DOI article:
Leland, Waldo G.; Graves, Mortimer: American Research Institutes in the humanities
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57254#0439
AMERICAN RESEARCH INSTITUTES
IN THE HUMANITIES
By
WALDO G. LELAND
Permanent Secretary, American Council of Learned Societies
and
MORTIMER GRAVES
Assistant Secretary, American Council of Learned Societies
WHILE the idea of the Research Institute as an Organization in which the scholar,
freed front all duties connected with instruction, can devote his energies to the
solution of scientific problems, has made some progress in the fields of the natural
and mathematical, — and even the social, — Sciences, in the realm of the huma-
nities it is still virtually unknown in the United States. Practically all investigation
in the purely cultural fields is carried on in, or in connection with, the universities
and Colleges. Under the most favorable circumstances in these institutions an indi-
vidual scholar may be the holder of a Research Professorship and thus be permitted
to give himself over almost entirely to research, but normally a professor’s teaching
duties come first and his research must proceed only in his spare time. On the
other hand, it is true that, since between the cultural and the other disciplines no
strict line can be drawn, some of the Institutes which do exist primarily for research
in the natural or social Sciences do, from time to time, carry on research in the
cultural studies. Conspicuous among such organizations is the Carnegie Institution
of Washington (separately described elsewhere) which, although primarily in-
terested in the natural Sciences, has departments devoted to historical research
(whose importance in the production of tools for the study of American history
can hardly be overestimated), to paleography, and to the history of Science.
It is true, moreover, that the title “institute”, applied to organizations interested
in humanistic studies, is not uncommon. Such bodies, for instance the Archaeologi-
cal Institute of America or the American Institute of Swedish Art, Literature, and
Science, almost without exception prove, upon close inspection, to be learned
societies, not unusually composed of a large lay membership and but a minor
stratum of scholars, whose activities may, indeed, include the Stimulation of
research, as well as the popularization of and dissemination of information covering
the results of such research, but in which actual productive scholarship, either
coöperative or individual, necessarily plays a very small part.
The term “institute” is also used to describe a temporary gathering of scholars
in a single field, usually held during the summer-vacation, for the discussion of
Problems within that field, or even, as in the case of the Linguistic Institute of the
Linguistic Society of America, for offering advanced instruction of a kind which
cannot be secured anywhere eise. These organizations, however, cannot be called
“freie wissenschaftliche Anstalten”.
The lone exception to this generalization occurs in the case of the Oriental
Institute of Chicago, which calls itself a “research laboratory for the investigation
of the early human career”. While it is closely connected with the University of
423
IN THE HUMANITIES
By
WALDO G. LELAND
Permanent Secretary, American Council of Learned Societies
and
MORTIMER GRAVES
Assistant Secretary, American Council of Learned Societies
WHILE the idea of the Research Institute as an Organization in which the scholar,
freed front all duties connected with instruction, can devote his energies to the
solution of scientific problems, has made some progress in the fields of the natural
and mathematical, — and even the social, — Sciences, in the realm of the huma-
nities it is still virtually unknown in the United States. Practically all investigation
in the purely cultural fields is carried on in, or in connection with, the universities
and Colleges. Under the most favorable circumstances in these institutions an indi-
vidual scholar may be the holder of a Research Professorship and thus be permitted
to give himself over almost entirely to research, but normally a professor’s teaching
duties come first and his research must proceed only in his spare time. On the
other hand, it is true that, since between the cultural and the other disciplines no
strict line can be drawn, some of the Institutes which do exist primarily for research
in the natural or social Sciences do, from time to time, carry on research in the
cultural studies. Conspicuous among such organizations is the Carnegie Institution
of Washington (separately described elsewhere) which, although primarily in-
terested in the natural Sciences, has departments devoted to historical research
(whose importance in the production of tools for the study of American history
can hardly be overestimated), to paleography, and to the history of Science.
It is true, moreover, that the title “institute”, applied to organizations interested
in humanistic studies, is not uncommon. Such bodies, for instance the Archaeologi-
cal Institute of America or the American Institute of Swedish Art, Literature, and
Science, almost without exception prove, upon close inspection, to be learned
societies, not unusually composed of a large lay membership and but a minor
stratum of scholars, whose activities may, indeed, include the Stimulation of
research, as well as the popularization of and dissemination of information covering
the results of such research, but in which actual productive scholarship, either
coöperative or individual, necessarily plays a very small part.
The term “institute” is also used to describe a temporary gathering of scholars
in a single field, usually held during the summer-vacation, for the discussion of
Problems within that field, or even, as in the case of the Linguistic Institute of the
Linguistic Society of America, for offering advanced instruction of a kind which
cannot be secured anywhere eise. These organizations, however, cannot be called
“freie wissenschaftliche Anstalten”.
The lone exception to this generalization occurs in the case of the Oriental
Institute of Chicago, which calls itself a “research laboratory for the investigation
of the early human career”. While it is closely connected with the University of
423