The Wicht Club was an irreverent, self-assembling society of Harvard University lecturers. From 1903 to 1911 it met monthly for informal dialogue to advance the members' scientific thought and expression. Today it would be seen as a professional development organization, but this group had its mascot (Das Wicht) and other terms:
The club met at a restaurant or hotel in Boston, going outside the stifling atmosphere of academic or domestic spaces. Records were not kept of the ordinary monthly meetings where a presentation may be interrupted or supplemented by audience comments. According to Frederick Parker Gay, "guests were invited, among them William James several times." [1] Once a year the wives were invited to join the Wicht Club when the new volume of Was Wichtiges was presented. "The nine volumes … are a treasure trove of the work produced by young Harvard scientists and philosophers at the beginning of the twentieth century." [2]
Boston society was largely organized around social clubs. [3] To assert themselves socially, these young lecturers without access to the exclusive clubs of Boston families, formed their own club.
When G. W. Pierce and Harry W. Morse returned from their post-doctoral studies and travels in Europe, Pierce carried with him a copy of the German humor magazine Simplicissimus. A certain drawing of a gnome between the spreading roots of a great tree was labeled "Das Wicht". Any student of German knows that "Wichtigkeit" means "importance", but the root "Wicht" left room for these Harvard men to exercise themselves together in an unfettered way.
Walter Bradford Cannon was an American physiologist, professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School. He coined the term "fight or flight response", and he expanded on Claude Bernard's concept of homeostasis. He popularized his theories in his book The Wisdom of the Body, first published in 1932.
A Secular Humanist Declaration was an argument for and statement of support for democratic secular humanism. The document was issued in 1980 by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH), now the Council for Secular Humanism (CSH). Compiled by Paul Kurtz, it is largely a restatement of the content of the American Humanist Association's 1973 Humanist Manifesto II, of which he was co-author with Edwin H. Wilson. Both Wilson and Kurtz had served as editors of The Humanist, from which Kurtz departed in 1979 and thereafter set about establishing his own movement and his own periodical. His Secular Humanist Declaration was the starting point for these enterprises.
The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom.
Gerald J. Holton is an American physicist, historian of science, and educator, whose professional interests also include philosophy of science and the fostering of careers of young men and women. He is Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Professor of the History of Science Emeritus at Harvard University. His contributions range from physical science and its history to their professional and public understanding, from studies on gender problems and ethics in science careers to those on the role of immigrants. These have been acknowledged by an unusually wide spectrum of appointments and honors, from physics to initiatives in education and other national, societal issues, to contributions for which he was selected, as the first scientist, to give the tenth annual Jefferson Lecture that the National Endowment for the Humanities describes as, “the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished achievement in the humanities”. However, his life story is also punctuated by improbable rescues during the dark time of the 20th century.
George Washington Pierce was an American physicist. He was a professor of physics at Harvard University and inventor in the development of electronic telecommunications.
Andrew Richard Lang FRS CBE was a British scientist and crystallographer.
The William James Lectures are a series of invited lectureships at Harvard University sponsored by the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology, who alternate in the selection of speakers. The series was created in honor of the American pragmatist philosopher and psychologist William James, a former faculty member at that institution. It was endowed through a 1929 bequest from Edgar Pierce, a Harvard Alumnus, who also funded the prestigious Edgar Pierce Chair in Philosophy and Psychology. Pierce stipulated that the delivered lectures be open to the public and subsequently published by the Harvard University Press. The program was initiated in 1930 and has continued to the present. Its invited lecturers have included some of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. In some cases, the selection of lecturer has generated considerable controversy.
Elmer Ernest Southard was an American neuropsychiatrist, neuropathologist, professor and author. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Southard lived in the city for nearly his entire life. He attended Boston Latin School and completed his education at Harvard University. At Harvard, Southard distinguished himself as a chess player. After briefly studying in Germany, he returned to the United States as a pathologist at Danvers State Hospital. Southard held academic appointments at Harvard University and its medical school.
Frederick Parker Gay was an American bacteriologist who combated typhoid fever and leprosy as well as studied the mechanism of immunity. He was a charter member of the Explorers Club.
Heather A. Knutson is an astrophysicist and professor at California Institute of Technology in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. Her research is focused on the study of exoplanets, their composition and formation. She won the American Astronomical Society's Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy for her work in exoplanetary atmospheres.