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6th Congress, / cttmatt. (Document 

1st Session, f SCINAIE.. , No , 20 9. 



cHational Galleries 

OF ... . 

History and Art. 



The Aggrandizement 



OF 



4 



si 



Washington 



i U/ ' <;* 



5 tr PART I. 

Petition for a Site 
for 

H ->nai Galleries of History and Art. 

k <iptive Handbook of the Halls of the Ancients 
C nstructed for promotion of said Galleries, 
according to the Design annexed. 

PART II. 
A Design and Prospectus for 
National Galleries of History and Art 
at Washington. 

PART III. 
Designs, Plans, and Suggestions 
for the 
Aggrandizement of Washington. 

WITH 342 IlxUVSTHKTIOJiS. 



By Franklin Webster Smith. 



WASHINGTON : 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

J900. 



56th Congress, ) SENATE. j Document 

1st Session. \ j No. 209. 

IS 

F»^s. RT I. 



PETITION 

FRANKLIN WEBSTER SMITH 

FOR 

THE SITE OF THE OLD NAVAL OBSERVATORY 



ERRATA. 

For hurried printing the last revise was not read in proof. 

Part II. 

p. 121, Plate 97, read Kaitbey, for Kailbey. 

p. 128, Plate ioi, read Aldobrandini, for Aldsbrandini. 

Part III. 

p. 1 6, from Lincoln's Inaugural, read firmness, for fairness. 
p. 32, footnote, read A. D., for B. C. 



February 12, 1900. — Presented by Mr. Hoar, referred to the Committee 
on District of Columbia, and ordered to be printed. 



WASHINGTON : 

GOVE RN M E N T PRIN1 IN'. 
I Q( 





S »s 



56th Congress, ) SENATE. \ Document 

1st Session. f j No. 209. 

IS 

F> A RT I. 



PETITION 

FRANKLIN WEBSTER SMITH 



THE SITE OP THE OLD NAVAL OBSERVATORY 

FOR THE 

. National Galleries of History and Art. 

a** 
if" DESCRIPTIVE HAND-BOOK 

OF THE 

HALLS OF THE ANCIENTS 

CONSTRUCTED FOR 

PROMOTION OF SAID GALLERIES ACCORDING 
TO DESIGN ANNEXED. 



February 12, 1900. — Presented by Mr. Hoar, referred to the Committee 
on District of Columbia, and ordered to be printed. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOV E R N M E N'T P K I N T [NG 
1 QOO. 



his 



F»^RT II. 



Design and Prospectus for National Galleries 
of History and Art in Washington 
by Franklin Webster Smith, 
together with 12 1 illustrations, 
108 of which were supplied 
in Electrotype 
by the Author. 



F>ART III 



Designs, Plans, and Suggestions for 
the Aggrandizement of Washington, 
with 98 Illustrations. 
11 



Bytrannfer 
i.VN 6 1908 



THE HALLS OF 

THE ANCIENTS. 

Nos. J312-J4-I6-J8 New York Avenue, Washington. 




Franklin W. Smith. Architect. 

Albany Engraving Co., N. Y 



W. F. Wagner Finm 



DESIGN OF THE PORTAL. 

It is a reconstruction, full size, of a section of the Hypostyle Hall of Karnak, 
with columns 70 feet high, 12 feet diameter. 




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Proposed National Galleries in Washington. 



In Their Proynotion the Press has a Cause Worthy Its Moral Power, 
and in Their Aid Wealth for Its Noblest Use. 

"If we are a great country, as justly we claim to be, is it creditable for us, with 
all our wealth and prosperity, to be without a great national museum, such as is to 
be found in every great capital of Europe?" — Report of W. W. Story, sculptor, resi- 
dent in Rome, U. S. Commissioner to the Paris Exposition of 1878. 



The United States is the only civilized nation that has not National 
Galleries for illustration of history, architecture, and art. 

In oceanic separation from the remains of historic nationalities, the 
American people are deprived of the objective illustration available to 
European nations. 

The wealth of the United States, greater than of any other nation, should 
create an institution, surpassing all others, for illustration of human progress 
and civilization. 

It is earnestly desired to promote immediately National Galleries of History 
and Art, in accordance with the Design herewith ; which, while it equals in 
grandeur the National Capitol, is composed of the most simple and durable 
constructions, viz., galleries of one story, terraced upon a hillside. 

