THE COLLECTING INSTINCT1

The "treasures" of children are cherished by them with feelings of sacredness, pride, and importance which can hardly be appreciated by the adult, unless he be blessed with a bit of foolish sentiment himself or possessed of a vivid memory penetrating back into the recesses of his own childish heart. Even more than in the single object of affection, the pet chicken, the especial pride of a top, the beloved scrap of colored ribbon, the little shining stone fostered almost as a fetich, the "treasure" feeling in children seems to expand and thrive especially when bestowed upon a collection of objects, objects which are not only a possession, like the single cherished fetich, but a seemingly great possession, commanding the admiration which repetition and numbers always invoke, and a possession, too, that may be compared proudly, or at least stimulatingly, with similar possessions of childish compeers and rivals. The single fetich treasure twines about the heart in a more or less indefinable, unreasoning sort of way. It strikes a cord of fancy or sentiment, perhaps through some association, or perhaps merely as a fragment seemingly unrelated to any other feeling and not based on any reason. But the collection treasure arouses, besides and along with the feeling of kinship and close relationship between "me and "my possession," a more objective interest based on more definable even if more varied motives.

A study of the collecting instinct, craze, fad, or interest, however one may choose to designate this widespread phenomenon, is the object of this paper. Mrs. Annie Howes

1 Reprinted in abridged form from Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. VII, pp. 179– 207, July, 1900.

Barus has given an interesting biography, recorded from observation, of her own little boy's passion for bottles, beginning in his first year as a fear and mystery fetich-feeling for a particular huge green bottle, and developing into an affection for bottles in general and love of many bottles. Professor Earl Barnes contributes a reminiscent study based on the recollections of ninety-two adults, and Sara E. Wiltse and Dr. G. Stanley Hall have also made a study from a large amount of data.

The data which I wish to present here have been gotten from the reports of children themselves. A certain fifth grade in the schools of Santa Barbara, California, exhibited in connection with their nature study and history work a very lively interest in collections, and all the children were anxious to tell of their birds' eggs, their Chinese coins, their Indian arrows, and to bring specimens to the schoolroom. This collection interest had developed in the children spontaneously, and its extent and intensity were a surprise. In order to gain more definite information in regard to the nature of this interest, the children were asked to make out a list of all the things they had ever collected, tell when they began and when they stopped any collection, give the number of objects in each, and tell also various things about them, as will be discussed later. The results proved so fertile that a set of questions was made out and given to most of the teachers in the city, to be filled out by the children, and a similar set was gathered from school children of Santa Rosa. Several days were allowed in order that they might have time carefully to think up, look up, and count up their collections, and jog the memory of their mammas, also, as to their past collections. In some cases, as when an enterprising youth of ten years recorded sixtysix collections, fifty-five of them still continuing, the teacher herself consulted the mother and made sure that all were verified.

Records were obtained from 510 Santa Barbara children and 704 Santa Rosa children, in all 607 boys and 607 girls, or 1214 children.

The universality of the collecting interest was strikingly brought out. Only ten per cent. of the boys and nine per cent. of the girls were not actively making collections at the time, while but three per cent. of the boys and one per cent. of the girls said they had never made any collections, slightly fewer girls than boys being exempt.

The intensity of the collecting interest is shown in the number of collections made, as given in the following tables (I and II):

It will be seen that the girls slightly exceed the boys in the average number of collections made, as well as in the number making collections.

That the children on the average were in process of making from three to four actual collections bespeaks a considerable amount of energy being drained off through the channels of this instinct. But the generalities of the average cover up the "spots" where the instinct breaks out with remarkable intensity. There were six boys and ten girls making 9 collections each; seven boys and four girls making 10 collections

each; three boys and five girls making 11 collections each; one boy and two girls making 12 collections each; one boy making 13 collections; one girl making 14 collections; one, 16; one, 18; one, 32; and one boy making 55.

The age development in regard to the number of collections made is worthy of notice. The following table (III) shows the variation of the average number of actively continuing collections for ages from six to seventeen years.

The impulse to collect, as shown by the reports on past collections, manifests itself at an early age, at least by three years. It develops rapidly from six years on and reaches its greatest intensity from eight to ten or eleven years, being strongest at ten years; then it continues with moderate force into adolescence. From fourteen years on the boys show declining interest, while the interest of girls continues more steadily. The high-tide mark is shown by the average number of collections at ten years, being then 4.4 collections for both boys and girls.

The question as to what children collect is best answered by asking what they do not collect. The consciously applied genius of man could hardly concoct a more numerous and diversified set of objects, -objects ranging from the utterly absurd, the useless, the grotesque to the really valuable; ranging from the commonest, meanest things to the rarest; objects appealing to all sorts of interests and allied with a variety of motives.

The following alphabetical list of nearly three hundred varieties of collections serves well to impress the vagaries of the collecting instinct, to show how, in its intensity, it squeezes into any little channel that circumstance may open up. The classification is of course somewhat arbitrary. I have given as far as possible the specific collections as reported by the children. For instance, doll buggies, doll dresses, doll dishes, doll hats, and doll quilts might be summed up under doll belongings, but the children gave them separately. While, on the other hand, the term pictures might be divided into numerous classes, as funny pictures, pictures of noted men, of actresses, of poets, of singers, of babies, of animals, of flowers, war pictures, war-ship pictures, fashion pictures, mythological pictures, all of which were mentioned by the children. But as the majority who collected pictures simply gave the general term, I have combined under it all these special terms.

The boys and girls show about an equal variety in kinds of collections, the former making 215 different kinds and the latter 214.

In the following table the alphabetical order has been followed as the form most convenient for reference. The classification under subject-headings to show distribution of interests among the various groups of objects included in the collections, and the relative popularity of each group among boys and girls, is given in Table VI.