Barbara Spofford Morgan

Barbara Spofford Morgan (July 15, 1887 – April 1, 1971) was an American educator, essayist on religion and a specialist in mental testing.

Early life and education Barbara Spofford was born on July 15, 1887, in New York City, Later Barbara and Shepard Morgan lived on Mountain Road, Norfolk. Librarian of the United States Congress from 1864 to 1897.

She was educated at Miss Spence's School in New York City, and then attended Wycombe Abbey School in England where her father was working on a government commission. In 1905, she was presented at court in the presence of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. Morgan attended Darmstadt University in Germany she married Shepard Ashman Morgan (1884-1968), president of the Chase National Bank and author of The History of Parliamentary Taxation in England and Reminiscences of Shepard Ashman Morgan (1950). The Morgans were members of the Jekyll Island Club, a Southern haven for America's millionaires.

In 1926, while her husband was economic advisor and later finance director of the Office for Reparation Payments in Berlin, Germany, she enrolled at the Friedrich Wilhelm University, where she received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1928, the first American woman to achieve such a distinction. Her doctoral thesis was The Individual in American Education.

Morgan was the author of The Backward Child, a Study of the Psychology and Treatment of Backwardness; A Practical Manual for Teachers and Students (1914), Friendly Shepherdess (1933), Individuality in a collective world (1935), Skeptic's search for God (1947) (reissued in 1949 as Man's restless search). the North American Review, and The Baltimore Sun.

From 1910 to 1911, she directed the psychological clinic of the Neurological Institute of New York. In 1911, she was featured in a full-page article in The New York Times: "Teaching Backward Children Their A-B-C's by Dancing, Where ordinary methods fails, Miss Barbara Spofford resorts to a novel plan of her own to instill the alphabet into youthful minds". From 1916 to 1918 she lectured on mental testing at the New York University and from 1914 to 1920 she had a private practice in mental testing in New York City. Morgan died on April 1, 1971, in Canaan, Connecticut.