-contributed by Emily Gainer, Assistant Processing Archivist/Special Collections Librarian.
In 2022, the Archives of the History of American Psychology received nearly 500 boxes of papers, films, photographs, and computer hard drives and disks from the estate of R. Allen Gardner. These papers document the Gardners’ unique research on communication with cross-fostered chimpanzees. This is one of the largest collections we have received at the Archives and it provides an excellent opportunity to see how our whole team collaborates in the intake and processing of any given collection that arrives on our loading dock.
R. Allen (1930-2021) and Beatrix T. (1933-1995) Gardner started Project Washoe in 1966. During this study, the Gardners cross-fostered the chimpanzee Washoe and taught her to communicate using American Sign Language (ASL). Washoe was raised in a trailer in the Gardners’ backyard in Reno, Nevada. The study ended in 1970.
Washoe signing “flower”, 1968. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8061, Folder 4.Washoe signing “please”, 1970. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8059, Folder 11.Washoe exiting her trailer, 1970. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8060, Folder 1.Washoe and Beatrix T. Gardner, 1970. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8060, Folder 10.Washoe and R. Allen Gardner, 1970. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8060, Folder 7.
In 1972, the Gardners began a second study. The study is less well-publicized, but possibly of greater scientific significance. The Gardners began with days-old chimpanzees, carried out rigorous testing and documentation, and worked with human companions fluent in ASL. The second study involved a total of four chimpanzees over nine years. These cross-fostered chimps, raised at a ranch in Reno, included:
Moja who lived with the Gardners from 1972-1979,
Pili who lived with the Gardners from 1973 until his death in 1975,
Tatu who lived with the Gardners from 1976-1981, and
Dar who lived with the Gardners from 1976-1981.
Moja, 7 years old, 1979. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8130, Folder 79-9A.Pili and Beatrix T. Gardner looking at picture/stimuli books, 1975. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8131, Folder 21.Infant Tatu, 1976. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8133, Folder 10.Tatu and R. Allen Gardner, 1978. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8128, Folder 78-7A.
Dar and human companion, Jim Rimpau, 1978. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8128, Folder 78-1C.Tatu signs “Gimme” to Dar, who drinks from canteen, 1980. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8130, Folder 80-11BDar signing “Food” while looking at a bread slice pictured in a magazine, 1981. From the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, Box M8130, Folder 81-3A.
Processing timeline:
Spring 2022: Donation of 496 boxes from the Gardner estate arrive at the CCHP. Rhonda Rinehart and Emily Gainer appraise, sort, rebox, and move materials to storage.
September 2022: Emily begins archival processing, which involves organizing, preservation rehousing, and creating a finding aid to make these materials open to researchers.
Winter 2022: Emily identifies series and organizes 300 boxes into those categories. Further appraisal is performed with consultation from Cathy Faye. Student assistants help with refoldering, labeling, and reboxing materials.
Spring 2023: Series identification and organization continues. Preservation rehousing continues. Jon Endres begins organizing and digitizing approximately 400 reels of film.
Summer 2023: Student assistants begin digitizing and creating metadata for 3,000 photographs and slides. Jon begins assessing electronic files stored on hard drives, USB drives, CD-ROMS and other storage devices.
Fall 2023: Emily organizes the files within each series and arranges them chronologically and/or alphabetically. Emily begins writing the finding aid. Students continue metadata for photographs and slides.
Emily Gainer begins processing by pulling boxes and identifying the contents.Student assistant Dillon Piorkowski rehouses and labels the daily logs of Moja. The original plastic binder is replaced by an acid-free folder.Student assistant Adam Lapham rehouses and labels hundreds of chimpanzee photographs. The original envelopes are replaced with acid-free folders and paper interleaves.Student assistant Wesley Martin creates metadata for about 2,000 photographs relating to the Gardners second chimpanzee study.Student assistant Maggie Mahaney digitizes and creates metadata for over 700 slides of Washoe.
Looking back on this project, it is clear that processing an archival collection of this size and scope is a time-intensive team effort. From accessioning to rehousing, digitizing, organizing, and describing, the entire Archives staff and many student assistants contribute to making the collections we receive every day available to researchers. To access materials in the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, contact our CCHP reference archivist at ahap@uakron.edu.
contributed by CCHP student assistant Isabella Pieriwith an introduction from reference archivist Lizette R. Barton
INTRODUCTION
The Archives has a lot of material – a lot – in a variety of formats, in different housing, on multiple floors of the building. It can be intimidating. The best way to get to know AHAP is to just spend some time perusing, which is why I like to give my new student assistants a scavenger hunt on their first day on the job. Isabella’s task was to locate 10 different items in the building. I tried to select items from all the different collections. Isabella had no trouble at all cracking my scavenger hunt and she was able to familiarize herself with the building and the collections all while getting a bit lost in the coolness of archives. I think we’re going to get along just fine. – Lizette R. Barton
A SCAVENGER HUNT THROUGH THE CCHP’S ARCHIVES: A FIRST WEEK ADVENTURE
Cultural nuances and histories have held my interest since a young age, stemming from an obsession with the religious beliefs and mythology of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Native American tribes (which are present, today). Entering my fourth year of study as an Anthropology major an perusing a minor in History as well as a certificate in Museum and Archival studies, an opening for a Student Assistant to the Reference Archivist at the CCHP was an opportunity I had to take. To help better acquaint myself with the innerworkings of the institution and the layout of the archives, my first assignment was a scavenger hunt!
I was overwhelmed with how much material I had access to and often found myself getting sidetracked by an interesting title or curious looking box. I really took my time to wander through the stacks, explore each shelf, and familiarize myself with the layout of everything. The CCHP’s archives are home to an incredibly diverse collection, as it’s the world’s largest repository of documents, media, and artifacts pertaining to the history of psychology and other related human sciences. To be totally honest, I did get lost once (or twice), but who’s counting?
Between finding a Kansas State Insane Asylum Report from 1919, a children’s questionnaire about their attitudes, a recipe for a Kaffee Klatsch cake, and letters between a congressman and a psychologist discussing shared interests, I found a curious thread that connected a few of the other items on my list.
What could a book, a collection with a reference to General Mills Inc., and a photograph of a chicken have in common? Animal psychology, apparently (at least in this situation).
One of the items on my docket was a book by the name of The Animal Mind by Margaret Floy Washburn (1917). Washburn upheld the notion that the animal mind could be inferred by observing and recording their behavior and used her own research as well as the experiments of other psychologists and physiologists to support this notion.
Seeing an opportunity in the behavioral principles that were developed by way of these experiments, Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE) began to train animals for commercial use. General Mills was an avid customer - being producers of cereal, granola, and grain – and often used ABE’s animals to advertise their products. Below is a letter from J.L. Coulombe of General Mills’ advertising to Marion Breland, one of the founders of ABE, listing some of the peculiar requests they have for “acts” and “units”, including that of a fortune telling chicken.
The chicken would complete an action in exchange for a snack, triggering a mechanism to achieve the desired result and entertain the people watching. Below are two photos of a machine that was used in an act that shares a similar function to the drawing.
Overall, a very interesting and informative first week on the job looking through the archives here at the CCHP. I’m excited to get more assignments and continue become more comfortable working with the archives!
– contributed by Lizette Royer Barton. For a screen reader compatible pdf of this post and documents contained within,click here.
I asked my colleagues who their favorite women were in our collections. Here are a few of the responses.
Processing Archivist Emily Gainer replied with Erika Fromm. Emily processed the Fromm papers a few years ago and you can review the finding aid for the 115-box collection here: Erika Fromm finding aid. Emily told me, “At one point, she [Erika Fromm] had a student harassing/stalking her. Campus admin told her if he called, not to answer. She said she would answer, because that’s what she does – help people.”
Erika Fromm (1909-2003) earned her PhD in experimental psychology in 1933 from the University of Frankfurt while studying with Max Wertheimer (Emily processed those papers too); worked as a research associate in clinical psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Wilhelmina Gasthuis (University Clinics), Amsterdam; established the first psychology laboratory in a Dutch state hospital; fled the damn Nazi’s; and eventually emigrated to Chicago, IL where she established a private psychotherapy practice and became a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago.
Being a foremost expert on hypnosis and hypnoanalysis, Erika Fromm was approached by psychologists in Germany requesting permission to translate some of her work to German. The Erika Fromm papers contain several folders of correspondence with the journal editors and correspondence she received from readers (both positive and negative) regarding her decision not to allow the translation. Instead, she wrote a paper titled, Personal Feelings of a Nazi Refugee: Why I do not Want to be Honored by Germans, which was published in the German journal Hypnose Und Kognition instead of her translated work on hypnoanalysis. Fromm considered the translation of her work an honor, but was deeply conflicted about receiving such an honor from a German journal. Her paper is hard to read and harder still to fathom what she survived. And while we all hold our own feelings about forgiveness, perhaps sometimes, we have to simply respect when a person just can’t do it.
Erika Fromm papers, box M5199, folder 10
Dr. Cathy Faye, Director of the CCHP, couldn’t give me just one name.
“I’ve always liked Ruth Cruikshank Bussey. Mostly because I liked the photos of her in the collection. I think there were a couple good ones of her from her time in the WAVES and personal journals and scrapbooks. I just remember browsing those and liking her a lot.I’d love to know more about Jewish psychologist Sylvia Scribner….early on, she was quite a union activist, I think. Not sure if the collection reflects any of that.”
Ruth Cruikshank Bussey (1911-2007) earned her BA at Elmira College and went on to earn her MA and PhD from Brown University. During the Second World War she served in the Air Service Command (ASC) and later enlisted with the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), a division of the Navy. She continued her work in psychological testing at the Psychological Corporation. And Cathy was right, the scrapbooks and journals in this collection are incredible. Bussey has letters, report cards, clippings, announcements, and more glued and taped to the pages alongside her handwritten words in scrapbooks and journals from her time in high school well into old age. There are hundreds of treasures but this assignment from her Elmira College course, “Life Work Choice” is among my favorites. The assignment was for students to list their first three choices for work to which Ruth Cruikshank answered, “My work must be with science…I know of its hardships for I have a family none too eager to see me as a woman doctor, stepping in a career belonging only to men.”
Ruth Cruikshank Bussey, box M4963, folder 6
Sylvia Scribner (1923-1991) was the valedictorian of her class at Smith College in 1943 and went to work as the research director for United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. She later returned to school, earning her MA from the City University of New York (CUNY) and a PhD from the New School of Social Research in 1970. She was on the faculty at CUNY, worked as a senior research associate at Rockefeller University, the associate director of the National Institute of Education, and as a senior scientist at the Center for Applied Linguistics. She focused on cultural literacy and learning, worker’s rights, women’s issues in society and the workplace, minority concerns, and labor practices and the more I learned about her, the cooler she became.
Scribner took up a research project at a dairy processing plant to study learning and knowledge through recall between different groups at the dairy – customers, office workers, warehouse workers, and delivery drivers. The collection has detailed interview notes and materials from the study. In her published work from the study, Scribner writes that the observations at the dairy were useful in that they, “…stimulate new ways of thinking about knowledge and practice that avoid the old entrenched dualisms” and “social knowledge is differentiated from, but not opposed to, individual knowledge.” Scribner conducted similar recall research studies in Liberia and concluded, “…recall output tends to reflect the organizational structure subjects impose on material” and regardless of culture, age, or geography these processes seemed to be universal.
Notation on back: 1/15/1977. Sinkor. Hamidu Getaweh and Sylvia Sylvia Scribner papers, box V81, folder 8
In describing Scribner’s research to Dr. Faye she said to me, “It’s the human and social element. Each place has its own society and its own forms of social knowledge that work for that place and those people.”
Molly Harrower (1906-1999) took some psychology classes while at Beford College, University of London with Beatrice Edgell but never earned a psychology degree. She worked with Charles K. Ogden and with a helpful letter from him, Harrower arrived at Smith College on a fellowship to work with Kurt Koffka. She earned her PhD in 1934 and went on to work with Wilder Penfield at the Montreal Neurological Institute, established a private practice and did work in psycodiagnostics and psychotherapy, consulted in the military, served as Research Director of the Children’s Court of Manhattan, wrote poetry, and eventually joined the faculty at the University of Florida, teaching clinical psychology until her retirement.
The Molly Harrower papers include numerous still images and I asked Dr. Kearns to pick a couple of her favorites.
Molly Harrower papers, box V53
And Dr. Kearns was right. When T. Kraweic asked at the end of an hour long oral history interview her philosophy of life, she laughed and gave the best answer ever. “I practically have no prohibitions….If it isn’t fun, what is it? There are millions of things you can do and doing one you don’t like doesn’t help anybody….If you can harness all your energy and all your enjoyment and all your creativity into some form of action that’s what you should take. And that’s what I try to do.”
Hearing Molly say these words is mostly certainly better than reading them.
So listen here:
Theophile S. Krawiec collection, box A13, tape 40
There are numerous inspiring and important women in the collections here at the Cummings Center. Women who changed the course of the history of the field. But when it comes down to brass tacks, “numerous” isn’t actually very accurate. Of the 466 processed manuscript collections we house, just 81 of them are the personal papers of women. So, who is my favorite woman in the collection? I’m not sure and maybe her papers aren’t here yet.
To twist Molly’s words a bit, “If history isn’t inclusive, what is it?”
– contributed by Tony Pankuch. For a screen reader compatible pdf of this post and documents contained within, click here.
As discussed in the CCHP’s recent video, Robert V. Guthrie and the Search for Psychology’s Hidden Figures, little work had been done prior to the 1970s to seriously spotlight the scientific contributions of Black psychologists in the United States. In the 1950s, Black psychologists remained marginalized in a field that had historically contributed to their societal oppression. Yet circumstances leading up the 1957 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association led to a purposeful effort among APA leadership to solicit the opinions of the organization’s Black members. In doing so, they collected valuable documentary evidence of marginalization in the nation’s top professional psychological organization.
Backing up for a moment, the situation surrounding the 1957 APA Convention began seven years earlier, in 1950, when the APA resolved that its meetings would henceforth be held only in institutions, hotels, and establishments which did not discriminate on the basis of race or religion. Two years later, following instances of racial discrimination during the 1952 Convention in Washington, D.C., the APA passed an additional resolution vowing not to return the convention to Washington “until additional progress has been made towards democratic treatment of minority groups.”
Fast forward to 1954, and the APA’s Council of Representatives had just voted to hold the 1957 Convention in Miami Beach, Florida—a segregated city in an extremely segregated state. APA Executive Secretary Fillmore H. Sanford explained the situation in Miami Beach somewhat optimistically:
(Click each document to enlarge.)
1956, May 4. Stuart Cook papers, Box M2331, Folder 2, Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron.
Note the phrase, “these are predictions and not actualities.” No one at APA could know exactly what might happen if they were to host an integrated convention in Florida. The events in Washington, D.C. had shown that, despite assurances from hotels and other establishments, racist harassment and violence remained likely in any highly segregated city.
In the years leading up to the convention, votes were held and public comments were solicited from APA members, depicting a wide range of opinions. The arguments in favor of hosting the convention in Miami Beach did not dismiss the racial segregation of the city and state. Rather, proponents believed that hosting an integrated convention in the South would actually help to advance democracy in the region. As argued by Convention Manager Jack A. Kapchan:
1956, May 18. Stuart Cook papers, Box M2331, Folder 2, Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron.
Kapchan’s letter was circulated among APA membership, and his argument gained the enthusiastic backing of many who cited it in their own comments. Votes were cast indicating strong support for holding the convention in Miami Beach.
Five days after Kapchan wrote his letter, Sanford drafted a written request to be sent to 37 Black psychologists who were APA members. It read:
1956, May 23. Stuart Cook papers, Box M2331, Folder 2, Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron.
Should APA hold its 1957 meetings in Miami Beach? Would the cause of democracy be served better by going, under the conditions described, or by refusing to go? Would you yourself go to the meeting in Miami Beach? Would you plan to attend the 1957 meetings if they were held, say, in Boston. You can see where answers to these and related questions will be of material assistance to the Board in making a sound decision on this matter.
The responses that Sanford received came from a who’s who of notable Black psychologists, some of whom would later be profiled by Robert V. Guthrie in his landmark book Even the Rat Was White. James A. Bayton, for instance, characterized a Miami Beach convention as “a mighty big risk”:
1956, June 18. Stuart Cook papers, Box M2331, Folder 2, Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron.Photo from the Robert V. Guthrie papers, Box V59, Folder 2.
Herman G. Canady, who notably studied racial bias in IQ testing, offered a longer response, holding the APA accountable to its 1950 and 1952 resolutions and placing the situation within a larger social and historical context:
1956, June 18. Stuart Cook papers, Box M2331, Folder 2, Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron. Photo from the Robert V. Guthrie papers, Box M3533, Folder 4.
Like Canady, Roger K. Williams offered an important justification for his refusal to attend a Miami Beach convention: the danger of interstate travel.
1956, June 23. Stuart Cook papers, Box M2331, Folder 2, Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron. Photo from the Robert V. Guthrie papers, Box M3533, Folder 4.
Williams’s point is an important one. To reach Miami Beach by driving, members would have to pass through the heart of the Deep South, states like Alabama and Georgia where white supremacy, segregation, and anti-Black violence were legally enshrined. This was the era of The Negro Motorist Green Book, a travel guide which identified the all-too-rare hotels, restaurants, and other businesses where African Americans could safely stop during their travels cross-country. Even with the Green Book in hand, Black travelers still put themselves in immense danger travelling through unknown towns and cities in the Deep South.
Not all respondents to Sanford’s letter were opposed to a Miami Beach convention, however. Martin D. Jenkins supported the location, so long as the APA held true to the principles of its 1950 and 1952 resolutions:
1956, June 20. Stuart Cook papers, Box M2331, Folder 2, Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron. Photo from the Robert V. Guthrie papers, Box M3533, Folder 4
Howard E. Wright agreed with Kapchan’s letter in his response, citing a Miami Beach convention as a “desirable social strategy”:
1956, June 18. Stuart Cook papers, Box M2331, Folder 2, Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron. Photo from the Robert V. Guthrie papers, Box M3533, Folder 4.
Yet perhaps the most stirring response to this matter came from Mary A. Morton:
1956, July 2. Stuart Cook papers, Box M2331, Folder 2, Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron. Photo from the Robert V. Guthrie papers, Box M3533, Folder 4.
You state in your letter that “The issues are almost paralyzing in their complexity.” For me, as an individual, the issues are simple: (1) Will Mary Morton feel secure in joining in any and all proposals for joint activity or will she have to wonder if the particular place involved will welcome her along with all others in the group? … If she is going to have to be concerned about things like these, she stays at home. … Conventions should be intellectually stimulating but they should also be relatively carefree.
… Miami Beach may really become an oasis in a desolate region for purposes of the 1957 meeting, but my acute awareness of how desolate is the region would prevent my enjoying any sojourn into the oasis. Local newspapers and radios would certainly be constant reminders that I was in hostile territory.
In her response, Morton clearly addressed the privilege of both Sanford and the APA’s Council of Representatives. They could easily distance themselves from the dangers of a segregated city, focusing largely upon high-minded principles and potential ideological victories. For Black psychologists like Morton, attending a Miami Beach convention meant putting themselves in “hostile territory,” risking their safety and the safety of their loved ones for the sake of a convention that could just as easily be held in a Northern city.
In June of 1956, a committee of four was assigned to visit Miami Beach to gather further information. Stuart W. Cook represented APA’s Board of Directors and chaired the committee, and was joined by psychologists Robert Kleemeier, Arthur Combs, and S. O. Roberts. Roberts had already voiced his opposition to a Miami Beach convention in no uncertain terms:
1956, May 31. Stuart Cook papers, Box M2331, Folder 2, Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron. Photo from the Robert V. Guthrie papers, Box M3533, Folder 4.
The committee carried out a review of dining facilities, hotels, recreational facilities, and transportation. They met with representatives from other organizations, including the American Library Association, who hosted integrated meetings in Miami Beach. In his final report, approved by the rest of the committee, Cook testified that the group encountered no instance of discriminatory behavior. Yet the group could not eliminate all possibility of discrimination, nor could they deny that many Black attendees would feel uncomfortable staying in Miami Beach due to the culture of the South. Cook concluded:
1956, July 3. Stuart Cook papers, Box M2331, Folder 2, Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron.
The 1957 Annual Convention of the APA was held in New York City from August 30th to September 5th. The convention would not be held in Miami Beach until 1970, six years after the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally prohibited discrimination on the basis of race.
The prolonged nature of this controversy and the responses of Black members of the APA highlight the tangible ways that marginalization can occur in psychology and other professional fields. In pushing for a Miami Beach convention as part of a “social strategy,” supporters of the location were not entirely misguided. All major civil rights movements in the United States have required their participants to assume some risk of personal harm. Yet it was largely white psychologists who concocted this social strategy, not the Black men and women who were asked to put themselves in harm’s way. Further, most of those Black psychologists were not seeking to take part in an act of defiance against Southern racism—rather, they were simply trying to participate in their professional community and attend a conference for the benefit of their careers and their field.
Had the 1957 APA Conference been held in Miami Beach, Black psychologists who rightly feared for their safety in the South would have been denied access to the largest psychological conference in the United States. The comments of these psychologists helped push the APA to remain true to the principles of racial equality and integration, yet the resolutions of 1950 and 1952 should have invalidated this controversy from the beginning. Circumstances such as these were far from the only systematic barriers faced by Black psychologists in the mid-20th century, but they clearly illustrate how well-meaning policies and resolutions could, and still do, overlook the complexities of racial injustice.
– contributed by CCHP Reference Archivist Lizette Royer Barton.
The much loved and much anticipated academic winter break is upon us. Shall we celebrate with some Cummings Center archival gems?
Let’s start with this postcard addressed to Edgar A. Doll. I don’t have much to say about it other than I think it’s a beautiful winter photograph and beautiful, moonlit nights during the Ohio winter make all the snow and cold and grey a bit more bearable. (Note to self: tune in to more moonlit winter nights in 2020).
Edgar & Geraldine Doll papers, box M4268.2.
It wouldn’t be the holiday season without a little guilt, am I right? The 15-year old says he’s not interested in religion and wants to skip Christmas Eve church services for a party at his friend’s house. His parents want to keep the Christmas Eve family tradition alive.
What to do? Write to McCall’s for advice and guidance from a real live psychologist, of course!
Lee Salk papers, M2412, folder 15
Personally, I am with the 15-year-old on this one (party!) but psychologist Lee Salk thought differently.
Since we are talking about family fun – check out the Wertheimers. I want to build a snow fort with Max, Anni, and the gang. Each snowball coming together to build a fort greater than the sum of its snowballs. So fun!
If there is one family I want to (pretend to) hang out with even more over winter break than the Wertheimers it’s the Miles family. In my own archival day dream, I envision Catharine and Walter (and me) sitting back sipping eggnog and sharing laughs while the little ones play around the Christmas tree. Also, I love tinsel.
