The times., 1901-03-17
NEW HARVARD ENTERPRISE
The Study of Man From the Prehis-
tOriC Ages in View.
Project to Found Museum to IL
tustrnte Racial Developments
what the Collections viii Consist
of-PIans Now Under Consideration

| BOSTON. March 16.-A general Museum
of Man, to 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
in the world, but which it is hoped may
( be brought, in the course of measur-
able number of years, TO a reasonable
/ degree of accomplishment in the great
system of free public museums which is
gradually being built up in Cambridge in
| connection with Harvard University.
Such museum, it is pointed out. would
! have much the same relation to the hu
( nanities 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 10 Cam
bridge from distance as To the student
/ or instructor in the college itself. while
having the special advantages of the sta
! bic 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
Museum of American Archaeology and
! Ethnology, founded by the late George
Peabody, of London, and the Semitic
{
| the generosity of Jacob H. Schin. of
| New York The former is one of the
| richest collections in the world-in some
respects the very richest-in objects IL
! lustrating American prehistoric 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 beginning
of an Oriental Museum,
! 1t is likely that the next section to be
! established will be a Germanic Museum
dealing with the Germanic lands and
peoples from the time of the Romans to
! the present day. Outside of Germany
: itself-where the famous "Germanisches
Museum" in Nuremberg is the best
known example of it's knd-such
collection would be unique. There are
legitimate reasons of sentiment. how
ever, 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 Ger
man letters were little more than d name
in America, Goethe, through his American
friend. Joseph Green Cogswell-a graduate
of Harvard and later we'll known through
his early connection with the AstOr Lii
brary in New York-sent to the Harvard
Library some thirty volumes Of his own
works, with letter of inscription testify
ing 10 his interest in the little New Eng
land college. The German original IS lost
but the archives still preserve the transia-
tion
The above poetical and scientific works
are presented TO the library OF the Uni
Versity at Cambridge in New England as
a mark of deep interest in its high literary
character and in the successful zeal il 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 "
THE EARLIEST GERMAN PRoFEsSORSHIP
Not long afterward, too, the college es-
tablished a professorship of German-the
earliest in the United States-from which
has grown the present important depart
ment of German languages and Htera-
lures, with teaching staff. at present
Of eleven professors and instructors. and
Offering, TO the thousands or more stu
denis now taking German. nearly forty
courses. from the study of Old Morse to
contemporary German literature.
The usefulness of a German Museum to
students in the college is thus sufficiently
obvious But it's larger interest is dweit
on IN the circular, signed by two of the
professors in the department, DIR. F'rancke
anu Dr. SChtling, which describes the
plan. After speaking of the American in
/ terest in modern studies-French and Ger
Latin-they say:
The first impulse, so far as German is
concerned, was given by the great epoch
OF German literature at the beginning of
this century. When Bancroft and Hedge
and Motley returned from their studies
at German universities. they brought with
them not only a fuller equipment of schol-
dfShip, but also a strong enthusiasm for
the noble intellectual movement which
was then shaping the destiny of modern
Germany. Following this, there came the
influence of 1878. the March Revolution
struck chord to which the American
heart vibrated; and when the martyrs OF
this revolution sought refuge in this
country they found here a ready welcome
and intelligent sympathy with German
aspirations
In the friendship between LongfeIIow
and Freiligrath this twofold affinity be
tween the two countries as to both lit
erary and political ideals may he said TO
have received its most notable symbolic
expression. Next there followed the gen
eral adoption of German methods of sci
entIuc research brought here by the
steadily growing number of American
teachers, physicians, theologians who
had received the decisive stimulus for
their lifes work at the universities of
Berlin. GOttingen, or heidelberg And
finally. the dominant position acquired by
Germany since the war of 1870 gave the
American people a new sense of the dig
nifty of the German nation, and kindred
interest in the history OF the Teutonic
race.
The plan of the museum. as it has
gradually worked itself out is interest
ing as showing how remarkably col /
lection of objects can be made to illus
trate the actual thought and feeling Of a /
people as well as their art and manners. |
The aim is to represent the typical things !
fully and to avoid mere miscellaneous /
ness. OF a great cathedral, 4 cole CtiOn |
of photographs would be made covering
every part and every important detail
so that the student might examine the |
whole with a thOroughness that would !
he impracticable, in Il sense on the spot.
A single case of WeIl-chosen volumes |
would cover the history of printing in /
Germany, and at the same time show the /
developments minor point. perhaps but !
none the less an interesting One-of the 7
characteristic modern German letter In I.
the eighteenth century, again. the vaTi- /,
ous small German courts. inspired by the /
maguificeuCe Of the French kings at Yer /
seiIles. although responsible for many /
abuses on the one hand, developed on the |
other, In various degrees and ways a /
culture which was one of the most inter |
estiug phenomena Of the period and |
degree for that re-birth of German liter |
ature in which Lessing. Goethe, and |
Schiller W ere the wOrld-known leaders
One striking feature of this culture con
sisted in the daily life and manner which |
characterized the various courts: and !
these, it Is interesting to note, il will he !
possible to illustrate with much fullness |
and great piCturesqUeness in a series of |
copper plate engraVlngS of the time, which |
deal with almost every imaginable sub |
ject-the dance the hunt. the leVee. and |
the promenade, as we'll as everyday life |
in city and in country, and in war ana IN |
peace.
The scope of the museum would include,