Uncovering the repeated, hidden history of Eugenics

Eugenics has played a large yet mainly undiscussed role in history and still exists in the background of American politics. “The Haunted Files: Eugenics Record Office,” the current exhibit at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, aims to shed light on the history and serve as a platform for modern discussion. While the goals of early eugenics were to create and sustain a genetically superior human race through selective breeding and population control, racism was at the forefront of the issue. The exhibit looks into how eugenics rose as a political ambition and the negative social impact of the events involving genetic manipulation leading to and during World War II. The display itself features items found in a Eugenics office, such as files, books, and drawings, dating back to the early 20th century.

Mark Tseng Putterman, an associate curator at the Institute, explained the reasoning behind the exhibit and what it intends to reveal: “In terms of our work on this exhibit, part of it is to unearth a part of history that is not talked about very much in American society. Probably the majority of Americans don’t know what eugenics was or is. Those who do probably associate it primarily with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. In this sense, American society has very successfully distanced itself from this uncomfortable and dark part of its history, just like it’s done with a lot of other dark moments of its history. Part of it is reckoning with the fact that eugenics thought and research, that was hugely popular in the United States, directly influenced German projects of race hygiene…forcing people to remember. That aim is very much tied into this larger aim to examine how similar biases, coded in different language, continue to influence American society in different ways today.”