5) William James Hall
Designed in 1963 by Minoru Yamasaki, famous for his design of the World Trade Center, William James Hall houses the Department of Psychology, which William James was instrumental in establishing.
In 1875 James taught one of the university’s first courses in psychology, “The Relations between Physiology and Psychology.” He joked that “the first lecture in psychology that I ever heard was the first I ever gave.” James also established the first U.S. experimental psychology laboratory, and oversaw Harvard’s first doctorate in psychology, earned by G. Stanley Hall in 1878.
In 1890 James published his highly influential, two-volume synthesis and summary of psychology, Principles of Psychology.
The books were widely read in North America and Europe, gaining attention and praise from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung in Vienna. James would later meet both Freud and Jung at Clark University in 1909. It was Freud’s only U.S. trip, and the meeting between Freud and James was arranged by James’ former student G. Stanley Hall, then president of Clark.
The 15th floor has a William James conference room, in which hang portraits of the professor and his father and grandfather. William’s colleagues in the department of philosophy had the portrait commissioned, and when it was done James entertained the department at his house. It originally hanged in the Faculty Room of University Hall.