Professor Joe Cain

Lionel Penrose with Margaret Leathes Penrose plus a child in the Harris Family, 1954 or 1955

Lionel Penrose on Eugenics and anti-Eugenics at UCL

Professor Lionel Penrose FRS (1898-1972) was the third Galton Professor of Eugenics at University College London (UCL). He took up this post in 1945. He retired in 1965. As Galton Professor, Penrose also held associated […]

Shirley Hodgson in Defence of Lionel Penrose

Professor Lionel Penrose (1898-1972) was the third Galton Professor of Eugenics at University College London (UCL). He took up this post in 1945. He retired in 1965. As Galton Professor, Penrose also held associated roles as […]

“Mibiri Creek, Demerara River | Mr Edmonstone’s Wood Cutting Establishment” from Thomas Staunton St. Clair, A Residence in the West Indies and America (London, 1834), vol. 2, facing p. 187.

John Edmonstone: References from Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin made reference to many people in his writings. Most were correspondents who sent him pieces of useful information. Others were writers whose work he used, promoted, or criticised. In his 1871 book, Descent […]

Blog

And we’re off…this week we launched podcasting with WeAreSTS (Feb 2021)

With podcasting such a popular medium for communication, I decided to give it a try. At UCL, when I was asked to manage my department’s recruitment efforts into our undergraduate and masters programmes, podcasting seemed […]

Science of the Great Exhibition, by Robert Hunt (1851)

London in 1851 was site of the Great Exhibition. Formally, it was titled, “The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations“. The press focused attention on the giant glass house containing the […]

Ronald Aylmer Fisher was a eugenicist. This image from 1943 courtesy National Portrait Gallery

What’s Wrong With Fisher? He Was A Eugenicist

UCL Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment has taken the decision to de-name the R A Fisher Centre for Computational Biology owing to Fisher’s life-long commitment to eugenics research and campaigning. It is now the UCL Centre for […]

George Baxter print showing Crystal Palace 1854 Sydenham view from the north

Guide to Crystal Palace and Park from 1871 | EGP

The Crystal Palace Company published a Guide to Crystal Palace and Park nearly every year in the first few decades after opening their attraction in Sydenham in 1854. These guides described main attractions – especially […]

Historical analysis shows Karl Pearson was a racist nativist supremacist for Anglo-Saxon stock

Eugenics, Karl Pearson and the Legacy of Anglo-Saxon Nativism (text of talk)

This is the text of a presentation I delivered in September 2019 titled, “Eugenics, Karl Pearson and the Legacy of Anglo-Saxon Nativism”. It was for the conference “Universities and their contested pasts”. At the time, the UCL […]

ProfJoeCain style guide for HPSC modules. Photograph of typewriter.

ProfJoeCain’s style guide for HPSC modules

This is a guide to the style of presentation recommended for assessments in the HPSC modules for which I am module tutor. Students are strongly encouraged to follow this guide as a step towards using […]

Laughlin, Harry H. 1923. The Second International Exhibition of Eugenics Held September 22 to October 22, 1921, in Connection with the Second International Congress of Eugenics in the American Museum of Natural History, New York (Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins Company), page 15.

Famous Eugenics Tree Image Source Located

The “eugenics tree” is one of the most reprinted images associated with the history and legacy of eugenics. The source is Laughlin (1923: 15, figure 3). It was created for the Second International Congress of […]