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A project of the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU

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Davenport Desk documents

Aims and methods in anthropometry 1 thumb
04 note 3 2 thumb
01 annual report 1927 2 thumb
07 misc correspondence 3 thumb
00 american eugenics society   committee on research 01 correspondence b e thumb
02 rockland county 1923 1 thumb
01 american museum of natural history 1926 thumb
00 davenport, cb application of mendel's law to human heredity thumb
01 first report  3 thumb
09 davenport 9.27 thumb
02 itinerary thumb
01 report to the director for 1923 4 7.10.1925 8 thumb
00 national committee on prisons and prison labor eugenics committee thumb
01 first report  2 thumb
01 first report  4 thumb
17 davenport 1.26.1915 thumb
01 aims, work, results of the eugenics record office 1922 6 thumb
01 annual report 7.1.1925 5 thumb
02 estabrook 12.15 thumb
02 directions for coding measurement card 3 thumb

As founder and director of the Eugenics Record Office, Harvard-trained biologist Charles Benedict Davenport gave the ERO its academic credentials. A young and ambitious biologist, by 1910 Davenport’s academic interests had shifted from animal morphology and evolution to human heredity, and he successfully lobbied railroad magnate widow and philanthropist Mary Harriman to help found what would become the country’s most influential eugenics research facility. The Davenport Desk files include drafts of his lecture and papers, which sport titles like “Do Races Differ in Mental Capacity?” and “A Biologist’s View of the Negro Problem.” Political and professional correspondences with disciple Harry Laughlin, colleague Madison Grant, and even Teddy Roosevelt lend insight to the pivotal role Davenport played as the visionary and figurehead of American eugenics. Meanwhile, letters to and from his wife and daughters shine a light on the eugenics leader’s personal life.

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