Engaging with archives in London
This entry, by Dora*, recounts her time spent in the archives she had identified at the Wellcome Collection, National Archives, and University College of London (UCL).
*Dora Guo ‘23 is a senior at Yale University studying Ethnicity, Race, and Migration.
August 2022 — University College of London library (left) where I met with Nazlin Bhimani and the Institute of Education reading room (right) where I spent hours pouring over correspondence and papers written by Cyril Burt, educational psychologist and eugenicist.
In August 2022, the Robert S. Kilbourne Fellowship generously funded my travels to London where I spent the month investigating the dissemination of eugenics ideology between Yale faculty and British professors, educators, and public figures in the early-twentieth-century. My research goals were twofold: to engage with the set of archives I had identified at the Wellcome Collection, National Archives, and University College of London (UCL) and to meet with UCL Librarians to learn from their expertise.
In the archives, I spent hours reading materials from the Galton Laboratory Papers, correspondence and papers written by Cyril Burt, and books regarding the particular histories of eugenics in British public schools. However, the most fruitful experiences from the summer by far were my meetings with UCL Librarians Nazlin Bhimani and Dr. Maria Kiladi, whose intellectual and personal generosity made my travels well worth it.
Nazlin Bhimani has over a decade of experience in Library Studies and was able to tell me stories upon stories about her work at UCL. Nazlin’s research focuses on the history of intelligence testing, eugenics, and the exclusion of children with learning disabilities from state-funded schools in Britain. One challenge Nazlin has encountered is how to articulate that eugenics never “ended.” The Anti-Eugenics Collective at Yale (AECY) has faced similar challenges. Some of Nazlin’s research supervisors have expressed that eugenics became irrelevant after the First World War when the emphasis in British public schools shifted to “child-centered education.” Nazlin insists that eugenics principles were entrenched in British education and is able to cite the historical evidence necessary to back her claim. For example, during the interwar period, British students with respiratory issues were commonly referred to as “mouth-breathers.” This term singled out students who were suffering from asthma caused by growing up in poorer and more polluted parts of the City. In the tradition of eugenics, these students were labeled unfit for learning.
August 2022 — The National Archives in Richmond, United Kingdom (left) where I engaged with the Galton Laboratory Papers in a locked room and the British Library (right) where I met with Dr. Maria Kiladi.
This was just one creative way of reading the archives that Nazlin shared with me. Another came across when I asked for advice on how to locate eugenics resistance within the archives. Nazlin suggested looking into the reading lists of public schools and college courses. By reconstructing the course content based on the textbooks students engaged with, Nazlin has been able to trace how eugenics thinking persists across time, upheld by the schooling structure even when faculty are not “card carrying” eugenicists themselves.
I also asked Dr. Maria Kaladi about how to locate eugenics resistance within the archives. Maria has 14 years of experience at the UCL Special Collections and was part of the University research project “Legacies of Eugenics” from 2020 to 2022.
Maria encouraged me to closely question my archival sources in order to locate resistance. If I’m looking at laboratories, I should ask, “Who is working there? Are there any women? What kind of work are they doing? Within what type of hierarchy are they operating?” These questions would allow me to recreate, with more tangibility, the conditions within which eugenics was reproduced and interrupted. Maria acknowledged that this type of archival work and narrative writing can be time consuming, but stressed that this type of labor was necessary.
Maria imparted tremendous wisdom regarding not only how to engage the eugenics and eugenics resistance archives, but also how to participate in academia with the goal of creating public change. Maria stressed the important role of the “Legacies of Eugenics” research project and the related UCL Eugenics Inquiry in enacting pressure on the ULC administration. In 2021, UCL issued a public apology for its role in the “development, propagation and legitimisation of eugenics.” The apology listed concrete actions such as denaming buildings named after prominent eugenicists, investing in campus accessibility for disabled students and staff, expanding UCL’s contextual offer scheme (financial aid), and expanding opportunities for students to engage with the history of eugenics. When AECY students at Yale first Zoomed Dr. Kiladi in Spring 2022, we aspired to meet these types of material demands.
August 2022 — A beautiful counter-history and example of eugenics resistance at the Tate Britain. The piece is called The Procession and is an installation by artist Hew Locke.
Yet how much UCL has changed since 2021 remains up for questioning. Due to a lack of sustainable funding, the “Legacies of Eugenics” project concluded in 2022 and Maria herself is leaving UCL. Maria’s departure creates a tremendous loss in institutional memory. When we spoke, it was hard not to feel disillusioned by the inactions of the University up until this point.
Both Nazlin and Maria have offered their support for me in the upcoming school year and I look forward to staying in touch with them as scholars and activists.
Over the course of my trip to London, I grew in both my familiarity with my source materials and in my political analysis of said sources. During the school year it is difficult, if not impossible, to dedicate oneself fully to a research topic of interest. I am spread thin across academic, extracurricular, and familial commitments. For Yale students who are interested in pursuing academic research on the history of eugenics, I strongly encourage you to apply to a CIPE Research Fellowship.
I am indebted to the generosity of the Robert S. Kilbourne fellowship for this transformative experience living and studying abroad in London this summer. Academically, I have deepened my engagement with my senior thesis research topic and built relationships with scholars that will carry into the academic school year. Beyond academics, living in London has challenged me to radically de-center my framework of the world. These issues are not only important to my research but also to my personhood. I am blessed by the everyday interactions I have had with people in London — from my AirBnB host to the University students who approached me in the pubs — for giving me, if only briefly, insight, into a different world.
August 2022 — London is a global city with long histories of imperialism and imperial resistance. In reference to that, I wanted to include these images of the Albert Memorial (Left), commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband Prince Albert, and the Notting Hill Carnival, one of the largest Caribbean festivals in the world (Right).