By Suzanne Maggard
The Archives and Rare Books Library recently received a new collection from UC’s psychology department containing records from 1967 until 2011. The collection includes information on faculty and graduate students, annual reports, and accreditation documentation and supplements the very small number of items that the archives already held related to the history of the psychology department. This new collection is now available for research by faculty, student, staff, and the public.
The psychology department has a long history at UC. Wayland Richardson Benedict taught the first psychology courses at UC starting in 1876 as part of the philosophy department. Courses like Empirical Psychology covering topics in sensation, content, strength and tone of sensation continued to be offered until a separate Department of Experimental Psychology and Pedagogy was created in the Spring of 1901. The Psychology Department endured quite a bit of instability in its early years and the first three department heads stayed for only a short time. Continue reading