A primary source archive for teachers, students, and people who may be curious about the legacy of eugenics in the state of Connecticut.
In the fall and spring of 2019, I was conducting a research project on the history of LGBTQ+ life in Connecticut. Through my findings, I was shocked at the prevalence of eugenics ideology throughout multiple archives and manuscripts in the state’s libraries. This sent me down a years-long rabbit hole, as I’ve continued to mine for sources and evidence of medical marginalization. What I discovered is that in the late 19th and early 20th century in Connecticut, scientific researchers, academics and medical doctors implemented this hierarchical belief structure into multiple systems and institutions.
Connecticut, and the northeast more broadly, was the site of major medical developments and advancements during the Industrial era. This is why uncovering sources related to eugenics in the state becomes essential to understanding United States history more broadly; the ways in which these harmful ideas spread across the world and had violent repercussions. What modern researchers have found, is eugenics embedded itself across multiple systems and institutions concerned with life and human development. The graphic below highlights just some of the systems where eugenics found a place in 20th century society.
Because there are so many places in American history and life in which eugenics pervades the discourse, I thought it would be useful to create a digital archive of sources pertaining to eugenics in Connecticut. The sources are divided into five sections: the Connecticut Valley Hospital Scrapbooks, letter correspondences found in the Mansfield Training School Records, the Connecticut Society for Social Hygiene scrapbook, the American Eugenics Society, and Anti-eugenics.
Click on each corresponding tab to get a more detailed description of the archive, where it is located, and access images of the documents available for view. Unfortunately, this is not an exhaustive digital archive and it’s not meant to be, really. In a way, it charts some of my findings over the last couple years and serves as a repository as I continue to compile more sources. But really, the intention of this archive is to provide access to primary sources for anyone who is just as curious on the topic as I am.
As a whole, the archive reveals the horrifying nature of eugenics ideology and the stranglehold It had on Connecticut life in the early 20th century. It also sheds light on modern examples of eugenics and the harmful rhetoric that continues to dominate our social and political discourse. Lastly, the sources pertaining to anti-eugenics illuminates methods of resistance in the form of mutual aid and community care.