Titchener's Photo Album - continued...

It was while he was in Leipzig that Titchener began to collect trade catalogues relevant to the new, experimental psychology. He bound these catalogues into over 40 volumes by the time of his death in 1927. Titchener's library was sold to Rice University in Texas soon after his death. Unfortunately, during a de-accession sweep of the Rice University Library in the 1970s, the catalogue collection was discarded. Only three volumes survived, having been discovered in a trash bin by a member of the psychology faculty, Trenton Wann. It was through Professor Wann's kindness that the author of this note came into possession of the three surviving volumes. Most of these catalogues have been scanned for my catalog collection in the Virtual Laboratory and are available for viewing online.

Cover of Titchener's photo album on psychological instruments

One of the three surviving bound volumes was an album of photographs along with some hand written catalogue items. Titchener put this album together sometime between 1894 and 1899. It is made up of photographs sent to him by early makers of psychological instruments. Even in the 1890s, most established instrument makers had printed catalogues with descriptions, prices and often with line engravings. There were exceptions, however, and this album demonstrates some of the reasons for those exceptions.