Background resources
For a selection of background resources to the inquiry, including a bibliography, investigation report, and town hall event.
London Conference on Intelligence
For more resources compiled and presented as part of the Prejudice in Power project, visit
Prejudice in Power resources about eugenics.
Bibliography
This is a brief bibliography initially developed by Inquiry member Subhadra Das. Works are listed in order of relevance and conciseness, so that you may work down the list depending on what time you have.
As a starting point, UCL Special Collections contains a huge amount of material about Francis Galton, Karl Pearson and the early days of eugenics at UCL.
Please take care when accessing the resources below
These resources include content intended to offer a historical and critical analysis of the development and role of eugenics. However they contain often upsetting information about race, class, and disability. Please be aware that some writers do not always contextualise their work in ways that prepare the reader for descriptions of these ideas.
- Das, Subhadra, 2017, Bricks + Mortals: A history of eugenics told through buildings [podcast], 13 November 2017 [28 February 2020], available from the UCL Culture's Bricks + Mortals webpage
- Challis, Debbie, 2016, 'Skull Triangles: Flinders Petrie, Race Theory and Biometrics' in Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 26(1): 5, 1 – 8
- Love, Rosaleen, 1979, ‘Alice in Eugenics-Land’: Feminism and Eugenics in the scientific careers of Alice Lee and Ethel Elderton,' in Annals of Science, 36:2, 145-158, DOI: 10.1080/00033797900200451
- Kevles, Daniel J., 1995, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity, 2nd Edition, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
- Nourse, Victoria, 2016, ‘History of science: When eugenics became law’, Nature 530: 418
- Carey, Jane, 2012, 'The Racial Imperatives of Sex: birth control and eugenics in Britain, the United States and Australia in the interwar years.' Women's History Review 21.5: 733-752.
- Challis, Debbie, 2016, 'The Petrie Museum of 'Race' Archaeology?' in Think Pieces: A Journal of the Joint Faculty Institute of Graduate Studies, University College London 1(0), 34 - 43
- Challis, Debbie, 2013, The Archaeology of Race, London, New Delhi, New York, Sydney: Bloomsbury
- Bashford, Alison, and Levine, Philippa (eds.), 2010, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Proctor, Robert N., 1988, Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
- Eugenics Archive
- Choksey, L., Coleman, N.A.T. and Harris, C., 2018, "British National Eugenics - The Golden Age"
- Brasher, Jordan P., Derek H. Alderman, and Joshua FJ Inwood, 2017, 'Applying Critical Race and Memory Studies to University Place Naming Controversies: Toward a Responsible Landscape Policy.' Papers in Applied Geography 3.3-4: 292-307, DOI:10.1080/23754931.2017.1369892
- Fletcher, Robert, 2012, ‘The Art of Forgetting: imperialist amnesia and public secrecy,’ in Third World Quarterly, 33: 3, 423 - 439.
- Mason, Rhiannon, and Sayner, Joanna, 2018, ‘Bringing museal silences into focus: eight ways of thinking about silence in museums,’ in International Journal of Heritage Studies (2018)
- Tuck, Eve and Yang, K. Wayne, 2012, 'Decolonization is not a metaphor' in Decolonization: Idengeneity, Education & Society. Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1 - 40
- Michael A. Peters, 2015, 'Why is My Curriculum White?' in Educational Philosophy and Theory, 47:7, 641-646, DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2015.1037227
- Garner, Steve, 2007, Whiteness: An Introduction, Abingdon and New York: Routledge
Online sources
- Galton, Francis, 1909, Essays in Eugenics, London: The Eugenics Education Society
- Galton, Francis, 1892, Hereditary Genius – An Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences, Second Edition, London: Macmillan
The UCL Special Collections: Galton Archive is a collection of papers and correspondence, 1612-1926, relating to Sir Francis Galton. The collection consists of: papers relating to the personal history of Galton and his family, 1612-1926 (Ref: 1-116); papers relating to Galton's scientific work, 1850-1922 (Ref: 117-188); correspondence, 1765-1923 (Ref: 189-345).
The Galton and Pearson archives are catalogued and the Galton archives have been digitised – the catalogues are at:
There is related material in the Haldane archive (digitised), the Penrose archive (digitised).
There are also a selection of images in UCL Special Collection: Modern Genetics Collections. These are grouped as Genetics Papers.
- Minutes of Francis Galton Committee 1905-13
- Galton benefaction 1911 – has a copy of the will
- Galton 1911 – has a Dept. of Applied Statistics and Eugenics form of declaration
- Eugenics / Galton Committee / Rockefeller Grant 1933-5
- Galton Laboratory finance 1911-4
- Galton Laboratory finance 1910-3
Sir Francis Galton F.R.S. bequeathed a collection of objects to University College London on his death in 1911. These objects, which include Galton's personal effects, custom-made instruments used in his research and objects from the Galton Laboratory now compose the UCL Galton Collection. The Galton Collection is now a resource for teaching at UCL, for schools, and for researchers with an interest in the history of science.
London Conference on Intelligence
In line with UCL's commitment to be transparent about our eugenics history, the university is also publishing our final investigation report into the London Conference on Intelligence, an event held by an honorary member of staff on UCL’s campus without our agreement.
UCL Town Hall events
UCL hosted three Town Hall events for staff and students to discuss the Inquiry's work.
Town Hall 1: 1 March 2019
This event set out the aims of the Inquiry and provided an opportunity for the UCL community to set out the issues they felt were important for the Inquiry to explore.
Town Hall 2: 11 October 2019
Members of the Inquiry presented an interim summary of findings to date, and discussed some of the trends, patterns and questions uncovered by their research.
Town Hall 3: 28 February 2020
