Edward Bradford Titchener (1867–1927) Edward Bradford Titchener (1867–1927)Empathy, Introspection and Oceanic ArtBy Michael Hamson A colleague of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Edward Bradford Titchener was an experimental psychologist best known for bringing the structuralism school of thought in psychology to America. After becoming a professor at Cornell University in 1892, he created the largest doctoral program at that time in the United States. One of his earliest graduate students, Margaret Floy Washburn, became the first woman to be granted a PhD in psychology (1894). A primary component to structuralism is introspection—looking inward at one’s own mental processes for insight. Titchener is also remembered for coining the English word “empathy” in 1909 as a translation of the German word “Einfühlungsvermögen.” Both introspection and empathy are qualities not foreign to Titchener himself if the accompanying photograph is any clue. In the image, Edward Titchener relaxes in a leather reclining chair, balancing a lit cigar between two fingers with a book open on his lap. Behind him are two New Ireland chalk kulap figures and an Austral Island paddle. Barely discernible in the window glare is a New Ireland Malagan sculpture. The objects are not on pedestals but wedged into Titchener’s crowded study among the books, stacks of papers, and family photos. The single chair surrounded by books and objects suggests a quiet zone for reading, contemplation, and research—a clue that Edward Titchener took his collecting seriously. It was said that, upon returning home each evening from Cornell University, his mind shifted gears to focus entirely on his collection. While his career as a leading professor of experimental psychology entailed a fair amount of internation travel, Titchener was a classic armchair collector. He maintained friendly relations with the ethnographic dealers of the time such as W. D. Webster and William Oldman from England and Henry Ward in Rochester, New York. Titchener would peruse their illustrated catalogs and would have objects sent over on approval. His interest in art spread beyond the dealers’ latest acquisitions, extending his inquisitions to their personal lives, asking about their health and families. Titchener was said to be a cautious collector that wanted good objects that “dealt with life,” were “first rate,” and not too high in price. Psychology Conference Group, Clark University, September 1909 Edward Titchener, like many of us, was a born collector. As a child in Chichester, England, he collected bird eggs and made several other collections before attending Oxford University in 1885. Later, as a young married professor at Cornell University, after the purchase of their first house, he and his wife set aside money each year to buy interesting objects. This ranged from American pewter, Japanese prints, Chinese ceramics, Roman coins, African and Oceanic art. By the time of his death in 1927, the collection filled every room in Titchener’s home. In 1942, a significant portion of the collection was acquired by the Columbus Museum of Fine Art. Titchener Home in Ithaca, NY, circa 1920s Both his son, John B. Titchener, and grandson, John M. Titchener, became willing custodians of the collection and continued the relationship with the Columbus Museum. In 1960, when the museum expressed interest in expanding their holdings to include Impressionism, John B. Titchener convinced them instead to fund a collection of South Pacific material they would assemble in Australia. Both Titchener men were based in Australia at the time with the father a visiting professor in Melbourne and his son doing graduate work. Both Dr. Aldo Massola, Curator of Anthropology at the National Museum of Victoria, and Dr. Leonhard Adam, one of the pioneer writers on tribal art, assisted the Titcheners on acquiring 140 objects for the Columbus Museum of Art. Portrait of Edward Titchener
