Pumpkins, Pigs, and People

Abstract

Fat pigs. Speedy horses. Large pumpkins. If plants and animals could be improved by proper breeding techniques, then why wouldn't the same hold true for humans? In 1927, governor of Kansas Arthur Capper explained to the press, is as important for Kansas to grow fine men and women as it is to grow fine cattle and hogs. 1 and Contests that took place at state fairs across early 20th-century America were designed to judge stock to select the most eugenically fit family. While Americans were already exposed to eugenic messages through proeuthanasia films like The Black Stork, newspapers, magazines, and biology textbooks, these contests played a pivotal role in popularizing eugenics throughout the 1920s and became increasingly commonplace at international, national, and local fairs. 2 Specifically, eugenics exhibits at the state fairs helped to garner public support for the social reforms such as immigration restriction, marriage restriction, euthanasia, segregation, and compulsory institutionalization and sterilization of those deemed degenerates or defectives. The Fitter Family Contests actually began as Better Baby Contests that were organized as part of the U.S. Children's Bureau campaign against infant mortality. The Better Baby Contests were originally designed to decrease infant mortality rates, but they changed from this rather benign focus on improving children's health to eugenically oriented Fitter Family competitions with a strong commitment to controlled human breeding. 3 By the mid-1920s, the categorizations used in Better Baby Contests to identify healthy babies and educate mothers about child rearing became a front for the eugenics movement to discourage poor immigrants, Blacks, and the mentally or physically disabled from reproducing. When Mary Watts and Florence Sherborn, respectively president and vice-president of the Iowa Baby Betterment Association, joined the American Eugenics Society (AES) Committee on Popular Education, 4 they likely saw themselves as saving infant lives and promoting eugenics as a scientific endeavor to improve the mental and physical quality of the human race. 5 As a result of their partnership with the eugenics movement, the Better Baby Contests eventually became Families for Future Firesides competitions. The AES used the contests to disseminate practical and scientific information on genetic health, draw attention to eugenics, and promote eugenics research. These contests, along with sermon contests and traveling exhibits, became powerful tools for eugenicists to promote reforms involving the family and reproduction and provided an opportunity to collect detailed family information that could be used for research. At most contests, competitors submitted an Abridged Record of Family Traits that was scanned for patterns of presumed inheritance. 6 Favorable capabilities included [being] generous, self-sacrificing, having strong family ties, and being a successful parent. Negative traits, or temperamental stigmata as they were called, included being selfish, jealous, suspicious, high tempered, and cruel. Also, a team of medical doctors performed time-consuming evaluations of social, educational, occupational, dental, psychological, psychiatric, racial, and medical histories. Each family member was given an overall letter grade of eugenic health, and the family with the highest grade average was awarded a silver trophy. Trophies were typically awarded in three family categories: small (1 child), medium (2-4 children), and large (5 or more children). Childless couples were eligible for prizes in contests held in some states. 7 All contestants with a B+ or better received bronze medals bearing the inscription, Yea, I have a goodly heritage, 8 and most winners were White with Western and Northern European heritage. APS Images of the Eugenics Health Exhibits The American Philosophical Society (APS) has a collection of scrapbooks maintained by the American Eugenics Society that contains 83 images of the Eugenic Health Exhibits at the 1925 Kansas, Michigan, Texas, and Pennsylvania State Fairs. …