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 Charles Davenport (1866-1944) is considered the founder of the American eugenics movement and was one of the most influential figures both nationally and internationally in the history of eugenics. Davenport was a professor in zoology at the University of Chicago before he was appointed as the director of the Eugenics Record Office (ERO) in Cold Spring Harbor in 1910. Under his direction Davenport made the ERO a major research, teaching, and publishing center for eugenics materials in the 1910s and 1920s. He remained in that position until the ERO was closed down by the Carnegie Foundation in 1939.
Davenport saw himself as a progressive reformer, believing the "science of eugenics" could cure society of such ills as poverty, crime, and feeblemindedness. Through his writings, ERO publications, and the lobbying efforts of the center, Davenport made eugenics a major force in shaping public policies. Davenport and the ERO played a major role in advocating for immigration restriction based on racial quotas, stricter enforcement of anti-miscegenation laws in American states, and state sterilization statutes against those deemed "eugenically unfit."
Davenport's work in eugenics gained him international recognition. He initiated joint research on racial differences between the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany and the ERO. Davenport was elected President of the International Federation of Eugenic Organizations in the late 1920s and maintained ties with Nazi eugenicists throughout the 1930s.
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