OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Museum and Art of Collection

History 300 Section 3 Fall 2002

Classroom: Library 251, Mondays, 2:30-5:30 p.m.

Prof. Maryanne Horowitz

My semester office hours at Swan 316 are W. 2:40-4:30, F. 12:15-1:15 and by appointment.

email horowitz@oxy.edu office phone 323-259-2583

Homepage: http://www.oxy.edu/~horowitz/home

Hist. 300. Museum and Art of Collection.

Catalogue Description:

The modern museum originates in the early modern passion for collecting. We shall study the interrelated emergence of libraries, botanical gardens, and university and palace curiosity cabinets as collectors sought to gain an encyclopedic knowledge. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens and the Getty Center we among the local collections we examine. Each student may follow his or her own geographical and disciplinary interests in writing a research paper on the history and design of a collection.

Books in Bookstore

Roger Chartier, The Order of Books, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Stanford, 1994)

Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge1983)

Carol Duncan, Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums (Routledge, 1995)

Roland and Françoise Etienne, The Search for Ancient Greece (Abrams, 1992)

Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge (Routledge,1992) (expected in October)

For U. of Chicago paper style, see Kate. L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers (Chicago 1996). U. of Chicago style is printed within many introductory manuals. It is also the style of articles in the American Historical Review.

Grade and Requirements:

50% research paper and 50% other classwork.

To meet history major comprehensive requirement, history majors need grade of final paper (1/3 of course grade) to be at least a B-.

Fraction of Course Grade:

2/6. Paper passed in Mon. Nov. 18, 12:30 p.m. Swan 316. 15 pp. Research paper plus endnotes and bibliography divided into primary sources, secondary sources (including articles, books, and websites) Follow Univ. of Chicago style as in Turabian and in American Historical Review. If an appendix contains illustrations, include a list of figures.

1/6 Intermediate steps for paper are marked in italics under class due date. This course advances students’ writing through feedback on numerous intermediate steps. (All assignments are due by 2:30 p.m. Mon. unless otherwise indicated.) ).

1/6. Midterm essays. Mon. Oct. 21

1/6. Oral reports, presentations, sharing of sources, class discussion of reading, and commentary on others’ projects

1/6. Takehome essays due Mon Dec. 2. 12:30 p.m., Swan 316. They may be passed in instead at 2:30 p.m Mon. Nov. 25.

The class meets 2:30-5:25 p.m.on Sept. 9, film on Sept. 16 may be seen another time that week, 23, 30; Oct. 7, 14, 21, 28; Nov. 4, 11,18, 25, Dec. 2. 2 additional museum visits are required; more are recommended. Please email Prof. Horowitz if you must miss class to learn how to make up for the class. If any more than 3 hours of class time is missed during the semester, the student will be expected to do a written report on topics of that class time (via other students’ notes & recommended additional readings).

Collections to Visit:

The Getty Center (with Prof. Horowitz)

The Huntington Library, Museum and Botanical Gardens

Norton Simon Museum (with Prof. Horowitz)

Southwest Museum (at least 3 of the previous 4)

Special Collections Room and Braun Room, Occidental College (with Prof. Horowitz)

Resources of Occidental College Library from http://departments.oxy.edu/library/rtools.html

"Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Sites" from Horowitz

homepage http://www.oxy.edu/~horowitz/home

Assignments for Class Meetings

Mon. Sept. 9, 2:30-5:25 p.m., Library 251

Interconnected origins of libraries, musuems and botanical gardens.

Controversy on Eisenstein's thesis on the impact of the printing press.

Visit Special Collections, Occidental College Library

Email by Thurs. Sept. 12 to horowitz@oxy.edu the names of museums or famous libraries or special gardens (with their city or country location) you have ever visited! Obviously, you can mention only the ones you remember, but a description with location is fine to replace the name. How young were you at your first memory of a museum?

Check out l book on Getty Center, Brentwood, or Getty Museum, Malibu (closed). Look at Getty Center website.

