"Notes on the history of the Eugenics Record Office" (2)

478. (B) Direction of Scientific and Administrative Work 1. October 1, 1910 to December 31, 1934, Charles B. Davenport, organizer and director. Dr. Davenport interested Mrs. E. H. Harriman in the project of an office and laboratory for the study and application of eugenics, in response to which Mrs. Harriman established the unit, worked out its policy, supported it during the "Harriman period," and then gave it with an endowment of $500,000 to the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Dr. Davenport retired as Director of the Department of Genetics (which then consisted of the Station for Experimental Evolution and the Eugenics Record Office) on June 30, 1934. 2. July 1, 1934 to December 31, 1939 (date Eugenics Record Office closed) A. F. Blankslee has been Director of the Department of Genetics; and since January 1, 1935, George L. Streeter has been Chairman of the Division of Animal Biology. 3. From its establishment October 1, 1910 to December 31, 1939 (date closed) the Eugenics Record Office (since July 1, 1939 designated officially as the Genetics Record Office) has been in charge of Harry H. Laughlin with the official title either (1) Superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office, or (2) Assistant Director of the Department of Genetics in charge of the Eugenics Record Office. Thus the Eugenics Record Office 1. Was an independent budgetary, administrative, and research unit from its establishment October 1, 1910 to January 1, 1918 when it became part of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and was made a unit in the newly organized Department of Genetics of such Institution. 2. It remained such a unit in the Carnegie Institution until the Department of Genetics was organized January 1, 1921; it then began to lose its unity, purpose and administrative efficiency, which loss was advance still further with the organization of the Division of Animal Biology, January 1, 1935. 3. The Eugenics Record Office (name officially changed to Genetics Record Office July 1, 1939) is now officially designated as a "research group" of the Department of Genetics, of the Division of Animal Biology, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, with increasing confusion in purpose, budget, and responsibility.