James D. Tobin Collection

Much of his biographical information was gleaned from his correspondence to fellow Japanese Art enthusiasts.  In a letter to Stewart J. Teaze (dated Jan 17, 1963), James D. Tobin states that he is 40 years old, making his birth year around 1923.  He attended the University of Chicago, the University of California at Berkley, and the University of Hawaii and later received his B.A. in the arts.  Tobin’s resume states that in 1938 he was working as an apprentice for RCA Corporation in Harrison, New Jersey.  In 1939 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and later became a Foreman of A&R Heat Treating for the Navy in NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii in 1944.  In 1948 he moved from Springfield, Massachusetts to Los Angeles, California in 1949, staying on as a Foreman in each job, but with more responsibilities.  In 1952, he became a Chief Inspector for the Industrial Steel Treating Company in Oakland, California and in 1955 he opened his own corporation, the Beaver Heat Treating Corporation, in Portland, Oregon.           Along with his jobs, he has worked for the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and the Field Museum in Chicago.  Tobin also had some articles published in the field of metallurgy and wrote chapters for the A.S.M. Metals Handbook.  After years of collecting and researching Japanese Prints, his collection had thousands of pieces by the 1980s.  In 1990, he started liquidating his collection and he gave a portion of it to Helen Merritt (whose collection is in the Regional History Center at NIU).

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