The Black Stork

Abstract The Black Stork was the most explicit depiction of negative eugenics to reach the silent screen. Yet even though the film was shown across the country in various editions under several titles from 1916 to perhaps as late as 1942, no copies were known to exist until I rediscovered and preserved the only viewable print of the 1927 revision and subsequently located an unprojectable paper print of the 1916 original. The original version opens with a prologue that 1epicts defectives as a repulsive, dangerous, and costly menace to society. The film dramatizes a centuries-old argument for selective human mating, visually contrasting care in breeding livestock (Fig. 8) with neglect of human health and eugenics (Fig. 9). Through statistic-filled titles and striking visual juxta positions, these scenes combine an argument for making the success of livestock breeding a model for human selection, with a critique of the government for spending more money on veterinary than on human health, and an equation of human defectives with subhuman beasts.