Helen Hamilton Gardener - Wilder Brain Collection

The Wilder Brain Collection is a collection of human brains maintained by the

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

Department of Psychology. The collection was created by professor of anatomy, Burt Green Wilder. Wilder founded the Cornell Brain Society in 1889 to collect the brains of "educated and orderly persons". He believed that much could be learned about psychology from studying the anatomy of the brain. At its height, the collection contained over 600 and even as many as 1,200 brains and parts of brains. By the 1970s the collection had been neglected and enthusiasm for brain collecting had dimmed. The university culled the collection to 122 specimens. Part of the collection is on display in

Uris Hall Central Campus is the primary academic and administrative section of Cornell University's Ithaca, New York campus. It is bounded by Libe Slope on the west, Fall Creek on the north, and Cascadilla Creek on the South. History Ezra Cornell donated ...

on the Cornell campus. Brains on display include those of several notable individuals: *

Helen Hamilton Gardener Helen Hamilton Gardener (1853–1925), born Alice Chenoweth, was an American author, rationalist public intellectual, political activist, and government functionary. Gardener produced many lectures, articles, and books during the 1880s and 1890s ...

, a suffragist who intended to prove the equality of the sexes through her contribution *

Edward H. Rulloff John Edward Howard Rulloff (also known as Ruloff, Rulofson, or Rulloffson, as well as several aliases; 1819/1820 – May 18, 1871) was a Canadian-born American medical doctor, lawyer, schoolmaster, photographer, inventor, carpet designer, phrenol ...

, a philologist and murderer who possessed one of the largest recorded brains *

Edward B. Titchener Edward Bradford Titchener (11 January 1867 – 3 August 1927) was an English psychologist who studied under Wilhelm Wundt for several years. Titchener is best known for creating his version of psychology that described the structure of the mind: ...

, a 19th and 20th century psychologist *

Henry Augustus Ward Henry Augustus Ward (March 9, 1834 – July 4, 1906) was an American naturalist and geologist. Biography Henry Augustus Ward was born in Rochester, New York on March 9, 1834. After attending Williams College and the Lawrence Scientific Scho ...

, naturalist * Simon Henry Gage, naturalist, histologist, and microscopist * Burt Green Wilder, Cornell professor of psychology and founder of the brain collection. Wilder also served as a surgeon with the 55th Massachusetts Regiment during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

. *

Sutherland Simpson Sutherland Simpson FRSE (3 February 1863 – 2 March 1926) was a Scottish physician who emigrated to the United States to become Professor of Physiology at Cornell University. Life He was born at Saraquoy on the island of Flotta in the Orkney Is ...

, Cornell professor of physiology The collection also includes a piece of a pumpkin that was placed on the spire of

McGraw Tower McGraw Tower is a masonry clock tower located on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The tower was known as Library Tower when it was first built but was renamed in 1961 in honor of either John McGraw, one of Cornell's original d ...

in 1997.

References

Cornell University Neuroscience research centers in the United States Research institutes in New York (state) {{NewYork-museum-stub