Philanthropist and eugenicist E.S. Gosney.

Ezra Seymour Gosney (1855-1942) was an American philanthropist and eugenicist. In 1928 he founded the Human Betterment Foundation (HBF) in Pasadena, California, with the stated aim "to foster and aid constructive and educational forces for the protection and betterment of the human family in body, mind, character, and citizenship," primarily through the advocacy of compulsory sterilization of the mentally ill and mentally retarded. 1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the year. ... A philanthropist is someone who devotes his or her time, money, or effort towards helping others. ... Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution: Logo from the Second International Congress of Eugenics, 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields. ... 1928 was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Pasadena is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Compulsory sterilization programs sprouted up in many countries at the beginning of the 20th century, usually as part of a program of negative eugenics -- to prevent undesirable members of the population reproducing. ... The Scream, the famous painting commonly thought of as depicting the experience of mental illness. ... ...

Biography

Gosney was born in Kenton County, Kentucky in 1855, and received a degree in law from the Saint Louis School of Law in 1880. He settled in Flagstaff, Arizona where he was involved the establishment of a Wool Grower's Association. Around 1905 he relocated to Southern California, eager to escape the "wild west" environment still present in Arizona while raising two daughters. There he began to participant actively in the Pasadena, California business community, especially in the acquisition of citrus and other agricultural crops. Around this time he also became active in the establishment of the first California branch of the Boy Scouts of America. By the 1920s he had built up a considerable fortune, owned one of the largest lemon groves in the state, and served as the director of numerous banks, trusts companies, and corporations. Kenton County is a county located in the state of Kentucky. ... State nickname: Bluegrass State Other U.S. States Capital Frankfort Largest city Louisville Governor Ernie Fletcher Official languages English Area 104,749 km² (37th)  - Land 102,989 km²  - Water 1,760 km² (1. ... 1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Law (a loanword from Old Norse lag), in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments for those who do not follow... The name Saint Louis has several referents: Catholic Saints King Saint Louis IX of France; Saint Louis, bishop of Toulouse in France Locations Saint Louis, Missouri St. ... 1880 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Flagstaff (Navajo Kinłání) is a city located in Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the west of the United States. ... Long and short hair wool at the South Central Family Farm Research Center in Boonesville, AR Wool is the fiber derived from the hair of domesticated animals, usually sheep. ... 1905 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Southern California Los Angeles, rush hour on the Harbor Freeway San Diego Southern California, sometimes abbreviated SoCal, is an informal name for the southern one-third of the state of California. ... Great Basin region, typical American West The Western United States has played a significant role in history and fiction. ... Pasadena is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Species & major hybrids Species Citrus aurantium Citrus limetta Citrus maxima - Pomelo Citrus medica - Citron Citrus reticulata - Mandarin & Tangerine Major hybrids Citrus x aurantifolia - Lime Citrus x hystrix - Kaffir Lime Citrus x ichangensis - Ichang Lemon Citrus x limon - Lemon Citrus x limonia - Rangpur Citrus x paradisi - Grapefruit Citrus x sinensis - Sweet... The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is an organization for boys between the ages of 7 and 18, and for both young men and women between the ages of 14 and 21, based in the United States of America, with some presence in other countries. ... Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America as the Roaring Twenties. // Events and trends Technology John T. Thompson invents Thompson submachine gun, also known as Tommy gun John Logie Baird invents the first working television system (1925) Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly... Binomial name Citrus × limon Lemons are the citrus fruit from the tree Citrus × limon, a hybrid of cultivated origin. ... The essential function of a bank is to provide services related to the storing of deposits and the extending of credit. ...

While working in Pascadena he became acquainted with the biologist and eugenicist Paul B. Popenoe, and in 1925 Gosney financed Popenoe's collection of data on the implementation of California's eugenic compulsory sterilization laws. At the time, compulsory sterilization was seen by many as a way to reduce the incidence of mental illness and mental retardation in the population over time. Many states had legislation requiring the sterilization of patients at state-run psychiatric facilities, though only California executed the laws in earnest, as most other state officials were wary about the legal status of compulsory sterilization legislation. Paul B. Popenoe in 1915. ... 1925 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Compulsory sterilization programs sprouted up in many countries at the beginning of the 20th century, usually as part of a program of negative eugenics -- to prevent undesirable members of the population reproducing. ... The Scream, the famous painting commonly thought of as depicting the experience of mental illness. ... ...

