Featured Posts | Page 4 of 4 | 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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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)

JBS Haldane’s 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 […]

Cain 2007 Regular Contact With Anyone Interested - Dobzhansky and friends on his new car

Regular Contact with Anyone Interested: Documents of Society for the Study of Speciation | EGP

Organising the Society for the Study of Speciation was a simple affair in 1939. The job of implementing its vision fell upon the entomologist Alfred Emerson, recruited to serve as Secretary. ‘The need was felt by […]

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 […]

Professor Joe Cain

UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology

Highlights