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Portraits of Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin. 1840. By George Richmond

Darwin in London – Commemorative Plaques and Family Baptism Records

During research concerning Charles and Emma Darwin’s life at number 12 Upper Gower Street, Bloomsbury, London, I identified several errors and vagaries in biographical material found in standard reference works. This note communicates corrections and […]

Highlights

New Evidence on Dobzhansky 1936 “Jesup” lectures

Who says nothing exciting ever happens in historical research? This letter reports on a recent important find regarding the population geneticist, Theodosius Dobzhansky, and his famous 1937 book, Genetics and the Origin of Species. Most historians […]

Professor Cross's Phrenological Chart, 1892

Phrenology Consultation with Professor Cross

Professor W. Cross was a phrenologist who gave popular public performances at London’s Royal Aquarium in the 1880s and 1890s. Phrenology was the quack medical practice of studying bumps on the head under the false pretence of […]

New Yorker cartoon showing a museum guide instructing a visitor in the Sanford Hall of Birds, American Museum of Natural History, at the opening of the "Biology of Birds" exhibition.

Ernst Mayr and the Biology of Birds Exhibit at AMNH

When Ernst Mayr arrived in New York in 1931, he carried considerable intellectual baggage.

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 […]

Hand Dynanometer - UCL Galton Collection GALT 038 Copyright 2015 UCL Creative Services

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

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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

Flinders Petrie with pottery

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 […]

Professor Joe Cain 2026