176 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



It is typical of contemporary American cultural life that good 

 reproduction of the best paintings, and radio programs of the best 

 music are available to nearly everyone. Here is an opportunity for 

 widespread vicarious enjoyment of fine art and music. Yet the soul 

 of art is in its individual expression. While the widespread use of 

 color printing may seem to have discouraged the amateur painter, 

 his place is perhaps taken by the amateur photographer, and the 

 recent rapid growth of school orchestras and bands seems to be 

 ascribable to the growing familiarity with orchestral music as heard 

 over the radio. It is not impossible that use of the radio may mark 

 the birth of a new era in American muscial expression. 



On the credit side of the ledger we can certainly count the intro- 

 duction of new techniques in music and art. Among these may be 

 mentioned the electric "organ," which affords rich, new tone possibili- 

 ties, and photography and motion pictures. Though the possibilities 

 in these directions are only beginning to be explored, it is already 

 clear that in both still and moving pictures there are new fields 

 opening for both the professional and the amateur. In particular, 

 the possibility of adding action and sound to pictures is comparable 

 in importance with the discovery of representing a third dimension 

 in perspective drawing. 



In our recreation we may try to live a primitive life. Having 

 motored hundreds of miles over hard highways, we arrive at the 

 cabin in the wildwood, cook Chicago bacon on a stove using oil from 

 Texas refined in New Jersey, and go fishing with an outboard motor 

 made in Michigan. Or it may be that we go so completely native as 

 to canoe down the river, relying only on our Pittsburgh steel ax and 

 matches made in Ohio from Louisiana sulfur to light our fires, fruit 

 canned in California for our food, and mosquito netting woven in 

 New England to keep off the pests. Though we want to be free 

 from the ring of the telephone and to use the sun as our clock, we 

 must take care that the milk we drink is pasteurized. Thus the 

 American frees himself from technology ! 



SCIENCE MAKES MEN HUMAN 



In his recent book, "Science and the New Humanism," George 

 Sarton shows how throughout history man's cultural growth has 

 followed the gradual growth of his scientific knowledge. In art, 

 except for new pigments, tools, and photographic technique, the 

 American certainly does not excel the Greek nor hardly even the 

 prehistoric European who painted lifelike animals on the walls of 

 his cave. In music the Russian peasants and the natives of Hawaii 

 give us lessons. It is Sarton's contention that those aspects of our 

 culture which have been developing owe their growth primarily to 



