While working on a writing project on the history of psychology, I was reading through various timelines others have constructed. Usually, these start with a series of “firsts”–first psychology laboratory, first psychology degree, etc. I was reminded of a delightful coincidence of “firsts” in my own library, courtesy of Mr. F’s love of classic books and his persistence in finding interesting books online. We own a copy of George Trumbull Ladd’s Elements of Physiological Psychology, which was published in 1887. Ladd’s book is considered to be one of the very first textbooks in psychology. Given my personal interest in textbook writing, and writing about biological psychology in particular, this is an important book in my library.
Physiological Psychology by Dr. Ladd (1887) once owned by Joseph Jastrow
What makes this book especially meaningful to me is that it was once part of the library of Joseph Jastrow, a student of G. Stanley Hall’s at Johns Hopkins, who is credited as having obtained the first Ph.D. in Psychology in 1886. So two firsts collide–a first textbook and a first doctorate.
I’m not sure if perusing the pages of Ladd’s book, as I often do, or the thought that my book might have once guided Jastrow in his thinking about psychology will help me in my own writing efforts, but surely it can’t hurt. The writing style, of course, reflects the time, but one can’t help but marvel at what these early psychologists accomplished without the word processors, internet resources, and photography that we enjoy today.
Handwritten notes in the Perception chapter are likely Jastrow's own.
2 Comments
christo · December 31, 2009 at 10:15 am
Funny that Jastrow’s copy of Ladd’s textbook ended up in southern California. Do you have any idea how that happened? Jastrow spent most of his academic career at Wisconsin, and retired early back to New York City, I believe. For reasons that I have now forgotten, most of his archival papers ended up at Duke U., so it is unusual that one of his books turned up at Cal Poly. Any idea what the story is there?
Chris Green
York U.
Toronto
Laura Freberg · December 31, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Hi, Chris.
One of my husband’s hobbies is collecting used books, in psychology for me and Egyptian history for him. He combs the internet for them. I believe the Ladd copy we have came from the Yale library originally. There was a point where many of the libraries, pressed for space, began unloading books on abebooks.com that they probably should have kept. We have some superb Darwin’s that are currently unaffordable. How Jastrow’s copy came to be at Yale is a mystery to me.
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