Papers Relating to the Establishment of the Eugenics Record Office, and Early Research

Papers relating to the establishment of the Eugenics Record Office and the Galton Research Fellowship, plus data cards used by Galton during his studies into kinship.

1904-1910

12 items

Galton Laboratory and the Eugenics Record Office:

From 1904, Francis Galton gave £500 annually to the University of London for the Eugenics Record Office, its staff and the Galton Research Fellow. Rooms were provided by University College London at 88 Gower Street. Galton supervised the office until 1906 when he handed over to Karl Pearson. The function of the office was "study those agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial faculties of future generations physically and mentally". In 1907 the name was changed to the Francis Galton Laboratory of National Eugenics and the office was moved to the South Wing of University College.

When Galton died in 1911, he left the residue of his estate to the University of London for a professorship of Eugenics and expressed the wish that Karl Pearson should be the first holder of the chair. This wish was fulfilled. In 1963, while the Galton chair was held by Lionel Sharples Penrose, the laboratory was renamed The Galton Laboratory, Department of Human Genetics and Biometry, University College, London. At the same time, Penrose was instrumental in changing the name of the Professorship from the Galton Chair of Eugenics to the Galton Chair of Human Genetics.

The papers are available at UCL Special Collections and Archives subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

A digitised copy is held by the Wellcome Library as part of Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics.

The original material is held at UCL Special Collections. This catalogue is held by the Wellcome Library as part of Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics.