George Trumbull Ladd

George Trumbull Ladd (1842 to 1921) was an American philosopher, educator and psychologist who in 1893 became the second President of the American Psychological Association. Born in Painesville, Ohio, he trained for the Congregational ministry at Andover Theological Seminary and served as a pastor before moving into academic philosophy, teaching at Bowdoin College and then holding the Clark Professorship of Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy at Yale University from 1881 until 1901. Strongly influenced by the German philosopher Hermann Lotze, whose Outlines of Philosophy he translated, Ladd was one of the first to bring the study of experimental psychology to America and founded the Yale psychological laboratory. His 1887 book Elements of Physiological Psychology was the first American textbook to include a substantial amount of material on the new laboratory approach. He also lectured in Japan and advised its government, and later publicly defended Japanese colonial rule in Korea, a position that now colours how his career is read.