Word: collector
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...original criticism was directed against Conant's section called "The Role of the Humanities in a Technological Age" in his report for 1951-52, in which he said "Much of what passes for appreciation of the arts and letters in some circles is a combination of antiquarianism, a collector's instinct and the old snob appleal of a 'gentleman's education...
...section, Conant asks "less tearful hand wringing about the 'fate of the humanities'." He goes on to say, "Much of what passes for appreciation of the arts and letters in some circles is a combination of antiquarianism, a collector's instinct and the old snob appeal of a 'gentleman's education.' The academic people who pander to these tastes to my mind do a positive disservice to the humanistic tradition, which is in fact the tradition of the continuing triumphs of the creative human spirit...
Harry Bober assistant professor of Fine Arts, termed Conant's argument "weighted." He explained that it is "unfortunate" to talk about the humanities "in terms of a practice long ago outmoded." The history of Art, he added, does not rely on a collector's instinct or snob appeal. "One would have to look very far for snob appeal in the humanities," he declared. "For the most part the humanities are concerned with the broadest human motivation and the history of ideas...
Howard Mumford Jones, professor of English, admitted that the attitude which Conant discusses is prevalent on the national scene, but said, "Teaching in the humanities at Harvard generally tries to avoid both the collector's point of view and the attitude of unenlightened scholarship...
...went swimming in the rivers of Borneo instead, and went on living at Bukit Serene. Last week, however, all appeals to the Sultan's better nature having failed, he packed up his books and bird specimens and moved out. A Chinese millionaire friend, a fellow bird watcher and collector, had lent him his 20-acre, $500,000 estate. Said MacDonald resignedly: I'll be closer to my work...