Münsterberg's Photoplays: Instruments and Models in his Laboratories at Freiburg and Harvard (1891-1893)
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{"created":"2022-01-31T17:04:51.072122+00:00","id":"art71","links":{},"metadata":{"contributors":[{"name":"Schmidgen, Henning","role":"author"}],"fulltext":[{"file":"art71_merged.html","language":"en","ocr_en":"<h3>\n M\u00fcnsterberg's Photoplays: Instruments and Models in his Laboratories at Freiburg\nand Harvard (1891-1893)\n</h3>\n<br/>\nHenning Schmidgen\n<br/>\n<br/>\n<p>\n <link ref=\"per315\"/>\n Hugo M\u00fcnsterberg (1863 - 1916) is often quoted as a\npioneer of applied psychology. He is also well-known for his\n <link ref=\"lit38813\"/>\n philosophy of values, his early theory of the\ncinema (\n <link ref=\"lit38804\"/>\n The Photoplay, 1916), and the fact that future writer Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), then a student at Radcliffe College, worked in his laboratory in the late 1890s. Less familiar is M\u00fcnsterberg's \nrole as a creative experimenter and energetic director of psychological\nlaboratories - in Germany and the United States. In this role, M\u00fcnsterberg\ncontributed significantly to the transition from a cognitive and/or idealist\n\"Physiological Psychology\" in the sense of\n <link ref=\"per160\"/>\n Wilhelm Wundt \nto the pragmatist and/or functional \"Science of Mental Life\" as\nadvocated by\n <link ref=\"per630\"/>\n William James and others.\n</p>\n<p>\n This present essay argues that this transition was not only grounded in theory and epistemology but\ncorresponded to significant changes in the material culture of M\u00fcnsterberg's psychological \nlaboratories. In order to reconstruct this materiality, the essay links early photographs of M\u00fcnsterberg\u2019s laboratories to trade catalogs, scientific publications, short biographies, and other holdings of the Virtual Laboratory. In addition, it connects these images to individual items (instruments, models) preserved in the\n <link href=\"http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi.html\"/>\n Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University (go directly to the interactive photograph of the\n <a href=\"/essays/data/art71/freiburg\">\n lab in Freiburg\n </a>\n and at Harvard [\n <a href=\"/essays/data/art71/table1\">\n first\n </a>\n and\n <a href=\"/essays/data/art71/table2\">\n second\n </a>\n ]).\n</p>\n<div class=\"imagebox\" style=\"\">\n <img align=\"center\" alt=\"Portrait of Hugo M\u00fcnsterberg\" border=\"0\" height=\"420\" hspace=\"0\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71/images/muensterberg.jpg\" vspace=\"0\" width=\"300\"/>\n <br/>\n Hugo M\u00fcnsterberg (1863 - 1916)\n</div>\n<p>\n M\u00fcnsterberg's academic career started in 1885 when he completed his philosophy studies with Wundt at Leipzig\nUniversity with a\n <link ref=\"lit38737\"/>\n PhD thesis on the development,\napplication and importance of the theory of natural adaptation. Two years later, he got\nhis MD at Heidelberg University with a thesis on the visual perception of\ndistances (\n <link ref=\"lit38790\"/>\n published in vol. 2 of his\n <i>\n Beitr\u00e4ge zur experimentellen Psychologie\n </i>\n ). In 1888, he\nreceived his\n <i>\n <link ref=\"lit38739\"/>\n Habilitation\n </i>\n at Freiburg University\nwith a philosophical study of the problem of voluntary actions. Shortly later,\nM\u00fcnsterberg (now a Privatdocent at Freiburg's Philosophy Department) inaugurated\na private psychological laboratory. It was located in his apartment and only\nloosely associated with the university. But along with\n <link ref=\"sit52\"/>\n Wundt's\nlab in Leipzig (founded in 1879) and the psychological laboratories of Georg Elias M\u00fcller in G\u00f6ttingen (1880) and G\u00f6tz Martius in Bonn (1888),\nM\u00fcnsterberg's lab was one of the first of its kind in the German-speaking world.\n</p>\n<p>\n</p>\n<div class=\"imagebox\" style=\"width:250px;float:left;margin:0px 8px 3px 0px\">\n <img align=\"center\" alt=\"Portrait of William James\" border=\"0\" height=\"321\" hspace=\"0\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71/images/james_img5942.jpg\" vspace=\"0\" width=\"250\"/>\n <br/>\n William James (1842-1910)\n</div>\n<p>\n In early August 1889, M\u00fcnsterberg attended the first International Congress for\nPhysiological Psychology in Paris. Besides physiological psychology in the\nWundtian sense (focused on \"normal\" adult test persons), this Conference was addressing issues of psychopathology and hypnotism. As a result, Wundt and\nmany of his followers and students refused to attend the meeting. However, it\nwas at the Paris Congress that M\u00fcnsterberg first met the famous Harvard\nphilosopher and psychologist,\n <link ref=\"per630\"/>\n William James (1842 - 1910).\n</p>\n<p>\n James was in the middle of proofreading the two volumes of his textbook \"Principles of Psychology\", when\nhe left for Paris. In the \"Principles\", he repeatedly makes reference to and\nunderscores the importance of M\u00fcnsterberg's contributions to experimental\npsychology and the study of voluntary action. After their first personal encounter,\nJames and M\u00fcnsterberg sporadically exchanged letters, starting with a letter by\nM\u00fcnsterberg in April 1890 and continuing until the death of James in 1910. \nAt about the same time, James began to send his psychology\nstudents to Freiburg for acquiring all the skills needed for practicing the new\nscience of psychology in M\u00fcnsterberg's lab (rather than Wundt's).