Scope and Content Note
The papers of James McKeen Cattell (1860-1944) span the years 1835-1948, with the bulk of the material from 1896 to 1948. The collection consists of correspondence, diaries, speeches, lectures, articles, notes, financial papers, biographical and genealogical material, family papers, clippings, printed matter, and miscellaneous material. The papers are organized in two parts. Part I is organized in nine series: Journals; General Correspondence; Family Correspondence; Subject File; Speech, Article, and Book File; Photographs; Miscellany; Printed Matter; and Certificates, Diplomas, Charts, Graphs, and Tables (Oversize). Part II contains five series that complement the first portion: Family Correspondence; General Correspondence; Subject File; Speech, Article, and Book File; and Miscellany.
The Cattell Papers relate primarily to Cattell's professional affiliations as an educator, university professor, psychologist, and editor and founder of scientific publications and periodicals. Prominent topics include organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Psychological Corporation, American Association of University Professors, Century Club, and Columbia University; and his writings and editorial work for Science, Popular Science Monthly, School and Society, American Naturalist, American Men of Science, and Science Press. An extensive file treats his dismissal from Columbia University in 1917 because of his opposition to conscription in World War I.
The collection is rich in prominent correspondents in the scientific, political, and academic fields. A sampling of significant correspondents includes James Rowland Angell, Charles E. Bessey, Franz Boas, Edwin Garrigues Boring, Nicholas Murray Butler, Otis W. Caldwell, John Dewey, Asaph Hall, W. J. Humphreys, Ellsworth Huntington, William James, Joseph Jastrow, David Starr Jordan, Vernon L. Kellogg, Burton E. Livingston, Jacques Loeb, Arthur O. Lovejoy, Thomas Hunt Morgan, Raymond Pearl, Charles S. Peirce, Carl E. Seashore, Edward L. Thorndike, Edward Titchener, and John B. Watson.