Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Library and Archives Hosts Event on History of Eugenics

In May 2017, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Library and Archives hosted "Conversations on the History of Eugenics," featuring talks from science historian, professor emeritus, Elof Carlson (Stony Brook University), History of Science graduate student and Sydney Brenner Research Scholarship recipient Miriam Rich (Harvard), Executive Director of the Library and Archives Mila Pollock (CSHL), and Executive Director of the DNA Learning Center David Micklos (CSHL). The event highlighted how a single collection, in this case the CSHL Archive's Eugenics Records Office collection, can be utilized for many different topics. Discussion topics ranged from the emergence of the eugenics movement from the application of 19th century principles of developmental biology to race and defective development, Nobel laureate Herman J. Muller's shifting views on positive eugenics, the Eugenics Records Office's role in sterilization legislation, to the life history of a family torn apart by state-sponsored eugenics.
 
The event was sponsored by a grant from Jolanta Fabicka.