Bogart, G. Henri. "Sterilization of the Unfit: The Law in Indiana, Connecticut, California, Utah, Oregan [sic], and Ontario, Canada." Texas Medical Journal (1910-1911).

      This source was crucial for broader adoption in the U.S. of the "Indiana Procedure." Bogart himself lived in Indiana, and his medical practice was located in Brookville.

 Carlson, Elof Axel. Unfit: History of a Bad Idea. State University of New York, Stony Brook: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

This source thoroughly covers the eugenics movement as centered in Indiana and follows the exploits of David Starr Jordan and Dr. Harry Clay Sharp, sterilization provocateurs in turn-of-the-century Midwest. Carlson relays the history of Dr. Sharp, his travels, his medical history, and his education. Importantly, this text brings up the fact that Dr. Sharp fought to improve sanitation and effectively reduce infectious diseases. Dr. Sharp did feel he was a "good man" fighting for the "right reasons" and that he was working towards the betterment of humanity. The text also cites the first castration in Indiana: in 1902 a Jeffersonville inmate named Clawson was supposedly cured by castration of his compulsive masturbation. This legally murky castration was performed prior to any legislation. 

Earp, Samuel E. "Demand for Insanity Clinics." Editorial. Indianapolis Medical Journal. XII: 9 (Sept. 15, 1909): 380-381.

This source notes the lack of regulation governing the practice of psychiatrists (referred to as "alienists") nationwide in this period, and praises Dr. George Edenharter and the Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane (now the Indiana Medical History Museum) for holding pathology classes and clinics for Indianapolis medical students.

This brief piece is particularly useful for its admission that many "professionals" charged with labeling people insane, "feebleminded," "moronic," etc., displayed "an appalling amount of ignorance and misconception," which was "exemplified in court trials in which eminent alienists have taken positions flatly contradictory, advancing conflicting theories and deductions with regard to the same person" (380).

Earp, Samuel E., Alembert Brayton, and Simon P. Scherer. "The Sterilization of Criminals and other Degenerates." Editorial from Indianapolis Medical Journal, 1913. Available at the Ruth Lilly Medical Library, IUPUI.

This source provides an overview of the Indiana policy focusing on criminals and is decidedly against compulsory sterilization for asylum inmates.

Engs, Ruth Clifford. Clean Living Movements: American Cycles of Health Reform.  Connecticut:  Praeger Publishers: 2000.

Engs discusses what she calls "Clean Living Movements" such as prohibition and anti-tobacco campaigns, with significant attention devoted to eugenics. Race degeneracy, nativism, and race suicide are discussed, and specific dates and details of eugenics related organizations are provided.

Eugenics Image Archive. http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/.

This is an amazing source, especially since the "images" are largely manuscript pages of original documents, all of which are searchable. There are also brief overviews of different categories and elements of eugenics which are incredibly helpful if one is still fuzzy of a particular era or area of the U.S. eugenics movement.

Estabrook, Arthur H. "The Tribe of Ishmael."  Eugenics, Genetics and the Family:  Scientific Papers on the Second International Congress of Eugenics. Vol. 1. Baltimore:  Williams and Wilkins Company 1923. 398-404.

This piece gives an in-depth account of the Ishmael family, as studied by the Reverend Oscar C. McCulloch. Records date back to 1790, and Estabrook offers an explanation for why pauperism, (leading to eugenics) began in Indiana.

Gallichan, Walter M. The Sterilization of the Unfit. London:  Northumberland Press Limited, 1929.

Gallichan discusses detailed surgical procedures as well as lineage of inbred families such as the Jukes, Kallikaks, and Ishmaels. A sympathetic pro-eugenics attitude is strongly prevalent throughout the text; Gallichan addresses objections to sterilization such as issues of segregation, liberty rights, and humanitarian issues.

Gugliotta, Angela. "'Dr. Sharp with His Little Knife': Therapeutic and Punitive Origins of Eugenic Vasectomy—Indiana, 1892–1921." Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 53:4 (October 1998): 371-406.

Sharp's "Indiana Procedure" for statewide sterilization was imitated by a number of states until it was first struck down as illegal in 1913. Sharp's procedure, however, as Gugliotta points out, was not purely eugenic, but was also seen as disciplinary, therapeutic, and a much better solution to social control than castration. As Gugliotta explains, "Initial discussion of prison vasectomy arose within a discourse about the uses of punitive castration as a humane alternative to death by lynching in cases of alleged rape and miscegenation" (373).