Fri. Sept. 13 Trip to Getty Center, off of 405 in Brentwood. We'll be meeting at fountain 2:30 p.m. You may want to bring food to save expense. Entrance is free; please just chip in for the $5 car admissions. Prof. Horowitz and students will explore several rooms together 3:45-6:00 Notice curiousity cabinets, manuscript and illuminated book displays, period rooms, spiral garden, and relation of buildings to the city below. Browse through reserve books on Getty Center and Getty Center website.

Sept. 16 instead of class: The Name of the Rose (128 minutes) (PN1995.9.D4 N36 1987), in viewing room on floor 1, Library (Ellen and Dorna in charge). Focus on views of medieval library arrangement, appearance of manuscripts, as well as attitudes toward ancient books. Film was based on book by Eco. Sean Connery plays Bernard de Fournival, whose garden of manuscripts helped plant the Sorbonne's original collection.

Sept. 23 Be prepared to discuss Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe.

Student presentations: ch. 1 Orika ch. 2 Becca ch. 3 Zach  ch. 4 Jordan ch. 5 Joe  ch. 6 Chris ch. 7 Ellen  ch. 8  Dorna, Controversy among reviewers of the book.

Visit Braun Room, Occidental College Library From The Name of the Rose, discuss in class changing attitudes toward ancient manuscripts, changing roles of librarians, and overcoming taboos on seeking knowledge.

General discussion of differences between ages: oral cultures worldwide, ancient civilizations with written scrolls and engraved stones, age of manuscript book, age of printed book, age of computer.

Sept. 30 Read Chartier, Preface, chs. 1 and 2. Discussion of Chartier's ideas on history of readers and history of authors. Read. R. and E. Etienne, pp. l-33 on ancient Roman, medieval, and Renaissance collecting of Greek antiquities. Notice chronology, pp. 164-167.

Slide-lecture on Renaissance gardens: Padua Botanical Garden, Pitti Palace Garden

Due. Topic(s) and working bibliography. Pick a particular collection or collector in U.S.A or Europe to focus on an aspect of the history and design of a collection.

Oct. 7 Finish Chartier, ch. 3 on early modern idea of the library and Epilogue.

Read Hooper-Greenhill, chs. 2-3 on Medici Palace, Florence.

Each student by Oct. 7 reports on an important reading for the research paper (a short reading may be distributed or placed on reserve a week ahead)

Due: Thesis statement of committed topic and subdivided bibliography.

By Oct. 16 visit The Huntington (Notice especially the exhibit on the history of the book, the Shakespeare garden, the Japanese Garden, the Cactus Garden) and/or The Southwest Museum with at least one other member of the class.

Wed. Oct. 16. Read Hooper-Greenville, chs. 4 , 5, 1, and think about the shift in ways of arranging cabinets of museum objects and the shifts in the ways of arranging books.

Due at Swan mailbox 10 a.m, Oct. 16: 100-150 word paper abstract

Fri. Oct. 19 2:30-4:30 Substitute class meeting in Prof. Horowitz’s office to discuss Hooper-Greenhill and receive abstracts back. 

Oct 21. 2 Hours Midterm essays in-class. You may use your books and your notebook.:

Essays on Eisenstein, Chartier, and Hooper-Greenhill chs. 1-5.

Use your experience of The Huntington and at the Getty Center in your essay.

4:30-5:25 Class meeting to discuss paper projects.

Oct. 28

Hooper-Greenhilll, chs. 6 on the royal society.

R. and E. Etienne, ch. 3 and pp. 130-135.

Due: Sentence outline of paper with some notes labeled by outline section.

Nov. 4

R. and E. Etienne, chs. 4-6 and pp. 136-139, 154-157. Discuss whether the Elgin marbles should be returned to Greece.

Hooper-Greenhill, ch. 7 on the disciplinary museum

Duncan, pp. 1-48 on origins of discipline museums of art

Due: 2 copies of at least 10 pp. of paper with endnotes and primary and secondary source bibliography. Revised complete sentence outline (a sentence corresponds to the topical sentence of each paragraph of the paper).

Nov. 11

R. and E. Etienne, chs. 7-8 and pp. 140-153, 158-163

Hooper-Greenhill, ch. 8, review ch. 1.

Duncan, ch. 3 on museums in NYC and Chicago.

Each student by Nov. 11 reports on a second important reading for the research paper (a short reading may be distributed or placed on reserve a week ahead)

Due: l-page each commentary on two student papers.

