The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-17
THE HARVARD MUSEUM
AN AMBITIOUS AND UNIQUE PROJECT
VET IN ITS BEGINNING.
Ii VIII Illustrate Racial and National
Development i'm Every Form
4 Exhibit.

BOSTON. March ga general Museum
n Nan 10 comprehend prehistoric, an
cient. and modern civilization, and TO IL
lustrate racial. and incidentally national
development. is an ambitious project
which has not yet been realized anywhere
I'm the world, but which 1T is hoped may
be brought. in the course of a measuraple
number o. years, TO a reasonable degree
of accomplishment in the great system Oh
free public museums which is gradually
being built up in Cambridge in connec-
ton with Harvard University
Such a museum, it is pointed out, would
have much the same relation TO the hu-
manities as the Harvard Museum of Com
parative Zoology has to the geological
sciences. Like all the Harvard museums
It would be as fully open to the general
public or the specialist resorting to Cam
bridge from a distance as TO the student
or instructor in the college itself. while
having the special advantages of the stable
policy and experienced control that go with
the best university management.
The first sections OF a Museum of Man are
already in existence in the Peabody Muse
I'm Of American Archaeology and Ethnol-
ogy. founded by the late George Peabody
of London, and the Semitic Museum, re-
Gently established through the generosity
OF Mr.. Jacob II. Schin. Of New York The
former is one of the richest collections In
the worId-in some respects the very rich
est-in objects illustrating American pre-
historic and aboriginal life. with valuable
special collections from other parts of the
world. The latter, which is about TO be
moved into the new building which Mr..
Schiff has Just given, is the definite begin
ring of an Oriental museum.
GERMAN ART NEXT.
It is likely that the next section to be es-
tablished will be a Germanic museum,
dealing with the Germanic lands and peo-
pies from the time of the Romans TO the
present day. Outside Of Germany itself
where the famous 'Germanisches Muse
um," IN Nuremberg, Is the best known ex-
ample OF its kind-such a collection would
be unique. There are legitimate reasons OF
sentiment, however-apart from the more
practical ~ones-why Harvard may well be
first, at least in this country, in the under
taking. More than eighty years ago, when
German letters were little more than a
name in America, Goethe, through his
American friend. Joseph Green Cogswell-a
graduate of Harvard, and later well known
through his early connection with the AS
tor Library, in New York-sent to the Har-
ward Library some thirty volumes of his
own works, with a letter of inscription
testifying TO his interest in the little New
England college. The German original is
lost, but the archives still preserve the
translation:
The above poetical and scientific works
are presented to the library of the Univer-
sity at Cambridge in New England as a
mark of deep interest in it's high literary
character and in the successful zeal it has
displayed through so many years for the
promotion Of solid and elegant education
with the highest respects of the author.-J.
w. V. Goethe. Weimar, Aug. II, 1879"
Not long afterward, too, the college es-
tablished a professorship of German-the
earliest in the United S~tates-from which
has grown the present important Depart
ment of German languages and litera-
lures" with a teaching staff, at present, of
eleven professors and instructors, and Of
fering TO the thousand or more students
now taking German nearly forty courses,
from the study Of Old Morse to contempo-
rary German literature.
OF VALUE TO STUDENTS.
The usefulness of a Germanic museum to
students in the college is thus sufficiently
obvious. But it's larger interest is dwelt on
III tHC ICQid Sl6ICu ny lNO OI the pro-
fessors in the department, DR.. Francke and
DIR. Schilling. which describes the plan.
After speaking of the American interest in
modern studies-French and German, for
example, instead of Greek and Latin-they
say:
THE first impulse. as far as German is
concerned, was given by the great epoch
y of German literature at the beginning of
@tf- oo,+,x~r TKrro, Do-o-1ex - III
and Motley returned from their studies
at German universities. they brought with
them not only a fuller equipment of schol-
arship, but also a strong enthusiasm for
the noble intellectual movement which was
then shaping the destiny of modern Ger
many. Following this, there came the in
fiuence of 1873; the March revolution struck
a chord to which the American heart vi
brated; and when the martyrs of this
revolution sought a refuge in this coun-
try, they found here a ready welcome and
intelligent sympathy with German aspi-
rations. In the friendship between Long
fellow and Freiligrath this twofold at
Unity between the two countries as tc
both literary and political ideals may bt
said to have received its most notable
symbolic expression. Next there followed
the general adoption of German methods
OF scientific research brought here by the
steadily growing number of American
teachers, physicians, theologians, who has
received the decisive stimulus for theil
LIES work at the universities of Berlin
G%ottingen or Heidelberg. And finally. the
dominant position acquired by Germany
since the war Of 1870 gave the American
people a new sense of the dignity of TIL,
German nation. and kindled interest IL
the history OF the Teutonic race"
The plan OF the museum, as it ha
gradually worked itself out. is interestin,
as showing how remarkably a collection o
objects can be made 20 illustrate the &C
tual thought and feeling OF a people a
well as their art and manners. The aim /
70 represent the typical things fully, an,
20 avoid mere miscellaneousness. OF a grea
cathedral, a collection of photograph
would be made covering every part an
every important detail, SO that the studen
might examine the whole with a thorough
ness that would be impracticable, in
sense, on the spot. a single case of well
chosen volumes would cover the histor