The Human Betterment Foundation (HBF) was an American

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 ...

organization established in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

in 1928 by E. S. Gosney and Rufus B. von KleinSmid, President of the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, with the aim "to foster and aid constructive and educational forces for the protection and betterment of the human family in body, mind, character, and citizenship". It primarily served to compile and distribute information about

compulsory sterilization Compulsory sterilization, also known as forced or coerced sterilization, refers to any government-mandated program to involuntarily sterilize a specific group of people. Sterilization removes a person's capacity to reproduce, and is usually do ...

legislation in the United States, for the purposes of eugenics. The initial board of trustees were Gosney, Henry Mauris Robinson (a Los Angeles banker); George Dock (a Pasadena physician); Charles Goethe (a Sacramento philanthropist); Justin Miller (dean of the college of law at the

); Otis Castle (a Los Angeles attorney); Joe G. Crick (a Pasadena horticulturist); and biologist/eugenicist Paul Popenoe. Later members included

Lewis Terman Lewis Madison Terman (January 15, 1877 – December 21, 1956) was an American psychologist, academic, and proponent of eugenics. He was noted as a pioneer in educational psychology in the early 20th century at the Stanford School of Education. T ...

(a Stanford psychologist best known for creating the Stanford-Binet test of IQ);

Robert Andrews Millikan Robert Andrews Millikan ( ; March 22, 1868 – December 19, 1953) was an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923 "for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect". Millikan gradua ...

(Chair of the Executive Council of

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

); William B. Munro (a

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

professor of political science); and

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

professors Herbert M. Evans (anatomy) and Samuel J. Holmes (zoology). After Gosney's death in 1942, Gosney's daughter Lois Castle and the HBF's board liquidated HBF. Its funds were transferred in 1943 to the newly founded Gosney Research Fund at Caltech. The archives of the Human Betterment Foundation are stored at Caltech.

Later public disavowal

On account of Millikan's affiliation with the Human Betterment Foundation, in January 2021, the Caltech Board of Trustees authorized removal of Millikan's and Gosney's names (and the names of four other historical figures affiliated with the Foundation), from campus buildings that had been associated with their other achievements.Rosenbaum, Thomas
Statement from the President
California Institute of Technology, Accessed January 15, 2021. In June 2020, the University of Southern California similarly removed the name of von KleinSmid from campus buildings on account of his association with eugenics; he had served as President there for more than 25 years.

References

* "The Human Betterment Foundation," editorial reprinted from ''Eugenics'', Vol. 3, No. 3: 110–113, in ''Collected papers on eugenic sterilization in California'' (Pasadena: Human Betterment Foundation, 1930). * E. S. Gosney and Paul B. Popenoe, ''Sterilization for Human Betterment: A Summary of Results of 6,000 Operations in California, 1909–1929'' (New York: Macmillan, 1929).

External links

Eugenic Science in California: The Papers of E. S. Gosney and the Human Betterment Foundation
{{Authority control Eugenics in the United States Organizations based in Pasadena, California Organizations established in 1928 1943 disestablishments in California Organizations based in Calgary Eugenics organizations 1928 establishments in California History of California

Later public disavowal

See also

References

External links