Land Acknowledgement

The Cummings Center is located on lands that have been home to many diverse nations, including the Ohio Seneca and Cayuga, the Lenni Lenape (Delaware), the Miami, the Shawnee, the Wyandot (Wendat), the Ottawa (Odawa) and the Ojibwe Nations. These lands were ceded in the 1805 Treaty of Fort Industry and the forced removal of tribes through the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cummings Center pays respect to the land and lives of Indigenous Nations past and present, and is committed to a process of continual learning, reflection and reconciliation.
Read The University of Akron's Full Land Acknowledgement.

Announcements

Save the Date for the 10th Annual Benjamin Lecture

The Cummings Center is pleased to announce that Joseph E. Trimble, PhD will be our Featured Speaker for the 10th Annual Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr. Distinguished Lecture in the History of Psychology. Trimble is an acclaimed teacher, researcher, and scholar who has focused his career on promoting psychological and sociocultural research with Indigenous populations. The lecture will be held on May 16, 2024. Learn more about this year's Benjamin Lecture.

R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers now open for research

In 2022, the Archives of the History of American Psychology received nearly 500 boxes of papers, films, photographs, and computer hard drives and disks that now comprise the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers. Beginning in 1966, the Gardners cross-fostered the chimpanzee Washoe and taught her to communicate using American Sign Language (ASL). In 1972, the Gardners began a second study with days-old chimpanzees, carried out rigorous testing and documentation, and worked with human companions fluent in ASL.

The R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers are now open for research. Cummings Center staff and student assistants have also digitized and made over 3,400 still images from this collection available through our online repository.

Statement on Dr. Nicholas Cummings and Sexual Orientation Change Efforts

The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology is named for Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings, in recognition of their significant financial support for the Center. We at the Center acknowledge that Dr. Nicholas Cummings spoke and wrote in support of sexual orientation change efforts in therapeutic settings when requested by the client. Nicholas Cummings’ words and his stature gave legitimacy and encouragement to anti-LGBTQ+ organizations, and his public statements on sexual orientation retain the ongoing potential to cause harm.

Major organizations focused on mental health have found no empirical basis supporting sexual orientation change efforts and evidence indicates such practices cause harm. We at the Cummings Center stand firmly with these organizations in opposing sexual orientation change efforts, acknowledging their roots in stigma, prejudice, and hate. Read our full statement, as well as a history of Dr. Cummings’ statements and writings on sexual orientation.