The Eugenics Survey in Vermont: Inside the Survey
Plans, Problems, & Strategies

Professor Perkins held annual meetings of his Advisory Committee to discuss and authorize the Survey's projects and kept his advisors regularly informed of the Survey's activities through memos and newsletters. Because his enterprise depended on their support, Perkins solicited their opinions before launching any new project. These documents provide an inside look at the ensuing controversies eugenics provoked in Vermont, concerns over public image, how consensus was achieved, and the strategies used to promote eugenics in the public domain. Correspondence between Professor Perkins and his advisors reveal differences in opinion over the significance of heredity and the role of eugenics within a broader agenda of social reform.

National eugenics organizations, particularly the American Eugenics Society and the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, relied heavily on state societies like the Eugenics Survey of Vermont to promote eugenics locally and to advance eugenic legislation. Correspondence between the Eugenics Survey and the national eugenics leadership documents these initiatives in Vermont and reveals the limits of outside influence in Vermont affairs.

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