FINE ARTS AWARD

An annual fine arts award in memory of the late Prof. Adelbert Ames Jr. has been established through the anonymous gift of a $20,000 endowment fund. Income from the fund will be used to purchase original works of art, and each year one or more students who have demonstrated exceptional achievement in art courses will be permitted to choose one of these works of arts for their own in token of being named award winners. A committee composed of members of the Art Department faculty will select the annual winners of the Adelbert Ames Fine Arts Awards.

Professor Ames, who died in 1955, was head of the Dartmouth Eye Institute and Research Professor of Physiological Optics. Turning from a law career to painting about 1910, he became curious about how the eye works and began studying both perception psychology and optics. His studies led to the discovery of the eye defect aniseikonia and also to its cure. A great deal of present-day work in the fields of perception and physiological optics stems from his pioneer research.

Although he became deeply immersed in his scientific studies, Professor Ames maintained his interest in painting and the other arts. President Dickey has credited him with being the original proposer of some of the basic ideas incorporated into the Hopkins Center.