Roswell Hill Johnson
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Roswell Hill Johnson (1877–1967) was an American
eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior o ...
professor in the early twentieth century. Born in
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
in 1877 and educated at Brown University, Harvard, and the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
and
University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
, Johnson conducted research at the Anatomical Laboratory of the University of Wisconsin and at the Carnegie Institution's Station for Experimental Evolution. He joined the Carnegie staff in July 1905 as an assistant to Charles Davenport, the nation's most influential eugenicist in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Johnson's early work involved ladybugs, whose short life cycle made them ideal for studying evolution. He also developed techniques for locating underground petroleum reserves.


Career in Pittsburgh

Johnson began teaching at the University of Pittsburgh in 1912 as an instructor in biology and assistant professor of oil and gas mining. In 1918 he co-wrote ''Applied Eugenics'' with
Paul Popenoe Paul Bowman Popenoe (October 16, 1888 – June 19, 1979) was an American agricultural explorer and eugenicist. He was an influential advocate of the compulsory sterilization of mentally ill people and people with mental disabilities, and the fa ...
; edited by
Richard T. Ely Richard Theodore Ely (April 13, 1854 – October 4, 1943) was an American economist, author, and leader of the Progressive movement who called for more government intervention to reform what they perceived as the injustices of capitalism, especial ...
, it became a popular college textbook. He created the University's eugenics program, building it to thirty-five students by 1929. His eugenics classes at Pitt moved from the biology department to the zoology department, before landing ultimately in the sociology department in the late 1920s. Johnson attempted to counter the demographic effects of mass immigration by encouraging greater reproduction rates from native-born men and women of relative affluence. His plans relied upon acceptance of inherent inequality, which drove him to negative measures. Johnson viewed government-funded birth control, incarceration, sterilization, and restricted marriage licensing as rational devices. He developed his views amid the expansion of both nativism and social scientific investigation in the United States during the 1910s and 1920s. He co-authored the prominent Applied Eugenics with
Paul Popenoe Paul Bowman Popenoe (October 16, 1888 – June 19, 1979) was an American agricultural explorer and eugenicist. He was an influential advocate of the compulsory sterilization of mentally ill people and people with mental disabilities, and the fa ...
in 1918.


Career after Pittsburgh

After receiving a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1934, he announced in the ''American Journal of Sociology'' that he would thereafter teach solely in the field of sociology. He left Pitt in 1935 to teach eugenics and social hygiene as a part-time instructor at the University of Hawaii. He also served as the staff social hygienist for the Palama Settlement, a Honolulu medical and social work institution. By the end of the 1930s, he lived in Los Angeles and served as the director of personal service for Popenoe's American Institute of Family Relations. The Institute preached the benefits of medical testing and stressed disciplined study as the best way for single men and women to prepare for marriage. Johnson's work for the AIFR brought his thinking about reproduction full circle. In his 1948 book ''Looking Toward Marriage'', he summarized decades of experience in counseling singles. Traits such as stability, sympathy, "self-mastery," intelligence, and health produced the best chances for a successful marriage, he noted. Singles had to be realistic about their chances of finding a partner and honest to prospective partners about their aspirations and limitations.


See also

* Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Roswell Hill 1877 births 1967 deaths Scientists from Buffalo, New York American sociologists American eugenicists Brown University alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Harvard University alumni University of Pittsburgh faculty University of Hawaiʻi faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison staff