ART IN THE COLLEGE LIBRARY
The problem of art in schools has been frequently discussed. The matter of art in colleges, apparently, has not been so much considered. The cases, however, seem to be dissimilar only in degree, not in kind. In fact, not a little of the material that has been suggested for schoolroom decoration would be equally in place in the college. For instance, names such as those of Gozzoli or Luca della Robbia, on the Craftsman's list for schools could just as well be suggested for the college. Also, the average student is probably first to be reached best by recognition of the fact that there are other interests beside the purely aesthetic. In other words, good use can be made of the subject picture, the best possible being chosen. Dr. W. D. Johnston, librarian of Columbia University, where exhibitions "have always been an important auxiliary of lectures" and have included exhibitions of graphic arts, states that these last "are selected and displayed less with a view to artistic than pictorial value." But he adds that more and more attention is given to artistic value, and that in his belief the most valuable exhibits of an artistic nature are those "displayed permanently on the walls of halls, seminar rooms and lecture rooms. On the other hand, those which are exhibited temporarily should, if well selected, and well announced, do much to broaden taste."
The permanent display of pictures which illustrate with distinction certain broad principles of taste, is of undoubted necessity. But the use of the temporary show must not be lost sight of. The oft seen easily becomes the oft unheeded; familiarity breeds contempt. Periodical changes therefore seem advisable, as evidence that there is "something doing." Loans of good prints from private sources, if advisable, might be utilized to excellent effect. For instance, if the library happens to own, or can borrow, a copy of such a publication of color reproductions as the Medici prints, or "Meister der Farbe" or "Alte Meister" (the latter two issued by Seemann of Leipzig), a number of plates from the same might be placed on exhibition for, say, three months. This might be followed by a six-weeks' black-and-white show of good etchings from a private collection, or from the stock of the nearest museum or print dealer. After that, perhaps, a show of Greek art. The guiding principles should be: Keep the exhibit within reasonable bounds as to numbers, make selection with as much discrimination as circumstances will permit, and see that what you offer is made palatable. Dr. E. C. Richardson of the Princeton University library tells me that there a large collection of art photographs is drawn upon for permanent exhibition, the latter rearranged "every now and then" in order to exhibit fresh material, and that there have been a number of special exhibitions. (Incidentally, this university has a great variety of undergraduate courses in art.)
The matter of proper presentation is important. Not what is seen, but what is digested, counts. Good labels are a necessity; summary, with as little dryness as possible, informative, so that the student may see at a glance why a given picture was shown, and what are its good points. If relation to studies can be brought out in these exhibits, all the better. That naturally suggests the possibility of an occasional display of pictures illustrating a given period or personality in a given country. In the recently-printed little volume, "Art museums and schools," containing four lectures by Stockton Oxson, Kenyon Cox, Stanley Hall and Oliver S. Tonks, the significance of the museum to teachers of English, art, history and the classics is considered, and the documentary value of art is properly emphasized. "In order to teach the classics," says Prof. Tonks, "you must know more of ancient life than is to be gleaned from the literature by itself." Viewed in this light, the old Greek vases and other art objects take on a new significance. But the ultimate object of all this must not be lost to sight, the cultural influence sought, the promotion of interest in art as a matter not apart from, but a part of, our daily life, a contribution to general culture. It is well to make it clear that a certain amount of appreciation of art can become as much a matter of course as certain elementary rules of good breeding. "Art," says Croly, in his "Promise of American life,"—"art cannot become a power in a community unless many of its members are possessed of a native and innocent love of beautiful things." These considerations, again, suggest the occasional exhibiting of plates illustrating decorative and applied art, say color plates such as those in Wenzel's "Modern decorative art," or "Dekorative Vorbilder," or similar books, if procurable, or black-and-white plates from books or art magazines. A judicious use of the library's books is advisable, not through lengthy lists in which the bibliographical instincts of the librarian might find vent. Reference to two or three books on a subject—whetting the appetite by displaying them at the same time as the plates exhibited—may lead to an occasional reading at spare moments. It may help also to show the fallacy of the "I don't know anything of art, but I know just what I like" attitude. You can not understand anything worth understanding without some trouble, any more than you can play football or bridge without some practice.
