A Haunting: Cold Spring Harbor

Replicated photographs of patients found in files from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for eugenics studies.

One of America’s best kept secrets, the Eugenics period of the 20's is perhaps one of the most interesting yet disturbing periods for American society. Initially explored with the intention of furthering the field of genetics, eugenics has come to be known as a period during which bigotry was allowed to guide scientific research and government policy.

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was established in 1910 and went on to become the premiere research for eugenics across the country. The mansion that housed this strange scientific center is now occupied by a private family, but artifacts from when the lab was still opened can be found at NYU’s Asian/Pacific/American exhibition “Haunted Files: The Eugenics Record Office”.

The recreated office takes you back to the height of the eugenics period in 1924, imparting a sense of how many resources were poured into a ‘science’ that has since been disregarded as unreliable and bias research. The A/P/A and exhibit curators Noah Fuller, John Kuo Wei Tchen were able to collect donations from the families of scientists heavily involved in the research at Cold Spring Harbor.

Furniture pieces and cabinets used in the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory while it operated as one of America’s leading research facilities for eugenics studies. All pieces were donated by the families of scientists and researchers who saved furniture, filing cabinets, and patient files after the closure of the Long Island lab.

These visual aids combined with the extensive research to discover what really happened during the eugenics period help to create a holistic look at the driving force behind the movement and the effects it has had on American society.

“Haunted Files” co-curator Mark Tseng Putterman took the time to explain the exhibit and what the A/P/A institute hoped to achieve by recreating this dark stain on American history. “In terms of our work on this exhibit, it is trying to unearth a history that is not talked about very much in this society….Part of it is reckoning with the fact that eugenics thought and eugenics research that was hugely popular and influential in the United States actually directly influenced German projects of race hygiene.”

The research combined with recreated subject files create a holistic picture of the methods used to measure an individual’s genetic value. Putterman explains that the personal biases of the scientists and policy makers involved most likely effected their ability to recognize who had what would be diagnosed today as a mental illness. “Poor communities were heavily targeted. Behaviors like being promiscuous was considered an indication that you were mentally unfit.”