Benjamin Ives Gilman (1852–1933) was notable as the Secretary of the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

from 1893 to 1925. Beginning with the museum as a curator and librarian, he held a variety of positions during this time. As Secretary, he focused on communications and advising the Director and Board on enhancing the museum experience for visitors. He encouraged the display of original art and introduced the practice of having docents aid visitors in their engagement with art.

Biography

Benjamin Ives Gilman was born in New York in 1852, the son of

Winthrop Sargent Gilman Winthrop Sargent Gilman (28 March 1808 – 1 October 1884) was head of the banking house of Gilman, Son & Co. in New York City. Born and raised in Ohio, he had parents and ancestors from New England. Part of the family had already established the ...

and the former Abia Swift Lippincott. He attended

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

(class of 1872) but did not graduate on account of health problems. He joined his family's banking business in New York. After returning for graduate work to Williams, in 1880 he received a master's degree. The next year he entered the Ph.D. program at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

as a philosophy student, focusing on mathematics and logic. He studied with

Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for t ...

, one of the founders of modern mathematical logic. As "B.I. Gilman", he authored a paper published in Peirce's ''Studies in Logic'' (1883). Gilman left Johns Hopkins after one year to study in Germany, and did not return to the university, citing health reasons. He became a student of

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

at the Philosophy Department of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, enrolling there 1883–1885. He specialized in aesthetics, especially the aesthetics of music. Between 1890 and 1892, he taught courses in the psychology of music at

Colorado College Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approximately 2,000 undergraduates at its campus. The college offer ...

, Harvard,

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

, and Columbia. Gilman also undertook experimental research on expressiveness in music and studied "primitive music," as the West then defined it. Together with ethnologist

Jesse Walter Fewkes Jesse Walter Fewkes (November 14, 1850 – May 31, 1930) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, writer, and naturalist. Biography Fewkes was born in Newton, Massachusetts on November 14, 1850, and initially trained as a zoologist at H ...

of the

Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition The Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition occurred between 1886 and 1894 in the American Southwest. Sponsored by Mary Tileston Hemenway, a wealthy widow and philanthropist, the expedition was initially led by Frank Hamilton Cushing, who ...

, he made some of the first recordings and analyses of recordings of Native American music. He demonstrated that the people used musical intervals unlike those in the Western tempered scale. Gilman also wrote about Chinese music. He visited New York's Chinatown to make recordings of their music. In addition, hi
recordings
of music from Fijian, Samoan, Uvean, Javanese, Turkish and other performers at the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

of 1893 are held by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. In 1892 Gilman became an instructor in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

Clark University Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...

. There he taught a course on the 'Psychology of Pain and Pleasure'.

Museum of Fine Arts

In 1893 Gilman was hired as Curator and Librarian at the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

, where he would work for the remainder of his career. He held a variety of titles, including curator (1893-1894?); Librarian (1893-1904); Assistant Director, (1901–1903); and Temporary Director (1907). For almost the entire time, he also served as Secretary (1894-1925), with responsibility for publications and advising the Director and the Board. In his remarks to the board and in his publications, Gilman urged that art museums display original masterpieces of art, not reproductions, and make it easy for the visitor to engage with them; to consider the visitor's comfort (he coined the term "

museum fatigue Museum fatigue is a state of physical or mental fatigue caused by the experience of exhibits in museums and similar cultural institutions. The collection of phenomena that characterize museum fatigue was first described in 1916, and has since rece ...

"); and to focus on aesthetics, not on art history. He also introduced the use of

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

s to the museum, coining that word. His major work, ''Museum Ideals of Purpose and Method'' (1918), is an extended argument for this concept of the museum.

Publications

He was the author of: * "Operations in Relative Number with Applications to the Theory of Probabilities", '' Studies in Logic'' (1883), C. S. Peirce, ed., pp. 107–125. ''Google Books'
Eprint
''Internet Archive'
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* ''Manual of Italian Renaissance Sculpture'' (1904). ''Google Books'
Eprint
''Internet Archive'
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* ''Hopi Songs'' (1908). ''Google Books'
Eprint
''A Traditional Music Library'

(This website says "circa 1891"; that is when Gilman began his research on the subject). ''Internet Archive'
Eprint
* ''Museum Ideals of Purpose and Method'' (1918). ''Google Books'
Eprint
''Internet Archiv
Eprints
* "The Paradox of the Syllogism Solved by Spatial Construction", ''Mind'', New Series, v. 32, n. 125 (Jan., 1923), pp. 38–49 (12 pages)
JSTOR Eprint
as well as many other articles on a wide range of philosophical, mathematical, political, and museological topics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilman, Benjamin Ives 1852 births 1933 deaths American art curators American non-fiction writers Williams College alumni Gilman family of New Hampshire American people of Welsh descent Museum of Fine Arts, Boston American male non-fiction writers American museologists