Eugenics Record Office
Quick Summary
The Eugenics Record Office (ERO) was an American organization founded in 1910 at Cold Spring Harbor, New York. Its primary goal was to advance the eugenics movement, which aimed to improve future generations by selecting desirable heritable characteristics. The ERO served as a central repository for eugenics information, compiled family trait indexes, trained data collectors, and published findings.
Financially supported by figures like Edward Henry Harriman and the Carnegie Institution, the ERO, under the supervision of Harry H. Laughlin, collected data to support eugenicists' arguments. These arguments often contrasted families with "superior" traits, such as intelligence, with those exhibiting "dysgenic" traits like "feeblemindedness." Eugenicists feared that both internal factors and immigration from southern and eastern Europe threatened the American population's genetic quality. The ERO's work influenced immigration policy, contributing to restrictive laws in 1924. The organization officially closed in 1939.12
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