EXACTLY OPPOSITE The Newsletter of the Berkeley Historical Society Volume 36 Number 2 SPRING 2018 Allen Stross, circa 2016 Father Harry Morrison, BHS Founder Allen Stross Collection Gems Berkeley’s Master of Photography Forty Years of Documenting April 8 – May 5 Berkeley History Berkeley residents will remember Allen Stross as the May 20 – October 13 ever-present photographer around town, capturing the In 1978, a group of local history enthusiasts gathered diverse population, vibrant parades and distinctive ar- to form a society to record the history of Berkeley. chitecture of the town. Even into his nineties, he could They did not have a home for the society, or at that be seen photographing historical walks, cultural events, point even a collection, but their enthusiasm prevailed, and life at the North Berkeley Senior Center. and now the Berkeley Historical Society is celebrating its fortieth anniversary! A native of Detroit, Allen Stross studied photography at Detroit’s Cass Technical High School, the Art Center Our next exhibit, Collection Gems: Forty Years of College of Design in Pasadena, Wayne State University, Documenting Berkeley History, will display a wide the Winona School of Professional Photography, and in variety of materials collected over the years, concen- countless workshops, including with Ansel Adams. trating on several topical areas: schools, businesses, politics and government, performing arts, and family He earned the prestigious award of Master of Photog- life, as well as some highlights from the society’s own raphy from the Professional Photographers of Ameri- history. ca. He became known as the “photo philanthropist of Berkeley” because of his proclivity to give out prints, The exhibit will open on Sunday, May 20, with a talk magnets, and buttons to the subjects of his photographs. by Betty Reid Soskin, whose memoir, Sign My Name to Freedom, was recently published. The reception The exhibit will cover his art from early high school following her talk will include a big cake to celebrate through his years in Southern California and Detroit BHS’s fortieth birthday. studios, the Detroit Free Press, Wayne State photojour- nalism courses, and in and around Berkeley. This special occasion will also include the debut of our first permanent exhibit, an illustrated Berkeley History Timeline that will make it possible for all visitors to get an overview of the history of our city. President’s Message Life at the Berkeley Historical Society has been a little challenging late- ly, as we have coped with the deaths of two much-loved volunteers— Shelley Rideout in January and Paul Grunland in February—and three resignations from the board of directors—John Underhill, Buzz Cardoza BERKELEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY and Nelly Coplan. I’ve agreed with some reluctance to a second one- MUSEUM - ARCHIVES - LIBRARY year term as president while also taking on the presidency of another his- The History Center is located in the tory organization, the Institute for Historical Study, and trying to bring Veterans Memorial Building myself up to speed in the field of public history. Luckily, John and Buzz 1931 Center St., Berkeley, CA 94704 Mailing Address PO Box 1190 still remain active in BHS, and Nelly plans to get involved again when Berkeley, CA 94701 she retires from her paid job. Hours: 1–4 pm Thursday–Saturday (510) 848-0181 We continue to make various special plans for this anniversary year. [email protected] Join us on Sunday, May 20, when we will have a big birthday cake and www.berkeleyhistoricalsociety.org balloons. On that day we will open two exhibits surveying Berkeley NEWSLETTER EDITOR history: a permanent 16-foot-long timeline and a temporary, five-month Ann Harlow showcase of highlights from our collection. And we’ll have a special DESIGN AND PRODUCTION speaker and other VIP guests! John Aronovici All newsletter content is copyrighted by the Former BHS president Linda Rosen deserves special thanks at this time. Berkeley Historical Society and in some cases by She compiled the text and images for the timeline, with help from others. authors and/or photographers. She reached out to Shelley Rideout’s relatives and ended up spending BOARD OF DIRECTORS many hours coordinating the details of the memorial event we held for Shelley. And she has helped pull together material for two sections of the Ann Harlow John Aronovici President Buzz Cardoza upcoming exhibit, the one on schools and the one about the history of the Jeanine Castello-Lin Tom Edwards Berkeley Historical Society. Thank you, Linda, and may your Becoming 1st Vice President Steven Finacom Berkeley book come to fruition sooner rather than later! Tonya Staros Phil Gale 2nd Vice President Phyllis Gale Tonya Staros is also a star. She has put together an hour-long video pre- Leigh Pruneau Ed Herny sentation of images from the