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The American Eugenics Society (AES) was a society established in 1922 to promote eugenics
Eugenics

Eugenics is a scientific field involving the controlled breeding of humans in order to achieve desirable traits in future generations. Eugenics was at its height in first half of the 20th century and was largely abandoned with the end of World War II....
 in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
.

It was the result of the Second International Conference on Eugenics (New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
, 1921). The founders included Madison Grant
Madison Grant

Madison Grant was an United States lawyer, historian, and anthropologist, known primarily for his work as a eugenics and conservationist. As a eugenicist, Grant was responsible for one of the most famous works of scientific racism, and played an active role in crafting strong Immigration Act of 1924 and anti-miscegenation laws in the Unite...
, Harry H. Laughlin
Harry H. Laughlin

Harry Hamilton Laughlin was a leading United States Eugenics in the first half of the 20th century. He was the director of the Eugenics Record Office from its inception in 1910 to its closing in 1939, and was among the most active individuals in influencing American eugenics policy, especially compulsory sterilization legislation....
, Irving Fisher
Irving Fisher

Irving Fisher was an United States Economics, health campaigner, and Eugenics, and one of the earliest American Neoclassical economics and, although he was perhaps the first celebrity economist, his reputation today is probably higher than it was in his lifetime....
, Henry Fairfield Osborn
Henry Fairfield Osborn

Henry Fairfield Osborn was an United States geologist, paleontologist, and Eugenics, "a first-rate science administrator and a third-rate scientist."...
, and Henry Crampton
Henry Crampton

Henry Edward Crampton was an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, who specialized in the study of land snails. Crampton made twelve separate expeditions over the course of his career to Moorea near Tahiti to study the land snail genus Partula, while years more were spent measuring and cataloguing his specimens....
. The organization started by promoting racial betterment, eugenic health, and genetic education through public lectures, exhibits at county fairs ea., but under the direction of Frederick Osborn
Frederick Osborn

Major General Frederick Henry Osborn was an American philanthropist, military leader, and eugenicist. He was a founder of several organizations, and played a central part in reorienting eugenics in the years following World War II away from the race- and class-consciousness from earlier periods....
, started to place greater focus on issues of population control, genetics, and, later, medical genetics.






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The American Eugenics Society (AES) was a society established in 1922 to promote eugenics
Eugenics

Eugenics is a scientific field involving the controlled breeding of humans in order to achieve desirable traits in future generations. Eugenics was at its height in first half of the 20th century and was largely abandoned with the end of World War II....
 in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
.

It was the result of the Second International Conference on Eugenics (New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
, 1921). The founders included Madison Grant
Madison Grant

Madison Grant was an United States lawyer, historian, and anthropologist, known primarily for his work as a eugenics and conservationist. As a eugenicist, Grant was responsible for one of the most famous works of scientific racism, and played an active role in crafting strong Immigration Act of 1924 and anti-miscegenation laws in the Unite...
, Harry H. Laughlin
Harry H. Laughlin

Harry Hamilton Laughlin was a leading United States Eugenics in the first half of the 20th century. He was the director of the Eugenics Record Office from its inception in 1910 to its closing in 1939, and was among the most active individuals in influencing American eugenics policy, especially compulsory sterilization legislation....
, Irving Fisher
Irving Fisher

Irving Fisher was an United States Economics, health campaigner, and Eugenics, and one of the earliest American Neoclassical economics and, although he was perhaps the first celebrity economist, his reputation today is probably higher than it was in his lifetime....
, Henry Fairfield Osborn
Henry Fairfield Osborn

Henry Fairfield Osborn was an United States geologist, paleontologist, and Eugenics, "a first-rate science administrator and a third-rate scientist."...
, and Henry Crampton
Henry Crampton

Henry Edward Crampton was an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, who specialized in the study of land snails. Crampton made twelve separate expeditions over the course of his career to Moorea near Tahiti to study the land snail genus Partula, while years more were spent measuring and cataloguing his specimens....
. The organization started by promoting racial betterment, eugenic health, and genetic education through public lectures, exhibits at county fairs ea., but under the direction of Frederick Osborn
Frederick Osborn

Major General Frederick Henry Osborn was an American philanthropist, military leader, and eugenicist. He was a founder of several organizations, and played a central part in reorienting eugenics in the years following World War II away from the race- and class-consciousness from earlier periods....
, started to place greater focus on issues of population control, genetics, and, later, medical genetics. In 1972 the AES was reorganized and renamed in "The Society for the Study of Social Biology"

