professor, psychologist, author, b. Warsaw, Poland. He migrated to the U.S. in the 1870's and was graduated from the Univ. of Pennsylvania (A,B., 1882; A.M., 1885) and Johns Hopkins Univ. (Ph.D., 1886). In 1888 he came to the Univ. of Wisconsin as the first full-time professor of psychology and served in this capacity until 1927. Jastrow was in charge of the psychological section of the Chicago World Exposition of 1893, and in 1900 was elected president of the American Psychological Association. After leaving Wisconsin, Jastrow moved to New York City where he taught at the New School for Social Research (1927- 1933), wrote a daily newspaper column entitled "Keeping Mentally Fit," (1928-1932) and lectured weekly over the radio (1935-1938). A popularizer of the science of psychology, Jastrow was active in exposing fake mediums and spiritualists. He was the author of several books on experimental psychology, and among his major works were Fact and Fable in Psychology (1900), The Subsconscious (1906), Character and Temperament (1915), and The House That Freud Built (1932). Who's Who in Amer., 21 (1940); Amer. Jour. Psychology, 57 (1944); Psychological Review, 51 (1944); R. G. Thwaites, ed., Univ. of Wis. (Madison, 1900); Madison Capital Times, Jan. 8, 1944; J. Jastrow Papers.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Joseph Jastrow Papers for details.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]