Its eight Courts are ranged below American Galleries, for the history of 
the United States, surmounted by a Farthenonic temple to contain a Hall of 
the Presidents of the United States ; an American Walhalla, like that upon 
a hill-top of the Danube, a proud monument of the Bavarian people. 

Its colonnade should range the horizon in counterpart of the dome of the 
Capitol — the one an expression of the highest Constitutional wisdom, the 
other of its resultant intellectual development of a nation. (See p. 6S.) 

In recognition of the demands of modern education for object teaching, 
the Galleries enclose courts for types of ancient dwellings, as of late have 
been shown the modern homes of mankind ; and other structures, civil and 
religious, in whole, in part, or by model, as now illustrated by the Pompeian 
House at Saratoga. 

The Galleries are to be filled with mural paintings, panoramic and inex- 
pensive, in chronological history of the ancient nations like that of Bavaria 
in the National Museum in Munich ; corridors being filled with casts for 
study, and for sale at cost ; as now supplied by the British Museum and 
the Louvre to the world. 

The Galleries to be of sand-concrete, tested in the great hotels at St. 
Augustine, the Stanford Museum, and the House of Pansa at Saratoga, in 
which concrete has cost less than ordinary brickwork. Roman columns, 
imperishable, are cast for $20.00 each, which in stone would have cost 
$300.00. Concrete was the principal material of ancient Rome I Ency. Britta.). 

v 



DESIGN 

FOR 

NATIONAL GALLERIES 




Paul J. Pelz, / 

Henry Ives Cobb, J 



Advisory Architects. 



Franklin Webster 



The area proposed for the Galleries, Courts and Avenues is 62.17 acres — about 6 acres to 
each, 500 ft. square. The Old Observatory site, national property, covers 22. 7S acres. To 
obtain the required 62.17 acres only 17 acres, or less than | the area, must be purchased ; the 
intermediate streets which will fall within the lines without cost measuring 22 acres. 

The 17 a/res ('740.520 square feet) are now valued at 50 cents per foot; all $370,260. At 
500,000 dollars they would be an opportunity for the Government that will soon be lost. 

Doubtless a commission would advise the Government to secure now the entire dump 
along the north side of Potomac Park, to the President's grounds. Betterments upon E st. 
for 2.227 ft- would repay the outlay. 

The late Mr. James Renwick, architect, estimated the cost of the Galleries per 100 ft. 
length, 32 ft. wide, and 35 ft. high, with side corridors for casts 25 ft. high, 13 feet wide, and 
corner towers, with steam heat, at $31,363.00. " This is probably a safe estimate within 7 per 
cent." (Signed, James Renwick.) The square of 500 ft. would make 1.700 ft. range of gallery 



OF HISTORY 

AND ART 
IN WASHINGTON. 




ith, Architect. 



Harry Dodge Jenkins pi 



for construction with exterior length of 2,000 ft. — at the above estimate to cost $533,171.00; 
adding $466,829 for constructions at greater elevation, would make $i,ooo;ooo for each Gal- 
lery and Court— $8,000,000 for eight, leaving $2,000,000 for structures reproduced, illus- 
trative paintings, etc. $10,000,000 would 'cover the cost. This could be extended through 
several years, a section of each style being commenced. 

" I believe that if a section of the Egyptian and Roman Courts and Galleries can be 
built with the illustrations proposed, the rich men of the country will rapidly complete the 
series. They will welcome a scheme of such national and permanent usefulness. The 
people generally will freely contribute buildings or objects required. They would be the 
most lasting and creditable monuments to their memory." — Hon. Jos. R. Hawley, U. S. 
Senator from Connecticut; President of Centennial Exposition, 1876. 



National Galleries a Necessity as an Educational Institution. 

The Halls of the Ancients are constructed to illustrate Mr. Franklin 
Webster Smith's design for National Galleries of History and Art 
at Washington, D. C. They are not intended for high technical art, but 
to create a National Educational Institution ; in illustration of the history, 
architecture, arts and manners of past nationalities ; to stimulate inquiry 
from the unlearned ; and provide vast material for scholarship. 

Modern research can reconstruct ancient monuments and buildings, exact 
in architectural details, far more impressive and instructive than European 
Museums filled with articles and fragments in show-cases. 

" It is inevitable that you are indebted to the past. The old forest is de- 
composed for the composition of the new forest. So it is in thought. If we 
learn how old are the pattern of our shawls, the capitals of our columns, the 
fret, the beads and other ornaments on our walls, the alternate lotus-bud and 
leaf stem of our iron fences — we shall think very well of our first men or ill of 
the lastest." — Emerson. 

