Measuring Man: Instruments, Theories and Practice of Anthropometry and Experimental Psychology between the 19th and 20th Centuries

Most of the apparatus for surveying and studying psychological and perceptual phenomena on display come from the Experimental Psychology Laboratory and the Anthropology Museum of the University of Florence. These machines bear witness to a crucial stage of anthropology and experimental psychology, which was distinguished by the belief that physiological and psychological data could be exactly measured and recorded. Psychiatric examinations, case files and judicial documentation illustrate how the instruments on display were used as well as classifying procedures for various “deviances.” The reconstruction of an early 20th-century experimental psychology laboratory is also on display. Computer stations allow visitors to experience historical anthropometrical and psychological tests.

 

Exhibition Dates

15.05.1986 – 12.07.1987 Florence, Museo di Storia della Scienza

 

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