Wicht Club (1903 - 1911)

The Wicht Club was an irreverent, self-assembling society of Harvard lecturers. They met monthly for informal dialogue to advance their scientific thought. Today it would be seen as a professional development organization, but this group had its
mascot (Das Wicht) and other terms:
*Wichts : members
*Wichtinnen : members' wives
*"Was Wichtiges" : annual binding of members' scientific reprintsThe club met at a restaurant or hotel in Boston, going outside the stifling atmosphere of academic or domestic spaces. Records were not kept of the ordinary monthly meetings where a presentation may be interrupted or supplemented by audience comments. According to F.P. Gay, "guests were invited, among them
William James several times." Once a year the wives were invited to join the Wicht Club when the new volume of "Was Wichtiges" was presented. "The nine volumes … are a treasure trove of the work produced by young Harvard scientist and philosophers at the beginning of the twentieth century."(see Benison et.al)

Members

*Elmer Ernest Southard, psychiatry
*Walter B. Cannon, physiology
*G. W. Pierce, physics
*Ralph Barton Perry, philosophy
*Gilbert N. Lewis, chemistry
*Robert M. Yerkes, primate biology
*Edwin Holt, psychology
*Harry W. Morse, physics
*Roswell P. Angien, psychology
*Wilmon H. Sheldon, philosophy

Origin

When G. W. Pierce and Harry W. Morse returned from their post-doctoral studies and travels in Europe, Pierce carried with him a copy of the German humor magazine Simplicissimus. A certain drawing of a gnome between the spreading roots of a great tree was labeled "Das Wicht". Any student of German knows that "Wichtigkeit" means "importance", but the root "Wicht" left room for these Harvard men to exercise themselves together in an unfettered way.

References

*Saul Benison, A. Clifford Barger, & Elin L. Wolfe (1987) "Walter B. Cannon, The Life and Times of a Young Scientist" [ISBN 0 674 94580 8] page 135.
*W. B. Cannon (1945) "The Way of an Investigator, A Scientist's Experiences in Medical Research", WW Norton, NY, pages 175-6.
*Frederick P. Gay (1938) "The Open Mind, Elmer Ernest Southard 1876 – 1920", Normandie House, Chicago, pages 75-7.

,