A volume of Galton’s eugenic writings reissued in the mid-twentieth century
What the Work Is
Three Memoirs is a book by the English polymath Francis Galton, first published in 1951. Cataloguing information classifies its subject as eugenics. The volume belongs to the body of Galton’s writing on eugenics, the field he originated during the Victorian era.
What the Book Is About
The work concerns eugenics, the subject under which it is catalogued. Galton coined the term eugenics and believed that humanity could be improved through selective breeding. His writing on the subject often expressed racist judgements, assuming a natural superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race. These commitments were the culmination of his life’s primary passion, and he left his estate to the University of London to fund a permanent Chair of Eugenics — a decision that led to the founding of the Galton Laboratory, first filled by Karl Pearson.
Significance and Influence
Galton’s eugenic programme had lasting institutional consequences. His data-gathering systems — the Record of Family Faculties of 1884 and the Anthropometric Laboratory at the International Health Exhibition of 1884 to 1885 — led to the establishment of the Eugenics Record Office in 1904, a precursor to the Galton Laboratory. The laboratory’s publications included memoir series, lecture series, addresses, biometric series, and technical series, among them the Eugenics Laboratory Memoirs and Questions of the Day and of the Fray, a eugenics memoir series written from 1910 to 1923.
The reception of Galton’s eugenic legacy shifted markedly over the twentieth century. After the Second World War, the profoundly negative associations of eugenics prompted a renaming of the department that had grown out of his bequest: in 1966 it became the Department of Human Genetics and Biometry. This was part of a much larger, ongoing re-evaluation of Galton’s legacy. The debate is captured in the nuanced views of modern academic leaders; the president of the Royal Statistical Society, for instance, cautioned against a “blanket condemnation”, arguing that Galton’s statistical methods should not be linked to his views on eugenics. In 2018, UCL established a formal inquiry into the history of eugenics at the institution, and in June 2020 the university issued a formal apology for its history and legacy of eugenics, announcing that it would rename spaces and buildings named after Francis Galton and Karl Pearson.
The Eugenics Record Office, established by Galton in 1904, employed three staffers during its operation: Dr. Edgar Schuster, who served as Galton Research Fellow from 1905 to 1906; David Heron, who was Galton Research Fellow in 1906; and Ethel Elderton, who served as Research Assistant and Secretary from 1905 to 1907. In 1906, Karl Pearson took directorship of the Eugenics Record Office, eventually dissolving it. In 1907, the Office was reconstituted as the Galton Eugenics Laboratory as part of UCL, still under the direction of Karl Pearson, a professor of Applied Mathematics.
The Department of Applied Statistics and Eugenics
Pearson created the Department of Applied Statistics, which combined the Biometric Laboratory and the Francis Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics, and in 1913 this department was renamed the Department of Applied Statistics and Eugenics. The department’s increase in size prompted UCL to acquire or construct a new space. In 1912, Sir Herbert Bartlett offered space in the North-West front of UCL’s Wilkins building. The outbreak of the First World War interrupted work, and the new space was not used by the department until October 1919, with an official opening in June 1920.
Pearson was succeeded as Galton Professor by R. A. Fisher in 1934. When Fisher moved to Cambridge in 1944, the laboratory was incorporated into an enlarged Department of Eugenics, Biometry and Genetics headed by J. B. S. Haldane, the Wheldon Professor of Biometry. This reversed a previous split in 1933 following Karl Pearson’s retirement.
Later History of the Department
The Department of Human Genetics and Biometry, including the Galton Laboratory, became part of the Department of Biology at UCL in 1996. The MRC Human Biochemical Genetics Unit was established by Harris in 1962. He was Honorary Director until he went to Philadelphia in 1976, and the unit continued under the direction of David Hopkinson until its closure in October 2000. Sam Berry also held a Professorship in Genetics from 1972.
In 1967, the laboratory moved into a dedicated new building, Wolfson House, along with a further two Medical Research Council units: the Human Biochemical Genetics Unit, headed by Harris, and the MRC Experimental Genetics Unit, headed by Hans Grüneberg. Subsequently, on Grüneberg’s retirement, the space occupied by his unit was reallocated to the newly created MRC Mammalian Development Unit, led by Anne McLaren, and the MRC Blood Group Unit, headed by Ruth Sanger, and subsequently Patricia Tippett.
In 2013, the Galton Laboratory was incorporated into UCL’s then-new Department of Genetics, Evolution, and Environment.
Under the leadership of Lionel Penrose and later Harry Harris, the Galton Laboratory became internationally recognized for its contributions to medical and population genetics. Research expanded into chromosomal disorders, biochemical genetics, and statistical methods for genetic analysis. The laboratory’s scientists contributed to early work on Down syndrome, X-linked conditions, and the use of enzyme polymorphisms as genetic markers. These efforts positioned the Galton Laboratory as one of the leading genetics research centres in Europe during the mid-20th century.