\n</p>\n<div class=\"imagebox\" style=\"width:250px;float:right;margin:3px 0px 8px 8px;\">\n <link page=\"z0001table1\" ref=\"lit13692\"/>\n <img align=\"center\" alt=\"Muskelsinnapparat by Elbs (1895)\" border=\"0\" height=\"266\" hspace=\"0\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71/images/muskelsinnapparat.jpg\" vspace=\"0\" width=\"233\"/>\n <br/>\n Muskelsinnapparat by Elbs (1895)\n</div>\n<p>\n In 1892, another early psychological practitioner from the US, William O. Krohn,\nvisited M\u00fcnsterberg's private lab. In his published\n <link ref=\"lit8120\"/>\n description of this research site, Krohn highlighted the\nfact that it is \"distinctively a psychological laboratory\" (in contrast, for\nexample, to Johannes von Kries's\n <link ref=\"sit10\"/>\n psycho-physiological\nlaboratory in the same city). With respect to the equipment of\nM\u00fcnsterberg's lab, he noted: \"The laboratory is provided by the professor with\nall the current literature. His apparatus is all practical, designed by himself,\nand constructed by his mechanic, Elbs\" (\n <link page=\"p0587\" ref=\"lit8120\"/>\n Krohn, 1891, p. 587).\n</p>\n<p>\n Born in 1861,\n <link ref=\"per354\"/>\n Hermann\nElbs was a master of precision engineering. After employment in the\nmechanical workshops of Tesdorpf in Stuttgart, Starke & Kammerer in Vienna and\nBamberg in Berlin, Elbs established his own workshop in Freiburg in 1886. He\nconstructed theodolites and other metrological instruments which were required\nfor building and/or improving the railway lines at Elztal and Kandertal, and he\nprovided the University of Freiburg with high precision instruments. For M\u00fcnsterberg,\nhe devised instruments such as the\n <link page=\"z0001table1\" ref=\"lit13692\"/>\n Augenmassapparat (fig. 1) and the\n <link page=\"z0001table1\" ref=\"lit13692\"/>\n Muskelsinnapparat (fig. 5) that corresponded to M\u00fcnsterberg's\ninterest in peripheral, i.e. muscular and nervous processes\u2013 in contrast to\nWundt's focus on psychological functions as such.\n</p>\n<p>\n</p>\n<p>\n In July 1891, M\u00fcnsterberg sent James his new book on the tasks and methods of\npsychology (\n <link ref=\"lit22153\"/>\n \u00dcber die Aufgaben und Methoden der Psychologie). \nTo the accompanying letter, he attached a photograph, showing\nhimself sitting behind a laboratory table and surrounded by his students and\ninstruments. This photo was originally published in M. M\u00fcnsterberg (1922) and\nreprinted in Hale (1980). As Helga Schmitt (1998) has shown, it was not taken 'on\nsite,' i.e. in M\u00fcnsterberg's home laboratory but at the studio of Freiburg\nphotographer C. Ruf. On the lower margin of the original print M\u00fcnsterberg\nwrote: \"To Herrn Prof. James, with devoted greetings, from the Laboratory for\nexper. Psychology, by Hugo M\u00fcnsterberg.\" On the lower part of the image he noted his\nname and the names of his students. They are (from left to right): Donald\nMacKay,\n <link ref=\"per631\"/>\n Edmund Delabarre, James Gibson Hume, Carl\nAlexander, Resa von Schirnhofer, A. Jankovich, then M\u00fcnsterberg himself,\nWaldemar Lewy, Hermann Stahr, Johannes Hoops, Abraham Slatopolsky, and Karl\nSiebert.\n</p>\n<div class=\"imagebox\" style=\"\">\n <a href=\"freiburg\" title=\"Click to see an interactive Version\">\n <img align=\"center\" alt=\"Hugo M\u00fcnsterberg with his Students\" border=\"0\" height=\"368\" hspace=\"0\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71/images/freiburg_HUA.jpg\" vspace=\"0\" width=\"480\"/>\n </a>\n <br/>\n Photograph showing Hugo M\u00fcnsterberg with his Students, Freiburg 1891\n <br/>\n See the\n <a href=\"/references?id=lit38689\" style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">\n original photograph\n </a>\n or an\n <a href=\"freiburg\" style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">\n interactive version\n </a>\n explaining the instruments and persons.\n</div>\n<p>\n Iconographically, the carefully arranged image is reminiscent of Leonardo Da\nVinci's Last Supper \u2013 as if anticipating on the final failure of\nM\u00fcnsterberg's academic career in the German-speaking context. Instead of food\nand drinks, psychological instruments are shared between M\u00fcnsterberg and his\neleven disciples \u2013 among them Resa von Schirnhofer, a friend of Nietzsche and one \nof the first female students in Europe. In the role of Doubting\nThomas who, in Da Vinci's painting, is placed on the right side of Jesus and\nraises his finger, the photograph depicts Waldemar Lewy who points a\n <link page=\"p0008\" ref=\"lit13679\"/>\n pistol key in a playful manner to M\u00fcnsterberg's ear. On the left side, three Harvard students group around the\n <link page=\"z0001s0001\" ref=\"lit38706\"/>\n Muskelsinnapparat by Elbs that one of them, i.e. Delabarre,\nwas busily using for his PhD on the sensation of movement (published as\n <link ref=\"lit38706\"/>\n \u00dcber Bewegungsempfindungen in 1891).\n</p>\n<p>\n The background of the\nimage is also telling. The three windows in Da Vinci's painting are replaced by\nthree emblems of Wundtian psychology: on the right a\n <link page=\"p0770\" ref=\"lit46\"/>\n Hipp chronoscope (the standard for precision time\nmeasurements in Wundt's lab), on the left a\n <link page=\"p0778\" ref=\"lit46\"/>\n complication apparatus according to Wundt (for measuring the\nmental time needed by single representations or ideas), and in the center a\nframed portrait of Wundt himself [first mise en abyme]. This arrangement can be seen as M\u00fcnsterberg's tribute to the most important of his\nacademic teachers. At the same time, it should be read as embodying a corresponding to the\npolemic arguments that M\u00fcnsterberg, in his writings, put forth against Wundtian\npsychology: the old, idealist psychology stands in the background, while the\nnew, functionalist psychology performs on stage.\n</p>\n<p>\n</p>\n<p>\n On February 21, 1892, M\u00fcnsterberg received a letter from James asking whether he\nwould be interested in coming to Harvard as a guest professor and director of the\npsychology lab for a period of three years. James was quite impressed by\nM\u00fcnsterberg's ongoing publications, seeing him as a \"real genius\" of the new\ndiscipline (and a \"charming fellow\", as he added in a letter to Henry Bowditch\nin April of the same year). After publication of the \"Principles\", James had also\nrecognized the need to compete with other emerging psychology labs in the US and in Canada (e. g.,\n <link ref=\"sit51\"/>\n Cornell,\n <link ref=\"sit49\"/>\n Toronto).\nSince he saw himself as unable to direct a laboratory (\"I am by nature no\nexperimentalist\", he wrote to M\u00fcnsterberg, on May 15), he turned to the young\nand brilliant scholar in Freiburg.\n</p>\n<p>\n On May 13, M\u00fcnsterberg cabled to James:\n\"Joyfully Accepting the Call.\" Still in Freiburg, he started to re-organize the\nHarvard psychology lab, then located in Dane Hall (the first building of the Law\nSchool). The main issue was equipping the two rooms of the laboratory with\nappropriate instruments. Single items were already in possession of James (e. g.,\na Hipp chronoscope and a set of tuning forks by\n <link ref=\"per325\"/>\n Koenig), \nand M\u00fcnsterberg planned\non bringing some of his own instruments from Freiburg. But the large majority of\napparatuses and devices was to be newly acquired.\n</p>\n<div class=\"imagebox\" style=\"\">\n <link ref=\"lit38687\"/>\n <img align=\"center\" alt=\"Chain Reaction Test at the Laboratory in Dane Hall\" border=\"0\" height=\"274\" hspace=\"0\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71/images/chainReaction_img31119.jpg\" vspace=\"0\" width=\"480\"/>\n <br/>\n Chain Reaction Test at the Laboratory in Dane Hall\n</div>\n<!-- Images: \n- M\u00fcnsterberg Titelseite Text Harvard Gazette \"The new psychology\u2026\" \n- Chain Reaction vom Originalabzug und nicht aus der publ. quelle\n-->\n<p>\n After having retooled the laboratory, M\u00fcnsterberg started research and teaching\nat Harvard in the fall of 1892. Assisted by Herbert Nichols, M\u00fcnsterberg was\neager to spread the good news. In January 1893, he presented the new research\nand teaching facility to the readers of the Harvard Graduate Magazine and\nproudly declared: \"[W]e have the most ample and complete collection of\npsychological apparatus in the world\" (\n <link page=\"p0202\" ref=\"lit8141\"/>\n M\u00fcnsterberg, 1893a, p. 202).\n</p>\n<p>\n By the same token, M\u00fcnsterberg presented\na psychological research program that would not limit itself to experimenting\nwith \"normal adult men\" (as had been the case in Wundtian psychology and\nM\u00fcnsterberg's early work in Freiburg) but was meant to encompass comparative\nobservations as well as historical and even literary studies. In striking\ncontrast to the established German tradition of psychological research,\nM\u00fcnsterberg even suggested that psychological experiments should be carried out\nin \"children and the sick\" as well as in \"hypnotic subjects.\" Furthermore, he\nargued in favor of experiments in animal psychology \u2013 a research practice that\nwas excluded from the Wundtian context in Leipzig.\n</p>\n<p>\n</p>\n<p>\n The difference between the German psychology labs and the new\ninstitution at Harvard was not only a matter of size, i.e. the number of\npsychological instruments. It was also a difference in research programs, as\nM\u00fcnsterberg underscored by his contribution to the Harvard University exhibit at\nthe World Fair in Chicago in 1893.