Breeding Theory
Nearby to the Eugenics Record Office in Cold Spring Harbor was the Station for Experimental Evolution, where eugenicists looked to study the methods by which superior specimens could be generated. In the above image, a new animal specimen, a zebroid, a horse-zebra hybrid, was born with many of the traits the breeders desired. Eugenicists were quick to look to apply traditional agricultural genetic alteration, which entails selecting the best of the seeds, pack animals, or livestock to reproduce with, and exclusively with, each other.
This is nearly the exact methodology that both positive and negative eugenics seek to utilize, as the seeds and animals that did not perform well, they were often not allowed to proliferate. Both Laughlin and Davenport, two of the primary managers of the efforts of the Eugenics Record Office, shared an interest in animal breeding from before their time there, and were eager to apply it to the betterment of mankind. Similarly, the American Breeder’s Association was an offshoot of the Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations with a focus on eugenic research and policy.
While eugenics has understandably fallen into disuse, as it is a pseudoscience, much of the agricultural methods that eugenicists sought to utilize are still used today, even with the advent of possibilities for far more exact genetic control and alterations ("Eugenics Archive").
This is nearly the exact methodology that both positive and negative eugenics seek to utilize, as the seeds and animals that did not perform well, they were often not allowed to proliferate. Both Laughlin and Davenport, two of the primary managers of the efforts of the Eugenics Record Office, shared an interest in animal breeding from before their time there, and were eager to apply it to the betterment of mankind. Similarly, the American Breeder’s Association was an offshoot of the Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations with a focus on eugenic research and policy.
While eugenics has understandably fallen into disuse, as it is a pseudoscience, much of the agricultural methods that eugenicists sought to utilize are still used today, even with the advent of possibilities for far more exact genetic control and alterations ("Eugenics Archive").