collection, reflecting the late nineteenth Secretary Cyrus Khojasteh century and the first three decades of the twentieth century in Berkeley, John Hammond Tim Lundgren with captions and period music. Intended to be an integral part of the Treasurer Bill Roberts new exhibit, it features photos of landscapes, streetscapes, storefronts, schools, and other aspects of the life of our city. Thank you, Tonya! HISTORY CENTER MANAGER John Aronovici I also want to express appreciation to everyone else whose names are listed at the left side of this page, especially John Aronovici, who lives PUBLICITY Emily Busse and breathes BHS. Congratulations to these and all the others who have kept this organization going on an all-volunteer basis for forty years! ARCHIVES Bill Roberts - Chief Archivist I hope to see you at some of our upcoming events. Watch your email for Judy Wilkes - Asst. Archivist special announcements. If you are not yet on our email list and would like to be, please sign up by emailing publicist@berkeleyhistoricalso- DOCENTS ciety.org. You can also follow us on Facebook for interesting Berkeley Buzz Cardoza Amanda Putnam Fred Etzel John Underhill history images and links. Linda Keilch Inga Vanek Margot Lind Carl Wikander – Ann Harlow, President Tim Lundgren Tina Williams Liz Lamson 2 Berkeley Historical Society Spring 2018 Edward Chace Tolman: The Cognitive Map and the Loyalty Oath By Fred Etzel Tolman Hall, the psychology building on the UC Berkeley campus, was opened in 1963 and is named after Edward Chace Tolman, a professor of psychology from 1918 to his retirement in 1954. Tolman Hall is seismically unsafe and will be demol- ished once the Psychology Department has moved to the Berkeley Way West complex at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way in spring 2018. The namesake of Tolman Hall, his contributions to the study of psychology, including the “cognitive map,” and his refusal to take a loyalty oath should not be forgotten. Tolman was born on April 14, 1886 in West Newton, Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1915. On August 30, 1915, Dr. Tolman married Kathleen Drew, who was a native of Shanghai, China, and graduated from Radcliffe College in 1907. In the fall the two of them moved to Evanston, Illinois, where for three years he taught at Northwestern University. In 1918 they came to Berkeley, where he became a professor at the University of California. Tolman would teach psychology at Berkeley until his retirement in 1954. The Tolmans first lived in the Berkeley Hills close to the campus at 1609 Le Roy Avenue. In 1920, Tolman built a single-family, detached house in the Mediterranean Revival style nearby at 1530 La Loma Avenue. Both houses sur- vived the 1923 Berkeley Fire. Tolman had an aversion to laboratory rats at first, but became fond of them through his experiments with them. He demonstrated that rats would find shortcuts in a maze to reach a food reward, suggesting they weren’t just using motor memory. Tolman argued that the rats had a mental representation or “cognitive map,” which they used to locate the food reward. Tolman discovered that based on their starting point, rats would adjust their behavior. This was the first demonstration of cognitive maps in animals. Tolman’s work sparked a domain within the field of animal behavior that is still alive and debated to this day. Its broader implications led away from behavioral psychology and toward the field of cognitive science. During and after World War II, Tolman became concerned about the psychology of hatred and war. In a 1947 address at UC he said, “Over and over, men are blinded by too violent motivations and too intense frustrations into blind and unintelligent and, in the end, desperately dangerous hates of outsiders. And the expression of these displaced hates ranges all the way from discrimination against minorities to world conflagrations.” In 1949, under the influence of McCarthyism, UC President Sproul and the Board of Regents mandated all UC staff and faculty sign a loyalty oath stating that they were not members of the Communist Party. Professor Tolman led the organized faction of faculty who refused to sign the oath. Despite the fact that he was a tenured professor, Tolman was ultimately fired in 1950 for his stance, along with 30 other faculty members. Tolman argued his objection to signing the oath was not necessarily due to any allegiance with the Communist Party. For him, it was a matter of principle because the loyalty oath represented a threat to academic freedom and free speech. Tolman and others sued the Regents of the University. In 1952, the State Supreme Court ruled in Tolman v. Underhill that the non-signers were to be re-instated to their positions because the state legis- lature, by previously enacting regulations in this area, left no room for supplementary regulation by the Regents.