Burtt, Harold E. (Harold Ernest), 1890-

Harold Burtt was born April 26, 1890 in Haverhill Massachusetts. Burtt attended Dartmouth for his BA and graduated in 1911. Graduate school brought Burtt to Harvard for his AM in 1913 and PhD in 1915 where his lab partner was Sidney Pressey under mentorship of Hugo Munsterberg. Upon graduation, Burtt taught at Simmons College and Harvard until 1917. In 1918, he served in the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I. Burtt served on a National Research Council board with William Marston which investigated the feasibility of lie detectors for Army Intelligence. At the conclusion of the war, Burtt became an instructor at Ohio State from 1919-21. He was promoted to assistant professor until 1923 when he became a full professor. He chaired the Psychology Department from 1938 until retirement in 1960.

Burtt's research interests were wide but much of his work is in the field of applied and industrial psychology. His major books included Principles of Employment Psychology (1926), Psychology and Industrial Efficiency (1929), Legal Psychology (1931), Psychology of Advertising (1938), and Applied Psychology (1948). Burtt had a personal interest in birds and wrote Psychology of Birds in 1967.

Burtt passed away on August 15, 1991.

From the guide to the Harold E. Burtt papers, 1914-1952, (Center for the History of Psychology)