Blog

Professor Joe Cain publishes blog posts on many subjects related to his research interests.

Columbia Biological Series logo. One of five different logos used for the series.
Blog

Columbia Biological Series, 1894-1974

The Columbia Biological Series (1894-1974) was produced by the Department of Biology (later Zoology) of Columbia University, New York, and spanned a wide range of topics within the biological sciences. This paper provides a bibliography […]
Frontispiece. Heinrich Driesmans 1903 Francis Galton (privately printed). Translated by M. E. Coleridge.
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What Happened to the UCL Galton Collection?

UCL Galton Collection is hard to find. It has been made increasingly invisible. This has happened through actions taken by its caretakers to depreciate its digital access, ignore communities of interest, and pretend it no […]
Lionel Penrose with Margaret Leathes Penrose plus a child in the Harris Family, 1954 or 1955
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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.
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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 […]
Ronald Aylmer Fisher was a eugenicist. This image from 1943 courtesy National Portrait Gallery
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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 […]
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.
1921 Second Eugenics Congress

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 […]