\n</p>\n<p>\n The \"World's Columbian Exhibit\" was meant to open\nits gates to the public in May 1893. M\u00fcnsterberg did not hesitate. He compiled a\n <link ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n 35-page catalog giving a meticulous overview of his\nnew research and teaching facility. Page after page, he listed an impressive\ntotal of 240 instruments, preparations, models, charts, and other objects in\npossession of the Harvard lab \u2013 among them unusual instruments such as the\n <link mk=\"0.3235/0.5536\" page=\"p0001\" ref=\"lit38687\"/>\n \"Hypnoscope\" or Mirror hypnotizer after Jules Bernard Luys (see MacDonald 1898,\n <link page=\"p1167\" ref=\"lit38666\"/>\n p. 1167, fig. 39, and a\n <img height=\"12\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//images/extern.gif\" width=\"12\"/>\n <a href=\"http://dssmhi1.fas.harvard.edu/emuseumdev/code/emuseum.asp?rawsearch=Number%2F%2C%2Fis%2F%2C%2FWJ0053%2F%2C%2F0%2F%2C%2F0\">\n color photo\n </a>\n from the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments) and a\n <link page=\"p0016s0008\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n Rotatory Chair for\nthe Study of Dizziness (one of the rare topic that James himself had\nexperimented upon in the early 1880s). Full of pride, M\u00fcnsterberg explained in\nthe preface that, although the psychology lab in Dane Hall was established only\nrecently, its \"outfit is, even now, the most nearly complete that is anywhere at\nthe disposal of students in psychology\" (\n <link page=\"a0003introduction\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n M\u00fcnsterberg, 1893b, p. 3).\n</p>\n<div class=\"imagebox\" style=\"\">\n <link page=\"p0012s0005\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n <img align=\"center\" alt=\"Instruments on the Perception of Space\" border=\"0\" height=\"323\" hspace=\"0\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71/images/spacialPerception_img26580.jpg\" vspace=\"0\" width=\"480\"/>\n <br/>\n Psychological Laboratory of Harvard University: Perception of Space\n</div>\n<p>\n In his lengthy enumeration of instruments, M\u00fcnsterberg inserted a series of\neight photographs showing the interior of the Dane Hall lab. The iconography of\nthese images is strikingly different from the Freiburg photograph. Three images\nshow 'psychology in action,' i.e. the interaction of persons and things in the\nprocess of psychological experimentation. The remaining five are authentic still\nlifes depicting artfully arranged instruments for specific areas of psychological\nresearch (sight, hearing, perception of space, time measurements of mental acts,\netc.).\n</p>\n<p>\n On some of these photographs, one can detect the presence of Elbs\ninstruments from Freiburg, e.g. the above-mentioned apparatuses for\n <i>\n Muskelsinn\n </i>\n and\n <i>\n Augenmass\n </i>\n (see above, on the right side and in the center). New Elbs instruments are also presented, e.g. a device for\nlocalizing sound (see above, on the left side, and\n <link page=\"z0002table2\" ref=\"lit13692\"/>\n fig. 8 in Elbs catalog) that was used in combination with the rotatory chair, and a chain\nreaction apparatus for collective use by up to 10 test subjects and the\nexperimenter (see image on\n <link page=\"p0004\" ref=\"art71\"/>\n page 4 of this essay and\n <link page=\"z0002table2\" ref=\"lit13692\"/>\n fig. 7 in Elbs catalog). In addition, one can detect instruments from the American\ncontext, e.g. the waterfall illusion by Bowditch and Hall (see above, left to the\n <i>\n Augenmassapparat\n </i>\n , and in addition the\ncorresponding\n <link ref=\"lit8777\"/>\n Bowditch-Hall paper, in particular\n <link page=\"p0307s0001\" ref=\"lit8777\"/>\n table 1, fig. 1).\n</p>\n<p>\n</p>\n<p>\n Upon closer inspection of the original prints, the photographs offer precise\nrepresentations of the instruments that M\u00fcnsterberg had acquired from instrument\nmakers in Europe and the US. One might speak of a non-human lab population that\nwas even more international than the population of humans in his Freiburg lab.\n</p>\n<div class=\"imagebox\">\n <a href=\"table1\" title=\"Click to see an interactive Version\">\n <img border=\"\" height=\"189\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71/images/table1_thumb.jpg\" style=\"margin-right:1px\" width=\"244\"/>\n </a>\n <br/>\n Instruments for Experiments on Sight\n</div>\n<p>\n Detailed descriptions of some of these instruments are available through the\ncatalogs of the instrument makers that M\u00fcnsterberg mentions in Appendix B of his\ncatalog. Many of them are part of the\n <a href=\"/library/tradecatalogues.html\">\n holdings\n </a>\n of the\n <i>\n Virtual Laboratory\n </i>\n . In addition, some of these instruments have survived at Harvard and are part of the\n <link href=\"http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi.html\"/>\n Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at the Department of the History of Science.\n</p>\n<div class=\"imagebox\">\n <a href=\"table2\" title=\"Click to see an interactive Version\">\n <img border=\"\" height=\"189\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71/images/table2_thumb.jpg\" width=\"233\"/>\n </a>\n <br/>\n Interior of a Laboratory Room.\n</div>\n<p>\n The two images above are clickable and give access to high-resolution scans with interactive features for further exploring individual items. Structured links direct the reader to additional images from trade catalogs, detailed descriptions, and short biographies of instrument makers.