Another possible major factor in Indiana's "pioneering" move to make sterilization legally mandated might have been Republican Governor Frank J. Hanly, who was cited by Sharp himself as a backer of "moral reform" who made "race purity and civic righteousness" crucial elements of his party's platform (386). The main person to "push effectively for a eugenic vasectomy bill," however, was W.H. Whittaker, superintendent of the reformatory from 1095-1909 (386), who actually wrote the legislation for the sterilization statue. Secretary of State of the Board of Health, Dr. John N. Hurty was also highly influential in the success of the 1907 ruling.

Hall, Steven Ray. Oscar McCulloch and Indiana Eugenics. Richmond: Virginia Commonwealth University, 1993. UMI CAT no. 9316019, Dissertation Services.

       This is one of the most comprehensive sources found on the subject of Indiana eugenics from 1877 to more modern times. It deals mostly with the Indianapolis minister, Oscar McCulloch, whose work in eugenics and the cleansing of the large degenerate population of Indiana is considered groundbreaking, but covers many notable eugenicists of the time as well.

Hughes, James. Eugenics and Sterilization Report. 1940. [Brent? more info needed]

This source is a general overview of the state of sterilization at the time as seen from the political standpoint of Washington. Hughes cites Darwinism and the value of intelligence as the main and proper justification for the nationwide institution of eugenic programs.

Hurty, J. N. "The Indiana Movement." Abstract of a paper read Dec. 13, 1907, Chicago IL. Indiana Medical Journal. Ed. Alembert W. Brayton. XXVI: 8 (February 1903): 310-311.

This source is a clear representation of the money- and budget-based arguments fueling the sterilization laws, and illustrates how closely physicians and lawmakers needed to be in cahoots to get the sterilization legislation passed. Overcrowding of asylums was costing a lot of money, and this abstract goes as far as to suggest that the insane are living too long and should die off earlier, like they used to: "The duration of the lives of the insane, of the criminals, of the idiots, of the epileptics and habitual paupers, has been increased, by care in public institutions, about eight years in Indiana in the last two decades. The average duration of life in the same period for the whole population, has increased only four and one-half years" (310).

Indiana Committee on Mental Defectives. Mental Defectives in Indiana. Third Report to the Governor. Indianapolis: July 31, 1922.

This report is less concerned about caring for the afflicted than about keeping up the state's intelligence numbers: "The uncared-for insane, epileptic and feebleminded constitute a social menace, but the part played by the feebleminded in discounting social progress is by far the most potent influence for evil under which society is struggling today" (6).

The focus broadens from feeblemindedness back to other categories of "mental defectives" at the end of the report, thus highlighting how fuzzy this term is in the minds of these experts. Closer attention to and wider public awareness of the problems caused by "the menace of the mental defective . . . should result in such united action as will lessen the burden of pauperism, degeneracy, disease and crime, and decrease the cost to the taxpayers" (6). (Note that the last word of this foreword is "taxpayers," yet this was still the Roaring Twenties—the Depression wouldn't hit for another seven years.)

      This article also focuses on feeble-minded women, and evidences nervousness at their reproductive potential. The committee recommends, concomitant with the establishment of more colonies for the feebleminded, "separate provision for feebleminded women of child-bearing age, by a farm colony" to which women at co-ed institutions can be transferred.

Ingle, Dwight J. Who Should Have Children? Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc. Publishers, 1973.

A more modern take on the influence of genetics on social ideology, this book deals with blanket statements on ethics of selective population control, social welfare, and crime.

Johnson, Alexander. "The Family." Oscar Carlton McCulloch obituary. Volume IV, June 1923,
No. 4. (IP 922, M133 no 2.)

This is a somewhat honest description of the Indiana eugenicist, Oscar McCulloch, and his personal contributions and character. He is described as a man of charity, interested in "uplifting and refining" objects, and a man with "reverence for human nature." The article adds a certain historical flavor to an otherwise faceless pioneer.

Kuhl, Stefan. The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Details the often underplayed connections between eugenics in America and Germany, particularly Nazi Germany. Describes the meeting of the International Congress of 1912, which included Darwin's son and Alexander Graham Bell. Also discusses the first U.S. sterilization, which occurred in Indiana in 1899, and was called the "easiest measure to prevent the reproduction of inferior people."

Leaming, Hugo P. "The Ben Ishmael Tribe: A Fugitive 'Nation' of the Old Northwest." The Ethnic Frontier: Essays in the History of Group Survival in Chicago and the Midwest. Eds. Melvin G. Holli and Peter d'A. Jones. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 98-141.

A positive look at the Tribe of Ishmael that portrays them as "an historic people" rather than a shiftless scourge on the nation's gene pool. This historical examination of the heritage of the tribe also brings to light the racism of the early eugenic studies, since the family's foundation was rooted in racial hybridity.

Muller, H. J. Genetics, Medicine, and Man. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1947.