Discussion of Student Papers.

Nov. 18 Duncan, ch.. 4 (she discusses Huntington and Getty) and ch. 5, Conclusion.

Due at 12:30 at office Swan 316: Final paper of 15 pp. plus endnotes & bibliography subdivided into at least primary sources and secondary sources in Univ. of Chicago style. If an appendix contains illustrations, include a figure list.

Occidental College policy on academic honesty:

http://departments.oxy.edu/vpss/studenthandbook/academic.policies/academic.ethics.html

Visit to Norton Simon Museum. Meet Oxy grad. Lisa Griffins. Discussion of museums built in 20^th century after visit.

Rides leave from fountain at 2:30.

Nov. 24

Polished Student Presentations of Papers (15-20 minutes). Student Evaluations.

Dec. 2 Takehome essay due by 12:30 p.m, Swan 316. 1 of the essays will be on 20^th century museums which utilizes experience in L.A. museums as well as Hooper-Greenhill, Duncan, and R. and E. Etienne.

Read on reserve American Historical Review (103,1), Feb. 1998: "AHR Forum, especially, Paula Findlen "Possessing the Past: The Material World of the Italian Renaissance," pp. 83-114, as well as William J. Bouwsma, Anthony Grafton and Randolph Starn. Individual reports on responses of Bouwsma, Grafton and Starn. Evaluate whether collecting is or is not a defining characteristic of the Renaissance. Are Findlen's and Eisenstein's theses compatible?

Final Graded Papers returned to students. There is no class meeting during Final Week.

Essays will be returned in Horowitz large in Hist. 300 folder in large outgoing mailbox below incoming small Horowitz mailbox.

INTERMEDIATE STEPS FOR PAPER are marked in italics above.

Student reports on key readings for their papers are welcome for scheduling a week ahead (a short reading for other students to discuss may be placed on reserve or handed out); each student should make 2 such reports.

It is best to do all stages of paper in a wordprocessing computer program with spelling and grammar checker and to regularly discuss paper and sources with classmates.

Use Turabian as your guide for endnotes and bibliography.

Some Paper Topics on which Prof. Horowitz can offer considerable assistance:

Collecting in encyclopedias and dictionaries:

18^th century encyclopedias

Transformation from 20^th century to 21^st century electronic encyclopedias

Italian Renaissance:

Early history of the Vatican Library

Rooms in the Vatican Musuem

Isabella d'Este and her suites of collecting rooms in Mantua

Author Portraits in Library of the Duke of Urbino

Study of the Duke of Urbino in Gubbio (in Metropolitan Museum)

Collecting by Piero de' Medici and Lorenzo de' Medici

Collections of the later Medici

Eleanor of Toledo's suites of rooms in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

Collecting in Venice

Botanical Garden in Padua

Botanical Garden in Pisa

French Middle Ages and Renaissance:

Saint Louis and gathering of relics

Papal Palace at Avignon

Botanical Garden in Marseilles

The study of Michel de Montaigne

Gabriel Naudé, librarian of 17^th century

Versailles, collecting in 17^th century

Versailles garden

Origins of the Louvre, late 18^th century

Bibliothèque nationale, 19^th and 20^th centuries

Spain:

El Escorial of King Philip II, especially the library

Spanish confrontation with Amerindian cultural objects and buildings

Origins of the collection in the Prado

United Kingdom:

Imperial Busts in the Cotton Collection

A particular collection of the British Museum

British Library--its transformations

New British Library of 21^st century

Henry VIII and confiscation of monastic libraries

Oxford-one of the libraries, especially the Bodleian

Cambridge-one of the libraries

Trinity College Library, Dublin

U.S.A:

Jefferson Wing of Library of Congress

Harvard University Library in early modern period

Library of American Philosophical Society and American government in Philadelphia

A particular collection of the Metropolitan Museum

The Cloisters Museum, NYC

Boston Fine Arts Museum

The Getty Museum, Malibu

The Getty Center, Brentwood

The Huntington Library, Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

Southwest Museum, L.A.

St. Petersburg:

Peter the Great and the collecting of Western Art

The Hermitage