The Hoisington Tape: An Oral History of E. B. Titchener’s Last Years at Cornell (1921-1927)

Abstract

Abstract L. B. Hoisington (1883-1970) was a graduate student and then faculty colleague of E. B. Titchener (1867-1927) at Cornell University. In 1965, Hoisington gave a tape-recorded oral history interview conducted by Dr. Joseph “Bob” Ray (1924-2007), then professor of clinical psychology at Texas Tech University. Hoisington and Ray were formerly together as faculty and graduate student, respectively, at the University of Oklahoma. The interview focused on Hoisington’s memories and reflections about Titchener. The purpose of this report is to present to students and scholars of the history of psychology an overview of the contents of that candid, refreshingly personal interview. This report is not meant to be a detailed critical analysis of Hoisington’s recollections, although much of the substance and tenor of his remarks are corroborated in the scholarly record. A transcript of the 1-hr, 12-min interview is available as supplemental material (Marshall, 2019; https://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/ajp/media/hoisington_tape/).