American Eugenics Society (AES)

American Eugenics Society (AES)

The American Eugenics Society (AES) was established in 1922, as a result of the Second International Conference on Eugenics that took place in New York in 1921 (Curators, 2012). Founding members include Madison Grant, Harry H. Laughlin, Irving Fisher, Henry Fairfield Osborn, and Henry Crampton (Curators, 2012). Prominent members and sponsors include J.P. Morgan, Jr., Mrs. Mary Duke Biddle, Margaret Sanger, and John H. Kellogg.

The Society was designed to help promote and educate people on eugenics (particularly on racial betterment, eugenic health, and genetic education) (APS, n.d.) in the United States (Curators, 2012), through co-ordinating the work of smaller, more localized eugenic support groups, like the Galton Society of New York, and the Race Betterment Foundation of Michigan. The Society particularly used Fitter Family contests to promote their goals at state fairs in the United States, although many lectures and exhibits were also organized (APS, n.d.). The Society also produced a publication, Eugenics: A Journal of Race Betterment (APS, n.d.). The Society was quite successful, and influenced eugenic policy in the United States, and also held the Third International Congress of Eugenics in 1932 (Gur-Arie, 2014).

In the 1930s, the Society included over 1,000 members, although these numbers died down by the 1960s. The Society began to focus more on population genetics at this time (APS, n.d.), although it had focused on many different aspects of eugenics previously, including birth control and heredity (Gur-Arie, 2014). After Roe v. Wade in 1972, the society was reformatted as "The Society for the Study of Social Biology," with the publication Social Biology. The new goals of the society included determining the trends of "human evolution" and the impacts that biology, science, and society have on those trends (Curators, 2012).

-Erna Kurbegovic and Colette Leung

American Eugenics Society (AES)

The American Eugenics Society (AES) was established in 1922, as a result of the Second International Conference on Eugenics that took place in New York in 1921 (Curators, 2012). Founding members include Madison Grant, Harry H. Laughlin, Irving Fisher, Henry Fairfield Osborn, and Henry Crampton (Curators, 2012). Prominent members and sponsors include J.P. Morgan, Jr., Mrs. Mary Duke Biddle, Margaret Sanger, and John H. Kellogg.

The Society was designed to help promote and educate people on eugenics (particularly on racial betterment, eugenic health, and genetic education) (APS, n.d.) in the United States (Curators, 2012), through co-ordinating the work of smaller, more localized eugenic support groups, like the Galton Society of New York, and the Race Betterment Foundation of Michigan. The Society particularly used Fitter Family contests to promote their goals at state fairs in the United States, although many lectures and exhibits were also organized (APS, n.d.). The Society also produced a publication, Eugenics: A Journal of Race Betterment (APS, n.d.). The Society was quite successful, and influenced eugenic policy in the United States, and also held the Third International Congress of Eugenics in 1932 (Gur-Arie, 2014).

In the 1930s, the Society included over 1,000 members, although these numbers died down by the 1960s. The Society began to focus more on population genetics at this time (APS, n.d.), although it had focused on many different aspects of eugenics previously, including birth control and heredity (Gur-Arie, 2014). After Roe v. Wade in 1972, the society was reformatted as "The Society for the Study of Social Biology," with the publication Social Biology. The new goals of the society included determining the trends of "human evolution" and the impacts that biology, science, and society have on those trends (Curators, 2012).

-Erna Kurbegovic and Colette Leung