[1] Between professorships, Steggerda worked closely with Charles Davenport, a biologist and eugenicist, during his time at the Carnegie Institution of Washington at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
He met his wife, Inez Steggerda, in 1928 while teaching at Smith College (1928–30), but most of his career was spent as an investigator with the Carnegie Institution for Science at Cold Spring Harbor, New York (1930–44).
He was a founding member of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in 1930, and subsequently served on its executive committee and as its vice president.
[4] Steggerda's academic biography and complete list of publications was published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology Vol.
Despite his clear racial and specifically eugenic approach to human diversity, Steggerda was a bit different in interpretive outlook than his Davenport.
While Davenport converted the slightest bit of data or non-data into racial ideology, Steggerda was exceptionally circumspect.