Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Response

Following is a statement issued by the Carnegie Institution, now known as the Carnegie Institution for Science, in response to questions from William Schambra about its support of research on eugenics:

Carnegie’s involvement with eugenics was terminated in the late 1930s. We are not aware of what has been said about it by Carnegie representatives in the intervening 70 years. We are thus unable to confirm your assertion that there has never been an “apology” by Carnegie. As explained in this article [U.S. Scientists’ Role in the Eugenics Movement (1907-1939): A Contemporary Biologist’s Perspective], eugenics was part of mainstream science at the time of Carnegie’s involvement. We have never hidden our role. We also do not know whether apologies were issued by any of the many other institutions that were involved in this dark period in the history of science.