Frederick Osborn 2401430 217200439 2008-06-05T01:11:15Z Will Beback 737021 refs Major General '''Frederick Henry Osborn''' ([[21 March]] [[1889]]—[[5 January]] [[1981]]) was an American philanthropist, military leader, and eugenicist. He was a founder of several organizations, and played a central part in reorienting [[eugenics]] in the years following World War II away from the race- and class-consciousness from earlier periods.<ref>http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/o/osborn.htm APS, 1983]</ref> The [[American Philosophical Society]] considers him to have been "the respectable face of eugenic research in the post-war period" (APS, 1983). ==World War I and the founding of organizations== He graduated from [[Princeton University]] in [[1910]] and attended [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], for a postgraduate year. His family had made their fortune in the railroad business, and he went into the family business up until the outbreak of [[World War I]], when he served in the [[American Red Cross]] in [[France]] as Commander of the Advance Zone for the last 11 months of the war. In [[1928]] he became a research associate at the [[American Museum of Natural History]] studying [[anthropology]] and [[population]]. He was one of the founding members of the [[American Eugenics Society]] in [[1926]], and joined the [[Galton Institute]] in [[1928]], serving as its Secretary in [[1931]]. He played a central role in the [[1936]] founding of the [[Office of Population Research]] at [[Princeton University]], a leading demographic research and training center.<ref>http://etc.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/office_population_research.html</ref><ref>http://www.opr.princeton.edu/</ref> Osborn was one of the founding trustees of the [[Pioneer Fund]] in [[1937]], a charitable foundation charged with promoting eugenics. According to [[J. Phillipe Rushton]], Osborn was the first to point out (in [[1934]]) in the [[race and intelligence]] discussion of the time, that, although African Americans scored lower than Whites on the Army [[intelligence test]]s that were studied, those from five [[urban area|urban]] [[Northern United States|northern state]]s scored slightly higher than did Whites from eight [[rural]] [[Southern United States|southern state]]s, demonstrating the importance of cultural factors on [[Intelligence quotient|IQ]] scores.<ref>http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/faculty/rushtonpdfs/ALRpdf.pdf</ref> In the following decades, Osborn remained skeptical of the [[hereditarian]] hypothesis of the variance in IQ scores found between [[Race (classification of human beings)|racial]] groups. He suspected that environment played a greater role than genetics in the shaping of human beings, and thought eugenics should take place within groups (i.e. well-adapted families should be given the means to have more children) rather than between them (inferior races should be replaced). An admirer of the reforms instituted in 1930's [[Sweden]] through the efforts of economist [[Gunnar Myrdal]] and his wife [[Alva]], Osborn emphasizing the eugenic potential of extended state support in child care, recreation, housing, nursery services and education as a means of stimulating fertility among desirable populations. He argued that the aim of [[eugenics]] should be to ensure that every child was wanted. Osborn believed that in this system, which he called the "true freedom of parenthood," the parents most capable of rearing children would be likelier to have more.(Ramsden 2003) ==World War II and later life== According to the American Philosophical Society, in [[1940]] he was selected by [[Franklin Roosevelt]] to chair the [[Civilian Advisory Committee on Selective Service]]. Five months later he took over as Chair of the Army Committee on Welfare and Recreation, responsible for information and education services for military personnel, and in September [[1941]], he was commissioned as Brigadier General and appointed Chief of the Morale Branch of the War Department. By the war's end he had earned promotion to Major General and had been awarded a bronze star in Paris, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Selective Service Medal, and was made Honorary Commander in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Osborn served at Princeton as a charter trustee from 1943-1955, and as a member of several advisory boards, including the Curriculum Committee and Psychology Department Council.<ref>http://infoshare1.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/osborn.html</ref> In [[1954]], Osborn played a central role in the founding of the journal ''[[Eugenics Quarterly]]'', which changed its name in [[1970]] to ''[[Social Biology]]'' (Osborn 1974). The journal is published by [[Duke University]].<ref>http://www.soc.duke.edu/~socbio/index.html] <!--Anybody know if it was published by Duke initially?--></ref> During the post-war years, one of his lasting influences was shifting the emphasis of American eugenics to [[positive eugenics]], which seeks to achieve eugenic goals through encouraging the spread of desired traits, as opposed to [[negative eugenics]], which seeks to achieve eugenic goals through discouraging the spread of undesired traits. == References == {{reflist}} *Osborn FH. "History of the American Eugenics Society," ''Social Biology'', vol. 21 no. 2 Summer 1974, 115-126 *Saxon, W. "Frederick Osborn, a general, 91, dies; Headed Army Information Unit and Held U.N. Post--Was Leader in Studies on Population Served on U.N. Commissions." ''New York Times'' Jan 7, 1981. p. B12. *"The History of the Journal Social Biology, 1954-1999," ''Social Biology,'' Fall-Winter 1999, Vol. 46, Num. 3-4. *[http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/o/osborn.htm "Frederick Henry Osborn Papers,"] [[American Philosophical Society]] (APS), 1983, published online. *Edmund Ramsden, "Social Demography and Eugenics in the Interwar United States" Population and Development Review, Vol. 29, No. 4. (Dec., 2003), pp. 547-593. == External links == *[http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/o/osborn.htm Frederick H. Osborn Papers] via [[American Philosophical Society]] *[http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2412/eugenics/osborn.html Frederick H. Osborn quotes and excerpts] *[http://www.princeton.edu/mudd/news/faq/topics/education.shtml "Study of Education at Princeton and the 1954 Advisee Project"], assisted by Osborn, sought to "replace grand assumptions about university education with quantifiable facts and could potentially 'bring into view an entirely new horizon of educational accomplishment.'" *[http://infoshare1.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/osborn.html Frederick H. Osborn Papers], 1941-1963, "correspondence and reports related to Osborn's service at Princeton." (papers not available online) *[http://www.soc.duke.edu/~socbio/index.html ''Social Biology:''] ''Biannual Journal of the Study of Social Biology,'' [[Duke University]]. {{DEFAULTSORT:Osborn, Frederick}} [[Category:1903 births]] [[Category:1980 deaths]] [[Category:American eugenicists]]