MORE ON EUGENICS SOCIETY FITTER FAMILIES MEDALS

Sculptor: Julio Kilenyi

Obverse: A sturdy child takes a flaming torch from kneeling parents. Legend around upper half: YEA, I HAVE A GOODLY HERITAGE.1 There is a tiny KILENYI in exergue left side.

Reverse: Open topped wreath formed by two laurel branches joined at the bottom with a bow. 5-line inscription on center in the upper half of the enclosed field: PRESENTED / BY / AMERICAN / EUGENICS / SOCIETY.

Signed: Kilenyi

Edge: WHITEHEAD-HOAG

Issuer: The American Eugenics Society, Inc., New Haven, CT

Organization: The American Eugenics Society (AES) was a society established in 1922 to promote eugenics. It was the result of the Second International Conference on Eugenics (New York, 1921). The organization started by promoting racial betterment, eugenic health, and genetic education through public lectures, exhibits at county fairs etc. Under the direction of Frederick Osborn the society started to place greater focus on issues of population control, genetics, and, later, medical genetics.

JKL 26-06.1 American Eugenics Society Medal
All elements the same as 26-06 except:

Size: 1½-inch (38.1mm)

Reverse: The lower interior field has a 2-line addition on center: FITTER FAMILIES / CONTEST. Beneath is a cartouche banner suitable for engraving the name of the recipient. Just under the bow at the bottom of the medal is a microscopic W & H CO.

Edge: Plain with a loop at the top.

Organization: The Fitter Families contest started in September 1920 at the Kansas State Free Fair in Topeka as a pilot program of the Baby Health Examination Movement. It ran there for five years until 1924. It was then taken over by the American Eugenics Society and extended to other states. In 1928 the administration moved to the Race Betterment Foundation. Considering the strong contribution of agricultural breeding to the eugenics movement, it is not difficult to see why eugenicists used state fairs as a venue for popular education. A majority of Americans were still living in rural areas during the first several decades of the 20th century, and fairs were major cultural events. Farmers brought their products of selective breeding — fat pigs, speedy horses, and large pumpkins — to the fair to be judged. Why not judge "human stock" to select the most eugenically fit family?

This was exactly the concept behind Fitter Families for Future Firesides — known simply as Fitter Families Contests. The contests were founded by Mary T. Watts and Florence Brown Sherbon — two pioneers of the Baby Health Examination movement, which sprang from a "Better Babies" contest at the 1911 Iowa State Fair and spread to 40 states by 1916. With support from the American Eugenics Society's Committee on Popular Education, the contests were held at numerous fairs throughout the United States during the latter half of the 1920s.

At most contests, competitors submitted an "Abridged Record of Family Traits," and a team of medical doctors performed psychological and physical exams on family members. Each family member was given an overall letter grade of eugenic health, and the family with the highest grade average was awarded a silver trophy.

All contestants with a B+ or better received bronze medals bearing the inscription, "Yea, I have a goodly heritage." As expected, the Fitter Families Contest mirrored the eugenics movement itself; winners were invariably White with western and northern European heritage. Even after the administration of the Fitter Families Contests moved to the Race Betterment Foundation in 1928, the American Eugenic Society continued to maintain control of the contests until 1931...

Ephemera: The Kilenyi image was widely used by the American Eugenics Society. The obverse was used as the cover art for their Journal from October, 1928 until February, 1931. As the Journal progressed from issue to issue the cover was washed in one color after another. Over the course of a year the medal was seen in a rainbow of hues.

During that same time period the medal was also used on the mast-head of the Journal as a counterbalance to a photograph of Francis Galton, a pioneer of Eugenics and the coiner of the term.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
AMERICAN EUGENICS SOCIETY FITTER FAMILIES MEDALS (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n18a21.html)

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