" The 19th century is insatiable in the matter of knowledge, comparison, 
and generalization in all things." — Monsieur Gille upon the Exposition of 
1879. 

" There is an Oriental saying that the distance between ear and eye is 
small, but the difference between hearing and seeing very great. More terse 
and not less forcible is our proverb, l To see is to know,' which expresses a 
growing tendency in the human mind. In this busy, critical, and skeptical age 
the eye is used more and more, and the ear less and less, and in the use of the 
eye descriptive writing is set aside for actual objects. 

"The museums of the future, in this democratic land, should be adapted 
to the mechanic, the laborer, and the clerk, as much as to the professional 
man. The peoples' museum should be much more than a house full of speci- 
mens in glass cases. It should be a house full of ideas 

"Museums are commonly classed in two groups — those of science and 
those of art. Between is a territory which no English word can adequately 
describe — which the Germans call Culturgeschite — the natural history of cult, 
or civilization, of man and his ideas and achievements. The museums of 
science and art have not yet learned how to partition this territory." — The 
late Prof. G. Brozvn Goode of the Smithsonian Institution — Lecture on 
the Museums of the Euture. 

This vacant territory, discerned by the learned and lamented Professor, 
awaits possession by National Galleries of History and Art, in 
Washington. They will fulfil his admirable definition, viz : " The National 
History of Civilization, of Man and His Ideas and Achievements." 
Then Europe will come to America for study of the progress of civilization, 
because in America only will it be realistically and clearly revealed. 

In 100 days the country expended 200,000,000 dollars in War. In con- 
trast, what beneficence of intellectual profit and pleasure for the nation, an 
outlay of 10,000,000 dollars for National Galleries of History and Art, one 
month's outlay for warlike operations ! 

VIII 



Petition of Franklin Webster Smith 

FOR A SITE FOR 

NATIONAL GALLERIES OF HISTORY AND ART. 



To the Senators and Representatives of the United States in Congress 

assembled: 

The undersigned, Franklin Webster Smith, formerly of Boston, Mass., 
respectf ully represents that he has conceived a design for National Gal- 
leries of History and Art in Washington, as a grand systematic educa- 
tional institution exhibiting in reconstructions the art, architecture, 
religion, manners, and customs of the ancient nationalities. 

That said design has been matured during fifty years of study and 
observation in the United States and during nineteen extensive journeys 
abroad. 

That said design has been very widely set forth in an elaborate pros- 
pectus, receiving unanimous commendation thereof by the press through- 
out the United States and by audiences at public lectures for its exposi- 
tion in the principal cities. That it has received, also, very earnest appro- 
bation of Senators and Representatives in Congress, educators, and others. 

That these proposed National Galleries fill an absolute void in the edu- 
cational resources of the citizens of the United States. 

That they utilize the revelations of archaeology and transfer to the 
Western World, in simulation, all desirable relics of ancient art and all 
remains illustrative of ancient life that have filled the museums of 
Europe at great cost; these reproductions being in every way as valuable 
for education as originals, but at a very small fraction of their cost. 

That your petitioner now seeks legislation of Congress for commence- 
ment of said Galleries. 

That the hill known as the late site of the Naval Observatory, ncar 
the Potomac, which was designated by Washington as the site for a 
university (see facsimile of the original plan of I/Enfant, bearing the 
signature of Washington, annexed), comprising about 23 acres, be set 
apart as an American Acropolis, to be devoted exclusively to Galleries 
of American History and Memorial Temples of Presidents of the United 
States and other statesmen and patriots. 

That a portion of the tract lying west oi said Observatory Hill be- 
tween B and E streets, comprising an area of about 40 acres, 

IX 



X NATIONAL GALLERIES OF HISTORY AND ART. 

demned as a site for the proposed Galleries and Courts of History and 
Art according to the Design and abridged Prospectus hereto appended, 
and also according to a model on one-eighth scale which has been con- 
structed of the architectural details and topographical elevations of said 
galleries. Said model is now on exhibition in the building known as 
the Halls of the Ancients, on New York avenue, Washington, said 
halls having been constructed solely for the purpose of exploiting the 
design for national galleries and courts by the financial cooperation of 
Mr. S. Walter Woodward, of Washington. 

