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The Victorian biologist and early social philosopher Herbert Spencer was a great rival of Charles Darwin's. His theory of evolution preceded Darwin's own, but was soon overshadowed because of the absence of an effective theory of natural selection - although it was Spencer, and not Darwin, who popularized the term "evolution" itself and coined the now-ubiquitous phrase, "survival of the fittest". Although no longer influential in biology, his extension of his theory of evolution to psychology and sociology remains important. His "Social Darwinism" was particularly influential on early evolutionary economists such as Thorstein Veblen, but, more contemporaneously, it was adopted with gusto by American apologists such as William Graham Sumner and Simon Nelson Patten.

This site is dedicated to locating and reporting traces of the history of psychology throughout Europe. It is an outgrowth of several recent trips to Europe, during which I visited sites both well known and obscure. It occurred to me that an index to historical artifacts of psychology could enrich a visit to Europe, and help interested people locate some of the roots of our discipline.

This site includes biographical profiles of people who have influenced the development of intelligence theory and testing, in-depth articles exploring current controversies related to human intelligence, and resources for teachers.

Bedlam: Custody Care and Cure 1247-1997 at the Museum of London until 15 March 1998. This exhibition tells the fascinating 750-year-old story of Bethlem Royal Hospital, popularly known as 'Bedlam'.

Bethlem is the world's oldest institution caring for people with mental disorders. It has been a part of London since 1247 and many people, rich and poor, have played a part in its history

This collection is dedicated to the preservation of the history and apparatus from the early days of the Barnard College Psychology Department. Barnard College, a four-year women's college, was founded in 1889 and the first courses in psychology were offered in 1906 over the strenuous objections of many faculty and administrators who maintained that psychology was not a fitting topic for young women. We have digitized the documents and apparatus which have been stored in the departmental archives for nearly 100 years and placed them on the internet in a form that makes them accessible to historians and students. This museum was created in 1995 and, as time permits, more of this information will be digitized and made available.

Nikola Tesla was born a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1856 in a mountainous area of the Balkan Peninsula known as Lika. His father Milutin, and his mother Djuka, were both Serbian by origin. Tesla's father was a stern but loving Orthodox priest, who was also a gifted writer and poet. At a young age, Tesla immersed himself in his father's library. Tesla's mother was a hard working woman of many talents who created appliances to help with home and farm responsibilities. One of these was a mechanical eggbeater. Tesla attributed all of his inventive instincts to his mother.

A great American printer and publisher, author, inventor, scientist and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin stands in the front rank of the people who built the United States. He is the only person to sign the four key documents in American history: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, and the Constitution of the United States. He was the leader of his day in the study of electricity, and is one of the most revered and beloved figures in American history.

Tycho Brahe was born on 14th December 1546 at the castle of Knutstorp in Scania
– which at that time was a province of Denmark. His parents, Otte Brahe and Beate Bille, belonged to the highest-ranked nobility in Denmark, and several of his relatives served the king as advisers and warriors. He was brought up by his paternal uncle Jörgen Brahe and his wife Inger Oxe at the castle of Tosterup. He spent much time with other relatives at the castle of Herrevadskloster.

He was the embodiment of pure intellect, the bumbling professor with the German accent, a comic cliché in a thousand films. Instantly recognizable, like Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp, Albert Einstein's shaggy-haired visage was as familiar to ordinary people as to the matrons who fluttered about him in salons from Berlin to Hollywood. Yet he was unfathomably profound — the genius among geniuses who discovered, merely by thinking about it, that the universe was not as it seemed.

Albert Einstein is perhaps the most amazing scientific mind the world has ever seen. Few people (with the exception of Newton, Hawking, etc.) in the history of the world compare to his superior genius. Albert Einstein not only changed the scientific community forever, but changed every-day life as we know it.
Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany in March 14, 1879. He had a troubled childhood as most people know. From the time he was very young, he had a deep seeded interest in math and science. At times, he got so board with his schoolwork he stopped doing it and consequently failed math. Einstein's mathematics professor, Hermann Minkowski, got so angered with Albert's lack of interest in the class; he called Einstein a "lazy dog." From the time he was very young till his death, he would only study what he wanted to. When Einstein was in college, he often got upset because the Physics Professors only covered the "Old Physics" and Einstein wanted to learn about the "New Physics."