Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

as a location; the mjority advised close proximity to a university and
held ready access to a library to be essential. The Director again
vlsfted President HibSen of Princeton, talking this ti= also to the
Dean of the Graduate School.
So far had the sentiwnt for locsting at Princeton gone that
before he and his sister left for their winter vacation,in the Uest, Mr.
Bamberger had been in touch with a Princeton real estate agent. At the
end of February Messss. Edgar Bmberger, kidesdosf snd Maass visited
various sites in the Borough and Township, and Flexner, who had just
ccme from the Founders in the West, wrote them of the fact, and said they
found plenty of land available and considered the location good, but that
Founders *
of course, no action would be taken in the] absence and without their
Meanwhile, the information MS closely guarded.
Mr, Bz~herger and Mrs. FuLd were in a.delicate position; it
was less than two years since their home cwmunity had so enthusiastic-
ally welcomed the news that the Institute would be establs~hed there.
Just before the April, 1932, meeting of the Trustees, Hr, Straus wrote
Flexner, perhaps disingenuously, that he hoped the Board wou3d soon nnke
it possible for the Institute to be associated with a universfty; he be-
lieved k t was better for an institute for economic research, or fox one
of hfghex learning, to be so assocfated. To this Flexner, replied with
revealing asperity that he did not understand just what Straus ueant:
IS you man neighborly, int imte, personal, inorganf c relatians,
I should think that both pzrties would profit greatly. +
This has been the experience ef the Roysl Institution and
the Lister Institute in London...Zf a formal, definite,
legal, organic association is contemplated, I should think
that the Institute would be absolutely destroyed. It vculd
z Y
,. %\