Day 21: Our last day in Akron!

Posted on June 5, 2015 by mhorhota

Wow, time flies! Tuesday was our last day at the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology. We enjoyed lunch with the staff and our students shared what they learned. Our students also posted their blog posts for you to enjoy! Be sure to check them out to see the cool stuff they found in the archives.

Our group with the Center staff!

Although it was time to go, we couldn’t leave without perusing some of the rare books in the cabinets that have surrounded us while we worked these last two weeks.

The tiny book that Dov and Jenn are holding is oldest book in the collection — from 1533! And the book that Alissa W is holding is a copy of a book by Wilhelm Wundt that belonged to William James!!! (Check out a blog post about it here.)

The Center also has a second edition print of the Origin of Species by Darwin!

And then, it really was time to go! Some students had to get to the airport! Others had to do one last “only-in-Akron” activity (you are correct if you guessed that it was cruising by LeBron James’ house) before packing up for the drive back to Greenville. All in all, a successful May X!

That’s all for this installment of Psychology in the Archives. But until next time, you can get your history of psych fix by visiting the CHP blog: https://centerhistorypsychology.wordpress.com/

Day 20: Finalizing FUSE and blog posts — and learning about copyright!

Posted on June 2, 2015 by mhorhota

We spent our last full day at the center finalizing our FUSE documents. This included finishing up the narrative documents that the students have been working on and learning about the details of copyright law. Lizette was our guide to the ins and outs of what we can and cannot post and how to find out who holds a copyright and how to request permissions.

Lizette and the group surrounded by acid-free boxes. We will be preserved forever!

For photographs, the copyright belongs to the photographer. This means we have to figure out who the photographer is so that we can request permission to post the photo. This is an easy task if the photo is stamped with this information on the back….but involves some detective work when it isn’t. Reading all of those Nancy Drew books in my childhood is going to come in handy!

We ended the day with dinner at a Mexican restaurant — our last dinner as a group before people start heading home on Tuesday afternoon. Somehow no pictures were taken? We have become lax as the trip ends. It certainly wasn’t the margaritas.

(Disclaimer: That was a joke. Obviously if margaritas were involved pictures *would* have been taken.)

Day 17: Finished, for real this time!

Posted on May 30, 2015 by mhorhota

Huzzah! WE DID IT! The Schopler collection is officially processed!

We received a lot of behind-the-scenes help from the wonderful staff at the Cummings Center. We couldn’t have done it without Rhonda Rinehart, the special collections manager,

Our group with Rhonda — even the emotion display models are happy that we have finished!

and Emily Gainer, the Special Collections Librarian.

The wall of boxes around Emily’s desk has not kept us from asking her lots of questions!

After finishing up we celebrated with some coffee at Starbucks! We also met with Dr. Ray Stanley, a human factors psychologist, who spoke with us about what it is like working in an applied psychology field.

Our group with Ray Stanley at the Starbucks (which is also our regular breakfast spot)

Next up, finalizing the FUSE content and blog posts so that we can share all of the cool stuff that we have learned. Stay tuned! The adventure isn’t over quite yet!

Day 16: We did it!! But wait! There is ONE LAST BOX. Arg!

Posted on May 29, 2015 by mhorhota

After 7 full days of sorting and organizing…

Jenn and Alissa are relieved that the piles are getting smaller!

Jenn and Alissa are pleased that the piles are getting smaller!

…plastic clipping…

So many discarded metal paperclips! (Can you find the lone “approved” plastic clip in the picture?)

…foldering, labeling, boxing up…

How did Alyssa get stuck with the task of filing all of the slides?

Poor Alyssa got stuck with the task of boxing up all of the slides!

…and entering the data into the finding aid, we thought that we had finished processing the Schopler collection!

Hooray! Look at all of that organization!!

Could it be that we have finished???

But wait…

Mary and Kieran receiving some bad news…

What is that in the corner???

Noooooo! One last box!!!

So close!!!

Day 14: Cleveland Rocks! And has great art!

Posted on May 27, 2015 by mhorhota

Today was an exciting day! We had a field trip!

Mary and Kieran are excited about our field trip!

We went to Cleveland to meet up with Dennis and Kathy Barrie, the team who are designing the new Cummings Center for the History of Psychology Museum. They have a very impressive resume — between the two of them they have designed the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH, the Mob Museum in Las Vegas and they are currently working on the U.S. Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs. They shared their background and how they became involved in museum design. They also spoke with us about their process for designing museum spaces and shared the early plans for the Cummings’ History of Psych museum. It was incredibly interesting and we learned a lot.

The conversation also highlighted the value of the archival work we are doing — the Barries mentioned how helpful it is for them to have so many artifacts to work with. Maybe some of the things we find in Schopler’s collection will end up on display!!

The group with Dennis and Kathy Barrie

Afterward, we spent a few hours walking around the Cleveland Museum of Art. Knowing how much effort goes in to designing the space and flow of the exhibits gave us a whole new perspective!

The beautiful atrium in the Cleveland Museum of Art (photo courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch’s website)

Day 7: Cummings Center for the History of Psychology

Posted on May 20, 2015 by mhorhota

The day we have all been waiting for arrived on Tuesday! We had our first full day at the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology. We started out with a tour of the museum where we nerded out over all of the cool things on display. Milgram’s Shock Box! Bandura’s Bobo Doll! Tichener’s regalia (which he taught his classes in – can you imagine?!) Harlow’s wire mother monkey heads! Skinner’s air crib! It was hard to know where to look.

Original uniforms and prison door from the Stanford Prison Experiment

Then we had a behind the scenes tour and saw where we will be working and learned about the renovations that will begin right after we leave.

Safety first! (Actually, hard hats were not necessary. But they made Alissa and Dov look very official.)

Best of all, we found the boxes that we will be working with!

Hey! No peeking, Addie!

After lunch,we hauled the boxes out of the basement…

Riding the freight elevator

…and started to broadly categorize the types of items in each box. So far we have found several reprints, manuscript drafts, some slides, several awards, and lots of correspondence. It was hard to resist getting sidetracked by reading every page! (That will come later).

Wow! Dov and Alyssa found manuscript on TEACCH in Japanese!

Wow! Dov and Alyssa found a manuscript on TEACCH in Japanese!

What will tomorrow bring??

Day 6: Dr. Elizabeth Loftus

Posted on May 19, 2015 by ehahn

After settling into our new digs at the University of Akron on Sunday night, we hit the ground running on our first full day in town. We spent most of the day researching and writing content for our project on Dr. Eric Schopler. In the evening, we attended the Ludy T. Benjamin Distinguished Lecture in the History of Psychology, presented this year by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus. In her talk, Dr. Loftus shared how personal and professional life events shaped the trajectory of her research.

Our students with renowned researcher, Dr. Elizabeth Loftus

We were also lucky enough to snag this picture with Dr. Ludy T. Benjamin, a historian of psychology who has written over 20 books on the subject (and who the lecture series is named after). He also is a close friend of our very own Dr. Charles Brewer!

Dr. Ludy Benjamin poses with our group.

Psychology in the Archives

What will we find in the boxes?

Tag Archives: history of psych