And if you’re looking for a laid back, humorous, sports-themed Hanukkah how about this fantastic golf bag menorah?
Lee L. Forman Bag Collection, IHSC, Item ID HFL2007.001.0004
Holiday gift giving can be a challenge sometimes. Perhaps that is why James V. McConnell phoned it in and sent Omaha steaks to 79 people to the tune of nearly $3,500.
James V. McConnell papers, M2064, folder 2
The Rene Spitz collection contains numerous films, including several “home movies.” This has to be one of my favorites – the family trudging through the snow, a kid bringing up the rear, the beautiful winter scenery, and the live-action skiing footage (watch until the end). I just love it. I don’t even like skiing but the Spitz family has me (almost) wanting to hit the slopes.
So however you decide to spend these next couple of weeks – holidays or not – remember to enjoy yourself. Slow down, spend time with the people you care about (or don’t!), eat something delicious, sit in front of a fireplace, read a book, and maybe take stock of 2019 and consider what you can do to be an even better human in 2020.
Happy Holidays and for those of us on academic winter break – Happy Week Between!
Muzafer and Carolyn Wood Sherif papers, box V63, folder 8.
Of the dozen or so images the Hoods sent the Sherifs the next one was my favorite. I’ve been to Moab, UT. I experienced Arches National Park and the Canyonlands National Park on a month-long road trip with three girlfriends after college. It was a life-changing experience for me and just like Jack White (another graduate student of Muzafer Sherif’s and co-author on the Robbers Cave book), I lost my ever-loving mind.
Henry H. Goddard was a voracious traveler and his collection contains hundreds of travel photos – including a scrapbook we recently digitized and made available online HERE. The 30+ page scrapbook from the early 1900s contains incredible images including this one of climbers (possibly Goddard himself) on Blackfoot Glacier in Glacier National Park in Montana.
Henry H. Goddard papers, box V37, folder 4
Maybe climbing a mountain glacier isn’t your speed. Maybe you just want to leisurely cruise the country in style. If that’s the case, Molly Harrower would’ve been a good travel partner for you. Molly’s Folly seems like a blast!
Molly Harrower papers, box V54, folder 4
THIS is the way to wake up in the morning! Notice the typewriter? Was Molly working while on vacation? I like to think she was typing letters to friends and providing updates on the folly.
Molly Harrower papers, box V54, folder 4
Gardner and Lois B. Murphy were also big travelers and their collection includes hundreds of photographs from their trips all over the world.
The notation on back of this image of Lois in Puerto Rico claims she was at a conference. I like to think she tossed her name badge and requisite conference bag onto her hotel room floor and then ran to the ocean as soon as the sessions ended. I bet she did.
Gardner and Lois B. Murphy papers, box V61, folder 1.5
The Murphy papers have a lot of photographs of Gardner hiking and camping throughout his long life. He was outdoorsy to say the least.
I really love this photograph of Gardner cooking on a stove made of cinder blocks on a dock near a lake. What’s better after a day of hiking, fishing, and general vacationing than a good meal cooked outside near a lake?
Gardner and Lois B. Murphy papers, box V40, folder 2
The notation on the back of the photograph didn’t provide any information about the other man in the photograph, but it did give me a few clues that deserved some further investigation. So I googled the following: Cloverly + Holderness + Frank.
And lo and behold the Googles delivered and I was down the vacation rabbit hole.
The Frank of “Frank’s dock” was Lawrence K. Frank. As the director of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial from 1923-1929 and director of the Rockefeller Foundation’s child-development program from 1929-1933, he was instrumental in establishing Child Development Institutes across the United States through Rockefeller funding. He also turned out to be a mentor to many and helped quite a few social scientists secure employment and funding for their research. I even came across a quote from Margaret Mead that claimed Frank “more or less invented the behavioral sciences” (I still haven’t located a citation. Anyone have one?).
So the Frank of “Frank’s dock” turns out to be super important when it comes to the social sciences and “Cloverly” turns out to be Frank’s summer home – Cloverly Cottage in New Hampshire.
Cloverly Cottage was built in 1918 and was Frank’s summer residence from 1921 until his death in 1968. A history of the cottage claims “Frank used Cloverly as a base for meetings with colleagues over the years and he and other social scientists held discussions and wrote articles and books….it served as a spot for inquiry into the fields of psychology, anthropology, and child development….”
Who else besides Gardner Murphy hung out at Cloverly Cottage and what kinds of discussions took place?
I took to the Murphy papers to look for some answers and I found a folder of letters commissioned by Gardner Murphy in 1965 from various social scientists in honor of Lawrence K. Frank’s 75th birthday. Murphy collected the letters, copied them, and provided a bound volume of all the letters to Frank and each of the letter writers.
