Münsterberg's Photoplays - continued...

The difference between the German psychology labs and the new institution at Harvard was not only a matter of size, i.e. the number of psychological instruments. It was also a difference in research programs, as Münsterberg underscored by his contribution to the Harvard University exhibit at the World Fair in Chicago in 1893.

The "World's Columbian Exhibit" was meant to open its gates to the public in May 1893. Münsterberg did not hesitate. He compiled a 35-page catalog giving a meticulous overview of his new research and teaching facility. Page after page, he listed an impressive total of 240 instruments, preparations, models, charts, and other objects in possession of the Harvard lab – among them unusual instruments such as the "Hypnoscope" or Mirror hypnotizer after Jules Bernard Luys (see MacDonald 1898, p. 1167, fig. 39, and a color photo from the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments) and a Rotatory Chair for the Study of Dizziness (one of the rare topic that James himself had experimented upon in the early 1880s). Full of pride, Münsterberg explained in the preface that, although the psychology lab in Dane Hall was established only recently, its "outfit is, even now, the most nearly complete that is anywhere at the disposal of students in psychology" (Münsterberg, 1893b, p. 3).

Psychological Laboratory of Harvard University: Perception of Space

In his lengthy enumeration of instruments, Münsterberg inserted a series of eight photographs showing the interior of the Dane Hall lab. The iconography of these images is strikingly different from the Freiburg photograph. Three images show 'psychology in action,' i.e. the interaction of persons and things in the process of psychological experimentation. The remaining five are authentic still lifes depicting artfully arranged instruments for specific areas of psychological research (sight, hearing, perception of space, time measurements of mental acts, etc.).

On some of these photographs, one can detect the presence of Elbs instruments from Freiburg, e.g. the above-mentioned apparatuses for Muskelsinn and Augenmass (see above, on the right side and in the center). New Elbs instruments are also presented, e.g. a device for localizing sound (see above, on the left side, and fig. 8 in Elbs catalog) that was used in combination with the rotatory chair, and a chain reaction apparatus for collective use by up to 10 test subjects and the experimenter (see image on page 4 of this essay and fig. 7 in Elbs catalog). In addition, one can detect instruments from the American context, e.g. the waterfall illusion by Bowditch and Hall (see above, left to the Augenmassapparat, and in addition the corresponding Bowditch-Hall paper, in particular table 1, fig. 1).