That such portion of said 40 acres as are not now public property, 
say 17 acres, be condemned for purchase by the United States for the 
proposed galleries. This area of 17 acres, with the 23 acres in the 
Observatory tract and the land now in streets' will aggregate 60 acres 
for constructions of said design. The land required is of very low valu- 
ation and almost vacant of improvement. 

That for public apprehension of galleries proposed, their uses, and the 
public benefits therefrom, this petition and the prospectus accompanying 
the same may be printed. 

That an appropriation of $500 be made for the survey of the land and 
a plan for said galleries. 

That your petitioner respectfully represents that such legislation by 
Congress in behalf of the national galleries hereinabove described 
would be a most fitting commemoration of the year 1900, as advised by 
the President of the United States. 

Franklin Webster Smith. 

Washington, February 10, /poo. 








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REMARKS OF MR. KOAR IX THE SENATE. 

[From the Congressional Record. Fifty-sixth Congress, first session. Washington, Monday, 
February 12, 1900.] 

National Gallery of History and Art. 

Mr. Hoar. I present the petition of Franklin W. Smith, of Boston, 
Mass. , praying for an appropriation of land for a site for National Galleries 
of history and art, and for aid in the establishment thereof. 

I ask unanimous consent to make a statement in regard to this petition. 
The petitioner is a business man of great distinction and success, -who for 
many years has devoted his life to the promotion of National Galleries of 
art which shall represent and reproduce the architecture, both public or 
ornamental and domestic, of the ancient nations, especially Greece and 
Rome, but also the Oriental cities. He has devoted his whole time to a 
study of that subject and has become an eminent authority. He has 
made a large collection of books and prints, and has, with the financial 
cooperation of Mr. S. Walter Woodward, of Washington, on New York 
avenue, in this city, built and adorned some halls showing great beauty 
and in full size Roman, Egyptian, Assyrian, and Saracenic architecture. 

What the petitioner desires is to have the site of the old observatory 
appropriated by the United States, and some land in the neigborhood, 
where he will place his own collection and devote himself entirely, if he 
maybe permitted, to advancing that work. It will become, at a very 
moderate cost, a great ornament to the capital of the nation, and it will 
have an educational power, he thinks, more potent than many lecture- 
ships or professorships. He hopes very much that the members of the 
two Houses will, before acting upon his petition, visit, as some gentlemen 
I am told have already visited, the beautiful collection and buildings here. 

I ask unanimous consent that this petition, which is very brief, com- 
prising a page or two, and the Design and Prospectus which accompany 
it, may be printed as a document, for the use of the Senate. I under- 
stand that there are some plates, but he has all the plates prepared, so 
that that will be no cost to the Government. 

The President pro tempore. The petition will be referred to the 
Committee on the Library. 

Mr. Hoar. I rather think it would be better on the whole that the 
petition should go to the Committee on the District of Columbia, as it 
asks for the occupation of certain lands within the District. 

The President pro tempore. It will be so referred. The Senator 
from Massachusetts asks that the paper which he presents may be printed 
as a document. 

Mr. Hoar. The petition and papers. 

The President pro tempore. Is there objection? The Chair hears 
none, and it is so ordered. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Petition ix 

Letters of Senators and others . i 

Statement of the development of the Design 6 

Description of the Halls 1 1 

The Egyptian Portal and Facade 13 

Hall of Gods and Kings 14 

Facsimile of first announcement of the Discovery of Herculaneum 20 

The Roman or Pompeian House 23 

The Lecture Hall— Painting of the Grandeur of Rome 35 

Moorish Hall of Bensaquin 38 

Assyrian Throne Room •. 39 

Roman Historical Gallery 50 

Egyptian Hall of Arts and Crafts 53 

Hall of the Model 62 

Press notices of Design 65 

Press notices of Halls 67 

Illustrations of Concrete Construction 69 

Biblical illustrations 70 

Sixty-four pages of text and all illustrations were supplied in paged forms electrotyped, as also 
the pages in color by the author printed. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 