The UCL Eugenics Inquiry
In 2018, then President and Provost of UCL, Professor Michael Arthur, established a formal inquiry into the history of eugenics at UCL. The Inquiry was chaired by Professor Iyiola Solanke of the University of Leeds and included sixteen members. The original inquiry set out six terms of reference that investigated the teaching, financial benefit and linkage of eugenics to modern discrimination.
The June 2020 apology followed a report and comprehensive set of recommendations given to UCL in February 2020 from its official Inquiry into the History of Eugenics. The spaces renamed included the former Galton Lecture Theatre, the Pearson Lecture Theatre, and the Pearson Building, which were renamed Lecture Theatre 115, Lecture Theatre G22, and the North-West Wing, respectively. Nine of the inquiry’s original sixteen members did not agree to sign this report.
The MORE Group recommendations was an additional report compiled by nine of the inquiry’s members who did not agree to sign off on the February 2020 report. Reasons cited by members of the MORE Group for their refusal to sign included a need for more time to develop the narrative of the report, a deeper understanding of UCL’s eugenics history, and a broader set of terms that gave equal weight and understanding to all targets of eugenics.
The inquiry group published one additional group report in April 2021 co-chaired by Professor Hazel Genn and Dr. Kamna Patel. This report synthesized the original February 2020 report with further recommendations of the MORE Group. This report included the redistribution of Galton-related funds, greater representation of BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) and disabled communities, as well as long-term educational and institutional reform towards transparency and inclusion. The most recent report was released in November 2021 focused on further research undertaken by the inquiry.
Women in the Galton Laboratory
Women made significant contributions to the scientific work of the Galton Laboratory through roles in data collection, computation, and research during the early 20th century. Mathematicians and “computers” including Alice Lee, Cicely Fawcett and Amy Barrington assisted Karl Pearson and his colleagues by performing detailed statistical and biometric calculations that supported the laboratory’s studies on eugenics. Alice Lee earned her BSc from London University in 1884, the first student from Bedford College to do so. She then worked as a physics and mathematics assistant teacher, around the time she was acquainted with Karl Pearson. By 1895, she was attending his lectures at UCL and developed a strong interest in his biometric research. Her subsequent work focused on examining skull capacity differences between men and women and its correlation with intellectual capability. When she concluded there was no correlation and shared her findings with Galton, he expressed disappointment with her conclusion, stating that he disagreed with her results.
Some women including Ethel Elderton were committed to the lab’s ideas on eugenics while others participated primarily to gain experience in scientific or artistic fields. Mary Kirby, for instance, trained at the Slade School of Fine Art before joining the lab as a draughtswoman, producing scientific illustrations before becoming a university arts lecturer.
Despite their essential contributions, women at the Galton Laboratory worked under unequal conditions, receiving lower pay and limited recognition when compared to their male counterparts. Many began as unpaid volunteers or assistants, later securing modestly paid positions including research assistants, draughtswomen or secretaries. Nonetheless, several women, including Julia Bell, who became a pioneer in the field of genetics, found success within the work at the Galton Laboratory.
Recent archival studies have documented the significant roles women played in the Galton Laboratory’s research, particularly in statistical data and the development of modern genetics. Their experiences reflect both the professional opportunities available to women at the time and the institutional limitations that determined their participation in scientific research.
Publications
The Galton Laboratory published many pieces including memoir series, lecture series, addresses, biometric series, and technical series. The Eugenics Laboratory Lecture Series was a series of lectures meant for general audiences to further engage understandings of eugenics outside of academic spaces. The Eugenics Laboratory Memoirs was a series of memoirs from authors including Ethel Elderton, Karl Pearson, David Heron, and Amy Barrington. The Annals of Eugenics was created by Karl Pearson in 1925 and continues as the Annals of Human Genetics. Studies in National Deterioration was a series of studies published between 1906 and 1924.
Galton Professors of Eugenics/Genetics
Originally established as the Galton Chair in National Eugenics, the post was renamed under Penrose to be the Galton Professor of Human Genetics. Karl Pearson held the chair from 1911 to 1933, followed by Ronald Fisher from 1933 to 1943, Lionel Penrose from 1945 to 1965, Harry Harris from 1965 to 1976, Bette Robson from 1976 to 1994, and Nicholas Wood from 2009 to 2020.
Workers
Ethel Elderton served as research assistant, secretary, and eventual Galton Research Scholar. Amy Barrington was a computer of the Galton Laboratory. David Heron was a Galton Research Fellow. Julia Bell was an assistant and researcher. Alice Lee was an assistant and researcher. Other workers included Adelaide Gladys Davin, Mary Noel Karn, Mary Hamilton Williams, and Dr. Eleanor Pairman.
Collections
The records of the Galton Laboratory are held at University College London. The library of the Galton Laboratory — including the library of Francis Galton, which formed the foundation of the UCL Science Collections, containing around 5000 items, where a variety of literature ranging from the early eighteenth to mid-twentieth century are stored — additional museum records and works of the Galton Laboratory history can be found on display. Many of the Galton Laboratory’s publications have been digitized and are available through the Internet Archive.
