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)

Day 4: On the road!

Posted on May 16, 2015 by mhorhota

Today we began our trek up to Akron, via a very long detour through Weston, WV. We stopped for dinner in Fayetteville, WV (“The coolest small town in America, 2006” according to BudgetTravel Magazine and “Best River Town 2013” according to Blue Ridge Outdoors) and met the Marquis de Lafayette, a revolutionary war hero!

Striking a regal pose with the Marquis

And Dov and Addie were lucky to survive their gator encounter…

Yikes! There’s a gator under this bench!

Day 3: Furman’s Magnificent Library Staff

Posted on May 15, 2015 by ehahn

This morning we met with Christy Allen, Furman’s digital librarian to learn about FUSE, the online platform we’ll be using to showcase Dr. Eric Schopler’s collection. After lunch we visited Furman’s Special Collections where Julia Cowart, the Special Collections librarian and university archivist, showed us some of Furman’s archival treasures, including this original diploma issued by Furman in 1857.

Eager to begin our road trip tomorrow!

Day 2: Visit to the Asheville TEACCH Center

Posted on May 15, 2015 by ehahn

Before we journey to the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology to begin our work on the collection of Dr. Eric Schopler (founder of the TEACCH autism method), we’ve been spending a few days learning about autism, the TEACCH method, and the importance of studying the history of psychology. We had the privilege yesterday of visiting the Asheville TEACCH Center where Autism Specialist Jonathan Blalock gave us an overview of the TEACCH approach.

Dinner at the Laughing Seed in Asheville, NC

Let the adventure begin!

Posted on May 7, 2015 by mhorhota

Welcome to the Psychology in the Archives blog! We’ll be keeping track of what we learn each day — check in to see our progress.

On Day 1 we discussed the history of psychology — do you know how the earliest psychologists were connected?

What will we find in the boxes?