Home > Encyclopedia of Psychology > Mary Whiton Calkins

1863-1930
American psychologist and philosopher who became the first woman president of both the American Psychological Association (1905) and the American Philosophical Association (1918).

The eldest of five children born to Reverend Wolcott Calkins, a strong-willed, intellectually gifted evangelical minister, and Charlotte Grosvenor Whiton, a daughter of an established New England Puritan family, Mary Whiton Calkins grew up in a close-knit family that valued education. As her mother's mental and physical health began to deteriorate, Calkins took on increased responsibilities for her younger siblings as well as her mother.

After earning a B.A. from Smith College with a concentration in the classics, Calkins began teaching Greek at Wellesley College in 1887. In 1888, she was offered the new position of instructor in psychology there, which was contingent upon a year's training in the...