Better Babies Contests: Eugenics at the State Fair

I’ve written before about what we writers call research, and everyone else calls farting around on the internet. Today I’ll share an example from earlier this week of where farting around on the internet research led me. Warning: disturbing content ahead.

I’m polishing up my time travel romance, Vanishing, Inc., to get ready to query agents, and I wanted to add a funny date scene set in a traveling carnival. A little Googling, a few clicks, and I found myself browsing through an Arizona State Fair program from 1916. Pictures of the fair commissioners, rules for livestock judging, who was in charge of harness racing that year… and then I come across this headline:

BETTER BABIES CONTEST

What the actual !@#$%??

I read on, because, really, who could just scroll past a headline like that?

The Better Babies’ Contest is a popular yet scientific movement to insure better babies and a better race. It consists of entering, examining and awarding prizes to children 6 months to three years of age on exactly the same basis or principles that are applied to live stock shows.

Premium list, rules and regulations of the Arizona State Fair 1916, courtesy Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, obtained from http://azmemory.azlibrary.gov.

Yes, you read that right. Babies were judged like livestock. To, “insure a better race.”

Holy eugenics, Batman.

They go on to assure us that, “Mere beauty does not count. Physical and mental development only are considered.”

Okay…

The event sounds well-intentioned–once you get past the livestock judging and “better race” bits:

The Better Babies’ Contest insures a better race of Americans, because teaches parents how to improve the physical condition of children already born and to protect those yet unborn. It rouses interest in the conservation of child life and health and in all forms of child welfare. It forges a connecting link between parents and teachers, between the home and the scientific study of child life. It promotes civic interest in children of the community, their schools and their recreations.

Same source as above

Once I picked my jaw off my lap and stopped wandering around the house, muttering, “WTF,” under my breath, I decided to learn more about the topic. Was it just Arizona that judged its children like cattle?

As it turns out, no, it wasn’t. I conducted a careful search worthy of my graduate training and 29 years of experience as an academic librarian Googled better baby contests and started reading. Apparently better babies contests were A Thing in the United States in the early years of the 20th century, on the heels of the eugenics movement of the late 19th century. The first contest was established by Mary de Garmo in Louisiana in 1908. Women’s Health Companion got involved in 1913, and the contests spread to state fairs across the country (Better Babies Contests in the United States (1908-1916)).

Infants participating in the better babies contests were judged on a maximum scale of 1000 points. Judges awarded each infant up to 700 points for physical appearances lacking any visible deformities or impairments. Physicians and nurses awarded a maximum of 200 points for mental and psychological fitness and 100 points for physical measurements including normal height and weight. Infants who scored all possible points were considered perfect babies. The participant with the highest score overall was awarded a trophy that marked the infant’s triumph as a better baby.

Better Babies Contests in the United States (1908-1916)

According to Moran, “The Illinois Medical Association… justified the contests as a response [to] the ‘deterioration of the American stock,'” at a time when increased immigration was causing middle- and upper-class white people, “to fear that immigrant babies would soon outnumber white babies.” Of course, this idea persisted long after the heyday of the eugenics movement. My own father used to rant about this topic (I refuse to use the language he used), and certain politicians dogwhistle this argument even today.

Moran and Unema both go on to say that better babies’ contests became less common by 1920. A 2019 article in Smithsonian Magazine adds more–and more disturbing–information:

Judgment of individual babies soon morphed into a more eugenically driven evaluation of a gene pool in the form of “Fitter Families for Future Firesides,” which debuted in Kansas in 1920 under the guidance of Florence Sherbon and Mary T. Watts, organizers of a previous baby contest at the Iowa State Fair. While both contests may have reflected elements of eugenicist thinking, the primary emphasis shifted from factors mothers could control to heredity: Fitter Families took an approach based much more on lineage and what constituted a desirable type of family.

‘Better Babies’ Contests Pushed for Much-Needed Infant Health but Also Played Into the Eugenics Movement

The Smithsonian Magazine article connects these atrocious practices to the increasing popularity of eugenics, which in the 1920s led to immigration restrictions and a US Supreme Court case that upheld forced sterilization of, “defective persons.”

Needless to say, this particular bit of research did not lead to a cute date night scene in my time travel romance. It did, however, give me a better sense of the attitudes and priorities of the period, which will help me capture the time more authentically–once I stop wandering around the house, muttering, “WTF.”

Want to learn more? Here are the sources cited in this post, along with a few more.

• Carlton, Genevieve. “Inside the ‘better babies’ contests that judged American infants like livestock.” All That’s Interesting. May 22, 2020.
• Gerais, Reem, “Better Babies Contests in the United States (1908–1916)“. Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2017-07-19).
• Moran, Rachel Louise. “Making Perfect Children.” The Ultimate History Project.
• Pernick, Martin S. “Taking Better Baby Contests Seriously“. American Journal of Public Health, May, 2002, p. 707-708.
• Uenuma, Francine. ‘Better Babies’ Contests Pushed for Much-Needed Infant Health but Also Played Into the Eugenics Movement: Contests around the country judged infants like they would livestock as a motivator for parents to take better care of their children. Smithsonian Magazine, January 17, 2019.