Eugenics, 'Aristogenics', Photography

This is the first study to explore the connections between late-19th-century university/college composite class portraits and the field of Eugenics – which first took hold in the United States at Harvard University.

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This is the first study to explore the connections between late-19th-century university/college composite class portraits and the field of eugenics – which first took hold in the United States at Harvard University. Eugenics, "Aristogenics," Photography takes a closer look at how composite portraiture documented an idealized “reality” of the New England social-caste experience and explains how, when positioned in relation to the individual stories and portraits of members of the class, the portraits reveal points of non-conformity and rebellion with their own rhetoric.