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Major General Frederick Henry Osborn CBE (March 21, 1889 – January 5, 1981) was an American philanthropist, military leader, and eugenicist. He was a founder of several organizations and played a central part in reorienting
eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...
in away from overt racism in the years leading up to World War II. The
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
considers him to have been "the respectable face of eugenic research in the post-war period." Osborn was the nephew of the paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn.


World War I and the founding of organizations

Osborn graduated from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
in 1910 and attended
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
, 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 World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, when he served in the
American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...
in
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as Commander of the Advance Zone for the last 11 months of the war. In 1928, he retired from industry and became a research associate at the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...
studying eugenics,
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
, and
population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...
. Osborn was one of the founding members of the American Eugenics Society in 1926 and joined the British Eugenics Society in 1928, serving as its Secretary in 1931. Osborn was also instrumental in the founding of the Population Association of America in 1931. He played a central role in the 1936 founding of the Office of Population Research at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
, a leading demographic research and training center. Osborn was one of the founding trustees of the Pioneer Fund in 1937, a charitable foundation charged with promoting eugenics. Also in 1937, Osborn praised the
Nazi eugenics The social policies of eugenics in Nazi Germany were composed of various ideas about genetics. The Nazi racial theories, racial ideology of Nazism placed the biological improvement of the German people by selective breeding of "Nordic race, No ...
programs as the "most important experiment which has ever been tried." According to J. Phillipe Rushton, Osborn was the first to point out that although African Americans scored lower than whites on the Army intelligence tests, those from five urban northern states scored slightly higher than whites from eight
rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...
southern states did, demonstrating the influence of cultural factors on IQ scores. In the following decades, Osborn remained skeptical of the hereditarian hypothesis of the variance in IQ scores found between
racial Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of va ...
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 (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 1930s
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
through the efforts of economist
Gunnar Myrdal Karl Gunnar Myrdal ( ; ; 6 December 1898 – 17 May 1987) was a Swedish economist and sociologist. In 1974, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences along with Friedrich Hayek for "their pioneering work in the theory of money an ...
and his wife Alva Myrdal, Osborn emphasized the eugenic potential of extended state support in childcare, recreation, housing, nursery services, and education as a means of stimulating fertility among desirable populations. He argued that the aim of
eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...
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.


World War II and later life

Many civil rights leaders alleged that, even after the revelation of genocide in World War II, eugenic influences remained strong in the United States because of Osborn and other leaders of the Population Council (including John D. Rockefeller, Lewis Strauss, Karl Compton, and Detlev Bronk). He also encouraged and endorsed programs in Nazi Germany that sterilized Jews, Poles, and others deemed "unsuitable" to breed. Although Hitler's genocidal tactics and acts caused revulsion in the United States, he continued to promote eugenic ideals. In 1940, Osborn was selected by
Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
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. In September 1941, he was commissioned as Brigadier General and appointed Chief of the Morale Branch of the War Department (later called the Information and Education Division of Special Services). 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, and the Selective Service Medal, and he was made Honorary Commander in the Most Excellent
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
. Osborn served at Princeton, as a charter trustee from 1943 to 1955, and as a member of several advisory boards, including the Curriculum Committee and Psychology Department Council. During the postwar years, one of Osborn's 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. Osborn was elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 1948. In 1954, Osborn played a central role in the founding of the journal '' Eugenics Quarterly'', published by
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
,Biannual Journal of the Study of Social Biology
which changed its name in 1968 to '' Social Biology''. Osborn explained the name change, writing: "The name was changed because it became evident that changes of a eugenic nature would be made for reasons other than eugenics, and that tying a eugenic label on them would more often hinder than help their adoption. Birth control and abortion are turning out to be great eugenic advances of our time. If they had been advanced for eugenic reasons it would have retarded or stopped their acceptance.” In 1968 Osborn published ''The Future of Human Heredity: An Introduction to Eugenics in Modern Society,'' in which he complained that Hitler had "prostituted eugenics" but that the original goals of raising the average intelligence and character of future generations could be by programs advocating population control directed at convincing women of less intelligence, especially among the poor, to reduce their births voluntarily in order to "further the social and biological improvement of the population." In summary, he noted: "Eugenic goals are most likely to be attained under a name other than eugenics."


References

*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.
"Frederick Henry Osborn Papers,"
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
(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


Frederick H. Osborn Papers
via
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

Frederick H. Osborn quotes and excerpts"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.'"

1941–1963, "correspondence and reports related to Osborn's service at Princeton." (papers not available online)

''Biannual Journal of the Study of Social Biology,''
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
. {{DEFAULTSORT:Osborn, Frederick 1889 births 1981 deaths American Eugenics Society members American founders American Red Cross personnel American Nazis American segregationists Princeton University alumni United States Army personnel of World War I United States Army generals of World War II Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) Presidents of the Population Council Dodge family Members of the American Philosophical Society 20th-century American philanthropists Pioneer Fund members