Karl Pearson was in many ways the founder of modern statistics as a set of methods applicable to quantitative data from almost any science. While there is good historical literature about Pearson's own development as a statistician and the relation of his work to his eugenic commitments, there is remarkably little about the spread of Pearsonian statistical methods to the sciences that adopted them. Dr. Porter is emphasizing the expansion of statistics through a study of Pearson personal contacts and correspondence. Pearson's biometric laboratory began taking in postgraduate students and other visitors. Some of the most important statisticians in several disciplines worked with him directly for extended periods. To see how this network spread from Pearson's lab to the various scientific disciplines, Dr. Porter is examining both the Pearson archive and the published record of those who introduced modern statistical methods to their disciplines. Dr. Porter is keenly alert to the scientific and institutional contexts within which such people worked. This study contributes not only to the history of statistics as such, but also to our understanding of the expectations, standards, and values that have made statistical rules of inference so central to the drive for objectivity in the modern social and natural sciences.
