Contributions to the History of Psychology: XXXI. Life as an Experiment—The Long Career of Lillien Jane Martin (1851–1942)

Abstract

In 1913 Lillien Jane Martin received an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Bonn, the first honorary degree conferred upon an American psychologist by that institution, for a series of innovative and pioneer experimental studies. Her research with G. E. Müller in psychophysics was called a “landmark in the history of experimental psychology” at that time. Martin was a multi-faceted individual who seemed to possess inexhaustable energy. She was an ardent feminist leader, a prolific psychologist, conscientious Stanford professor, and, at age 65, Martin became a consulting and clinical psychologist. It is interesting to note that for someone who contributed so much to the science of psychology, her long and productive career is relatively unknown to contemporary psychologists.