\n</p>\n<p>\n</p>\n<p>\n As already noted, the photographs of the psychological laboratory at Dane Hall were taken for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The organizer of The Section on Psychology at this Exposition was\n <link ref=\"per632\"/>\n Joseph Jastrow (1863-1944). The aim of this Section was, as Jastrow explained, to illustrate the \"chief lines of activity in the modern\nstudy of psychology\" (\n <link page=\"0050\" ref=\"lit38815\"/>\n Jastrow, 1893, p. 50). According to him, this comprised 1. experimental\npsychology, 2. comparative psychology, and 3. abnormal psychology. This research agenda implicitly confirmed M\u00fcnsterberg\u2019s comprehensive vision of psychological science.\n</p>\n<div class=\"imagebox\" style=\"\">\n <script language=\"Javascript1.1\" type=\"text/javascript\">\n <!--\nimg = new Image(); img.src = \"images/worldExhib_img31208_detail.jpg\";\n//-->\n </script>\n <map name=\"map\">\n <area coords=\"0,0,480,396\" nohref=\"nohref\" shape=\"rect\"/>\n <area coords=\"76,81,151,143\" href=\"#\" shape=\"rect\"/>\n </map>\n <a usemap=\"#map\">\n <img align=\"center\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"396\" hspace=\"0\" onmouseout=\"this.src='images/worldExhib_img31208.jpg'; return false;\" onmouseover=\"this.src='images/worldExhib_img31208_detail.jpg'; return false;\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71/images/worldExhib_img31208.jpg\" vspace=\"0\" width=\"480\"/>\n </a>\n <br/>\n Psychology Show in Chicago 1893, first room with images of the Harvard lab.\n <br/>\n Point your mouse to the image to zoom in (contrasts have been partically enhanced to show more detail).\n</div>\n<p>\n Lodged in the\nAnthropology building, the Section on Psychology was presented in two rooms:\n\"the one fitted out as a laboratory in operation and the other containing a\ncollection of apparatus used in the experimental study of mental phenomena\" \n(\n <link page=\"0050\" ref=\"lit38815\"/>\n Jastrow, 1893, p. 50). In\nthe first room, numerous mental tests were presented. In addition, photographs\nof psychological laboratories in the US and other countries were on display: on\nthe one side Brown, Clark, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Illinois, Pennsylvania,\nPrinceton, Toronto, Wellesley, Wisconsin and Yale, on the other Bonn,\nGeneva, Paris, Prague, Rome, and Tokyo. On one of the surviving photographs of\nthis room, one can recognize six of the photographs taken at M\u00fcnsterberg\u2019s Harvard lab\n[second mise en abyme]. Harvard also contributed instruments for display in the\nsecond room of the psychology exhibit, among them some made by Elbs in Freiburg.\n</p>\n<p>\n</p>\n<p>\n One of the etchings in Nichols article shows models of the brain and various\nsense organs (eye, ear). A corresponding photo is not found in M\u00fcnsterberg's\ncatalog (although it\n <link page=\"p0005\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n lists these models) \nbut has survived in the archives. This\nremarkable photography is much larger than the etching published by Nichols. It\nshows numerous wax and other models of human and animal brains as well as human\nand animal heads with the brain exposed to the side. It also displays a set of\neight wax models showing the phylogenetic development of the brain after Robert\nWiedersheim (1848-1923), clastic models of various sense organs (ears and eyes),\nand \u2013 as a kind of striking climax \u2013 a large flexible wire model of the human\nbrain. Under the title \"Phantom of fibres in the human brain and the spinal\nmellow,\" this model was produced by the Swiss optician Adam Ferdinand Buechi in\nBern according to the original\n <link ref=\"lit25146\"/>\n scheme of the fiber\ndistribution in the brain published by physiologist Christoph Aeby in\n1883.\n</p>\n<div class=\"imagebox\" style=\"\">\n <script language=\"Javascript1.1\" type=\"text/javascript\">\n <!--\nimg = new Image(); img.src = \"images/wax_over.jpg\";\n//-->\n </script>\n <img align=\"center\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"598\" hspace=\"0\" onmouseout=\"this.src='images/wax.jpg'; return false;\" onmouseover=\"this.src='images/wax_over.jpg'; return false;\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71/images/wax.jpg\" vspace=\"0\" width=\"480\"/>\n <br/>\n <link ref=\"lit38686\"/>\n Display of Wax Models, 1892 (Image: Harvard University Archive); overlay:\n <link page=\"p0405\" ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n Nichols, 1893\n <br/>\n Point your mouse to the image to fade out the layer.\n</div>\n<p>\n In his short description of the dynamic device, Buechi\n <link page=\"p0029s0001\" ref=\"lit13651\"/>\n wrote: \"The phantom shows\nthe natural form of the brain and a portion of the spinal marrow nearly six\ntimes enlarged. It is intended to exhibit the extremely complicated and\ndifficultly traceable structure of the central nervous system according to the\nscientific views of the present day. The ganglia are represented by pieces of\ncork, their connecting fibres by wires and both are according to their relation\narranged to groups by different coloring. Every body may in harmony with its\nwonts insert easily other currents or change the existing.