Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

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based on the lot of the young scholar who earned an academic appointment
because he had performed stxne worthy research, then found himself SO
worn by teaching freshmen and sophornares that he lost the urge to work
creztively. Veblen insisted that mathemtical research should be digha-
fied as a mprofession." The creative thinker in the natural sciences
wss not wasted so prodigally, because laboratories were expensive, and
to waste the talents of the rren who used them was obviously uneconmical.
As an alternative to an institute, he suggested that the outstending
msth~~~tician night 5e subsidized to conduct his researches in the insti-
tute with which he was connected, thus following the w p l e of the Yarrow
professorships of the Royal society.* For that project Dr. Simon referred
Veblen to his brother Abraham et the General Education Boerd, who in turn
introduced him to Dr. Wickliffe Rose, the new President of the Board.
This was evidently the first rrreetlng of Flelcner and Peblen, Out of ft
grew the Science Research Foundation at Princeton UnfversEty,.whieh had
such a marked success kn stirdating the faculty, Trustees and even aLmi
to put Princeton in the forefront of hrfcan universities in the sciences
and mathematicn.
There is no record of any further contacts between the twa
until January, 1930, when Flexner saw the Professor quoted as saying
"that America still lacks a genuine seat of learning, and that Awrican
academfc work is inferior in quality to the best abroad." Flexner, then
in negotiations with the Founders, asked t k Professor for a copy of hits
speech. But Veblen had spoken without notes. Houevcr, he took the occasion
to remw his contact wfth the educator, writing:
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