1. An American Acropolis Frontispiece. 

2. Design for National Galleries VI 

3. Facsimile of Washington's designation of Observatory Hill XI 

4. Section through Halls of the Ancients XVIII 

5. Egyptian Hall of Gods and Kings g 

6. Site of Halls in Washington IO 

7. Rameses Fighting from his Chariot and Passing Sentence on Captives .... 14 

8. The King upon his Chariot 15 

9. Attack of a Fortress 16 

10. Palanquins and Carriages 17 

11. Judgment of the Soul 18 

12. Restoration of the Temple of Jupiter, Pompeii 22 

13. Vesuvius 23 

14. The Ps.oman House— Atrium, Tablinum, and Peristylium of 24 

15. Tablinum 26 

16. Peristylium 27 

17. Exedra 28 

18. Hortus— Class from High School at study 29 

19. Bibliotheca 31 

20. Atrium and Ala 32 

21. Taberna 33 

22. 23, 24. Painting of the Grandeur of Rome 35. 36, 37 

25. Moorish Hall of Bensaquin 38 

26. West end of Assyrian Throne Room 39 

27. Gallery of Assyrian Throne Room 40 

28. East end of Assyrian Throne Room 42 

29. Throne of Xerxes, Assyrian Throne Room 43 

30. Sennacherib on his Throne before Lachish 45 

31. Seal of Sennacherib 49 

32. Roman Historical Gallery 50 

33. Model of Temple of Denderah 51 

34. Moorish Court of Galleries 52 

35. Egyptian Pylon from Luxor 52 

36. Egyptian Columns 52 

37. Eg} r ptian Pavilion of Medinet-Abou 52 

38. Perspective of Galleries 52 

39. Exterior of Egyptian Court 53 

40. Egyptian Vineyards and Wine-making 54 

41. Egyptian Music and Sport 55 

42. Egyptian Caricatures 56-57 

43. Egyptian Feast ; copy of painting by Long 58 

44. Egyptian Court ; restoration by Racinet 59 

45. Model of Galleries 62 

46. Model of Acropolis 63 

47. Model of Roman Court 63 

48. A Colonnade on the Potomac — Hall of Fame 64 

49. Proposed Avenue 64 

50. Concrete Constructions 69 

51. Egyptian Brickmakers — Biblical illustrations 70 

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National Galleries £q . V\/ash i n gt o n. k " 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Letters in commendation of the plan of Franklin IV. Smith for Galleries 
and Courts of History and Art in Washington. 

Washington, D. Q,.,July zj, iSgj. 
To Hon. John D. Long, 

Secretary of the Navy. 
To Hon. Julius C. Burrows, 

Hon. William E. Chandler, 
Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, 
Hon. Jacob H. Gallinger, 
Hon. George Gray, 
Hon. Joseph R. Hawley, 
Hon. George F. Hoar, 
Hon. Justin S. Morrill, 
Hon. Oryille H. Platt, 
Hon. Redfield Proctor, 

Senators in Congress of the United States. 
Hon. Thomas B. Reed; 

Speaker United States House of Representatives. 

In 1S91 I published a Prospectus for National Galleries of History 
and Art and presented a copy to each member of Congress. In the 
interval, at Yarious times, I haYe had the pleasure of further explanation 
of the plan to you, either at the Pompeian House in Saratoga, at illus- 
trated lectures in Washington, or in personal conference. You cordially 
expressed your interest in the enterprise and several above named 
offered their service and influence for its promotion. Meanwhile, in the 
dire depression of financial affairs, both of the Government and of the 
nation, I have withheld all mention of the subject to you, avoiding 
trespass upon your valuable time when there was no definite scheme for 
your cooperation. 

But in this interim of five years the scheme has not been allowed to 
rest in silence. It has had my incessant study for its more complete 
development. Three visits to Europe and Egypt have been made for 
further intelligence and suggestion. 

Now an extraordinary opportunity has occurred for demonstration of 
four ancient styles of interior architecture and of the manners and arts 
of those nations, such as the Pompeian House at Saratoga is of Roman 
Art and Life. This fortuitous advantage has been seized, and herewith 
is inclosed a description oi the thoroughness with which it is to be 
improved in 

1 



CORRESPONDENCE 



HALLS OF THE ANCIENTS. 



As mentioned in the descriptive book herewith, I had determined to 
renew the public presentation of the idea, if spared, in the autumn of 
1897 ; considering that within sixty days I shall have attained 71 years 
of age, now, with the attractive and, as I believe, convincing exhibit of 
the feasibility of the plan placed in your hands, I appeal confidently for 
your cooperation. 

You will not ask apology if in the strong self-apprehension of my ideas 
a personality is made prominent. The plan I have set forth is an evolu- 
tion through fifty years of my life. It is no sudden, intangible vision. 