The list of contributors was a who’s who.
Gardner and Lois B. Murphy papers, box M1806, folder 7
Check out this letter from Erik Erikson (written in the third person).
“A few weeks later the young man [Erikson] and his wife, were indeed driving through NH…they looked up Mr. Frank’s telephone number and were promptly invited to dinner. After that it seemed quite natural for Mr. Frank to ask the couple to stay the night – so natural, in fact, that they stayed for a week….the host also found it natural to arrange for a research position for the young man, so he could develop some notions he had.”
And take a look at this one from Helen Merrill Lynd.
“…we were fortunate in having a month at that happy place which became a center of openness and friendship for so many of us….no one was ever turned away from Cloverly….It was at Larry’s home that I first met Erik Erikson and Kurt Lewin….New Hampshire was a gathering place for people who were asking fresh questions, shaping important problems in new forms.”
THE HISTORY AT CLOVERLY IS ALMOST TOO MUCH FOR ME. But wait! There’s more!
Cloverly Cottage, Lawrence K. Frank’s cottage in Holderness, New Hampshire that housed “Frank’s dock” and was a meeting space and catalyst for countless research projects, theories, ideas, and chatter in the social sciences is still in the Frank family and available for rent right now through VRBO. I’m not kidding!
I think I need to book a vacation. Maybe it’s time to make a little history.
– contributed by CCHP graduate student assistant Tori Deming.
Over the past year I’ve been digitizing the Donald Dewsbury still image collection. The collection includes over 4,000 black-and-white photographs and spans four decades. Dewsbury took photographs of psychologists and animal behaviorists at various conference and meetings, including APA and Cheiron.
Most of the projects I’ve worked on have involved reintegrating separated photographs back into their original collections. I processed the Donald Dewsbury still images collection from start to finish and the collection was unique in the sense that I recognized many of the individuals from my time here at CCHP.
Like this guy.
Back in the year 2000 when this photo was taken the CCHP was still AHAP and we were in the basement of an old department store. As a team under David Baker’s leadership we have come a long way!
Here are a few of our current CCHP Board Members. They’re all so happy!
Top (left to right): Florence Denmark (1992, Washington, DC), Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr. (1991, San Francisco, CA), Don Freedheim (1992, Brussels, Belgium), Rob Wozniak (1988, Bryn Mawr, PA). Bottom (left to right): Lew Lipsitt (1989, New Orleans, LA), Chris “The Mustache” Green (1993, Toronto, Ontario), and Alexandra Rutherford (1999, Boston, MA)
I remembered Philip Zimbardo from his visit to the CCHP in 2015.
Check out this great tie! Philip Zimbardo (1992, Washington, DC)
Don captured Elizabeth in 1994 in Seattle and Keith in 2003 in Toronto.
This year’s lecture is coming up on May 16 and the speaker is Laura Stark from Vanderbilt University. Register here!
The familiar face that was most surprising was F. Robert Treichler. I know him as Dr. T.
F. Robert Treichler (2000, Akron, OH)
I took Dr. T’s History of Psychology course when I was an undergraduate at Kent State University and he introduced me to my love of the subject. He also introduced me to the Center when he brought our class on a field trip in 2013. Seeing his face in this collection was exciting and reminded me of how my journey here all started.
As an amateur photographer myself, one of the things I appreciate most about this collection is how Don Dewsbury was able to capture the emotion of the subjects of his photographs.
These smiles are infectious!
Top (left to right): Karl L. Wuensch (1983, Philadelphia, PA), Marie Lawrence (1988, Clemson, SC), Stanley Schneider (1991, San Francisco, CA). Middle (left to right): Stanley Graham (Washington, DC, 1992), Frank J. Sulloway (1989, Gainesville, FL), Thomas Carlson (1990, Southhampton, MA) Bottom (left to right): Mary S. Erskine (1992, Washington, DC)
The Donald Dewsbury still images collection is a treasure trove and we are so thankful that Don donated his collection to the archives. (We are equally thankful that he identified the subjects of nearly all of the images!)
Go ahead, browse the collection. You may just find yourself among the 4,295 photographs.
During the past 11 months, we’ve started a large but important undertaking. I am processing the Wertheimer Family papers! The papers are a treasure trove of documents, photographs, scrapbooks, diaries, and correspondence from one of the giants in the history of psychology. When complete, the papers will include the Max Wertheimer papers and the Michael Wertheimer papers. Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), an Austro-Hungarian psychologist, was one of the founders and leaders of the school of Gestalt psychology. His son, Michael, is a psychologist and historian of psychology at the University of Colorado.
