ABSTRACT

On Saturday, December 16, 1916, Harvard University professor Hugo Münsterberg awoke to scenes of fresh snow outside the windows of his house on Ware Street. The sun was shining brightly, disguising the bitter cold of the day. Bundling himself in coat and hat, Münsterberg walked the several blocks to Radcliffe College, where he would meet the 60 young women students in his introductory psychology class. He began the lecture at the appointed hour of 9:00 a.m. Thirty minutes later he leaned suddenly against the lectern and then fell to the floor, knocking his watch and eyeglasses from the desk. His graduate assistant, Harold Burtt, reached him almost immediately, but within minutes Münsterberg was dead, apparently from a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 53 years old (Hale, 1980; M.Münsterberg, 1922).