Christine Ladd-Franklin
History and Systems of Psychology

Christine Ladd-Franklin Christine Ladd-Franklin would make history with her remarkable achievements in psychology. Christine was a mathematician, logician, and psychology. Christine had many influential people in her life that helped support and encouraged her passion for learning in a culture where women found it hard to enter college. These influences included her father, mother, and aunt as well as academic professors, such as Maria Mitchell, James Sylvester, Charles Peirce, G.E. Muller, and Herman von Helmholtz. This paper will describe Christine Ladd-Franklin’s life, background, theory, and contributions to the field of psychology.

Christine, often referred to as Kitty, was born in Windsor Connecticut on December 1, 1847(Vassar Encyclopedia, 2012). Christine was the oldest of three children born to Eliphalet and Augusta Ladd. Augusta died when Christine was12. Before her death, Christine’s mother and her aunt Juliet Niles were very influential in Christine’s life as evidenced in her later work as an advocate for women’s rights. As a child, she attended lectures for women’s rights with her mother. Christine’s early education stared at Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, where she prepared for college just like the male students. She graduated in 1865 and was voted valedictorian of her class.

In 1866, Christine pursued her education at Vassar, one of the few new colleges that granted women access (Goodwin, 2008). Vassar is in Poughkeepsie, New York. While attending Vassar, she studied mathematics and science. Maria Mitchell, a female astronomy professor was an inspiration to Christine and encouraged her to pursue her interest. Christine was interest in physics but women were not allowed access to laboratories so she chose another subject of interest to her, mathematics. Because of financial issues, Christine had to leave Vassar after one year. The year Christine Ladd was away from Vassar, she taught German, music, and reading courses. Upon her return to Vassar the following year, Christine excelled at physics and astronomy, as well as acquired the science skills she needed to achieve her career goals as a mathematician, logician, and psychologist (Vassar Encyclopedia, 2012). Christine received her A.B. degree from Vassar in 1869.

Vassar was also influential in the development of Christine’s interest in women’s rights. While at Vassar, Christine fought for women’s rights by lobbying to join the Titchener’s Experimentalist group. The Experimentalist was a men-only group of psychologists that met annually to discuss current research. A fight she fought to no avail.

After graduating for Vassar, Christine took up teaching as well as pursued her interest in private studies such as physics, analytics, and music. In 1871 she moved to Washington, Pennsylvania, for a better teaching job. While living in Washington, she would often attend math seminars put on by George Vose, Professor of Mathematics and Engineering at Washington and Jefferson College (Vassar Encyclopedia, 2012). Christine idolized Professor Vose. Christine often emulated Vose in her article to The Analyst: A Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics that entailed analyzing and solving problems. After teaching in secondary school for about 10 years, Christine set out to fulfill her dream of obtaining a degree in mathematics.

The first primary research institution, John Hopkins University opened in 1876. Possessing the same road blocks as Vassar, John Hopkins was officially closed to women (Goodwin, 2008). Not to be discouraged, Christine still applied in hope of attending. Joseph Sylvester, a John Hopkins Faculty member who worked in the research department noticed Christine Ladd’s name on the application list and urged the university to accept Ladd. Sylvester was familiar with Christine’s publications in London’s Educational Times (Vassar Encyclopedia, 2012). According to the John Hopkins online Chronicles, the university only allowed Christine to attend Sylvester’s lectures. However, after displaying her exceptional abilities and acknowledgement of her work in mathematics and science, Christine was admitted to lectures of preeminent logicians, and philosophers. While at John Hopkins, Christine met Charles Pierce, whose works in symbolic logic caught her interest. Christine wrote a dissertation, “The Algebra of Logic” covering her symbolic logic invention of a technique for reducing syllogisms to one formula called the analogism (Vassar Encyclopedia, 2012). Despite Christine’s prestigious work at John Hopkins and completing her doctoral requirements by 1882, she was not awarded the official degree until 44 years later.

While at John Hopkins, Christine met and married her husband Fabian Franklin. Fabian worked in the mathematics department at John Hopkins. Fabian continually supported Christine in her interest in math and scholarly publications. This active support gave Christine the opportunity to explore vision perception and the new psychology that led to her interest in the theory of color physiology. “Her interest in this area began with the study of horopter, which is the locus of points in external space whose images are formed on the retinas of the two eyes such that they are seen singly in binocular vision” (Hurvich, 1971, pg. 335). Christine’s publication of her research on binocular vision was published in Hall’s American Journal of Psychology as A method for the Experimental Determination of the Horopter (Goodwin, 2008).

In 1891 Fabian and family took a sabbatical to Germany. This provided Christine the opportunity to broaden her research of color vision by studying in the laboratory of George Müller in Gottingen and Hermann von Helmholtz’s laboratory in Berlin. Müller is one of the founders of experimental experimenter of psychology. He also made important contributions to Ewald Hering’s work on color vision. Müller’s laboratory was known for precision, experimental control, and meticulous attention to detail (Goodwin, p. 125). Helmholtz was a physicist, and pioneer of physiological psychology. He developed the ophthalmoscope, a devised used by eye doctors to examine the retina directly (Goodwin, 2008). Helmholtz also developed the trichromatic theory. Christine also attended lectures by Arthur König, whose concentration was on physiological optics and the fundamental sensations of color vision.

After the mentoring of Müller, Helmholtz, and König, Christine rejected the three-color theory of color vision and had developed her own theory of color vision. Christine’s theory of vision involves a photochemical model of the visual system, three levels of molecular differentiation and stages of evolutionary theory. According to Christine, “Black-white differentiation occurred in the first stage, white became differentiated into blue-yellow hues in the second, and yellow differentiated into red-green in the third” (Futomoto, 1994, p. 93). Christine spent 44 years promoting the theory, which remains a sustainable theory today. Christine’s book, Colour and Color Theories, contains journal articles and papers written by Christine on color vision.

Christine continued to lecture and pursue her research interest. She gave lectures at John Hopkins, Columbia University, Clark University, and the University of Chicago over her lifetime. Christine’s contributions include numerous publications for the American Psychological Association, American Philosophical Association, and International Congresses as well as Helmholtz’s handbook of Physiological optics.

Christine Ladd-Franklin accomplished many achievements in an age when females were not permitted to go to college. Christine is probably most known for her work in psychology vision and her theory of color vision. Christine’s other interest included physics, astronomy, foreign language, and the piano. Christine never succeeded in securing a solid academic position or gaining a membership with Titchener’s Experimentalist group but never-the-less her active academic career and her work as an advocate for women’s right is remarkable.

References
Furumoto, L. (1994). Christine Ladd-Franklin's color theory: Strategy for claiming scientific authority? In. Adler, H.E. & Rieber, R.W. (Eds.) Aspects of the history of psychology in America: 1892-1992 (pp. 91-100). New York: The New York Academy of Sciences.
Goodwin, C. J. (2008). A History of Modern Psychology (3rd ed.), Ch 6. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Retrieved on March 25, 2012 from Https://portal.phoenix.edu/classroom/coursematerials/psy_310
Hurvich, D. J. (1971). Notable American women; Christine Ladd-Franklin. In. James, E.T., James, J.W., Boyer, P.S. (Eds.) (pp. 354-356). Vol. 3. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1971.
Vassar Encyclopedia, (2012). Christine Ladd-Franklin. Vassar Encyclopedia, the Vassar Historian, 124 Raymond Ave., Box 74, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604–0074