Christine Ladd-Franklin: Biography Of This Experimental Psychologist

Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847-1930) was a mathematician, psychologist and suffragist feminist who fought to eliminate the barriers that prevented women from accessing universities in the first half of the 20th century. Among other things she worked as a teacher in logic and mathematics, and later developed a theory of color vision that significantly impacted modern psychology.

Next we will see a biography of Christine Ladd-Franklin a psychologist who not only developed important scientific knowledge, but also fought to guarantee the access and participation of women in universities.

Christine Ladd-Franklin: biography of this American psychologist

Christine Ladd-Franklin was born on December 1, 1847, in Connecticut, United States. She was the eldest of two siblings, children of Eliphalet and Augusta Ladd.** Her mother was a suffragette activist** who died when Christine was young, so Ladd-Franklin ended up moving with her aunt and paternal grandmother to New Hampshire.

In 1866 she began studying at Vassar College (women’s school). However, she had to abandon her studies very soon due to economic situations. She resumed them two years later thanks to her own savings and after receiving financial support from her family.

From the beginning, Christine Ladd-Franklin He had a great motivation for research and science At Vassar College he trained together with María Mitchell, a renowned American astronomer who already had important international recognition.

For example, she is the first woman to have discovered a new comet through a telescope and she is also the first woman to be part of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as the American Association for Scientific Advancement. Mitchell was also a woman suffragist, who greatly inspired Ladd-Franklin in her professional development and as a woman scientist.

Christine Ladd-Franklin was especially interested in physics, but faced with the difficulties of pursuing a career as a researcher in that area, moved towards mathematics And then, towards experimental research in psychology and physiology.

Ladd-Franklin faced with the exclusion of women in academia

In addition to being recognized as an important psychologist, Christine Ladd-Franklin is remembered for having firmly confronted the policies of exclusion of women in the new American universities, as well as those who defended these policies.

For example, in 1876 he wrote a letter to renowned mathematician James J. Sylvester at the newly formed John Hopkins University to directly question If being a woman was a logical and sufficient reason to deny her access to higher education

At the same time, he sent an application for admission with a scholarship to said university, signed with the name “C. Ladd,” and along with an excellent academic record. She was admitted, until the committee discovered that the letter “C” was for “Christine”, so they were about to annul her admission. At this point Sylvester intervened and Ladd-Franklin was finally accepted as a full-time student, albeit with “special” treatment.

Training in logic and mathematics

James J. Sylvester was a well-known academic; Among other things, he is credited with coining the terms “matrix” and the theory of algebraic invariants. Along with him, Christine Ladd-Franklin trained in mathematics. On the other hand, he trained in symbolic logic with Charles S. Peirce, one of the philosophers who founded pragmatism. Christine Ladd-Franklin who became the first American woman to receive formal education with such scientists.

He finished his doctoral training in logic and mathematics in 1882, with a thesis that was later included in one of Pierce’s most important volumes on logic and syllogisms. However, and under the argument that coeducation was not typical of civilized communities, his doctoral degree was not officially recognized by the university 44 years passed, and on the 50th anniversary of Johns Hopkins University, when Ladd-Franklin was 79 years old, she was finally recognized with that academic degree.

However, she did work as a professor at the same university during the early years of 1900, to which more difficulties were added, because she decided to marry and start a family with the mathematician Fabian Franklin (from whom she took the last name). In this context, married women had even more problems accessing and sustaining official academic activities.

Likewise, Christine Ladd-Franklin protested in an important way before British psychologist Edward Titchener’s refusal to admit women to the Society of Experimental Psychologists which he had founded as an alternative option to the meetings of the American Psychological Association (APA). Where, in fact, Christine Ladd-Franklin did regularly participate.

Development in Experimental Psychology

Christine Ladd-Franklin moved to Germany with Fabian Franklin, where she developed her research in color vision. In the beginning worked in the Göttingen laboratory with Georg Elias Müller (one of the founders of experimental psychology). Later he was in Berlin, in a laboratory together with Hermann von Helmholtz, a physicist and philosopher who was a pioneer in physiological psychology.

After working with them and other experimental psychologists, Christine Ladd-Franklin developed her own theory about how our photoreceptors work in connection with the chemical functioning of the nervous system, allowing us to perceive different colors.

Ladd-Franklin theory of color vision

During the 19th century there were two main theories about color vision, the validity of which continues, at least in part, to this day. On the one hand, in 1803, the English scientist Thomas Young had proposed that our retina is prepared to perceive three “primary colors”: red, green, blue or violet. On the other hand, the German physiologist Ewald Hering had proposed that there are three pairs of these colors: red-green, yellow-blue and white and black; and studied how the photosensitive reaction of the nerves ensures that we can perceive them

What Ladd-Franklin proposed is that there is rather a process composed of three stages in the development of color vision Black and white vision is the most primitive of the stages, because it can occur under very little lighting. Then, the color white is what allows the differentiation between blue and yellow, and the latter, yellow, allows the differentiated vision of red-green.

In very broad strokes, Christine Ladd-Franklin managed to unite the two major theoretical proposals of color vision into an evolutionary photochemical hypothesis. Specifically described the process of action of ether waves on the retina; understood as one of the main generators of light sensations.

His theory was very well received in the scientific context of the early 20th century, and its influence has continued to this day, especially the emphasis he placed on the evolutionary factor of our color vision.