Archives & Special Collections: Creative Studies: Assorted Donor Collection

Title: Creative Studies: Assorted Donor Collection

Date Span: mid-1970s-1990

Acquisition Number: N/A

Creator: Assorted donors

Donor: Assorted donors

Date of Acquisition: 2020-2022

Extent: 2 boxes

Language: English

Location: Archives & Special Collections Department, E. H. Butler Library, SUNY Buffalo State

Processed: 2022, Susan Jaworski

Access: The Creative Studies: Assorted Donor Collection is open for research. 

Reproduction of Materials: 
See Archivist for information on reproducing materials from this collection, including photocopies, digital camera images, or digital scans, as well as copyright restrictions that may pertain to these materials. 

Even though all reasonable and customary best-practices have been pursued, this collection may contain materials with confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the SUNY Buffalo State assumes no responsibility.

Preferred Citation: 
[Description and dates], Box/folder number, Creative Studies: Assorted Donor Collection, Archives & Special Collections Department, E. H. Butler Library, SUNY Buffalo State.

Prominent Individuals Included in Collection Materials:

Alexander Faickney Osborn 
Alex Osborn was born in the Bronx, New York, on May 24, 1888. He attended Hamilton College where he was awarded Ph.B. and Ph.M. degrees in 1909 and 1921 respectively. Osborn’s career began with positions in newspaper reporting at the Buffalo Times and Buffalo Express; the assistant secretary for the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce; sales manager of the Hard Manufacturing Co.; and began his renowned advertising career with the E. P. Remington agency of Buffalo. He served as a council member for the University of Buffalo from 1951-1959 and founded the Creative Education Foundation in 1954 study what he coined “deliberate creativity.” Osborn was heavily involved with SUNY Buffalo State and helped found, what is now, The International Center for Studies in Creativity, the first program in the world to offer a Master of Science in Creative Studies. Alexander Osborn died of cancer in Roswell Park Memorial Institute on May 5, 1966, at the age of 77.

Louise Earl Loomis
Long-time educator, mentor and curriculum developer, Dr. Loomis has presented her ‘think well’ programs for more than 35 years to a wide variety of audiences, helping thousands of people, from students to teachers to corporate employees, tap their brain’s fullest potential to become better learners, educators and thinkers. Throughout her career, her focus has been on enhancing critical and creative thinking, and in 2011, “Dr. Lou,” as she is widely known, founded the ThinkWell Center. https://duncasterannualreport.org/hartford-magazine-honors-dr-louise-loomis/

Edward de Bono
Edward de Bono was born in Malta in 1933. He attended St Edward's College, Malta, during World War II and then the University of Malta where he qualified in medicine. He proceeded, as a Rhodes Scholar, to Christ Church, Oxford, where he gained an honors degree in psychology and physiology and then a D.Phil. in medicine. He also holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge and an MD from the University of Malta. He has held appointments at the universities of Oxford, London, Cambridge and Harvard.

Dr. Edward de Bono is one of the very few people in history who can be said to have had a major impact on the way we think. In many ways he could be said to be the best known thinker internationally. He has written numerous books on thinking with translations into 34 languages. In 1988 he was awarded the first Capire prize in Madrid for a significant contribution to humankind.
Dr. de Bono has worked with many of the major corporations in the world such as IBM, Du Pont, Prudential, AT&T, British Airways, NTT(Japan), Ericsson & Total. The largest corporation in Europe, Siemens (370,000 employees) is teaching his work across the whole corporation, following Dr de Bono's talk to the senior management team. When Microsoft held their first ever marketing meeting, they invited Edward de Bono to give the keynote address in Seattle to their five hundred top managers.

Edward de Bono's special contribution has been to take the mystical subject of creativity and to put the subject on a formal basis. He has shown that creativity was a necessary behavior in a self-organizing information system. His key book, 'The Mechanism of Mind' published in 1969 showed how the nerve networks in the brain formed asymmetric patterns as the basis of perception. The leading physicist in the world, Professor Murray Gell Mann, said of this book that it was ten years ahead of mathematicians dealing with chaos theory, non-linear and self-organizing systems. The term 'lateral thinking' was introduced by Edward de Bono and is now so much part of everyday language used to describe different thinking. There is a huge need world-wide for thinking that is creative and constructive that can design the way forward. Many of the major problems in the world cannot be solved by analyzing and removing the cause - there is a need to design a way forward even if the cause remains in place.

In 1972 Edward de Bono established the Cognitive Research Trust as a charitable organization devoted to the teaching of thinking in schools (see CoRT Thinking Tools). The de Bono methods provided the tools and techniques for this new thinking. Perhaps what is so unique about Edward de Bono is that his work spans the generations - from teaching 7-year-olds in primary schools to working with senior executives in the world's largest corporations. His work also spans many of the world’s cultures and continents making his work truly global. ( http://www.edwarddebonofoundation.com/About-Us/index.html) 

James Beryl Maas 
James Beryl Maas (born 1938) is an American social psychologist and retired professor. He is best known for his work in the field of sleep research, specifically the relationship between sleep and performance. He is best known for coining the term "power nap”. He holds a B.A. from Williams College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell. Maas has also produced numerous film specials on sleep research for PBS, BBC, and others.

For 48 years Maas taught psychology as a professor at Cornell University. In January 1995, a Cornell University ethics committee recommended sanctions against Maas for sexual harassment. On June 23, 1995, the Cornell University Administration published a press release that found Maas had neither sought "an intimate sexual relationship with any of his students nor...engaged in the physically abusive behaviors often associated with the term 'sexual harassment. Maas continued as a distinguished professor until his retirement on December 31, 2011. He currently serves on the advisory board of American Sleep Association (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Maas)
 

Scope and Contents: Brochures; papers; photographs; presentations; proposals; reports; research; speeches; teacher’s notes book and work cards (CoRT: cognitive research trust).

Arrangement: The collection is divided by donor and by date of donation. If possible, the folders are in the original order as delivered by the donor.