Art: In Elihu's Steps

For sheer accumulation of art treasures, few college alumni groups can match the record of Old Yale Blues. Such acquisitiveness was perhaps inspired by Elihu Yale himself, who used his considerable merchant fortune to amass more than 9,000 paintings before he died in 1721. Four years ago a special university committee canvassed Yale collectors, persuaded them to exhibit 250 oils, watercolors and drawings at an alumni showing at the Yale University Art Gallery. Last week in New Haven, the second Yale alumni loan show was drawing record throngs. They were inspecting 265 new selections of Yale art—from a 15th century wood...