To parry an apparent presumption in the announcement of an institu- 
tion as an advance upon all existing on similar lines, I cite works accom- 
plished that demonstrate its theory. Certainly the Pompeia is evidence 
of the possibility of multiplied object-lessons from the past. 

During the last eight summers I have spoken daily upon the advantage 
to the people of the United States of the proposed national gallery. Not 
less than 50,000 intelligent persons from all parts of the United States 
have listened and many have said with emphasis, " It should be," "It 
must be," " It can be," easily, so far as the only requisite demanded — 
the money — is concerned. I am satisfied that the money in volume waits 
for such use, intelligent knowledge of its expediency being conveyed 
to it^ possessors. 

There can be no more authoritative judgment upon the matter given 
to the country than from yourselves. Your status is that of highest 
statesmanship, having a broad and cultured familiarity with appliances 
promotive of public welfare and happiness. 

On a recent visit to the Xew National Library a young man, typical 
of the thrifty Western farmer, greeted me in rapt admiration with the 
question, ' ' Tell me, sir, can any country match this for a library? " " No, ' ' 
I replied, "and has it not been a blessed expenditure, employing labor 
to build it, for us and all the people to enjoy it forever?" He responded 
in eager assent. 

Therefore, I crave your examination of the Prospectus accompanying 
this communication. 

I solicit further your joint expression in indorsement of an appeal to 
our rich countrymen to provide money toward the enterprise projected. 
With your recommendation I have faith in their liberal response. 

It will greatly inspire my confidence in success if you will add the 
weight of your united recommendation to the favorable opinions of the 
press, brief extracts from which are appended to the Prospectus. 
Yours, most respectfully and truly, 

Franklin W. Smith, 

Washington, D. C. 



REPLIES. 

Washington, D. C, July 15, 1897. 
Mr. Franklin W. Smith. 

Dear Sir: The undersigned acknowledge receipt of your joint letter 
soliciting an expression of interest in your design for National Galleries 
of History and Art in Washington. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 3 

We recognize in the full exposition of your plan set forth in the 
Prospectus and Supplement thereto a conception of the highest educa- 
tional advantage to the nation. 

In the absence of all remains of the earlier civilizations in the New 
World, the systematic reconstructions you propose would give to all 
people, learned and unlearned, a more tangible apprehension of ancient 
architecture, art, manners, and customs than is available from the museums 
of detached curiosities in Europe. 

We are in favor of your petition to Congress for the assignment of the 
National Observatory lot to the use you designate and with special com- 
mendation as in fulfillment of its appropriation by Washington. 

We heartily second your appeal to the wealthy citizens of the United 
States to provide means for the purchase of the land adjacent, bounded 
by Seventeenth and E streets, for construction of the galleries and the 
illustrative material proposed. 

The amount required for the completion of the plan is insignificant 
comparatively with the volume of national wealth. The investment 
would yield great dividends of learning and of high entertainment in the 
National Capital. 

(Signed) J. C. Burrows, 

United States Senator from Michigan. 
W. E. Chandler, 
United States Senator from New Hampshire. 
S. M. Cullom, 
United States Senator from Illinois. 
Henry C. Hansbrough, 
United States Senator from North Dakota. 
J. H. Gallinger, 
United States Senator from New Hampshire. 
Geo. Gray, 
United States Senator from Delaware. 
O. H. Platt, 
United States Senator from Connecticut. 

Senator Hawley, one of the ten Senators above jointly addressed, was 
in Europe. As president of the United States Centennial Exposition in 
Philadelphia, his experience gives great weight to his judgment. After 
listening to a full exposition of the plan for National Galleries, in 1891, 
he said: 

' ' I believe that if a section of the Egyptian and Roman Courts and 
Galleries can be built, with the illustrations proposed, the rich men of the 
country will rapidly complete the series. 

' ' The}' will welcome a scheme of such national and permanent useful- 
ness. 

"The people generally will freely contribute buildings or objects 
required. They would be the most lasting and creditable monuments to 
their memory." 

It gives me great pleasure to concur with the gentlemen who, as I am 
told, have signed the letter of which the within is a copy. The plan is 
in every respect admirable. 

(Signed) Geo. F. Hoar. 

I heartily concur in the above endorsement by Senator Hoar. 

(Signed) Redfield Proctor. 



