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Charles Darwin Blue Plaque on Gower Street London WC1 | ProfJoeCain

Darwinian Heritage on Gower Street at UCL

English Heritage commemorates Charles Darwin with a blue plaque located on Gower Street in Bloomsbury, central London. The “Darwin plaque” is fixed to the Darwin Building, one of the substantial science buildings of University College […]

Students protest at University College London (UCL) during scandal over London Conference on Intelligence (LCI) January 2018

Eugenics at University of Puget Sound (UPS)

Colleagues at the University of Puget Sound (UPS) have developed a course to explore the history and legacy of eugenics in their community. This draws on an interdisciplinary team of tutors and some highly energetic students. […]

UCL Galton Lecture Theatre - plaque on door - ProfJoeCain

Time Has Run Out for Francis Galton at UCL

Francis Galton was a bad piece of work. His racist, nativist, supremacist views are antithetical to UCL’s vision and values. He is no role model for me. He should be no role model for you. […]

Legacies of Eugenics project website December 2019

Launching the Legacies of Eugenics project

The subject of eugenics is back on the agenda for historians of science. I’ve been involved in the UCL Inquiry on the history and legacies of eugenics within that institution. My academic department has reviewed […]

Karl Pearson, 1934, from Filon et al (1934)

Speeches Delivered at a Dinner in Honour of Karl Pearson, 1934

Karl Pearson retired in 1933, aged 76. To honour his career, colleagues and former students gathered for a dinner in April 1934. On this occasion, Professor LNG Filon, Vice-Chancellor of University of London, gave a […]

Karl Pearson praised Hitler and Nazi Race Hygiene

Did Professor Karl Pearson praise Hitler and Nazi ‘race hygiene’ programmes? Yes, he did. He did this in 1934, at a dinner to mark his retirement the previous year from University College London (UCL). Pearson […]

Edward Turner, First Professor of Chemistry at UCL - ProfJoeCain

Edward Turner was a Creole. So what?

A historian colleague of mine asked if I knew anything about the genealogy of UCL’s first Professor of Chemistry, Edward Turner (1796-1837). My colleague said he had heard a report that Turner was mixed race, […]

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

Eugenics, Karl Pearson, and the Legacy of Anglo-Saxon Nativism at UCL

In September 2019 I gave a paper, “Eugenics, Karl Pearson, and the Legacy of Anglo-Saxon Nativism at UCL,” at a conference organised by the Research Group on University History held at the University of Manchester. […]

Image from Cover - Farrall 2019 English Eugenics Movement 9781787510012

Farrall (1969) Examines History of Eugenics at UCL

In the course of my own research into activities that led to something like a “Department of Eugenics” at University College London (UCL) , I returned over and again to one work: “The origins and […]

Profesor Karl Pearson at desk in Francis Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics

Mental Deficiency Act 1913 (UK) and Karl Pearson’s Absence

I was reading Angelique Richardson’s 2014 TLS piece on the history of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913 (UK), which came into effect 1914 and was repealed in 1968. It inspired me to review that Act […]

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