Bronson Price Papers, American Philosophical Society

Table of contents

Abstract

The psychologist and behavioral geneticist Bronson Price made important contributions to the study of the genetics of mental traits in twins. Receiving his doctorate from Stanford in 1934, Price began down a research path that led him to study under Aleksandr R. Luria in Moscow from 1934-1935, and thereafter to the Department of Psychology at Ohio State. In 1941, Price changed course professionally, entering into war-time government service, never to return to academia, working first with the National Office of Vital Statistics and later as a statistician with the Children's Bureau and the Office of Education.

The Price Papers contains one linear foot of correspondence relating to Bronson Price's interests in genetics and eugenics, with an emphasis upon Price's post-doctoral experiences in the Soviet Union and his long-term interests in the genetic study of twins. In addition to fairly extensive correspondence with H. J. Muller and Lewis Terman, the collection includes interesting materials relating to the Foundation for Germinal Choice, eugenic sterilization, and an extensive bibliographic card file used by Price in his research on twins post-1940.

Background note
Scope & content
Administrative information
Additional information
- Bibliography
Added entries
Contact information
Collection overview
- Series I. Correspondence, 1926-1978
- Series II. Twin articles, 1942-1976
- Series III. Twin bibliography, ca.1940s-1970s
- Series IV. Photographs, 1948
Collection inventory
- Series I. Correspondence, 1926-1978
- Series II. Twin articles, 1942-1976
- Series III. Twin bibliography, ca.1940s-1970s
- Series IV. Photographs, 1948

Background note

Goldschmidt, Dobzhansky, Stebbins, Bryson, Smith and Reed
at the 8th International Congress of Genetics, 1948

Although he spent the majority of his professional career as a statistician, Bronson Price was trained as a psychologist, and he made his most important scientific contributions as a geneticist. While working on his doctorate under Lewis Terman at Stanford, Price became interested in the statistical and genetical issues surrounding the study of twins, beginning what would become a long-term interest in delineating the "primary biases" in those studies. Upon completing his degree in 1934, he won a fellowship to pursue post-doctoral work with Aleksandr R. Luria at the Medico-Biological Institute in Moscow, indulging his interest in the social implications (and applications) of his scientific work. A Depression-era progressive, Price was attracted to the Soviet Union partly out of political curiosity -- his Stanford friend Robert C. Challman jokingly accused him of being a "beret boy" (December 17, 1934) -- but also out of what he perceived to be scientific opportunity in the "social experimentation" taking place there. His project was designed to assess R. A. Fisher's theory of the "social promotion of infertility," in which Fisher had argued that infertility and ability are mated in capitalist society, heightening the differential birthrate. Although Price's Soviet research resulted in few publications, his experience did produce one tangible result: while in Moscow, Price grew close to another American expatriate, the geneticist, Herman J. Muller, with whom he shared a common set of intellectual concerns and what would become a long personal friendship.

Upon his return to the States, Price accepted a position in the Department of Psychology at Ohio State, although it took special pleading by Terman to convince the administration that Price was not a Communist sympathizer. Despite this intervention, suspicions about Price's political motives welled up periodically during the next five years, never quite threatening his employment, but often forcing him to pit his sympathetic reading of Soviet life between the extremes of Bolshevik apologists and anti-Communist ideologues, always arguing that fascism was the greater threat. Although not a Communist himself, Price concluded in 1938 that "the USSR stands high when judged against a reasonable set of non-selective criteria" and that "Soviet socialism now is the soundest economically and the solidest psychologically of the world states" (to Lewis Terman, January 5, 1938).

The onset of the Second World War presented a professional watershed. Early in 1941, Price took leave from Ohio State to join the impending war effort, and was assigned first to the personnel office of the War Department and later in the Office of War Information, where he worked primarily as an interpreter of broadcasts from Eastern Europe. Rather than return to academia after the war, however, he remained in the government service as an analyst with the National Office of Vital Statistics, and as a statistician with the Children's Bureau and the Office of Education, in succession. Although his core research interests shifted away from genetics, his engagement with the field, and twin studies in particular, never waned. His efforts in research were directed largely toward the assessment of biases in twin studies, a topic on which he spoke at the 8th International Congress of Genetics in Stockholm, 1948, and which resulted in his best know paper, "Primary biases in twin studies."