4 CORRESPONDENCE. 

Senator Morrill wrote: "I appreciate the magnificence of your pro- 
posal and really hope no obstacle will prove a hindrance to your success. ' ' 

The Hon. John D. Long, Secretary of the Navy, wrote in "cordial 
concurrence" with the letter of Dr. Harris, Commissioner of Education, 
in earnest commendation. 



* Bureau of Education, 

Washington, D. C, July 15, 1897. 
Mr. Franklin W. Smith. 

My Dear Sir: Your plan differs from others having the same gen- 
eral object in the fact that you give both the archaeological data and the 
restorations based on those data, whereas some schemes give only the 
data, the fragments recovered from the past, very useful to the specialist 
but not educative to the great public, while other schemes give only res- 
torations without the data and not properly derived from the data. 

We in America, a new world, have yet all the foundations of our civil- 
ization in the Old World, and it is the chief object of education to make 
us acquainted with these essential things. Your plans well carried out 
will render the city of Washington, already so instructive to the visitor, 
doubly valuable for the youth of the laud who come here to see the most 
noble of object lessons. 

(Signed; W. T. Harris, Commissioner. 



Pine Point, Me.. September 2, 1897. 
Franklin W. Smith, Esq., 

Saratoga Springs , N. )\ 
Dear Sir: I have your letter of August 28. As you very well know, 
I think very highly of your design for National Galleries of History and 
Art at Washington, and I am quite sure that as soon as you place a 
specimen of your work in Washington according to your plan it will be 
found to be very satisfactory by people who examine it. 
You are at liberty to use this letter. 
Sincerely vours, 
(Signed) " T. B. Reed. 

Subsequently Senators T. C. Piatt and H. C. Lodge wrote in concur- 
rence with the signers of the above joint letter; Senators S. B. Elkins, 
William P. Frye, and B. Penrose, with the letter of Senator Hoar. 

Senator Mallory wrote: " I think well of the enterprise as the inau- 
guration of a new (to us) and desirable educational instrumentality and 
I trust that you will be able to make it a practical success. ' ' 

Ex-Senator Henderson wrote: 

My Dear Mr. Smith: Consider me at all times and under all circum- 
stances to be in favor of everything that promotes the education and 
cultivates the taste of the people. 

* * * The work which you propose should be encouraged with 
zeal. It reproduces in our own country, in the capital of the nation, in 
which every man and woman of the United States hold an interest, and 



CORRESPONDENCE. 5 

in the greatness and beauty of which the}' entertain a just and patriotic 
pride, the architecture of the ancients. It will bring to our doors, and 
comparatively without cost, that coveted knowledge for which travelers 
expend millions and which antiquarians seek beneath the ruins and 
debris of the past. 

I fully agree with you that both Government and private generosity 
might well be exerted to help you in this laudable work. 
Yours, very truly, 

(Signed) J. B. Henderson. 



THE NATIONAL GALLERIES OF HISTORY AND ART. 

Resolution of the National Educational Association of the United 

States. 

During the convention of the association at Saratoga Springs, X. Y., 
in July, 1892, the members greatly enjoyed the study of the Pompeian 
House of Pansa and the panoramic painting of The Triumph of Con- 
stantine in the adjoining Art Gallery. 

At the close of the session the hall was filled with members of the 
association, including many of the most prominent educators of the 
United States, who listened with great interest to Mr. Franklin W. 
Smith's exposition of his design for National Galleries of History 
and Art. 

On motion of Dr. William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of 
Education at Washington, seconded by Dr. Edward Brooks, superin- 
tendent of public education in Philadelphia, it was unanimously 
resolved — 

' ' That the members of the National Educational Association present 
most earnestly indorse the enterprise for National Galleries of History 
and Art, which has been clearly demonstrated by Mr. Franklin W. 
Smith as of the greatest educational value to the people of the United 
States and to be thoroughly practicable in its details, and that the mem- 
bers present will by all means in their power endeavor to second his 
efforts to promote its establishment. ' ' 

(Signed) E. H. Cook, President. 



Maryland Institute for the Promotion 

of the Mechanic Arts, 
Baltimore, September ig y 1S91. 
Franklin W. Smith, Esq. 

Dear Sir: The undersigned were appointed a committee at the 
meeting of the board of directors of the Maryland Institute on Monday 
evening. 14th instant, to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of your 
"Design and Prospectus" for National Galleries of History and Art at 
Washington, D. C. 

The committee beg to express the fullest appreciation by the board of 
the vast importance of the plans, the details of which you so ably and 
interestingly develop. 

