Alfred Charles Kinsey was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, June 23, 1894. He attended Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine (1914-1916), graduating magna cum laude with a B.S. in biology and psychology. He received his Sc.D. in biology from Harvard University in September 1919, and came to Indiana University as an assistant professor of zoology in August 1920. He established a solid academic reputation for his biology tests and his research in taxonomy and evolution. By 1937, American Men of Science listed him as one of their "starred" scientists. Then in 1938, Kinsey took over coordination of the new marriage course at Indiana University, and soon after began gathering case histories of sexual behavior. In 1940, President Wells gave Kinsey a choice: to continue either with the marriage course or with his sexuality research project. Kinsey chose to concentrate on his research. Kinsey and his staff collected over 18,000 interviews, and published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948 and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female in 1953. He died in 1956 at the age of 62.

Kinsey, the movie
Photos of Dr. Kinsey and the staff
Kinsey Institute responds to Kinsey film
Controversy over Alfred Kinsey's Research

For more information on Alfred Kinsey see the following works:

Bancroft, John. "Alfred Kinsey's work 50 years later." New Introduction to Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Alfred Kinsey, et al. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998. Download a pdf version

Bullough, Vern L. "Sex Will Never Be the Same: The Contributions of Alfred C. Kinsey." Archives of Sexual Behavior. 33(3): 277-286, 2004

Bullough, Vern L. "Alfred Kinsey and the Kinsey Report: Historical overview and lasting contributions." Journal of Sex Research, 35(2):127-131, 1998.

Christenson, Cornelia V. Kinsey: A Biography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971.

Gathorne-Hardy, Jonathan. Sex, The Measure of All Things: A Life of Alfred C. Kinsey. Indiana University Press, 2000.

Jones, James H. Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.

Moke, Susan "Learning from the Past - Looking to the Future," Research and Creative Activity, September, 1997.

Nardi, Peter M., and Schneider, Beth E. (Eds.). "Kinsey: A 50th Anniversary Symposium." Sexualities, 1(1):83-106, February 1998.
( Contributors: Dennis Altman, John Bancroft, John Gagnon, Vickie M. Mays and Susan D. Cochran, Peter M. Nardi, June M. Reinisch, Gunter Schmidt, Michael Schofield, Judith Schuyf, and William Simon)

Pomeroy, Wardell. Dr. Kinsey and the Institute for Sex Research. NY: Harper & Row, 1972.

Reinisch, June M. "Kinsey Institute." in The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Neuroscience, Third Edition. Vol. 2 W.E. Craighead & C.B. Nemeroff (Eds.), pp. 835- 838 John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2001

Reinisch, June M., and Harter, Margaret H. "Kinsey, Alfred C." In Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Vern L. and Bonnie Bullough, pp. 333-338. NY: Garland Publishing, 1994.

"Reputations: Alfred Kinsey." Produced and directed by Clare Beavan, BBC (London), 1996. [videocassette]

"Sex and the Scientist." Produced by Diane Ward, WTIU (Bloomington, IN), 1989. [videocassette - 90 minutes]

"Social Science in America's Bedroom: Alfred Kinsey Measures Sexual Behavior,"
The First Measured Century, PBS production. 2000 BJW Inc. In association with
New River Media

[Top of Page.]