A stained glass window commemorating British statistician, geneticist, and eugenicist R. A. Fisher was installed in the dining hall of Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge, England in 1989. It depicts a 7x7 Latin square, as featured in Fisher's The Design of Experiments.[1] The idea for the window came from a college fellow, A. W. F. Edwards, and the execution was the work of Maria McClafferty.[2]
At first there were two windows, the other featuring a Venn diagram to commemorate John Venn, both installed in time for the 1990 centenary of Fisher's birth. In 1992, the set was expanded with four more windows representing scientific achievements with links to the college: a DNA spiral celebrating Francis Crick, and windows celebrating Charles Scott Sherrington, George Green and James Chadwick.[3][4]
In June 2020, during the global George Floyd protests, the college's Gate of Honour was spray-painted in protest at the installation and at Fisher's association with eugenics,[5] and the college announced on 24 June that the window would be removed because of Fisher's tarnished reputation.[6] The removal was subsequently carried out.[7]
The issue of the Fisher window will continue to be addressed in a working group and a public conference organized by the college to consider wider issues of diversity and representation.[8]
Criticism
editCritics have pointed out that the principles applied in this case, if applied consistently, might justify the removal of memorials to other prominent figures such as John Maynard Keynes, an economist and co-founder of Cambridge Eugenics Society.[9]
References
edit- ^ Andersen, Lars Døvling (2013). "Latin squares". In Wilson, Robin; Watkins, John J. (eds.). Combinatorics: Ancient & Modern. Oxford University Press. pp. 251–284. ISBN 9780191630620. See in particular p. 257.
- ^ Edwards, A. W. F. (2006). "Statisticians in stained glass houses". Significance. 3 (4): 182–183. doi:10.1111/j.1740-9713.2006.00203.x. ISSN 1740-9713. S2CID 153435635.
- ^ Edwards, A. W. F. (2004). Cogwheels of the mind : the story of Venn diagrams. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 7. ISBN 0-8018-7434-3. OCLC 52258357.
- ^ Anthony Edwards (1 September 2005). "Caius Stained Glass". Once a Caian. No. 2.
- ^ "Sir Ronald Fisher memorial in Cambridge targeted by activists". BBC News. 12 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
- ^ Busby, Mattha (27 June 2020). "Cambridge college to remove window commemorating eugenicist". the Guardian. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
- ^ "Fisher Window removed and diversity progress". Gonville and Caius. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ Evans, Richard J. (28 July 2020). "RA Fisher and the science of hatred". New Statesman.
- ^ Shackleton, Len (30 June 2020). "If we're being consistently woke about statues, Keynes must surely be the first of the Left to fall". the Telegraph. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
52°12′23″N 0°06′59″E / 52.2063°N 0.1165°E
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