Today, we want to announce the digitization and preservation of three scrapbooks from the Wertheimer Family papers. For this project, I had invaluable assistance from Nicole Merzweiler, a student in the Library and Information Science program at Kent State University.
The first, and smallest, scrapbook includes photographs of Wilhelm and Rosa Wertheimer (Max’s parents) as well as Max as a young man. The date range for photographs in this scrapbook is 1891-1929.
The second scrapbook includes photographs of Max Wertheimer, Anni Wertheimer, and their children, dating between 1915-1930.
The third scrapbook includes Max Wertheimer’s family photographs as well as some colleagues and friends. The only dates included in the scrapbook are 1932 and 1933, though the range seems to be greater.
Smallest and earliest scrapbook from the Wertheimer Family papers.
Largest and latest scrapbook from the Wertheimer Family papers.
The scrapbooks each contained loose photographs, which were also digitized. These photographs were housed in acid-free folders and stored with the scrapbook in archival boxes.
Preserving and making these scrapbooks available online was a lengthy process. It began with identifying the contents of each scrapbook and rehousing them in appropriately sized archival boxes. Then, each scrapbook was added to the finding aid. Next, each page of each scrapbook was carefully digitized in accordance with archival standards. Then the digital files were prepared for uploading to the CONTENTdm, the Cummings Center’s online database. Nicole created metadata for each scrapbook, including names, dates, and locations identified in each book.
Nicole scans the earliest scrapbook.
Finally, each page in each scrapbook is encapsulated using archival Mylar plastic. For a full explanation of encapsulation, see Encapsulation Capers (written by a CCHP intern). Nicole followed these same procedures to preserve and protect the scrapbooks.
Nicole encapsulated each page of the Wertheimer scrapbook.
Encapsulating the scrapbook pages maintains the historical context while also preserving the photographs.
You can view a digital copy of the three scrapbooks through the CCHP Still Images database. The Wertheimer Family papers included additional photographs, which are also being digitized and added to the database. Processing the Wertheimer Family papers continues and is scheduled for completion by June 1. Watch for an announcement with more details when it is available to researchers!
Gilbert Gottlieb was a research scientist and clinical psychologist. He was the first graduate student in Duke University’s joint psychology-zoology graduate training program. At Duke, he became interested in imprinting in waterfowl. After working at Dorothea Dix Hospital from 1961-1982), Gottlieb became a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (1982-1995).
The Gilbert Gottlieb papers document his career through written works, correspondence, research files, academic files, unpublished experiments, administrative files, photographs, and slides. We are happy to announce that these papers are now available for research at the CCHP.
Gilbert Gottlieb in his office at Dorothea Dix Hospital, undated. Box M6569, Folder 21
Gottlieb researched early social development in different species of precocial birds in the field and in the lab. He is known for his contributions to the fields of developmental science, and his research focused on ducks and their prenatal and postnatal imprinting behaviors.
Ducklings in Broods with Models, audio visual experiment test shots, undated. M6569, Folder 15
The collection contains hundreds of photographs and slides of Gottlieb and his team conducting research in the field and inside his laboratory at the Dorothea Dix hospital. Gottlieb examined the nuances of development, including the idea of critical periods and imprinting. His focus on imprinting involved auditory and visual testing, examining the development of naturalistic imprinting tendencies. This is a small sample of photographs taken from the Gottlieb collection. In the next few weeks, we’re digitizing the photographs and slides and adding them to the CCHP’s online database.
Gottlieb inspecting nest boxes at Dorothea Dix Field Research Station, undated. Box M6569, Folder 20
Nest boxes at Dorothea Dix Field Research Station, undated. Box M6569, Folder 3
Audio vs. visual Tests, 1966. Box M6569, Folder 4
Chick or duck embryo, undated. Box M6569, Folder 10
Duckling in Head Holder; 8th Nerve Dissection, undated. Box M6569, Folder 16
– contributed by Lizette R. Barton, reference archivist & facial hair aficionado.
Movember is a charitable organization that raises money and awareness for men’s health issues including prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health and suicide prevention. One way they raise money is by encouraging men to enlist donations from friends and families as they grow moustaches throughout the month of November. It’s like a walkathon or a telethon. It’s a facial-hair-athon.
The Movember Foundation isn’t supporting this post or anything. But it’s a good reason as any to highlight some of the truly majestic moustaches from psychology’s history. Here are a few of my personal favorites.
Alfred Binet. The O.G. of intelligence testing. Check out that twirly moustache. I bet it has an intelligence quotient of at least 140.
Genius moustache with near-genius accompanying beard!
Wikipedia tells me Floyd H. Allport, “…played a key role in the creation of social psychology as a legitimate field of behavioral science.” Whoa. Serious stuff from a serious ‘stache.
This individualistic moustache is a social force all its own
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