Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement

DOLAN DNA LEARNING CENTER, COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY

Welcome to the Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement

The Eugenics Archive utilizes Flash for enhanced search features, cross referencing, and interactive images created with Zoomifyer. Get the Flash plugin at Adobe.com.

The Eugenics Archive will open in a new browser window.

I prefer the original, HTML-only Eugenics Archive site, take me there.

The site may take a few minutes to load on dial-up connections.
You can access the palm version of the site here.

Eugenics Archive Blog

Sterilization Laws

Based on a task force recommendation, the North Carolina legislature is considering paying $50,000 to living individuals sterilized by the state against their will or without their knowledge. North Carolina reportedly sterilized 7,600 individuals between 1929 and 1974. However, other American states also passed laws legalizing sterilization; the first was passed in Indiana in 1907

GO TO BLOG

Examine the Chronicle of how society dealt with mental illness and other "dysgenic" traits in the final section of our website DNA Interactive. Meet four individuals who became objects of the eugenic movement's zeal to cleanse society of "bad" genes during the first half of the 20th century. Then meet a modern-day heroine for an account of mental illness and the lesson it holds for living in the gene age.