Once a $5 million renovation and the construction of a National Museum of Psychology is complete, the space for the University of Akron’s Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology will match its reputation, according to Dr. David Baker, Margaret Clark Morgan executive director of the center.

Baker gave media members a tour of some of the renovated space at the center on Wednesday, April 13, the same day as the launch of a Kickstarter campaign to raise $250,000 toward the establishment of the museum, which will be housed on the first floor. The Kickstarter funds will help defray the planned museum’s $2.5 million cost.

The Cummings Center likes to think of itself as “the national archives of psychology,” Baker said, adding that its collection is the largest of its kind in the world and attracts scholars from across the globe.

The $5 million renovation, paid for by a private donation, updates a building at Mill and College streets the center moved into in 2010. Office space, HVAC updates, the creation of an archive storage room and a reading room for scholars and researchers is included in that project.

The center was created 50 years ago by two University of Akron professors who saw the value of preserving important documents and artifacts related to the field of psychology, according to Dorothy Gruich, coordinator at the Cummings Center. From there, the center’s collections — and reputation — grew, she said.

Over the years, its collections and archives grew to hold rare books and manuscripts, personal papers from the likes of Albert Einstein and one-of-a-kind artifacts, such as the simulated shock generator used by Yale University professor Stanley Milgram during his famous 1960s experiments that looked at participants’ willingness to obey orders to inflict pain on another person. The Cummings Center also holds several films and photos, including a rare home movie featuring Sigmund Freud and his family.

"We are exploring and examining what it means to be human,” Baker said.

Prior to conceiving the idea of a museum, the center had displayed materials in a small gallery, according to Baker.

“We have always displayed materials, but now with a dedicated space in our building we’ll be able to show off our unique collection and highlight the history of psychology as a science, profession and agent of social change,” Baker said in a prepared statement.

Slated for completion in 2017, the 6,000-square-foot museum is being designed by Northeast Ohio-based Barrie Projects, a museum and cultural planning firm that was instrumental in the creation of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and is working on the U.S. Olympic Museum being constructed in Colorado Springs, Baker said.

The museum, which will charge a minimal fee to help offset operating costs, will be open to the public and welcome student and community groups, Baker said. The center won’t see a big bump in employment with the museum. It likely will hire a curator and rely on graduate students to help staff it, he said.

In fact, two graduate students — Charity Smith and Vanessa Facemire — were instrumental in doing the legwork to set up the Kickstarter campaign, creating the page and its content to help reach a wide target pool of potential donors, including students, researchers, psychologists and archivists.

"Psychologists have a role to support their own history,” Baker said.

Baker got the idea for the Kickstarter campaign after hearing about the Smithsonian Institution’s successful drive to raise $700,000 to preserve one of Neil Armstrong’s space suits.

“If Kickstarter is good enough for the Smithsonian, it’s good enough for us,” he said, adding that the Cummings Center is an affiliate of the Smithsonian.

The Kickstarter campaign, which runs through May 13, is “all-or-nothing,” meaning the $250,000 goal must be reached for the center to see any of the funds. Donors can go to tinyurl.com/cummingscenter.