Reflecting on the First Institutional Recognition of the American Eugenics Movement at Yale
Tenzin*, a sophomore at Yale, reflects on the work being done at the Peabody Museum’s Eugenics and Intelligence exhibit, which will be the first institutional acknowledgement of Yale’s history of eugenics.
Tenzin Dhondup ‘26 (he/him) is an undergraduate studying the History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health, Spanish, and Global Health.*
Since May 2023, curators at the Yale Peabody Museum (YPM) have been working to create a display case on Eugenics at Yale in the new History of Science and Technology gallery in collaboration with the Anti-Eugenics Collective at Yale.
As part of their initiative to involve more voices and perspectives contributing to what stories go into the galleries, our collective was contacted in October 2023 to help develop the multimedia display on Eugenics and Intelligence Testing. The team of five included Professor HoSang and undergraduates Tara Bhat, Tenzin Dhondup, Sanya Nair, and Elias Theodore. As a collective, we were asked to review the new display’s curation and representation of Yale Professor Robert Yerkes’s Multiple Choice Apparatus, Motion picture camera (used to study intelligence in captive animals to validate eugenics), and Saliometer (saliva collector for human experiments), by the YPM team:
Natasha Ghazali: Interpretation Manager, Exhibitions
Alexi Baker: Collections Manager, History of Science & Technology
Paola Bertucci: Curator-in-charge, History of Science & Technology
As one of the students on this team, it has been absolutely exciting to be a part of the curatorial process and to support Yale’s first institutional attempts to address its inextricable and active role in the American Eugenics Movement.
Following this excitement, I knew I wanted to interview the YPM curators to hear more about the team and the Yale Peabody Museum’s hopes and motivations for this push.
I first asked: What were the initial conversations or motivations that generated this push for an exhibit on the history of science and intelligence testing?
Alexi: As historians of science, Paola and I are very aware that prejudice and discrimination have often influenced and been supported by science across the centuries. This sadly continues to be true today as well. Understanding that is vital to understanding science, medicine, and technology but also to trying to help redress past and present wrongs.
Whereas Paola expanded further on the YPM’s initiative to involve more students through the Anti-Eugenics Collective at Yale.
Paola: More recently, we learned about the Anti-Eugenics Collective’s work through a public-facing event. I was blown away when I realized during the event the extent to which Yale was involved in and supported eugenics (I also had the great pleasure of reading three senior essays on the topic as a member of a prize committee that acknowledged these essays). It became clear that the display case needed to focus more specifically on eugenics at Yale - and also that we could rely on the expertise of Professor Daniel HoSang and several of his students…We’re eager to work more with him and his group.
Finally, I wanted to emphasize how institutionally significant this new exhibit is, and accordingly, I asked: This exhibit is one of the first institutional attempts to address Yale’s inextricable and active role in advancing the American Eugenics Movement through a publicly accessible exhibit. What doors and possibilities do you think projects like these open up for our institutions?
Paola: It is a first step toward reflections and conversations that we hope will continue or start anew on campus and beyond, about the pervasiveness and adaptability of racism, as well as its role in shaping scientific and medical research, education, and healthcare. We designed it at a time of reckoning for Yale when the university started to face its ties to slavery and land dispossession.
Alexi: Our gallery content is an important first step that will hopefully lead to more collaborations and activities related to understanding, combatting, and healing the wounds left by eugenicist prejudices and practices.
Personally, I see it as a form of transitional justice—a means of bringing justice to the countless human lives institutionalized, sterilized, and demeaned as a result of the knowledge directly produced by Yale. I’m excited to continue working with the YPM and the Collective to imagine how we can continue to hold Yale accountable and sustain an institutional and public memory of the legacies and afterlives of the American Eugenics Movement.