Sir Francis Galton Correspondence (MS 81)

Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911), born in Birmingham, England, was an early human geneticist and eugenicist, the term "eugenics" coined by him in 1883. He laid the foundation for the science of biostatistics through his studies on the inheritance of mental traits. Galton was first cousin to Charles Darwin and influenced by Darwin's Origin of the Species , published in 1859. He began to publish on heredity in 1865; in 1889, he published Natural Inheritance , a summary of his work on the subject. Galton was knighted in 1909 and, in 1910, received the Copley medal from the Royal Society.

Mrs. Maud Clark Gardiner was the wife of John Gardiner, the first professor of Biology at the University of Colorado. Both Mrs. Gardiner and her daughter Dorothy (the donor) are graduates of the University of Colorado. Dorothy Gardiner was the first baby ever to be fingerprinted. Her fingerprints are still housed at the Fingerprint Museum at Scotland Yard. Dorothy Gardiner authored The Golden Lady , The Great Betrayal , Lion in Wait , The Transatlantic Ghost , West of the River , and other works.