Price was a founding member of the American Society of Human Genetics in 1948 and, at the urging of Hermann Muller, became a charter member of the Foundation for Germinal Choice in 1964. He died in 1978, survived by his wife, Helen.

Scope and content

The Price Papers represent only a fraction of the professional correspondence of the psychologist, statistician, and behavioral geneticist Bronson Price. Although sparse, the collection provides interesting materials documenting Price's interests in genetics and eugenics, his twin studies, and his experiences as a post-doctoral student in the Soviet Union in 1934-1935. The collection is organized into four series: correspondence (1 linear foot), papers on twins (1 linear foot), a bibliographic card file on twin studies (2 linear feet), and slides of the 8th International Congress of Genetics, 1948 (37 items).

The earliest letters in the collection relate to Price's two years in the Soviet Union, shortly after the Stalinist famine in the Ukraine. Sympathetic with the Soviet experiment, Price appears to have attempted to balance his sympathies with a critical mind, eschewing both extremes. His correspondence with Lewis Terman is particularly interesting for documenting his ambivalent thoughts on his work in Moscow and the adjustments necessary upon resuming his academic career in the United States. Letters from his colleagues Ralph White and Robert C. Challman, among others, provide important additional information, as do his detailed comments on a condensed version of Eugene Lyons's book, Assignment in Utopia.

Eugenics in its various guises appears as one of the themes of particular interest to Price from the mid-1930s into the mid-1960s. The most extended correspondence in the collection is that with H. J. Muller, which, as might be expected, provides valuable context for understanding Price's experience in the Soviet Union, but also his attitudes toward the various strains of the eugenics movement and Muller's research in radiation biology during the 1950s. Muller appears to have enticed Price into becoming a charter member of the Foundation for Germinal Choice, and the two folders under that name contain a small number of letters sent during the planning stages of the Foundation and a manuscript by Muller, "Human genetic betterment," in which he laid out the Foundation's philosophy. Price's perspective on eugenical sterilization is documented in the folders for the Human Betterment Foundation and "Sterlization laws."

Finally, Price's correspondence with Gunnar Dahlberg and Charles W. Cotterman offers tantalizing hints of Price's experience during the 7th International Congress of Genetics, Edinburgh, in 1939, when his ship, the S.S. Athenia became one of the first victims of the war in the North Atlantic.


Series I.	Correspondence, 1926-1978	(2 boxes; 1 linear foot)
Series II.	Twin articles, 1942-1976	(2 boxes; 1 linear foot)
Series III.	Twin bibliography, ca.1940s-1970s	(8 boxes; 2 linear feet)
Series IV.	Photographs, 1948	(37 slides; 0.1 linear feet)

Administrative information

Restrictions

None.

Provenance

The Price Papers were donated by Helen Price, 1978.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Bronson Price Papers, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Catalogued by rsc, 2002.

Other finding aids

Also described in Bentley Glass, Guide to the Genetics Collections at the American Philosophical Society.

Additional information

References

Price, Bronson, "Homogamy and the intercorrelation of capacity traits," Annals of Eugenics 7 (1936), 22-27.

Price, Bronson, "Primary biases in twin studies; a review of prenatal and natal difference-producing factors in monozgotic pairs," American Journal of Human Genetics 2 (1950), 292-352.

Price, Bronson and Sidney L. Halperin, "Sterilization laws -- bane or banner of eugenics and public welfare?" American Journal of Mental Deficiency 45 (1940), 134-144.

Allen, Gordon, "Bronson Price: 1905-1978" Acta Gen. Med. Gemellol. 27 (1978), 95-96.