The matter of hanging must depend, naturally, on local conditions: amount and distribution and shape and location of available wall space or other space, financial resources, character of student body, etc. The simplest method is, of course, to suspend the pictures by clips from horizontal wires, but it is not under all circumstances the safest. Pictures may be fastened to a wooden background (usually covered with burlap or other textile) on the wall. In that case, care must of course be taken that thumb-tacks do not pass through the print. The shank of the tack passes close to the picture upon the outermost margin of which its head will then press. Mr. E. R. Smith of the Avery library at Columbia University, lays strips of bristol board over the spaces between the pictures, and overlapping the margins of the same; the tacks pass through these strips. Pictures fastened to the wall may be covered by sheets of glass held in place by strong tacks, or perhaps the brass-headed upholsterers' nails. Where prints are shown unprotected it may prove well to mount them, unless they are printed on thick and strong paper. (At the Newark library they use mounting board bound at the edge with buckram and further strengthened by pigskin corners; this is for prints which circulate among teachers.) Where frames are used with the intention of periodical or occasional change of exhibits, the back can be held by the familiar "button" device which can be easily swung aside so as to admit of changing the picture without extracting nails. Mr. Paul Brockett of the Smithsonian Institution, tells me that there the glass doors of bookcases have been used for exhibiting pictures. At the same place, wing frames—that space-saving device of a dozen frames with glass centered on a standard, and having a certain swing in either direction—have been used. Moreover, these frames were units which could be hung on the standard or placed against the wall. In some of the New York public library's branches, such frames radiate directly from the wall, to save space. A similar device is seen in a certain type of display fixtures, in which the swinging frames reach to the floor, and which may be seen in operation in the lithographic exhibition of Fuchs & Lang, Warren St., New York City. There is no protecting glass here, however, and I presume that the use of this contrivance would be safe only in exceptional cases. Hints to exhibitors may be found in articles such as the one on "Mounting, framing and hanging pictures," by Miss Mabel J. Chase, assistant supervisor of drawing, Newark, N. J., in the School Arts Magazine for December, 1912, or in one on "Planning and mounting an exhibit" in the number for March, 1913, by George W. Eggers, who lays stress on the fact that "Every exhibit should definitely tell something." Still continuing the examination of this magazine, one notes in the issue of April, 1913, an article on the "Decoration of an assembly hall in R. C. Ingraham Grammar school, New Bedford, Mass." That relates to a permanent exhibit, and describes the distribution of pictures and other objects in such a manner as to make a harmonious arrangement of the whole room. But there are other periodicals, and there are readers' guides and other indexes and bibliographical aids, and this is not the place for lists.
Now, as to the material to be used for the exhibition. Outside of the resources offered by the library's own collection and the loan possibilities indicated, there are various dealers and other agencies to be taken into account. In the state of New York for instance, the division of Visual Instruction of the Education department has a circulating collection of pictures furnishing ample material for educational extension lectures and for study clubs. This consists of "Braun, Elson, Hanfstängel and Hegger carbons, Copley prints and bromides and Berlin photogravures." These wall-pictures are lent to schools and libraries, framed without glass, for a fee of 50 cents each per year. In other states, I presume state library commissions could give advice. There are the artistic lithographic drawings in color issued by B. G. Teubner of Leipzig at five and six marks apiece, the plates of Seemann's "Meister der Farbe" can be purchased separately, and dealers such as the Berlin Photographic Co., George Busse, the Detroit Publishing Co., Braun Clement & Co. and others could no doubt give lists and advice. Importing book-dealers, French and German, must be considered. Not all of the material furnished by these concerns is equally cheap, but a certain amount of the higher-priced sort will serve for permanent exhibit.
Part 6, devoted to the art department, in John Cotton Dana's "Modern American library economy," is a very useful guide, not only in its record of accomplishment at Newark, but also in its hints as to sources, its list of addresses. Miss Ethelred Abbot's "List of photograph dealers" (Massachusetts Library Club, 1907) is properly emphasized for its usefulness, as is also the "Bibliotheca pædagogica."
