Publications Produced by the Francis Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics

In 1907, Karl Pearson created the Francis Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics at University College, University of London. His ambitions emphasised both discipline building and the assertion of primacy for university research in eugenics over political activism. An academic entrepreneur, Pearson operated the ‘Eugenics Laboratory’ as a publishing house or imprint. It published five series. Because titles in each series were printed as ad hoc private separates for much of their duration, current bibliographic records show considerable variation and error while historical studies of the Eugenics Laboratory tend toward fragmentation. This paper presents a comprehensive inventory for each series associated with the Eugenics Laboratory, and it offers brief analysis of emerging patterns. The series inventoried are: (1) Eugenics Laboratory Lectures, (2) Eugenics Laboratory Memoirs, (3) The Treasury of Human Inheritance, (4) Questions of the Day and of the Fray, and (5) Studies in National Deterioration.

“The art of imposing measurement upon the mind”: Sir Francis Galton and the genesis of the psychometric paradigm

Sir Francis Galton singlehandedly instigated the navigational settings for the discipline of psychometrics by presupposing that mental attributes are measurable. In turn, this presupposition became the defining pillar of the psychometric paradigm. There were no scientifically sound reasons for adopting this presupposition and those Galton gave beg the question every time. So, what drove him to endorse this presupposition? Two considerations steered him in this direction: first, his Pythagorean philosophy of science according to which measurement is a necessary feature; and second, his desire to present eugenics as a science, which, given his Pythagorean vision, entailed that eugenics must involve measurement of relevant mental attributes. The quantitative presupposition guiding psychometrics throughout its history was, therefore, a spin-off from Galton’s marketing strategy for the pseudoscience of eugenics.

"O homem, em toda parte é a riqueza da nação": o discurso eugênico na Sociedade de Medicina de Porto Alegre nas décadas de 1920 e 1930

A Eugenia, desde seu desenvolvimento como teoria científica por Francis Galton, teve grande difusão por diversos países durante a primeira metade do século XX. Advinda de um período de intensa discussão sobre hereditariedade, influência do meio ambiente e degeneração, a Eugenia assumiu diferentes referenciais na composição de suas propostas, resultando em um corpo teórico bastante heterogêneo e multifacetado. Esse artigo tem por objetivo analisar a difusão do ideário eugênico nos discursos da Sociedade de Medicina de Porto Alegre. Tendo como objeto de estudo o periódico da instituição, o Archivos Rio Grandenses de Medicina, buscamos entender como a ciência eugênica moldou a visão de determinados médicos não só sobre doenças venéreas e patologias infectocontagiosas, mas também sobre temas como reprodução, maternidade, primeira infância, vícios e mortalidade.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF COMPOSITE PORTRAITS IN PHOTOGRAPHY

The composite photography technique, invented by Francis Galton in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, took its legacy from the new photography techniques that began to appear in the years immediately after the invention of photography. New perspectives affecting the photographs of that period and new image production greatly contributed to the development of this technique. The multi-layered structure that Galton used in his technique created a striking structure that lacked clarity and this technique has been used by many artists today. The composite portrait productions realized by the artists with the help of analog / digital techniques both challenge the photographic reality and combine innovation and art like the nature of composite photography. Galton's work on technique constitutes a highly developed field of photography practice through digital photography today. The traces of the multi-layered effect Galton created through photographic portraits are seen in the works like Lewis Hine's child labour, Ludwig Wittgenstein's family portrait, Wanda Wulz's cat portrait, William Wegman's family combinations, and Nancy Burson's composite portrait studies in the 1980s, Thomas Ruff's Andere Portrait, Booby Neel Adams' 'Family Tree' project, Daniel Gordon's collages, Ken Kitano's' Portraits of Our Face', and Idris Khan's' Nicholas Nixon's Brown Sisters', and these photos are important for the study. The spirit circulating in the layers of Galton's portraits has changed both aesthetically and technically through analog / digital techniques, shifting to a more unifying and compiling dimension. This article aims to investigate the effect of Francis Galton's photography technique on portrait work in the historical process. Keywords: Photography, art, portrait, composite photography

