The Eugenics Record Office (ERO) opened there in 1910, after Davenport had convinced Mrs. Mary W. Harriman (the widow of E. H. Harriman who had recently inherited her husband’s Union Pacific Railroad fortune) of the need for such an office and had gained ample funding from her for its establishment and operation. Davenport was the director and he appointed Harry H. Laughlin (1880–1943) as superintendent.
