The reviving debate in eugenics: eugenics publications 2003-early 2005 and eugenics data bases

Interest in medical procedures that will reduce genetically-induced diseases is increasing, even though reaction to any consciously directed program in eugenics remains strong. The author provides an extensive survey of recent publications and data bases that discuss various aspects of eugenics in the light of current scientific knowledge, medical technology and popular ethics.     

"Yea, I have a goodly heritage": health versus heredity in the Fitter Family contests, 1920-1928

By the 1920s, the future of the middle-class family had become a topic of great concern for mainstream Americans. This widespread concern led to a new acceptance of the discussion of sexual and marital issues in print and in public. Within this public discussion, eugenicists, physicians, clerics, sociologists, and various others offered solutions to the questions and concerns of their rapidly changing society. The Fitter Family contests, sponsored by eugenicists and held at state fairs in the 1920s, reflected these public and professional anxieties. Though infused with eugenic ideas about race betterment through better breeding, the contests were equally concerned with improving the health of individuals and strengthening American families.     

Exhibiting eugenics: response and resistance to a hidden history

Human Plants, Human Harvest: The Hidden History of California Eugenics is the first-ever exhibition on the history of eugenics in California. The disappearance of this history for half a century, and the consequent absence of a "collective menory", were the primary factors determining the exhibit's sttrcture and content. Responses to the exhibit confirmed that most visitors "never knew" about this history. The exhibit is described in some detail, with selected imagery from the exhibit reproduced. After the initial exhibition, responses of other museums and foundation officials revealed a continuing resistance to this history being publicly displayed, though the sources of resistance varied.     

The public and private history of eugenics: an introduction

Inspired by our experience addressing the legacy of eugenics at California State University, Sacramento, this special issue presents an array of articles representative of diverse approaches to the historical investigation of eugenics. This article provides an introduction to the history of eugenics and explores the ways in which public history is particularly well suited to shape the historical memory of eugenics and encourage dialogue about contemporary biotechnologies.     

"I have seen the future": selling the unsustainable city

Seventy years ago, General Motors’ Highways and Horizons exhibit at the World’s Fair, designed by Norman Bel Geddes and Eero Saarinen, promoted demand for cars and federal highways without any concern for environmental sustainability, the theme of our 2010 conference. The main exhibit included a sequence of four parts (entrance ramps, map lobby, Futurama ride, and “intersection of 1960”) where the viewer’s perception of spatial scale was manipulated. Setha M. Low’s theory of “embodied space” helps decode why movement through these diverse spaces influenced millions of Americans’ views of transportation and urban form, a promotional success yet to be equaled by advocates of environmental sustainability.     

Designing a brave new world: eugenics, politics, and fiction

Aldous Huxley composed Brave New World in the context of the Depression and the eugenics movement in Britain. Today his novel is best known as satirical and predictive, but an additional interpretation emerges from Huxley's nonfiction writings in which the liberal hurmanist expressed some surprising opinions about eugenics, citizenship, and meritocracy. He felt that his role as an artist and public intellectual was to formulate an evolving outlook on urgent social, scientific, and moral issues. His brave new world can therefore be understood as a serious design for social reform, as well as a commentary about the social uses of scientific knowledge.     

"The moon" and "the blood": two emblematic symbols in headache and epilepsy according to scientific traditions of the Salerno Medical school and popular medicine in southern Italy

Before describing the state of knowledge on headache and epilepsy at the Salerno Medical School (SMS), we will briefly summarize in the first part its history through the centuries until the "golden period" of the 12th century when it reached its peak by outshining all others in teaching, studies and research. In the second part we will refer to Saint Donato, healer of epileptics in the south of Italy, whose worship is still alive today. The finding of common symbols in conceptions of headache and epilepsy, both in the scientific tradition of the School and in popular medicine, represents a link which is explicable by the wide dissemination of the school's doctrines.     

Rethinking mental retardation: education and eugenics in Connecticut, 1818-1917

This case study of mental retardation in Connecticut during 1818-1917 questions the existing model of interpretation. The discovery of mental retardation in Connecticut did not emanate from social fear over those who were different, difficult, or dangerous. Nor did state government initiate the institutionalization of the feeble-minded. Instead, Dr. Henry M. Knight, who founded the private Connecticut School for Imbeciles in 1858, was motivated by antebellum religious benevolence. His altruism was additionally motivated by cultural concerns to shape behavior according to middle-class, Protestant norms. By the end of the century, his son and successor Dr. George H. Knight departed from his father's emphasis on education and assimilation to embrace eugenics and segregation of the mentally retarded. Connecticut's pioneering marital ban (1895) and sterilization law (1909) were, however, virtually ineffective. Instead, the state sponsored in 1917 a large-scale custodial facility that sought to isolate the feeble-minded, whom reformers now portrayed as a menace to society. In sum, the Knights show a clear departure in policy between the first and second generation of administrators.     

Florence baptistery: chemical and mineralogical investigation of glass mosaic tesserae

A recent restoration of the mosaics of the Baptistery in Florence enabled the collection and analysis of a group of glass tesserae. Twenty-three tesserae, dated between the end of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, showing different colors were sampled and analyzed to identify the raw materials, colorants and opacifiers employed in their production.