At the beginning of the 1900s, Andrew Carnegie had funded Charles Davenport to establish eugenics educational programs in the U.S.
Eugenics provided the wealthy with a explanation to and solution for the influx of immigrants filling U.S. asylums in the late 1800s, and In 1904, Andrew Carnegie gave Harvard-educated biologist Charles Davenport the money to provide that wrapping. Davenport, who earned his Ph.D. at Harvard and had taught zoology there, was extremely proud of his WASP heritage. He traced his ancestry back to early settlers in New England and liked to boast that he had been an American “over 300 years,” for his “I” was “composed of elements that were brought to this country during the seventeenth century.” He was an avid reader of the writings of English eugenicists and on a trip to England dined with Sir Francis Galton, founder of eugenics (see eugenics began with SIr Francis Galton’s assumption that desirable traits could be selected for in humans by selectively breeding the population). That excursion left him invigorated with the cause of eugenics, and upon his return, he successfully lobbied the Carnegie Foundation for funds to establish a center for the study of human evolution at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island. Davenport received an annual salary of $3,500, making him one of the best-paid scientists in America.
References
- Whitaker, Robert. (2002). Mad in America Chapter 3. UNFIT TO BREED (p. 76). New York, NY: Basic Books.