Inheritance of defect, Eugenics Education Society.

This poster, commissioned by the English Eugenics Education Society, was designed and produced by Benson's London advertising agency.
The Eugenics Education Society was founded in 1907 with the aim of promoting the offensive theory of eugenics that advocated the 'improvement' of human hereditary traits through social intervention and 'selective breeding.'
Thankfully, in the UK Eugenics did not become a mass movement.
By 1914 the membership of the Eugenics Education Society was under 500, with membership peaking at around 800 in in its 1930s. In the1920s the Society changed its name to the Eugenics Society. Founded with a focus on 'social change' the Society was distinct from the Galton Eugenics Laboratory, established under the auspices of the University of London to study the emerging discipline of eugenics from a purely scientific viewpoint.
While the theory of Eugenics has now, thankfully, been entirely discredited this and other similar posters in our collection remind us of the threat of the Eugenics movement that emerged in the early 20th century and influenced, with such devastating consequences, the Aryan master race principles of Nazi Germany.