List of Presidents


  • Irving Fisher
    Irving Fisher

    Irving Fisher was an United States Economics, health campaigner, and Eugenics, and one of the earliest American Neoclassical economics and, although he was perhaps the first celebrity economist, his reputation today is probably higher than it was in his lifetime....
     1922-26 (Political Economy, Yale University)
  • Roswell H. Johnson 1926-27 (Cold Spring Harbor, Univ. of Pittsburgh)
  • Harry H. Laughlin
    Harry H. Laughlin

    Harry Hamilton Laughlin was a leading United States Eugenics in the first half of the 20th century. He was the director of the Eugenics Record Office from its inception in 1910 to its closing in 1939, and was among the most active individuals in influencing American eugenics policy, especially compulsory sterilization legislation....
     1927-29 (Eugenics Record Office)
  • C. C. Little
    C. C. Little

    Clarence Cook "C.C." Little was an United States genetics, cancer, and tobacco researcher and academic administrator.He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts and attended Harvard University after his secondary education at the Noble and Greenough School....
     1929 (Pres., Michigan University)
  • Henry Pratt Fairchild
    Henry Pratt Fairchild

    Henry Pratt Fairchild was a distinguished United States sociology. He was a Marxist sociologist who was actively involved in many of the controversial issues of his time....
     1929-31 (Sociology, New York University)
  • Henry Perkins
    Henry Perkins

    Henry Farnham Perkins was an United States zoologist and eugenicist.External links* (Zoology, University of Vermont)
  • Ellsworth Huntington
    Ellsworth Huntington

    Ellsworth Huntington was a professor of geography at Yale University during the early 20th century, known for his studies on climatic determinism, economic growth and economic geography....
     1934-38 (Geography, Yale University)
  • Samuel Jackson Holmes
    Samuel Jackson Holmes

    Samuel Jackson Holmes was an USA zoologist. He was at University of California, Berkeley. He was also a eugenicist.He was the son of Joseph Holmes and his wife Avis Folger n?e Taber....
     1938-40 (Zoology, University of California)
  • Maurice Bigelow
    Maurice Bigelow

    Maurice Alpheus Bigelow was an United States Social hygiene movement, early Sexual education and Eugenics. He served as president of the American Eugenics Society from 1940 until 1945, as director of the School of Practical Arts at Columbia University Teacher?s College and was affiliated with the American Social Health Association....
     1940-45 (sex education, Columbia University)
  • Frederick Osborn
    Frederick Osborn

    Major General Frederick Henry Osborn was an American philanthropist, military leader, and eugenicist. He was a founder of several organizations, and played a central part in reorienting eugenics in the years following World War II away from the race- and class-consciousness from earlier periods....
     1946-52 (Osborn-Dodge-Harriman RR connection)
  • Harry L. Shapiro
    Harry L. Shapiro

    Harry Lionel Shapiro was an American author, eugenicist, and Professor of Anthropology....
     1956-63 (American Museum of Natural History)
  • Clyde V. Kiser 1964-68 (differential fertility, Milbank Memorial Fund)
  • Dudley Kirk 1969-72 (Demographer, Stanford University)
  • Bruce K. Eckland 1972-75 (Sociology, University of North Carolina)
  • L. Erlenmeyer-Kimling 1976-78 (Genetic Psychiatry)
  • Lindzey Gardner 1979-81 (Center for Advanced Study, Behavioral Sciences)
  • John L. Fuller 1982-83 (Behavioral genetics)
  • Michael Teitelbaum
    Michael Teitelbaum

    Michael S. Teitelbaum is a demography at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York City.He publishes on immigration issues in both the popular and academic press and served as Commissioner to the U.S....
     1985-1990 (US Congress staff; US population policy)
  • Robert Retherford 1991-1994 (East-West Institute, Hawaii; funded by AID)
  • Joseph Lee Rodgers 1994, 1995 (family influences)
  • Current: S. Jay Olshansky
    S. Jay Olshansky

    Stuart Jay Olshansky, Ph.D. is a currently professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, and a Research Associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine....


See also

  • British Eugenics Society
  • Human Betterment Foundation
    Human Betterment Foundation

    The Human Betterment Foundation was an USA eugenics organization established in Pasadena, California in 1928 by E.S. Gosney with the aim "to foster and aid constructive and educational forces for the protection and betterment of the human family in body, mind, moral character, and citizenship"....