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Amy Eliza Tanner (March 21, 1870–February 1, 1956) was an American professor of psychology and philosophy.

Biography
Tanner was born March 21, 1870 in Owatonna, Minnesota. Her parents were Rev. George Clinton Tanner D.D. and Emma Campbell Tanner. Her father was an educator and county superintendent of schools as well as an Episcopal priest. He was the registrar/historian of the Diocese of Minnesota and also wrote a genealogy of the Tanner family.

In addition to Owatonna the family also lived in Faribault, Minnesota. She had four brothers and one sister. In 1884 her sister and brother-in-law were killed in Nebraska along with several others in an multiple murder that was never solved.

Education
She earned an A.B. at the University of Michigan in 1893 where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. During her undergraduate years she also taught high school in Hutchinson, Minnesota, St. Cloud, Minnesota as well as in Denver.

She went on to become a graduate scholar and Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Chicago, where she earned a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1898, magna cum laude. Her doctoral advisor was psychologist (and future president of Yale University) James Rowland Angell. Her thesis was on the association of ideas and was published in 1900. Following her graduation from the University of Chicago, she worked as an associate at the university's philosophy department until 1902. She also lectured in psychology at the Lewis Institute, also in Chicago.

Wilson College
In 1903 she became a professor of philosophy at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

Clark University
In 1907 Tanner became an "Honorary University Fellow" at Clark University, a position she held until 1916. While at Clark University, she investigated mediumship with the psychologist G. Stanley Hall. She wrote the book Studies in Spiritism (1910) which documented the tests she and Hall had carried out in the séance sittings held with the medium Leonora Piper. Hall and Tanner had proven by tests that the "personalities" of Piper were fictitious creations and not discarnate spirits.

Later life
She left Clark (and academic work) in 1919, and remained in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was involved in child welfare locally including in the Worcester Public Education Association and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She was the director of the Worcester Girls Club for many years and represented the local Woman's Club on the Worcester Censorship Board. She purchased the Majestic Theater in Worcester in 1919 and operated it for a few years. She died February 1, 1956 and is buried in Hope Cemetery in Worcester.