The Records of the American Eugenics Society document the varied promotional activities of the foremost organization for eugenic education and advocacy in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Consisting of 9 linear feet of administrative records, correspondence, and formal and informal histories of the Society, the Records span the entire history of the organization from 1921 through 1972, though weighted rather heavily toward the years before the Second World War.

The main body of records includes routine correspondence relating to AES activities and membership, including membership records from the beginning of the Society, correspondence relative to publications and orders for publications.

At the end of the collection is a file of 4x6" index cards representing a eugenic study of Shutesbury, Massachusetts, a town selected for eugenic study due to its visible decline over the previous decades and for the suspected high proportion of "degenerate" residents.

Between 1926 and 1928, the AES held contests for the best sermon preached on the subject of eugenics. In addition to the nine folders labeled AES Sermon Contest, the collection includes 45 submissions filed under the name of the minister, preached before Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational, Baptist, Unitarian, and Jewish congregations across the country.

A particularly valuable part of the collection is the series of scrapbooks maintained by the Society. The most important of these if the photograph album containing 97 images of Eugenic Health Exhibits at the Kansas Free Fair, 1925, and in fairs in Michigan and Texas, including images of the exhibits themselves (Mendel's Theater, the flashing light exhibit, guinea pigs, and other exhibits), exterior views of the Eugenic Health buildings, images of eugenicists, including Charles B. Davenport, Judge Harry Olson and Professor Henry P. Fairchild, as well as most of the members of the AES Board of Directors over the years, and a number of images of winners of fitter family contests. The other three scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings of articles of eugenic interest, reflecting the AES effort to stay abreast of public perceptions of the field.

Many of the photographs in the scrapbook from Series II. have been digitized. Links to the digital versions of the images are included in the inventory. You may also view a gallery of all images here.