Charles Davenport 1569015 215602221 2008-05-28T22:24:16Z Albmont 1912742 pt: {{Infobox Scientist |name = Charles Davenport |box_width = |image =Charles Davenport 1921.jpg |image_width =150px |caption = Charles B. Davenport at a 1921 eugenics conference |birth_date = [[June 1]], [[1866]] |birth_place = [[Stamford, Connecticut|Stamford]], [[Connecticut]] |death_date = [[February 18]], [[1944]] |death_place = |residence = |citizenship = |nationality = [[United States|American]] |ethnicity = |field = [[biology|biologist]] and [[eugenics|eugenicist]] |work_institutions = [[Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory]] |alma_mater = |doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = |known_for = |author_abbrev_bot = |author_abbrev_zoo = |influences = |influenced = |prizes = |religion = |footnotes = |signature = }} '''Charles Benedict Davenport''' ([[June 1]], [[1866]]&ndash;[[February 18]], [[1944]]) was a prominent [[United States|American]] [[biology|biologist]] and [[eugenics|eugenicist]]. He was born in [[Stamford, Connecticut|Stamford]], [[Connecticut]] and went to [[Harvard]], getting a PhD in biology in [[1892]]. He married in [[1894]] and died of pneumonia in 1944. == Biography == Davenport was an instructor of Zoology at [[Harvard University]]. He became one of the most prominent American biologists of his age, pioneering new [[quantitative standards]] of [[taxonomy]]. Davenport had a tremendous respect for the biometric approach to evolution pioneered by [[Francis Galton]] and [[Karl Pearson]], and sat on the editorial committee of Pearson's journal, ''[[Biometrika]]''. However after the "re-discovery" of [[Gregor Mendel]]'s laws of heredity, he became a strict convert and major participant in the [[Mendelian school]] of [[genetics]]. Davenport became director of [[Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory]] in [[1910]], where he founded the [[Eugenics Record Office]]. He began to study [[human genetics|human heredity]], and much of his effort was later turned to promoting [[eugenics]]<ref>{{Citation |id = [[PMID]]:17735069 |url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17735069 |last=Davenport |first= |publication-date=1921 Oct 28 |year=[[1921]] |title=RESEARCH IN EUGENICS. |volume=54 |issue=1400 |periodical=[[Science Magazine|Science]] |pages=391-397 |doi = 10.1126/science.54.1400.391 }}</ref>. His 1911 book, ''[[Heredity in Relation to Eugenics]]'' was a major work and was used as a college textbook for many years. The year after it was published Davenport was elected to the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]]. Davenport and an assistant attempted to develop a comprehensive quantitative approach to [[miscegenation]], or, as he put it, "race crossing" in humans. The resulting work, published in [[1929]], ''[[Race Crossing in Jamaica]]'', purported to give statistical evidence for biological and cultural degradation following interbreeding between white and black populations. Today it is considered a work of [[scientific racism]], and was criticized in its time for drawing conclusions which stretched far beyond (and sometimes counter to) the data it presented. Davenport maintained connections with institutions and publications in [[Nazi]] [[Germany]], before and during [[W.W.II]]. These have been documented by [[Stefan Kühl]]. For example, Davenport held editorial positions at two influential German journals, both of which were founded in 1935, and in 1939 he wrote a contribution to the ''Festschrift'' for [[Otto Reche]], who became an important figure in the plan to "remove" those populations considered "inferior" in eastern [[Germany]]<ref>Kuhl, S. "The Nazi Connection; Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism" (Oxford/ New York, O.U.P., 1994.</ref> . ==References== <references/> ==Selected works== * ''Observations on Budding in Paludicella and Some Other Bryozoa'' (1891) * ''On Urnatella Gracilis'' (1893) * ''Experimental Morphology'' (1897-99) * ''Statistical Methods, with Special References to Biological Variation'' (1899; second edition, 1904) * ''Introduction to Zoölogy'', with Gertrude Crotty Davenport (1900) * ''Inheritance in Poultry'', Carnegie Institution Publication, No, 52 (Washington, 1906) * ''Inheritance of Characteristics in Domestic Fowl'', Carnegie Institution Publication, No. 121 (Washington, 1909) * ''Heredity in Relation to Eugenics'' (1911) * ''Heredity of Skin-Color in Negro-White Crosses'', Carnegie Institution Publication, No. 188 (1913) * ''Race Crossing in Jamaica'' (1929) * == External links == * http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhdave.html *Edwin Black, ''War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race'', (New York / London: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003); * [[Elof Axel Carlson]], "Times of triumph, Times of Doubt, science and the battle for the public trust", (Cold Spring Harbor; Cold Spring Harbor Press, 2006) ISBN 0-87969-805-5 [[Category:Harvard University alumni|Davenport, Charles]] [[Category:American science writers|Davenport, Charles]] [[Category:American biologists|Davenport, Charles Benedict]] [[Category:American eugenicists|Davenport, Charles Benedict]] [[Category:1866 births|Davenport, Charles Benedict]] [[Category:1944 deaths|Davenport, Charles Benedict]] [[de:Charles Davenport]] [[es:Charles Benedict Davenport]] [[it:Charles Davenport]] [[ja:チャールズ・ダベンポート]] [[pt:Charles Benedict Davenport]]