\"\n</p>\n<p>\n Ironically, it is\nthis unpublished photograph that, in retrospect, perfectly illustrates M\u00fcnsterberg's\nturn from the idealist Wundtian psychology to James's pragmatic and evolutionary\nscience of mental life. Offering a comparative and at the same time\nhierarchically ordered view of the development of animal and human brains, it\nprogrammatically shows the comprehensive scope of experimental psychological science that\nM\u00fcnsterberg was to establish when returning to Harvard on a permanent basis in\n1897.\n</p>\n<p>\n</p>\n<p>\n After the World Fair in Chicago, M\u00fcnsterberg's assistant Nichols published\nanother\n <link ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n description of the psychology lab in Dane\nHall, this time for one of the first issues\n <i>\n McClure's Magazine\n </i>\n , a popular\nillustrated monthly journal. As Nichols explains in a footnote to his article,\nhis piece includes images from M\u00fcnsterberg's catalog: \"The illustrations of this\narticle are from photographs, specially taken for the Harvard University Exhibit\nat the World's fair\" (\n <link page=\"p0399\" ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n Nichols, 1893, p. 399). \nMore precisely, two of the photographs are reproduced as\nsuch, whereas two others are printed as etchings. In contrast to M\u00fcnsterberg,\nNichols does not focus on describing the still life of instruments. What he\noffers are descriptions of 'psychology in action'.\n</p>\n<div class=\"imagebox\" style=\"\">\n <script language=\"Javascript1.1\" type=\"text/javascript\">\n <!--\nimg = new Image(); img.src = \"images/nichols_p0400_source.jpg\";\n//-->\n </script>\n <img align=\"center\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"379\" hspace=\"0\" onmouseout=\"this.src='images/nichols_p0400.jpg'; return false;\" onmouseover=\"this.src='images/nichols_p0400_source.jpg'; return false;\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71/images/nichols_p0400.jpg\" vspace=\"0\" width=\"440\"/>\n <br/>\n Studying the effects of sound and attention on colors (\n <link page=\"p0400\" ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n Nichols, 1893, p. 400)\n <br/>\n Point your mouse to the image to see a\n <link ref=\"lit38685\"/>\n high-resolution scan of the same image from the Harvard University Archives.\n</div>\n<!--\n<div class=\"imagebox\" style=\"\">\n<link ref=\"lit38685\"><img src=\"images/labInterieur_img31117.jpg\" \n\talt=\"Interior of a laboratory room\" \n\twidth=\"480\" height=\"379\" hspace=\"0\" vspace=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"center\" /></link>\n<br />Interior of a laboratory room (Image: Harvard University Archive)</div>\n-->\n<p>\n As Nichols explains the second image of M\u00fcnsterberg's catalog (see above)\ndepicts two experiments that aim at discovering \"the laws by which the simplest\nsensations modify each other under the simplest conditions\" (\n <link page=\"p0400\" ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n Nichols, 1893, p. 400).\n</p>\n<p>\n The right hand\ngroup investigates the effect of sound on the perception of color: the test\nsubject (covered with a cloth) is looking onto a small screen lit from behind by\nthe light beam of a lantern. At the same time, he is subjected to the sound of a\ntuning fork (handheld by the student standing nearby). The perception of\ndifferent colors is then tested with respect to the varying brightness and size\nof color projection and the presence or absence of tuning fork sounds.\n</p>\n<p>\n Following\nthe same scheme, the rear group shows an experiment with a color mixer that\nallows darkening or brightening the color presented to the test subject (sitting\nin front of the table). Nichols continues: \"The persons operated on do not know what\nchange is made or whether any will be made or not. They first look at the disk\nfor ten seconds, taking good note of its color. Next, the operator changes the\nshade (or not) as he sees fit. Then for another ten seconds the subject judges\nthe shade of color, but this time performs meanwhile a sum in addition as the\noperator calls to him simple numbers\" (\n <link page=\"p0401\" ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n Nichols, 1893, p. 401).\n</p>\n<p>\n</p>\n<h3>\n Summary\n</h3>\n<p>\n The photographs of M\u00fcnsterberg's labs in Freiburg and at Harvard are important sources for writing the history of the \"Experimentalization of Life.\" They illustrate a decisive shift in psychological research practices: from a cognitive and/or idealist \"Physiological Psychology\" in the sense of Wundt to the pragmatist and/or functional \"Science of Mental Life\" as advocated by James and others. M\u00fcnsterberg skillfully used these photographs as a powerful means for depicting his laboratories in various contexts and for different purposes \u2013 from his private correspondence to the public at large. Given their multiple uses in catalogs, exhibition rooms, and popular articles one could say that they have \"a live of their own\" \u2013 similar to the scientific instruments themselves.\n</p>\n<table cellpadding=\"1\" cellspacing=\"2\" width=\"480\">\n <tr>\n <td>\n <b>\n M\u00fcnsterberg 1893\n </b>\n </td>\n <td>\n <b>\n World Fair 1893\n </b>\n </td>\n <td>\n <b>\n Nichols 1893\n </b>\n </td>\n <td>\n <b>\n Harvard Archives\n </b>\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <td>\n <!