A valuable collection of early psycho-diagnostic tests was recently donated to the Historical Collection by Dr. Warren Webb, Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus. The tests originally belonged to Dr. Virginia Kirk, a psychologist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine from 1943 until her retirement in 1961. Dr. Kirk collected and used the tests throughout her career to measure intelligence and determine personality traits. Dating from 1918 to 1965, the tests reveal the evolution and development of the discipline of clinical psychology and its attempts to study the human mind. The collection contains approximately 24 items and includes diagnostic tools developed by Hermann Rorschach, Lipot Szondi, and S.C. Kohs, as well as a number of beautifully illustrated puzzles, including two illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith and printed by the C.H. Stoelting Company. Historical Collections is developing an exhibit using these materials to trace the history of diagnostic testing, as well as examining the career of Dr. Viriginia Kirk.
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