The result of Gosney and Popenoe's research was a co-authored volume, Sterilization for Human Betterment: A Summary of Results of 6,000 Operations in California, 1909-1929, completed and published in 1929. The book sought to argue that eugenic sterilization was scientifically supported, caused no harm to patients, and was legally sound. The book, distributed widely by Gosney, was used to promote compulsory sterilization legislation in other states and countries, and along with work by Harry H. Laughlin was one of the most influential texts on sterilization in the United States. Gosney and Popenoe's book was specifically referenced by officials in Nazi Germany in the creation of their own sterilization legislation as having provided them with proof that sterilization programs could be safe and effective. Gosney and Popenoe believed the population of mentally ill in the United States could be reduced by half in "three or four generations." 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Harry Hamilton Laughlin (March 11, 1880- January 26, 1943) was a leading eugenicist in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

A follow-up study, Twenty-eight Years of Sterilization in California was published by the pair in 1938 (the American Journal of Sociology reviewed it with a single sentence: "An awkward attempt to popularize the practice of sterilizing defectives"). 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In 1926, Gosney first began to organize what would by 1928 become chartered as the Human Betterment Foundation as a philanthropic foundation to promote research and advocacy of eugenics, especially by means of sterilization. As Gosney put it, the Foundation would work for: 1926 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1928 was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

the advancement and betterment of human life, character, and citizenship, particularily in the United States of America, in such manner as shall make for human progress in life. It is not the primary intention of to engage in the care of the unfortunate or in any form of relief work, but rather to foster and aid constructive and educational efforts for the protection and betterment of human family in body, mind, character, and citizenship in life. (Gosney and Popenoe 1929, 192)

The initial board of trustees were Gosney, Henry M. Robinson (a Los Angeles banker), George Dock (a Pasadena physician), David Starr Jordan (chancellor of Stanford University), Charles Goethe (a Sacramento philanthropist), Justin Miller (dean of the college of law at the University of Southern California), Otis Castle (a Los Angeles attorney), Joe G. Crick (a Pasadena horticulturist), and Popenoe. Later members included Lewis Terman (a Stanford psychologist best known for creating the Stanford-Binet test of IQ), William B. Munro (a Harvard professor of political science), and University of California, Berkeley professors Herbert M. Evans (anatomy) and Samuel J. Holmes (zoology). David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851–September 19, 1931) was a leading ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. ... For other meanings of Stanford, see Stanford (disambiguation). ... Charles M. Goethe (1875 – 1966) was an entrepreneur, land developer, philanthropist, conservationist, founder of the Eugenics Society of Northern California, and a native and lifelong resident of Sacramento, California. ... Justin Miller(Born:February 14,1984) is an NFL cornerback/return specialist. ... The University of Southern California (also known as USC), Southern Californias oldest private research university, is located in the urban center of Los Angeles, California. ... Lewis Madison Terman (1877-1956) was a professor of cognitive psychology at Stanford University, perhaps best known for inventing the Stanford-Binet IQ test, which popularized IQ tests in America. ... IQ redirects here; for other uses of that term, see IQ (disambiguation). ... Harvard, see Harvard (disambiguation) Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a public coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California, USA to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate. ... Herbert McLean Evans (1882 - 1971) was a U.S. anatomist and embryologist. ...

The Foundation also established links with the California Institute of Technology, with Nobel Prize-winning Caltech physicist Robert Millikan joining the board of the HBF in 1937. The Foundation published a number of pamphlets and financed continued studies of the California sterilization program through the 1930s, and sent thousands of letters to teachers, libraries, and physicians advocating eugenic sterilization. It also underwrote a column in the Los Angeles Times on "social eugenics" and financed a radio program as well as hundreds of popular lectures around the country. Along with the American Eugenics Society, it was the most active and influential eugenics advocacy group in the country. The California Institute of Technology (commonly known as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ... Photographs of Nobel Prize Medals. ... Robert Millikan. ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Los Angeles Times (also LA Times) is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the western United States. ... The American Eugenics Society (AES) was a society established in 1922 to promote eugenics. ...

Upon Gosney's death in 1942, his daughter liquidated the Foundation and donated its remaining assets to Caltech, which in 1943 established a Gosney research fund for biological research using the money. The archives of the Human Betterment Foundation are in Special Collections at Caltech in Pasadena. This article is about the year. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ...

References

• "The Human Betterment Foundation," editorial reprinted from Eugenics, Vol. 3, No. 3: 110-113, in Collected papers on eugenic sterilization in California (Pasadena: Human Betterment Foundation, 1930).
• E.S. Gosney and Paul B. Popenoe, Sterilization for human betterment: A summary of results of 6,000 operations in California, 1909-1929 (New York: Macmillan, 1929).
• Philip R. Reilly, "Involuntary sterilization in the United States: a surgical solution," The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 62, No. 2. (June 1987): 153-170.

Paul B. Popenoe in 1915. ...

External links

• Information about Gosney and the HBF papers collection in CalTech