The American Breeders' Association: Genetics and Eugenics in an Agricultural Context, 1903-13

Abstract

The American Breeders' Association was the first national membership-based organization promoting genetic and eugenic research in the United States. Founded by agricultural scientists in 1903, the ABA was a national analogue of those regional agricultural societies active in support of scientific agriculture. I argue that the agricultural context of the Association was crucial for the development of American genetics and for the course of the American eugenics movement. The practical interests of agricultural scientists encouraged early attention to Mendelian, biometric and cytological studies, resulting in widespread adoption of such methods by American scientists, thanks to the extensiveness of the nation's agricultural research system. Also, consonant social aims of the eugenics movement and the Country Life movement, which involved many ABA agriculturalists, helps account for the eugenicists' rapid and easy access to a national organization and journal.