Charles B. Davenport at a 1921 eugenics conference.

Charles Benedict Davenport (June 1, 1866–February 18, 1944) was a prominent American biologist and eugenicist. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (220x697, 99 KB) Charles Davenport, American biologist and eugenicist, at the Second International Congress of Eugenics, 1921. ... is the 152nd day of the year (153rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the song by Girls Aloud see Biology (song) Biology studies the variety of life (clockwise from top-left) E. coli, tree fern, gazelle, Goliath beetle Biology (from Greek: βίος, bio, life; and λόγος, logos, speech lit. ... Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution: Logo from the Second International Eugenics Conference [7], 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields. ...

Biography

Davenport was born in Stamford, Connecticut. He went to Harvard, getting a PhD in biology in 1892. He married in 1894. He became an instructor of Zoology at Harvard University. Nickname: Location in Connecticut Coordinates: , NECTA Region Settled 1641 Incorporated (city) 1893 Consolidated 1949 Government  - Type Mayor-Board of representatives  - Mayor Dannel Malloy (Dem) Area  - City 134. ... Official language(s) English Capital Hartford Largest city Bridgeport[3] Largest metro area Hartford Metro Area[2] Area  Ranked 48th  - Total 5,543[4] sq mi (14,356 km²)  - Width 70 miles (113 km)  - Length 110 miles (177 km)  - % water 12. ... Year 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Harvard redirects here. ...

In his biological work, Davenport became known as one of the most prominent American biologists of his age, pioneering attempts at developing quantitative standards of taxonomy. Davenport had a tremendous respect for the biometric approach to evolution pioneered by Francis Galton and Karl Pearson, and sat on the editorial committee of Pearson's journal, Biometrika. However after the "re-discovery" of Gregor Mendel's laws of heredity, he became a strict convert and major participant in the Mendelian school of genetics. For the science of classifying living things, see alpha taxonomy. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Karl Pearson FRS (March 27, 1857 – April 27, 1936) established the discipline of mathematical statistics. ... Biometrika is a scientific journal established in 1901 by Francis Galton, Karl Pearson and W. F. R. Weldon to promote the study of biometrics, the statistical analysis of hereditary phenomena. ... “Mendel” redirects here. ...

He became director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1910, where he founded the Eugenics Record Office. He began to study human heredity, and much of his effort was later turned to promoting eugenics. His 1911 book, Heredity in Relation to Eugenics, was a major work in the history of American eugenics, and was used as a college textbook for many years. The year after it was published Davenport was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a research and educational institution, consisting of science laboratories located in Cold Spring Harbor, New York on Long Island, USA. The Laboratory has research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics, and has a broad educational mission, including the recently... The Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, New York was a center for eugenics and human heredity research in the first half of the twentieth century. ... A karyotype of a human male, showing 46 chromosomes including XY sex chromosomes. ... Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution: Logo from the Second International Eugenics Conference [7], 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields. ... President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ...

Davenport and an assistant also attempted to develop a comprehensive quantitative approach to the question of miscegenation, or, as he put it, "race crossing" in humans. The resulting work, published in 1929, Race Crossing in Jamaica, purported to give statistical evidence for biological and cultural degradation following interbreeding between white and black populations. Today it is considered a work of scientific racism, and was criticized in its time for drawing conclusions which stretched far beyond (and sometimes counter to) the data it presented. Frederick Douglass with his second wife Helen Pitts Douglass (sitting) who was white, a famous 19th century American example of miscegenation. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Scientific racism is a term that describes either obsolete scientific theories of the 19th century or historical and contemporary racist propaganda disguised as scientific research. ...

Davenport also had connections to various institutions and publications within Nazi Germany, before and during W.W.II. These have been well documented by the sociologist Stefan Kühl. For example, Davenport held editorial positions at two influential German journals, both of which were founded in 1935, and in 1939 he wrote a contribution to the festschrift for Otto Reche, who became an important figure in the plan to "remove" those populations considered "inferior" in eastern Germany^[1] . National Socialism redirects here. ... German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ... Otto Reche (1879 - 1966) was a German anthropologist and professor. ...

He died of pneumonia in 1944.

1. ^ Kuhl, S. "The Nazi Connection; Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism" (Oxford/ New York, O.U.P., 1994.

Selected works

• Observations on Budding in Paludicella and Some Other Bryozoa (1891)
• On Urnatella Gracilis (1893)
• Experimental Morphology (1897-99)
• Statistical Methods, with Special References to Biological Variation (1899; second edition, 1904)
• Introduction to Zoölogy, with Gertrude Crotty Davenport (1900)
• Inheritance in Poultry, Carnegie Institution Publication, No, 52 (Washington, 1906)
• Inheritance of Characteristics in Domestic Fowl, Carnegie Institution Publication, No. 121 (Washington, 1909)
• Heredity in Relation to Eugenics (1911)
• Heredity of Skin-Color in Negro-White Crosses, Carnegie Institution Publication, No. 188 (1913)
• Race Crossing in Jamaica (1929)

External links

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhdave.html
• Edwin Black, War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race, (New York / London: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003);
• Elof Axel Carlson, "Times of triumph, Times of Doubt, science and the battle for the public trust", (Cold Spring Harbor; Cold Spring Harbor Press, 2006) ISBN 0-87969-805-5