Prevalent in various scientific fields starting in the late nineteenth through to the mid-twentieth century, eugenics is a theory for improvement of the human race. In Canada, harmful eugenic methods have included forced sterilization and marriage and immigration restrictions for “undesirable” groups (most often, immigrants or the “mentally unfit”). At the University of Toronto, professors in several fields espoused eugenic practices or beliefs.
Angus McLaren’s Our Own Master Race is a comprehensive source on eugenics in Canada, including information about several individuals associated with the University.
McLaren, Angus. Our Own Master Race : Eugenics in Canada, 1885-1945. Toronto ; University of Toronto Press, 2014. https://books.scholarsportal.info/uri/ebooks/ebooks3/utpress/2015-01-14/1/9781442623316.
Archibald Gowanlock (A.G.) Huntsman was a lecturer (1907-1917) and Professor of Zoology (1917-1954) at the University of Toronto. In the 1930s, he was a member of the American Eugenics Society where he sat on the advisory council. In the source below, Hubbard discusses possible influences of human eugenic ideas on the field of biology, arguing that Huntsman worked against the idea of salmon “races” and was likely interested in “progressive eugenics” concerned with the influences of environment and heredity rather than racial hierarchy.
Hubbard, Jennifer. “Home Sweet Home? A.G. Huntsman and the Homing Behaviour of Canadian Atlantic Salmon.” Acadiensis 19, no. 2 (1990): 40–71. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30303490.
Ramsay Wright, Professor of Natural History (1874) and Biology (1887), Dean of Arts (1901), Vice President of the University (1902), was a vocal proponent of eugenics.
Court, John P.M. “Darwinian Evolution’s First 50 Years of Impact on Medicine and Botany at the University of Toronto, 1859 to 1909.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 37, no. 1 (2020): 232–67. https://doi.org/10.3138/cbmh.413-012020.
Court, John P.M. “Recruiting a Scientific Enigma: Ramsay Wright at the University of Toronto and Its Reconstituted Medical School, 1874-1912.” Historical Studies in Education 22, no. 1 (2010): 61–81. https://doi.org/10.32316/hse/rhe.v22i1.2157.
Peter Sandiford – Associate Professor at the College of Education, University of Toronto (ca. 1913) – later conducted tests on elementary school children that determined “inferiority” amongst races.
Thomson, Gerald. “‘So Many Clever, Industrious and Frugal Aliens’: Peter Sandiford, Intelligence Testing, and Anti-Asian Sentiment in Vancouver Schools between 1920 and 1939.” BC Studies, no. 197 (Spring 2018): 67–100.
Griffith Taylor, founder of the Department of Geography (1935). His research centred on race, environmental determinism, and the “science of settlement.” His views have been variably considered both progressive and problematic.
Christie, Nancy J. “Pioneering for a Civilized World: Griffith Taylor and the Ecology of Geography.” Scientia Canadensis 17, no. 1 and 2 (1994): 103–54. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.7202/800366ar.
The below resources examine eugenic connections in the Department of Psychiatry and Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto, including their associations with the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene (CNCMH).
Bentley, Paul Roberts. “Martyr for Mental Health: John R. Seeley and the Forest Hill Village Project, 1948-1956.” Doctor of Education thesis, University of Toronto, 2013.
Bentley, Paul Roberts Bentley. Strange Journey : John R. Friedeberg Seeley and the Quest for Mental Health. Boston, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1515/978164469051.
Several U of T professors in Medicine and Psychiatry were actively involved in promoting eugenic theory and practice. Dr. Herbert Bruce (Professor of Surgery and member of the University of Toronto Board of Governors) and Dr. Clarence B. Farrar (Department of Psychiatry Head, member of the Eugenics Society of Canada) were both proponents of eugenic sterilization. Dr. C.K. Clarke, Professor of Psychiatry and Dean of Medicine (1908) was a eugenicist who strongly supported sterilization and restrictions on marriage and immigration. He served as the Medical Director of the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene.
Dowbiggin, Ian Robert. Keeping America Sane : Psychiatry and Eugenics in the United States and Canada, 1880-1940. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 1997.
Dowbiggin, Ian. “‘Keeping This Young Country Sane’: C.K. Clarke, Immigration Restriction, and Canadian Psychiatry, 1890–1925.” The Canadian Historical Review 76, no. 4 (1995): 598–627. https://doi.org/10.3138/CHR-076-04-03.
Dowbiggin, Ian. “‘Prescription for Our Own Survival’: Brock Chisolm, Sterilization, and Mental Health in the Cold War Era.” In Mental Health and Canadian Society: Historical Perspectives, edited by James E. Moran and David Write, 176-92. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006. https://books.scholarsportal.info/uri/ebooks/ebooks3/upress/2013-08-23/1/9780773576544.
McLaren, Angus. Our Own Master Race : Eugenics in Canada, 1885-1945. Toronto ; University of Toronto Press, 2014. https://books.scholarsportal.info/uri/ebooks/ebooks3/utpress/2015-01-14/1/9781442623316.
Shorter, Edward. TPH : History and Memories of the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital, 1925-1966. Toronto: Wall & Emerson, 1996.
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