Eugenics Fieldworkers Training Class, 1918

The Eugenics Record Office Collection was established in 1910 at the Carnegie Institute of Washington (Cold Spring Harbor, NY) and closed in 1939. succeeded by the Department of Genetics. The collection contains administrative papers, photographs, publications and supporting materials, family pedigree charts, and requests for information, as well as materials related to and accrued by superintendent Harry H. Laughlin. Prior to joining the Eugenics Record Office, Laughlin was highly knowledgeable about breeding experiments, especially the breeding of thoroughbred horses. In addition to some of his materials related to thoroughbred horses, the collection also contains one of the few remaining copies in the world of H. Laughlin’s 1939 book on the Eugenics Records Office and a collection of photographs of ERO Field Workers’ Training Classes.

These are only a small portion of the original Eugenics Record Office materials. In 1948, the bulk of the records were donated to the University of Minnesota for use by the Dight Institute of Human Genetics. When the Dight Institute closed in 1991, the material was dispersed between the Genealogical Society of Utah, the Center for Human Genetics, and the American Philosophical Society. The Eugenics Record Office Collection is what remained at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

The collection is organized into two record groups: