Raymond H. Stetson Papers, 1890, 1893, 1896, 1901, 1926-50, 1989
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Administrative/Biographical History
Raymond Herbert Stetson (Ph.B., 1893, A.M., 1896, Sci.D., 1942) was born on March 1, 1872 in North Ridgeville, Ohio. Reared in a farming family, he was expected to stay and work on the family farm. Once he had reached adulthood it is clear that Stetson was destined for another career given his early strong interest in scientific work at Elyria High School, and he and another student named Ray Cogswell set up the high school's first chemistry laboratory. Stetson's initial curiosity and brilliance (and a financial push from a sympathetic aunt) led him to enroll in Oberlin College in 1890.
Stetson's area of undergraduate study was Chemistry. After completing his studies under Frank Fanning Jewett (1844-1926) in 1893, Stetson continued this student/professor relationship by serving as Jewett's graduate assistant. During this same period Stetson also worked on a master's degree in Zoology, under Professor A.A. Wright (1846-1905). Having completed his master's in 1896, Stetson set out to work. He received an appointment as Professor of Biology at Tabor College in Iowa, which he held from 1896 to 1899. These years of experience in the laboratory led Stetson to enroll at Harvard University in order to pursue a doctorate in 1899. There he worked under Hugo Munsterberg (1863-1916), under whom he wrote a dissertation entitled “Motor Theory of Rhythm and Discreet Succession.” Shortly after he earned his Ph.D. in 1901, Stetson accepted a position at Beloit College, teaching in the areas of Psychology and Philosophy. He remained at Beloit until 1909, when he accepted the headship of the new Department of Psychology at Oberlin, this new department having been separated from the Department of Philosophy the same year.
Stetson taught at Oberlin College for the next three decades. Along with the research interests he developed at Harvard University, Stetson was influenced by the work of William Benton Chamberlain (1847-1903), who taught in speech and rhetoric at Oberlin. Stetson drew on this background when he began his lifelong research in speech, motor, and skill movements. His main contributions to the field of psychology are in the areas of speech movements and phonetics, an interest sparked by Abbe Rousselot following a year Stetson spent in France with him during 1922-23. Many of his original theories and experiments are considered ahead of their time, and in most cases were not fully verified and explored until the 1960s.
In addition to his teaching and research commitments, Stetson served on a number of governing committees, including the Graduate Study Committee and the Appointments and Budget Committee of the College Council. Formally retiring in 1939, Stetson nonetheless remained active in college affairs until his death 11 years later.
Stetson's influence during his lifetime was hindered by factors such as his refusal to “politic” within the field of psychology and some limitations in his written presentation of data. Nonetheless, Stetson was recognized as a pioneer within his field. Stetson's practice of allowing undergraduate students to make meaningful contributions to his research (a rare practice, even today) resulted in a number of his assistants later becoming very prominent themselves within the field of Psychology. Some of his more famous students include Roger W. Sperry (1913-1994; A.B. 1935) and Robert Galambos (b.1914, A.B. 1935).
Stetson's professional work was clearly the driving force in his life. He never married, preferring to devote himself fully to the tasks of teaching and research. In 1924 Stetson began to share living quarters with Oberlin History professor and bachelor, Frederick B. Artz (1894-1983), and continued to live with Artz until his death. The mid-1930s saw the onset of intermittent claudication in his legs that, as time went on, limited Stetson's ability to walk and eventually led to the amputation of a leg in 1948. It is these developments that led Stetson to have an elevator installed in Peters Hall where his laboratory was located (initially at his own cost), and forced him to buy a car and employ a student driver.
Stetson remained active in retirement throughout the 1940s, but as the decade wore on, his health became a severe limitation. While working on a publication entitled “Motor Phonetics,” Raymond Herbert Stetson died on December 4, 1950.
For more biographical information see Louis D. Hartson’s 1951 biography located in the student files (28).
Subjects (links to similar collections) Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
The Raymond Herbert Stetson Papers consist almost entirely of original letters that Dr. Stetson wrote to friends and colleagues. In no small way, this personal papers group was constructed by former Oberlin College Archivist William E. Bigglestone. In an effort to preserve the work of the late Professor Stetson, Bigglestone, with some assistance of Stetson family members and Frederick B. Artz, solicited letters sent by Stetson to his friends (e.g. Robert Kimball Richardson [1876-1952] and James M. Snodgrass [1908-1994; A.B. 1931]), and over a period of years this collection was assembled. Given the way in which the collection was assembled, however, gaps in the record doubtless exist. Some persons, for example, were unprepared to release documents and others considered his letters too sensitive to be added to the collection at the time of the solicitation because some persons reported on were still alive.
The content of the letters is overwhelmingly related to Stetson's research in the areas of speech and motor phonetics. The largest number of the letters center on his laboratory experiments and his subsequent writing on them. Letters to his peers in the Psychology field are the most detailed and useful in terms of understanding the techniques used in the experiments. Of special interest are Stetson's letters to former students and colleagues James Snodgrass, Clarence Hudgins (b.1897) and Alfred Hubbard (b.1907) the correspondence of which represents the bulk of the collection. The letters to Arthur Slater-Hammel (unknown), James Pickett (b.1921, A.B. 1943) and Roger Sperry (1913-1994; A.B. 1935), though smaller in quantity, are also quite rich in reporting on Stetson's activities.
The two areas that Stetson wrote about outside of his work concerned governance of the college and his service on various faculty committees. Stetson's involvement in the administration of Oberlin is in particular outlined in his correspondence to several people, including Snodgrass, Hudgins, and Hubbard, but also in letters to associates outside of psychology like Robert Richardson. The letters openly report on Stetson's feelings and convictions in terms of the people and situations that he encountered. For example, Stetson openly and intensely disliked former Oberlin College President, Ernest Hatch Wilkins (1880-1966).
The subject matter that reveals the most about the personality, beliefs, and inner workings of R.H. Stetson, in addition to his judgmental remarks about the Oberlin administration, is his analysis of, and positions on, the Second World War. Many of Stetson's letters, from the period of 1938-45, deal with his views on the war, and from his discussion one may establish some sense of Stetson's beliefs and prejudices about the world in general. For example, Stetson freely writes on the reasons for the war in Europe, including his views on Jews and their role in the conflict, and, perhaps even betrays a prejudice in regard to the Japanese when discussing the Pacific conflict. The aforementioned topics are covered in almost all of Stetson's letters written to his close friends during the period of 1941-45, as well as references to Jews in his letters to Artz in 1947 and 1949.
Unfortunately, the correspondence offers little evidence to document Stetson's personal life, although the contents of the folder entitled “Letters/Notes on the Broad Interests of R.H. Stetson,” are somewhat insightful in this regard. The 49 letters to Frederick Artz, written in 1947 and 1949 when Artz was away in France and visiting his (Artz's) parents in Dayton, Ohio, reveal little about their relationship (they shared a residence for 26 years), although it is known that they shared a passion for the local Cosmos club (note Walter Horton's letter to Artz re. the death of Stetson). Additionally, the manner in which Stetson composed many of his letters is to be noted. Stetson, for the sake of speed and space, characteristically abbreviated nearly every word of a letter over five characters in length, normally deleting most of the vowels. One is still able to ascertain the content in his letters, but this unusual style makes the task a bit more arduous for most researchers.
Aside from the correspondence, this collection also contains a number of Stetson's publications, as well as the publications of a few of his peers and students. These publications are useful when trying to place the research reported in his letters into an overall context. A volume of papers by a number of Stetson's former students appeared as a supplement to the American Journal of Psychology, in 1939 as a tribute to the retiring Stetson. These papers illustrate the various directions that Stetson's students took in their own research, and affirm the way in which Stetson's work served as a building block for their work in the field.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series I. Biographical File, 1890, 1901. 1909-50 (0.1 linear feet and flat file)
Consists mainly of short biographies written about R.H. Stetson, including the “Memorial Minute” appearing in the Oberlin Alumni Magazine in 1951. Other materials include observations about Stetson offered by J.M. Pickett in a 1974 letter and a bibliography of Stetson's publications, as well as his diplomas from Elyria Public High School and Ph.D. diploma from Harvard University.
Series II. College-Related Materials, 1893, 1896, 1909-50 (0.3 linear feet and flat file)
This series is made up of a variety of materials that pertain to Stetson's career at Oberlin. These materials range from Stetson's textbooks while an Oberlin student to notes taken by Stetson's students from his class lectures. Also included are a fraternity membership certificate from Stetson’s undergraduate years at Oberlin, his A.B. and A.M. diplomas, and his honorary Ph.D. awarded by Oberlin in 1942.
Series III. Correspondence, 1926-50 (1.6 linear feet)
Original letters comprise the bulk of this series, all written by Stetson to friends and colleagues. The correspondence is categorized into letters written to “Professional Colleagues/Former Students,” and “Personal Friends,” the primary difference being content and the direction and breadth of discussions contained therein. Thereunder, the letters are listed by name of recipient and the letter directed to each individual are filed in separate folders.
Series IV. Publications, 1928-51, 1989 (0.2 linear feet)
Primarily Stetson's publications, this series is made up entirely of printed matter. In addition to thirteen articles by Stetson, there are also several publications by his colleagues and former students present. This material contains specific references to experiments discussed in Stetson's letters.