ABSTRACT
When Walter Van Dyke Bingham was elected secretary-treasurer of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1910, the APA membership numbered 222, most of whom were employed in college and university settings. Forty years later, APA's membership was 7,273, “of whom a majority were practitioners in industries, business offices, railways, hospitals, schools, clinics, welfare agencies, employment services, and government bureaus” (Bingham, 1952, p. 1). Bingham not only witnessed this transformation of psychology from academe to the “real world,” he was a leading figure in that disciplinary change. Indeed, for much of his life he was the principal advocate for applied psychology, particularly in merging the science of psychology with business. Psychologist historian E. G. Boring has called Bingham the “dean of industrial psychologists,” a label he richly deserves (Ferguson, 1963a, p. 13). At the time of his death most industrial psychologists in America had some direct personal link to the influence of Bingham. The importance of his work, especially at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, is evident in Leonard Ferguson's history of industrial psychology, which focused heavily on Bingham and his legacy.
