MARGARET FLOY WASHBURN
1871 - 1939
Tribute of a Former Pupil
During my freshman year at Vassar, back in l9l4, I
heard a lecture by Professor Witmer of the newly
established psychological clinic of the University
of Pennsylvania, on psychological work with children,
and I knew immediately that that was the work which
I would undertake. Accordingly I took all the courses
in psychology which were offered at Vassar.
Miss Washburn's lectures were always so well organized
and so closely knit that one could take notes in out-
line form with the logical points in perfect sequence.
This perfection of organization meant the strictest
attention on the part of the student. There could be
no daydreaming, with a flurried awakening to seize on
the gist of a paragraph, or to snatch at a topic
sentence. Her lectures were brilliant, exact, clear,
with such a wealth of references and citing of original
sources as almost to overwhelm a student as yet unable
to appreciate the breadth of scholarship and the pains-
taking labor involved in the construction of a single
lecture. It was as though each lecture were a paper
prepared for a gathering of scientific colleagues,
rather than for a group of inexperienced students.
I recall wishing that the course in social psychology
would never end, both because of the absorbing fascina-
tion of the material, and because of the consummate skill
with which she unfolded and developed the theme.
Although in the intervening years I have unfortunately
forgotten many of the facts which Miss Washburn taught
me, I shall never forget her attitude toward facts. I
shall always remember, and pass on to students in my
turn, the necessity for the accurate observation and
strict recording of phenomena as they occur, refraining
as far as possible from the projection of adult motiva-
tion and point of view in the interpretation of the
behavior of children.
I was not one of Miss Washburn's most brilliant and
promising students, and she let me know it. She was
sympathetic but unsentimental and just. When I asked
her for her advice she placed my assets and liabilities
before me, but she said she thought I had good stuff in
me, and left me with the conviction that it was up to
me to prove it.
MARGARET FLOY WASHBURN
Tribute of a Former Pupil (Continued)
I believe that I never thought of Miss Washburn as a
human woman with feelings, aspirations and inadequacies
such as I felt in myself, but rather as a kind of vener-
able sage upon the lecture platform, who sometimes
appeared upon the walk between Rocky and Main and mingled
for a moment in ordinary human discourse--then vanished.
I remember one instance when I was commenting to my
roommate upon the presence of a strange young man who had
suddenly made his appearance upon the campus. A voice
over my shoulder remarked drily, "That is the President
of this Institution." It was Miss Washburn speaking,
and she was often like that: she would mysteriously
join in your conversation when you didn't know she was
around, just as though she were part of your mind.
I am glad to say that I made a visit to Miss Washburn
a few years ago when I had reached the maturity she had
had when I was a student, and I was astonished to find
her a delightfully warm and amusing human being. I
realized before that she had had no shortcoming as a
teacher, but now I knew she would be unequalled as a
friend.
Elizabeth M. Hincks '17
Vassar Alumnae Magazine
January 1940, Page 6