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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Oct. 17, 1956
Knowledge Grew From Alphabet
By JIM SLEDD (Of the Daily Kansan Staff)
"He chose an excellent topic, he lectured brilliantly and seemed to be in touch with his audience," was one listener's reaction to Dr. Sterling Dow's Humanities Lecture Tuesday night in Fraser Theater.
Next Lecture Is November 27
The second Humanities lecture will be given Tuesday night, Nov. 27, by Dr. Bernard Weinberg, scholar in Romance languages at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. His subject will concern changing concepts in psychology and their effect upon poetry.
Dr Dow, the John E. Hudson professor or archaeology at Harvard University, delivered an address entitled "The Alphabet and the Organization of Knowledge," which dealt with a new field of historical research—the story of how man developed systems or organizing, arranging and cataloging the vast accumulation of human knowledge through the centuries.
Dr. Dow said the subject he chose is a fundamental one, not confined to the humanities alone, but one that enables him to reach out and include all other studies in some sense.
Academic World Builds Fences
"There are reasons to believe that the academic world, acting in an academic way, builds fences around
the three divisions of organized knowledge—the humanities, the sciences and the social studies," he said, "so that each is somewhat cut off from the other, and so that all three often suffer the consequences."
Scientific knowledge about humane and historical-social facts may cause people to look over these fences, and perhaps to even break them down."
He explained that the alphabet used today came from the Romans, who in turn had learned it from the Greeks, and the Greeks from the early Phoenicians. By drawing the various letters on the blackboard, he illustrated the similarity in all three alphabets.
Traces Evolution
He then traced the evolution of the modern alphabet with slides of numerous stone alphabets bearing ancient inscriptions. Many of the tablets were found in Greece by Dr. Dow himself, during the five years of excavation.
Dr. Dow's lecture centered ultimately on the importance of alphabetization as a device to catalog knowledge of all kinds. He emphasized the fact that the earliest written lists of all kinds were not alphabetized, even after the letters of the Phoenician and Greek alphabets had become fixed in a permanent order.
"Alphabetization is used by us so much that we don't even think about it as such—as indexes, files, library catalogs, and records, not to mention the telephone books," he said.
First Cataloging
First Cataloging The first true, conscious effort at cataloging alphabetically came in the third century when Greek
An address by Jenkin Lloyd Jones, president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, will close the Great Plains Conference on Higher Education at the University of Oklahoma Friday. Twelve persons from the University will attend.
Jones, editor of the Tulsa Tribune, will give "A Look to the Future." His address will be heard by 300 persons.
Twelve From KU To Education Meet
Try Kansan Want Ads. Get Results.
Those attending from KU will be
Those attending from KU will be Frances Grinstead, associate professor of journalism; Albert R. Kitzhab, associate professor of English; E. Raymond Hall, professor of zoology; James C. Malin, professor of history; T. Howard Walker, director of University Extension; Bruce A. Linton, associate professor of speech and journalism; Elmer F. Beth, professor of journalism; Kenneth E. Anderson, dean of the School of Education; J. Neale Carman, professor of Romance languages; Maud Ellsworth, associate professor of education; Edward A. Maser, director of the Museum of Art and James Seaver, associate professor of history.
Bridge Lessons To Begin Oct.25
Bridge lessons, sponsored by Student Union Activities, for both beginning and advanced players will be held from 7:30-9:30 p.m., Oct. 25 in Room 306 of the Student Union.
Students will be taught to play bridge or to improve their bridge game by lectures, discussion and actual playing. The first lectures will concern bidding and bridge scoring. SUA recreation committee members will be instructors.
Baker To Head Psychology Club
John Baker, Oathe senior, has been elected president of the Undergraduate Psychology Club.
Other officers are David Schalker, Holton junior, vice president, and Georgia Gibson, Kansas City, Kan., junior, secretary-treasurer. W. E. Broen, assistant professor of psychology, is the faculty adviser for the group.
Entomology Club Initiates 13
Entomology Club Initiates 13 The Entomology Club initiated 13 members at its annual fall picnic Sunday afternoon at the home of Kathleen Doering, associate professor of entomology. About 60 persons attended the picnic.
Contrary to common thought, none of the tarantulas found in the United States are dangerous. They are generally sluggish creatures, only attacking when goaded to an extreme. The venom of most species seem to have little effect on man.
The exhibit which is in the lower floor galleries, includes Korean pottery, Ming Chinese porcelain, and examples of Chinese and Japanese prints, paintings, samurai swords, lacquer work, and ivory carving.
"Asiatica," a small survey and collection of oriental art from the Thayer collection, is now on exhibition in the Museum of Art.
Museum Displays Oriental Art
"It seems very strange that Greeks should for so long, neglect the possibilities or organizing information by alphabetization," Dr. Dow said.
kings built the first really large library," Dr. Dow explained. Even then, the lists of scrolls were divided first into classes of literature before being properly alphabetized.
Rainfall in Texas varies from an annual average of more than 50 inches in the east to less than 10 inches in the west.
He went no to say that they did have methods of arranging lists and mentioned geographical importance and chronological systems as having been very popular with the early Greeks and Phoenicians.
Why Greeks Failed
Kansas ranks fifth in the U.S. in petroleum production and has part of the largest known gas field in the world in its southwest.
713 Mass.
The tarantula, a large brownishgray creature weighing less than half an ounce, was identified by Robert E. Beer, associate professor of entomology, as being of the species Aphonopelma. They are ground loving and dig their own burrows or_live in those abandoned by rodents.
"It isn't surprising that a few of these creatures get this far north, but it the exception rather than the rule," said Kathleen Doering, associate professor of entomology. She also said it is possible that the tantalus had been brought here from another part of the country.
The man told entomology faculty he found the tarantula when he saw his baby crawling toward it on the floor. Although about thirty species of tarantulas live within the United States they are most prevalent in the Southwest. According to record, his is the only tarantula ever found in Lawrence.
"The Greeks could produce the basis for human knowledge, but they were slow in organizing it," he explained "First of all many of the list were broken up into small groups or cataloged chronologically or by geographic methods. Secondly, they lacked abundant supplies of paper—something required in alphabetization. Finally, the Greeks had no love for mechanical appliances, experimentation and for machinery in general, the sort of thing alphabetization actually is. Most important, so far as the Greeks were concerned, it was laborious."
No tarantulas in Lawrence you say? The KU entomology department didn't think so either until Monday when an unidentified young man brought one to the department which he found in his house.
Tarantula, Rare In Kansas Found In Lawrence Home
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