Harvard institutionalized Agassiz’s polygenism even after Darwin’s work refuted it

Evidence

In 1859, when Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” was published and provided a stunning rebuke to polygenism, Harvard continued to celebrate Agassiz while he derided Darwin’s impeccably researched work as a “scientific mistake” that was “mischievous in its tendency.” Indeed, the very next year Harvard dedicated the Museum of Comparative Zoology to Agassiz. The museum was founded with specimens from Agassiz’s personal collection and funded through his extensive connections. It was unofficially called “Agassiz Museum,” a name that retained its relevance when Agassiz’s son, Alexander, was made curator and then director after his father’s death. Agassiz retained his professorship and served as director of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology until his death in 1873. After his death, Harvard chose Nathaniel Shaler, an Agassiz protégé, to lead the Lawrence Scientific School. Under Harvard’s banner, Shaler inveighed against black people’s “animal nature,” “very low morality,” and “feeble nature” of their family ties. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1083

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels institutional reputational preservation of discredited founders discussed in other academic-institution scholarship.