For permanent exhibits the reproductions of certain examples in architecture, painting and sculpture which have become classical, are of obvious value. And here, too, the reason for inclusion may well be emphasized to the student, not only by proper labels but also by reference at the proper time in the classroom and lecture hall. Such classics in art will not infrequently be found reproduced better in black-and-white than in color. Should the library decide to procure color work by modern artists, such as the Teubner prints referred to, or the similar ones issued by Voigtländer or by the Künstlerbund of Karlsruhe, care must be taken to select such as are of general, and not merely local, interest. Say for example, the well known "Field of grain" by Volkmann. Such modern work also has the advantage of emphasizing the fact that there is work worth while being done today. It likewise shows the healthy tendency to enlarge acquaintance with home production, home scenery, home customs. We find that, for instance, in Germany, in Sweden, to a certain extent in England, and elsewhere. Much of the foreign endeavor in this direction has found its use in schools, but it involves some big principles in point of view which make a certain amount of its results of use in the college as well. But we should similarly pay attention to the best American work. Noteworthy attempts by American artists to interpret American life and the beauties of our scenery deserve support. One notes with interest the attempt made by the American Federation of Arts' Committee on Art in the Public Schools to call attention to American examples in the fine arts by calling for an expression of opinion as to the best works produced by our artists. T. W. Stevens reported that the Chicago Institution, furthering the utilization of students' work in the decoration of public school walls, "encouraged the adoption of subject pictures for decoration; especially subjects in American history."
The help of the art department, where the college has one, may well be enlisted. (Parenthetically let me state that E. Baldwin Smith in his recent report on "The study of the history of art in the colleges and universities of the United States," Princeton, 1911, summarizes his statistics in the statement that of 1,000,000 students, 163,000 have any art courses at all offered them.) Not only have we such rich collections as those of the Avery Architectural library at Columbia, the Fogg Museum at Harvard, or Yale University, but collections of casts, photographs and books will be found at the disposal of the art departments of a number of other colleges. Such resources might be drawn upon so that some modicum, at least, of art influence may be extended to the rest of the institution. If the direct co-operation of the art department is secured it must necessarily be adapted to the needs of the case with a clear understanding of the fact that general students, and not art students, are to be served. The statement of Dr. Leigh H. Hunt, associate professor of art at the College of the City of New York is of interest here. His 6,000 boys, says he, would like to begin with the human face. They do not necessarily lean to the saccharine, but perceive human interest shown without the aid of the direct anecdote. They stand Memling and Ghirlandajo. "The boys love color," he continues, "and are easily led to love refined color. They admire the early English water colorists—Cox, DeWint; also, Japanese prints." After becoming interested in such refined color, they get a liking for monochromes—delft blue landscapes, sanguines and sepia drawings.
Efforts such as those I have indicated seem particularly called for where the college is away from art influences. But they should not be put aside even where the college is located in a larger center with an art life. Rather should the resources near at hand be turned to advantage. I have seen the statement that over 30 per cent of our museums are connected with educational institutions. Also, in a large city, there are numerous art exhibitions, most varied in character. But the very extent of all these opportunities may serve to keep away the student who has so many other duties and attractions. And, as Prof. Hunt points out, boys living at one end of a large city not only whirl past all such possibilities on their way to college, but in New York, using the subway, they pass under it and not through it. What is wanted is the direct, unavoidable presentation of art to those who are not yet sufficiently interested to seek art for themselves.
In the whole matter the ever-necessary exercise of common sense is commendable. Enthusiasm for the cause must be moderated and adapted to the point of view of the student. The didactic element should be unobtrusive. The student should be interested rather than admonished. Above all he should be led to see that a certain love and appreciation of art is not a "highbrow" affair but a proper, necessary and pleasure-giving part of the equipment of the cultured man. As proper and a matter of course as the avoidance of a necktie of shrieking colors, or as the use of the table knife for cutting only. Farther discussion of this subject, as well as decision as to the practicability of the ideas advanced, must be left to those who have a more intimate acquaintance with the problems, conditions and difficulties involved than can be had by one who has to deal with the readers in a large public library.
Mr. Goodrich called attention to the library of the University of Michigan as one place where ideas like those of the paper had been carried out, made a plea for color prints as against the everlasting black and brown, and suggested the possibilities of pottery and textiles in the way of giving life and cheer to the delivery hall. He referred by way of example to the beautiful drapery curtains in the John Hay library reading room—a vast relief from the ordinary roller shade and just as effectual.
At the end of the session, the nominating committee brought in the name of Mr. W. N. C. Carlton, librarian of the Newberry library, to succeed Mr. Keogh on the committee on arrangements; Mr. Carlton was unanimously elected. His term will be three years; the other members of the committee, Miss Askew and Mr. Goodrich, remain the same as this year. The session then adjourned until Friday night.