An interesting link between eugenics and genetics, this text advocates "the final practical application of human genetics, the setting up of programs of eugenics for the protection and improvement of society." Also contains valuable information on the 1927 Buck vs. Bell case. 

Myerson, Abraham M.D, James B. Ayer M.D, Tracy J. Putnam M.D. Clyde E. Keeler Sc. D, Leo Alexander M.D.  Eugenical Sterilization: A Reorientation of the Problem by the Committee of the American Neurological Association for the Investigation of Eugenical Sterilization. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1936.

This article deals with some of the most basic facts about Indiana eugenics. It also remarks on some of the judicial aspects: some judges in Indiana authorize the sterilization of every feebleminded individual, other judges authorize none, and still others are selective, attempting to designate the ones which need sterilization from a hereditary standpoint.

Newman, Horatio Hackett. Readings in Evolution, Genetics and Eugenics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1921.

      Discusses German and Nazi eugenics policies and lauds the possible positive effects of universal sterilization laws, suggesting that "could such a law be enforced in the whole United States, less than four generations would eliminate nine tenths of the crime, insanity, and sickness of the present generation in our land. Asylums, prisons and hospitals would decrease, and the problems of the unemployed, the indigent old and the hopelessly degenerate would cease to trouble civilization" (480).

Olden, Marian S. The Survival of the Unfittest. Princeton, NJ : 1945. [Brent?]

This article is concerned with the birthrights of individuals and presents the notion that eugenics and forced sterilization was saving the unborn from imbecilic possibility. In a bizarre flip of current arguments about abortion and where life begins, this article cites the birthright of the as-yet-unborn as justification for eugenics and sterilization, which "protect" such potential beings from being born. Olden's article also brings up the differences between sterilization and castration, and finds that mere sterilization is enough to deter birthing "unsound" children, whereas castration is needlessly complex and almost barbaric. 

Popenoe, Paul Bowman and Roswell Hill Johnson. Applied Eugenics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1920.

Most relevant in this source is its representation of dissent during the height of popular eugenics, and its discussion of how proof of the inheritance of mental qualities in general was lacking at the time. Scientist Boris Sidis vehemently attacks eugenics, and especially its assertion that some forms of insanity are hereditary, by arguing that "The so-called scientific method of the eugenicists is radically faulty, in spite of the rich display of colored plates, stained tables, glittering biological speculations, brilliant mathematical formulae and complicated statistical calculations" (86).

This source also provides some monetary figures for the cost of maintaining feebleminded wards at the time, as well as some tidy background information. 

Rice, Thurman B., M.D. The Hoosier Health Officer: A Biography of Dr. John N. Hurty and the History of the Indiana State Board of Health to 1926. Indiana State Board of Health: 1927.

Rice discusses the life of John N. Hurty, including his involvement with the eugenics movement.  Hurty was president of the State Health Office of Indiana in 1907. Hurty's attitude is summarized by his statement that "idiots breed idiots." Specific sterilization procedures are given significant attention in this source.

Sharp, Harry C. " Discussion of Sterilization Laws" Eugenics Review Eds. Eugenics Education Society. Kingsway House, Kingsway W.C., 1913. 204-205.

This source discusses the reactions of patients sterilized against their will. Sharp notes that over the course of a few months the patients are relieved from their nervousness and approve of the operation. This article offers insight into actual patients that have been sterilized during the Eugenic Movement.

"Sterilization Legislation in Illinois," "Central Insane Hospital Crowded," and "State Hospital vs. State Hospital for Insane." Indianapolis Medical Journal. Eds. Samuel E. Earp and Alembert W. Brayton. XII (Jan.-Dec. 1909): 218, 263, 426.

These brief pieces show Indiana setting the standard for the nationwide pace of eugenic development, and also address overcrowding at the Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane (now the Indiana Medical History Museum), and a developing sensitivity to the label of "insane." State hospitals for the insane nationwide removed "insane" from their titles "to remove the stigma attaching to incarceration for mental alienation. . . . We do not advertise venereal or tubercular diseases and why those of the mind or nervous system?"

These pieces are useful for tracking an increasing sensitivity among physicians to the stigmatization of the mentally ill, and serve as reminders that sterilization was generally seen as humanitarian more than punitive.

Wilson, Lucy James. Eugenics: Twelve University Lectures. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1914.

 

Winship, A. E.  Jukes-Edwards: A Study in Education and Heredity. Harrisburg, PA: R. L. Myers and Co., 1900. (575.6 Indiana State Library)

This publication reviews criminals in six different prisons whose relatives were mostly criminals or paupers. The author determines that these six criminals with four different names were all descended from the same family. Sources such as this were used to "prove" that heredity rather than social forces caused "degeneracy."