about procedures for answering mail after closure of the Eugenics Record Office
• Eugenics Record Office memo to instructors about using ERO trait forms for "required laboratory work in biology, sociology, and psychology"
• Eugenics Record Office memo to high school teachers about conducting student pedigree studies in science classes
• "Pedigree of Musical Capacity," Eugenics Record Office form including instructions to test sense of pitch, intensity, time, consonance, tone, rhythm
• "The Study of Human Heredity," by Davenport, Laughlin, Weeks, Johnstone, and Goddard, Eugenics Record Office Bulletin No. 2
• "Proposed Clinic of Human Heredity," a plan prepared by Harry H. Laughlin as the basis for negotiations with the Carnegie Institution of Washington
• "Transfer of ERO," Eugenical News (vol. 3), Carnegie Institution accepts gift of Eugenics Record Office from Mrs. E.H. Harriman
• "Clinical and Field Studies of the 1921 Training Class," Eugenics Record Office, Eugenical News (vol. 6)
• "Student Pedigree-Studies," (mechanical ability, by Margaret C. Mount; eye color, by Morris Steggerda)
• Charles Davenport letter to Francis Galton, about opening the Eugenics Record Office and the debt to him as founder of eugenics (10/26/1910)
• Morris Steggerda letter to Charles Davenport, thanking him for years of collaboration and friendship and calling him "a second Darwin" (1/10/1940)
• Charles Davenport letter to Morris Steggerda, acknowledging their collaboration and friendship over the years (1/15/1940)
• C. Davenport letter to M. Steggerda, "human genetics" replaces eugenics and "race crossing" is discouraged in a review of a research plan (5/25/1940)

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