By
Daniel Levitin (from materials supplied by the University
archivist, Keith Richards)
The
University of Oregon Psychology Department was formed
on July 23, 1895 by Benjamin J. Hawthorne. At that
time, it was known as the "Department of Mental
Science," becoming the Department of Psychology
in 1900. Although 1895 is official founding date of
the department, courses in mental science had been
taught at the U of O since 1876. Oregon is the fifth
oldest psychology department west of the Mississippi,
after the University of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and
Stanford, and one year before G. M. Stratton founded
a psychology department at UC Berkeley.
Our
founder, Benjamin Hawthorne, had a colorful background.
He earned his B.A. in romance languages at Randolph
Macon College (Virginia) in 1861, and then fought
in the Civil War on the Confederate side, becoming
wounded at Picket's charge. During the surrender at
Appomattox, the Union Army confiscated his horse,
and he had to walk back home. He married, began raising
a family, and then moved to Louisiana to teach romance
languages at the Collegiate Institute, Baton Rouge.
A
cousin of Hawthorne's was president of Oregon Agricultural
College (now known as Oregon State University) and
he offered Hawthorne a position there. Hawthorne travelled
to Corvallis by wagon in 1874, took the position,
and taught a variety of classes there for the next
ten years. He became increasingly eager to teach classes
of a more academic nature (as opposed to agricultural
classes) and so he moved to Eugene in 1884 to teach
romance languages. The Board of Regents gave him permission
to spend summers back east taking courses in psychology
(this isn't documented, but probably would have been
at Johns Hopkins). After several summers of this,
Hawthorne felt confident enough to estaablish a formal
curriculum in psychology here. With $150 approved
by the regents, Hawthorne outfitted a laboratory in
what is now the University Club, and began running
experiments.
At
the U of O he was a popular instructor, although he
had a reputation for being eccentric. During the annual
parade of the Grand Army of the Republic, Hawthorne
showed up in full confederate dress, and hollered
rebel yells at the marching union veterans.
In
1908, Hawthorne retired from the University and attended
law school here, after which he practiced law in Eugene
until he died in his 90s.
The
first course taught under the name "psychology"
was offered in the academic year 1895-96. Named "experimental
psychology," the course description sounds not
unlike something a current faculty member might teach
today:
"In
this department nothing will be taken for granted.
No theory of mental activity, however plausible,
will be accepted, but every step will be clearly
and rigidly set forth by experimental work in the
laboratory. What can not be probed will be left
for further investigation."
Today,
our department holds a position of international prominence,
frequently ranked among the top 20 departments of
psychology in the United States. A recent survey of
the 100 psychologists most cited in the Social Science
Citation Index for 1993 listed two Oregon faculty
- Mike Posner and Paul Slovic. This puts us fourth
on the list of departments with the most cited faculty
members, after Stanford, CMU, and UCLA, and tied with
Yale and Harvard.