EUGENIA: A INFLUÊNCIA DA TEORIA GALTONIANA NA HISTÓRIA E NA ATUALIDADE

O presente artigo científico se propôs a analisar a influência que a teoria da Eugenia teve em acontecimentos históricos do século XX e problemas da atualidade, após compreender o que ela afirma e como foi desenvolvida. A justificativa do trabalho foi a grande influência que essa teoria exerceu em algumas das atrocidades cometidas pelo homem, por isso, a importância de compreender porque ela se popularizou tanto. Os objetivos específicos foram compreender o que é a teoria da Eugenia e como ela foi desenvolvida, entender como essa teoria influenciou determinados acontecimentos históricos e analisar como problemas atuais estão relacionados com ela. Ao final do trabalho, constatou-se que a teoria foi desenvolvida por Francis Galton e afirma que não só características físicas, mas também mentais são transmitidas hereditariamente, e que o homem pode gerar descendentes aprimorados por meio de certas técnicas. A pesquisa também demonstrou que essa ideia teve grande popularização nos Estados Unidos e que o Nazismo utilizou a teoria de Galton como uma das bases para sua política de exterminação racial. Por fim, percebeu-se que a Eugenia permanece ativa na sociedade nos dias de hoje, de modo subentendido, nas intervenções médicas que buscam o aprimoramento humano e em problemas sociológicos, como o racismo; mas que com o conhecimento atual essa pseudociência precisa ser deixada para trás. Para o desenvolvimento do trabalho foram utilizados o método indutivo, a pesquisa bibliográfica e o procedimento monográfico.

Biometric Aesthetics

This article examines contemporary biometric science against the backdrop of its development in nineteenth century eugenic and biostatistical practices, most notably the composite photography of Francis Galton. Focusing on automated face recognition, the article argues that contemorary biometric science is inextricable from its aesthetic investments, which in turn shape the ways in which faces and bodies are differentiated in identification systems. Based on a close reading of biometric engineering texts and projects, this aesthetico-scientific approach offers new ways of conceptualizing how biometrics constitutes rather than merely reflects bodies, and encodes racist, misogynist, and other social logics into the conception and design of technologies themselves. These are not biases that can be corrected, as ostensibly progressive biometric projects like IBM’s Diversity in Faces initiative suggest, but rather are inextricable from the biometric desire to render faces and bodies as transparent and machine-readable.

THE THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF CREATIVE ABILITIES AS THEY PRESENTED IN FRANCIS GALTON’S WORKS

The study purpose was to analyze Francis Galton’s works in order to determine the methodology that should be used to study creativity and its heredity. The article author clarified the definitions of the following concepts: “ability”, “giftedness”, “talent” and also examined the relations between the theories on heredity and eugenics, formulated by Galton. Via the performed theoretical analysis, we have found that Francis Galton, studying the heredity of talent, erroneously hypothesised that a high reputation was a true measure of high abilities. In his works, Galton did not use a single term to define “talent” or “giftedness”. Also, no explanation was given for criteria describing subjects as: “having high abilities” or “high reputation”. Also, Galton did not develop clear criteria determining whether certain relatives of famous people were also outstanding or talented. Accordingly, the article author proposes her own approach defining an outstanding individual that excludes from consideration on creativity people who are famous, but, at the same time, are not highly talented. Francis Galton did not explain exactly what abilities had people of different occupations; he was not able to describe specific signs of talent in a particular area. Galton divided talented individuals into classes, but the basis for such division did not meet any reasonable criterion. He also compared talents of students studied at different classes but did not explain rules determining talent levels. Because of these and other facts, Francis Galton’ research results were unreliable. Omissions were also made in the study on talent heredity, which, in turn, led to incorrectly formulated goals for such an approach as “Eugenics”.