Day 11: Yes, we are working on a Saturday!

Posted on May 25, 2015 by mhorhota

Wow! We have already reached the half-way mark! Time is really flying by.

In the morning, a small group of us ventured out to the Countryside Conservancy Farmer’s Market in Howe Meadow. They have over 50 vendors, live music, and cooking demonstrations! It was a lovely way to start the day.

The market was bustling!

Jenn and Dr. H enjoying some delicious coffee and a non-traditional breakfast of kale salad and…

Perogies!! (Thanks to Dov for the photos and for backing up Dr. H on this fine choice...)

Perogies!! (Thanks to Dov for the photos and for supporting Dr. H on this breakfast choice)

In the afternoon several of the students headed to the CHP to conduct more research for their blog posts (Still secret! Stay tuned!) but in the evening it was time for some fun. We went up to Highland Square, a cool neighborhood in Akron with lots of little shops and restaurants.

Yum! Mary Coyle’s has been making delicious ice cream since 1937!

Day 10: More organization and a mystery solved!

Posted on May 25, 2015 by mhorhota

Day 10 brought more organization, more filing, more plastic clips, and more acid-free boxes. We also stumbled across the answer to one of the mysteries in the boxes —

Looks like my confusion over the puzzle earlier indicates that I behave like a typical child…

Another neat item we found was Temple Grandin’s business card!

We wondered if Dr. Schopler had this for research related reasons or if he purchased things for his farm from her!

We aren’t sure whether Dr. Schopler had this for research related reasons or if he purchased things for his farm from her!

The students also had the opportunity to start searching the archives for material to write about for their blog posts (which will be posted at the end of the course). I’d like to post about the cool stuff they are researching but I don’t want to steal their thunder…you’ll just have to check back in another week to see what they found.

Day 9: Organizing our piles!

Posted on May 22, 2015 by mhorhota

Now for the hard part! Today we started the process of sifting through all of the piles we created yesterday. We began with the categories we thought would be easiest (published works, conferences, teaching). Even though these categories were quite well organized to start, it still took us all day! We looked through the contents of each folder carefully, removed items that weren’t supposed to be kept in the collection (e.g. old receipts, plane tickets, things that weren’t written by Schopler or his direct associates), swapped out paper clips for plastic clips, re-filed the contents into acid-free folders, and organized the folders by date.

So many folders!

After that, the organized folders were placed into acid-free storage boxes. By the end of the day we had restored some order…

Organization makes Jenn happy!

…but there is still a lot of work to be done!

...but it also might be time for a break...

It might be time for a break…

Our best finds of the day?

Schopler’s ID card

Hmm...this seems as though it should go together...

Hmm…I really thought these pieces would go together…

And a sign of the challenges we face…

If Eric Schopler doesn't know where this goes...how are we supposed to know?

If Eric Schopler doesn’t know where this belongs…how are we supposed to know?

Day 8: Making piles!

Posted on May 21, 2015 by mhorhota

Day 8 had us sorting out the contents of the boxes onto tables that each reflected a different category (biographical information, manuscripts published by Schopler, TEACCH materials, conferences, personal correspondence, etc.).

Before…

This was more challenging than it sounds — where does a partially complete cow puzzle go? (The answer is ??? – our miscellaneous category of wonders. But where will it go next?)

By the end of the day we had organized chaos…

and after!

…and a whole bunch of empty boxes.

A sign of progress!

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.

Day 5: Trans Allegheny Historic Asylum

Posted on May 18, 2015 by mhorhota

Day 5 brought us to the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (as it was known when it was a functioning asylum). The asylum was constructed between 1851 and 1881 and was operational through 1994. It is the largest hand-cut stone masonry building in North America, and is second in the world only to the Kremlin!

The welcoming entrance to the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

The tour took us through the wards…

This is the ward for people with addictions (photo courtesy of Kieran)

The solitary lockdown area…

You could be put into solitary by request of anyone NOT being currently treated in the asylum. (photo courtesy of Jenn)

And the forensics ward where the most dangerous patients were housed…

This building has only one entrance/exit. This made it secure for the patients… but also more dangerous for the staff (photo courtesy of Alissa W)

The asylum was built to house 250 people, however in the height of operation in the 60s it was severely overcrowded and was home to 2,500 people! We also learned about the different treatments administered throughout the years, which included aqua therapy (not as pleasant as it sounds), insulin shock therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and lobotomies.

You may be wondering, how could a person end up in the Trans Allegheny asylum? Check out the list below to see if you would have been committed!

Do you belong in the Trans Allegheny Asylum? (photo courtesy of Alyssa C)

Psychology in the Archives

What will we find in the boxes?

Monthly Archives: May 2015