-- 1 -->\n <link page=\"p0004s0001\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img26576.jpg\" title=\"M\u00fcnsterberg 1893, p. 4: Interior\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link mk=\"0.2971/0.4159\" ref=\"lit38695\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img31119.jpg\" title=\"Exhibition View 1893, Peabody Museum (second row, left image)\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link page=\"p0404\" ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img5937.jpg\" title=\"Nichols 1893, p. 404: Measuring the Time\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link ref=\"lit38687\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img31119.jpg\" title=\"Original Photo 1892, Harvard Archives\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <td>\n <!-- 2 -->\n <link page=\"p0004s0002\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img26577.jpg\" title=\"M\u00fcnsterberg 1893, p. 4: Interior\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link mk=\"0.346/0.414\" ref=\"lit38695\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img31117.jpg\" title=\"Exhibition View 1983, Peabody Museum (second row, right image)\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link page=\"p0400\" ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img5933.jpg\" title=\"Nichols 1893, p. 400: Studying the Effects of Sound\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link ref=\"lit38685\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img31117.jpg\" title=\"Original Photo 1892, Harvard Archives\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <td>\n <!-- 3 -->\n <link page=\"p0008s0003\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img26578.jpg\" title=\"M\u00fcnsterberg 1893, p. 8: Sight\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link mk=\"0.3483/0.3698\" ref=\"lit38695\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img31120.jpg\" title=\"Exhibition View 1983, Peabody Museum (first row, right image)\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link ref=\"lit38688\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img31120.jpg\" title=\"Original Photo 1892, Harvard Archives\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <td>\n <!-- 4 -->\n <link page=\"p0008s0004\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img26579.jpg\" title=\"M\u00fcnsterberg 1893, p. 8: Hearing\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <td>\n <!-- 5 -->\n <link page=\"p0012s0005\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img26580.jpg\" title=\"M\u00fcnsterberg 1893, p. 12: Perception of Space\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link mk=\"0.2979/0.3621\" ref=\"lit38695\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img26580.jpg\" title=\"Exhibition View 1983, Peabody Museum (first row, left image)\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <td>\n <!-- 6 -->\n <link page=\"p0012s0006\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img26581.jpg\" title=\"M\u00fcnsterberg 1893, p. 12: Time Measurement\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link mk=\"0.2955/0.461\" ref=\"lit38695\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img26581.jpg\" title=\"Exhibition View 1983, Peabody Museum (third row, left image)\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <td>\n <!-- 7 -->\n <link page=\"p0016s0007\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img26582.jpg\" title=\"M\u00fcnsterberg 1893, p. 16: Interior\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link mk=\"0.3444/0.463\" ref=\"lit38695\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img31116.jpg\" title=\"Exhibition View 1983, Peabody Museum (third row, right image)\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link page=\"p0399\" ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img5932.jpg\" title=\"Nichols 1893, p. 399: Title Image (The Psychol. Laboratory at Harvard)\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link ref=\"lit38403\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img31116.jpg\" title=\"Original Photo 1892, Harvard Archives\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <td>\n <!-- 8 -->\n <link page=\"p0016s0008\" ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img26583.jpg\" title=\"M\u00fcnsterberg 1893, p. 16: Interior\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link page=\"p0402\" ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img5936.jpg\" title=\"Nichols 1893, p. 402: Revolving Chair\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <td>\n <!-- 9 -->\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link page=\"p0405\" ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img5938.jpg\" title=\"Nichols 1893, p. 405: Wax Specimens in the Museum\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link ref=\"lit38686\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img31118.jpg\" title=\"Original Photo 1892, Harvard Archives\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n </tr>\n <tr>\n <td>\n <!