Professor Joe Cain

UCL Should Rename Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

Because I’ve been vocal in arguing for de-naming UCL facilities once (but no longer) associated with racist, nativist, eugenicists Francis Galton and Karl Pearson, I was asked if UCL should de-name its Petrie Museum of […]

T.T. Martin Headquarters, Anti-Evolution League at 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial

Scopes Monkey Trial 1925: Innes Lecture 2020

For the Innes Lecture 2020, I discussed the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. Owing to COVID-related public health restrictions, we moved this lecture online. Details on access now are available through the John Innes Centre. The […]

Scopes Monkey Trial 1925. William Jennings Bryan addressing the jury

Scopes Monkey Trial 1925 – Complete Trial Transcripts

Shortly after the conclusion of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial – officially, the case of State of Tennessee versus John Thomas Scopes, the National Book Company (Cincinnati, Ohio) published transcripts of the trial. Under the […]

Insect on Leaf - how might those names translate into the Linnean system of taxonomy?

Changing Offensive Names In Taxonomy Will Be A Hard Ask

The surge of energy for BlackLivesMatter this summer (2020) is driving change in areas far beyond those directly connected with police violence and responsive protests. This surge has given huge momentum to efforts seeking removal […]

UCL Galton Lecture Theatre de-named at University College London June 2020

UCL Removes Names For Racist Eugenicists Pearson and Galton

It’s been a long road. UCL has announced the official decision to remove the names of Francis Galton and Karl Pearson from its estate. De-named will be the Galton Lecture Theatre, Pearson Lecture Theatre, and […]

JBS lecturing at University College, University of London | Haldane's Mathematical Theory of Natural and Artificial Selection (photograph colourised)

Haldane. Mathematical Theory of Natural and Artificial Selection (1924-1934)

JBS Haldane wrote his “Mathematical Theory of Natural and Artificial Selection,” as a series of ten papers between 1924 and 1934. These were published across four journal titles, three of which were published by Cambridge Philosophical […]

Pterodactyl (Oolite) statues in Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, restored 2000, damaged after 2005

Pterodactyl statues in Crystal Palace Dinosaurs | missing

Following this month’s damage to one of the most famous Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, Megalosaurus, I’m reminded of the pterodactyl statues (properly, pterosaurs) that were original to the collection. Those were created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins […]

Protest by University of London medical students at Brown Dog Statue in Battersea Park (from Ford 1908)

Eyewitness to the Brown Dog Affair

Edward K. Ford was an eyewitness to history. In 1907, London medical students protested over a statue raised to a little brown dog. Bonfires burned late into the night. Large groups marched through the streets […]

Number 88 Gower Street - location for the Eugenics Record Office 1904-1906 | At cover of Gower Street and Torrington Place, Bloomsbury, London, England, United Kingdom

Francis Galton’s Eugenics Record Office on Gower Street (ERO-Galton)

Francis Galton created a Eugenics Record Office (ERO-Galton) at 88 Gower Street, London, England, in 1904, while developing a scheme to create for himself some research capacity in this area. ERO-Galton operated until 1907, when […]

view of location for number 110 Gower Street in relation to University College quad, 1946 aerial photograph courtesy Historic England. Image EAW000537

What Happened to Darwin’s House on Gower Street?

Charles Darwin lived in number 12 Upper Gower Street between 1839 and 1842, before moving to Down House at the end of summer 1842. (Charles moved into the house on 31 December 1838, spent his […]