19TH-CENTURY FOUNDATIONS OF CREATIVITY RESEARCH

Although many refer to the 1950s as the beginning of modern investigat ions into creativity, foundational work was done during the 19th centu ry. This article focuses on that work. The 19th-century creativity lit erature addressed five basic questions: (a) How is creativity defined? (b) Who has creativity? (c) What are the characteristics of creative people ? (d) Who should benefit from creativity? and (e) Can creativit y be increased through conscious effort? Authors reviewed in this arti cle wrote from a generalist, often philosophical perspective with litt le experimental basis for their conclusions. Given that we continue to address these same issues today, one wonders whether these are the en during questions of the field or if we have not progressed as far as w e had hoped.