-- 10 -->\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n <td>\n </td>\n <td>\n <link ref=\"lit38689\"/>\n <img border=\"0\" height=\"100\" src=\"/static/essays/data/art71//vlpimages/thumbs/img31121.jpg\" title=\"Freiburg Lab, Original Photo 1892, Harvard Archives\" width=\"100\"/>\n </td>\n </tr>\n</table>\n<p>\n</p>\n<h3>\n Acknowledgment\n</h3>\n<p>\n This essay would not have been possible without the invaluable help of Rand B. Evans and the Virtual Laboratory staff, in particular Kaja Kruse and Michael Behr. Rand and Kaja were crucial in identifying many of the instruments on the laboratory photographs that are presented and discussed here, while Michael provided the technical support for establishing smart links between these photographs and the other holdings of the VL. Thanks also to Julia Kursell, Matthias M. Weber and Wolfgang Burgmair for contributing to decipher the signatures on M\u00fcnsterberg\u2019s Freiburg photo. Thanks to Urs Schoepflin for helping in ordering and acquiring digitized versions of the photographs. Eventually, I gratefully acknowledge permission by the Harvard University Archives and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology for publishing their material on this web site.\n</p>\n<h3>\n References\n</h3>\n<ul>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit38706\"/>\n Delabarre, Edmund Burke. 1891. \u00dcber Bewegungsempfindungen. Inaugural-Dissertation zu Erlangung der Doktorw\u00fcrde vorgelegt der hohen philosophischen Fakult\u00e4t der Albert-Ludwigs-Universit\u00e4t zu Freiburg i. B. Freiburg in Baden: Epstein\n </li>\n <li>\n Hale Jr., Matthew. 1980. Human Science and Social Order. Hugo M\u00fcnsterberg and the Origins of Applied Psychology, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.\n </li>\n <li>\n Greene, Christopher D. 2002. Toronto's \"other\" Original APA Member: James Gibson Hume, Canadian Psychology 43/1: 35-45.\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit22129\"/>\n James, William. 1890. The Principles of Psychology. New York\n </li>\n <li>\n James, William. 1999. The Correspondence of William James, vol. 7: 1890-1894, ed. by Ignas K. Srupskelis and Elizabeth M. Berkeley, Charlottsville and London: University Press of Virginia.\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit38815\"/>\n Jastrow, Joseph. 1893. The Section of Psychology. In: Official Catalogue: World's Columbian Exposition, Part VII, edited by Willard A. Smith, 50-60. Chicago: W. B. Conkey\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit8120\"/>\n Krohn, William O. 1891. Facilities in Experimental Psychology at the various German Universities. American Journal of Psychology 4: 585-594\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit38666\"/>\n MacDonald, Arthur. 1898. Chapter V: Psycho-physical and Anthropometrical Instruments of Precision in the Laboratory of the Bureau of Education. In: Experimental Study of Children, 1141-1204\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit38737\"/>\n M\u00fcnsterberg, Hugo. 1885. Die Lehre von der nat\u00fcrlichen Anpassung in ihrer Entwickelung, Anwendung und Bedeutung. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doctorw\u00fcrde bei der Philosophischen Fakult\u00e4t Leipzig. Leipzig: Metzger und Wittig\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit38739\"/>\n M\u00fcnsterberg, Hugo. 1888. Die Willenshandlung. Habilitationsschrift. Freiburg i. B.: C. A. Wagner\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit38790\"/>\n M\u00fcnsterberg, Hugo. 1889. Augenmass. In: Beitr\u00e4ge zur experimentellen Psychologie, Heft 2, edited by M\u00fcnsterberg, Hugo, 125-181. Freiburg i.B.: Mohr\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit22153\"/>\n M\u00fcnsterberg, Hugo. 1891. Ueber Aufgaben und Methoden der Psychologie. Leipzig: Verlag von Ambr. Abel\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit8141\"/>\n M\u00fcnsterberg, Hugo. 1893a. The New Psychology, and Harvard's Equipment for Teaching it. Harvard Graduate's Magazine 1: 201-209\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit8140\"/>\n M\u00fcnsterberg, Hugo. 1893b. Psychological Laboratory of Harvard University. Cambridge, Mass.: University Press of Cambridge, Mass.\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit38804\"/>\n M\u00fcnsterberg, Hugo. 1916. The Photoplay. A psychological study. New York & London: Appleton\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit38813\"/>\n M\u00fcnsterberg, Hugo. 1908. Philosophie der Werte: Grundz\u00fcge einer Weltanschauung. Leipzig: Barth\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit38640\"/>\n M\u00fcnsterberg, Margaret. 1922. Hugo M\u00fcnsterberg. His Life and Work. New York, London: D. Appleton and Company\n </li>\n <li>\n <link ref=\"lit6657\"/>\n Nichols, Herbert. 1893. The Psychological Laboratory at Harvard. McClure's Magazine: 399-409\n </li>\n <li>\n Schmitt, Helga. 1988. Die Entwicklung der Psychologie an der Universit\u00e4t Freiburg von 1880 bis 1920. Unpublished Master thesis, Psychological Institute, Freiburg.\n </li>\n</ul>"}],"identifier":"art71","title":"M\u00fcnsterberg's Photoplays: Instruments and Models in his Laboratories at Freiburg and Harvard (1891-1893)","type":"Essay"},"revision":0,"updated":"2022-01-31T17:04:51.072127+00:00"}