DOI Heft:
No.141 (November, 1908)
DOI Artikel:Francke, Kuno: Emperor William's gifts to Harvard University
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28256#0111
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MPEROR WILLIAM'S GIFTS TO
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
BY KUNO FRANCKE, LL.D., PRO-
FESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF
GERMAN CULTURE AND CURA-
TOR OF THE GERMANIC MUSEUM OF
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
No EuROPEAN museum has thus far succeeded in
bringing before the student's eye, by a comprehen-
sive collection of representative reproductions, a
conspectus of the development either of European
art as a whole or of the art of a particular modern
nation. For even the Trocadero, vast as its collec-
tions are, does not give an altogether satisfactory
view of the history of piastic art in France, and the
Kensington Mu-
seum d o e s n o t
even approach
achieving such a
thing for England.
As for Germany,
the incomparable
Germanisches
Museum at Nur-
embergis intended
rather as a store-
house for original
works of the arts
and the crafts than
as a historicai
synopsis of the ar-
tistic development
of the nation as a
whole. And t h e
equipment of Ger-
man universities in
this branch of
study must be
called decidediy
defective.
Whereas stu-
dents of classical
archeology find in
neariy every uni-
versityof the
Fatheriand a weil-
planned and sys-
tematically ar-
ranged museum of
casts of Greek
sculptures, there
does not exist at a
single one of these
universities any collection which would offer to
the student of German history a fairly accurate
representation of the artistic development of his
own country. Even in the German capitai, with
its weaith of ethnological and archeological ex-
hibits from Troas and Pergamon, from Egypt
and Assyria, from India and South America, no
attempt has as yet been made to bring together,
in reproductions, the great artistic iandmarks of
Germany herself.
It has been reserved to an American university to
make at ieast the beginning of such an undertaking,
but it is interesting to note that the Germanic Mu-
seum of Harvard University could not have achieved
whatever success it has had thus far had it not been
for the generous interest bestowed upon it by his
GOLDEN GATE FREIBERG CATHEDRAL
XIII
MPEROR WILLIAM'S GIFTS TO
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
BY KUNO FRANCKE, LL.D., PRO-
FESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF
GERMAN CULTURE AND CURA-
TOR OF THE GERMANIC MUSEUM OF
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
No EuROPEAN museum has thus far succeeded in
bringing before the student's eye, by a comprehen-
sive collection of representative reproductions, a
conspectus of the development either of European
art as a whole or of the art of a particular modern
nation. For even the Trocadero, vast as its collec-
tions are, does not give an altogether satisfactory
view of the history of piastic art in France, and the
Kensington Mu-
seum d o e s n o t
even approach
achieving such a
thing for England.
As for Germany,
the incomparable
Germanisches
Museum at Nur-
embergis intended
rather as a store-
house for original
works of the arts
and the crafts than
as a historicai
synopsis of the ar-
tistic development
of the nation as a
whole. And t h e
equipment of Ger-
man universities in
this branch of
study must be
called decidediy
defective.
Whereas stu-
dents of classical
archeology find in
neariy every uni-
versityof the
Fatheriand a weil-
planned and sys-
tematically ar-
ranged museum of
casts of Greek
sculptures, there
does not exist at a
single one of these
universities any collection which would offer to
the student of German history a fairly accurate
representation of the artistic development of his
own country. Even in the German capitai, with
its weaith of ethnological and archeological ex-
hibits from Troas and Pergamon, from Egypt
and Assyria, from India and South America, no
attempt has as yet been made to bring together,
in reproductions, the great artistic iandmarks of
Germany herself.
It has been reserved to an American university to
make at ieast the beginning of such an undertaking,
but it is interesting to note that the Germanic Mu-
seum of Harvard University could not have achieved
whatever success it has had thus far had it not been
for the generous interest bestowed upon it by his
GOLDEN GATE FREIBERG CATHEDRAL
XIII