It is a matter of such national importance that not only should it com- 



6 CORRESPONDENCE. 

mend itself to all lovers and patrons of art and literature, but the Gov- 
ernment itself should be induced to lend it sufficient aid and coopera- 
tion to insure its most complete and lasting success. 
Yours, most sincerely, 

W. H. Perkins, 
John L. Eawton, 
E. J. Codd, 

Committee. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DESIGN. 

Note. — Early in 1S99, through overwork, the health of Mr. Smith 
was utterly prostrated. The opening of the Halls was appointed for 
February, the date of the unprecedented blizzard that held Washington 
in Arctic environment for thirty days. In May, under medical direction, 
Mr. Smith sailed for Carlsbad. 

Returning from Europe in August he was forbidden to resume work 
in Washington before the middle of October. Meanwhile, the activity 
in all constructions made it impossible to obtain iron for completion of 
the Egyptian facade with the columns of Karnak, and also of other 
details. 

But there is accomplished in the Halls an abundance of absorbing 
interest — beyond the time that observers generally can afford for its 
study — of which the description herein is evidence. 

The circumstances above mentioned also delayed issue of this hand- 
book. 

In my Prospectus of a Design for National Galleries of Histor3 T and 
Art, published in 1891, is recorded the following: 

"I am indebted to the cooperation and architectural ability of Mr. 
James Renwick and his partners, Messrs. Reuwick, Aspinwall & Russell, 
for the superb drawings illustrating my imaginative description of the 
National Galleries. 

"Mr. Reuwick 's national reputation as architect of the Cathedral in 
New York, of the Smithsonian Institution and Corcoran Art Gallery in 
Washington, dates from his first and monumental work, Grace Church, 
New York, 1843." 

The decease of my lamented friend closed his eager participation in 
the enterprise. This reminiscence revives other cooperation on record. 
Mr. S. W. Woodward, of Washington, was the most generous distributer 
of the Prospectus ; and the construction of the Halls of the Ancients is 
due principally to the aid of Mr. Woodward. The Halls of the Ancients, 
reconstructions unique in the world of educational interest, might not 
have been accomplished without his early financial support. 

During the years that I have labored to promote National Galleries, a 
national monument, the Congressional Library, has been constructed, 
challenging comparisons in the world. 



CORRESPONDENCE. J 

It is a gratification to quote a letter of Mr. Paul J. Pelz, architect of 
the Library, offering gratuitously his advisory counsel in preparation 
of plans of the Galleries, as follows, viz: 

■ Washington, July 5, 1898. 
Mr. Franklin W. Smith. 

My Dear Sir: Your design for National Galleries and Courts com- 
mands my admiration for its comprehensiveness, its system of arrange- 
ment, and its evident practical value for stimulating the education of the 
American people. 

While the combination is of surpassing grandeur, its simplicity and 
the moderate elevation of its parts can insure its construction at a cost 
less than that of several structures in the United States. 

It is a pleasure to offer to you my gratuitous services as advisory 
architect in the preparation of the new plans you propose, and which are 
an improvement upon your first arrangement of the Courts. 
Yours, very truly, 
(Signed) ' Paul J. Pelz. 

General Casey, U. S. A., the military engineer in charge of the con- 
struction, wrote to Mr. Pelz as follows: 

"You have now entirely completed the designs of the architectural 
characteristics and features of the building for the Library of Congress, 
both of the exterior and interior, for which your services have been 
exclusively employed. 

"Allow me to thank you for the assistance you have rendered in the 
artistic and aesthetic branch of the general design of the building, and to 
congratulate you upon the permanent result, to which you may always 
refer with pride." 

Having thus an eminent substitute for Mr. Ren wick's loss, with a 
vantage ground for demonstration in the Halls of the Ancients, I have 
increased courage and confidence in the promotion of the National Gal- 
leries; especially considering the years that passed between the selection 
of the design of Messrs. Smithmeyer & Pelz in 1S74 by the commission 
appointed for the purpose — 18S6 — when the appropriation was made for 
the structure and 1S97, which witnessed its completion. 

To Mr. Henry Ives Cobb, architect of the Chicago University, of the 
new Pennsylvania State Capitol, the new immense Government Building 
in Chicago, etc., I am indebted for the revised drawing of the National 
Galleries. At the suggestion of Mr. A. Giraud Browning, F. S. A., 
associated in engineering of works upon the Nile, the order is reversed, 
the Egyptian and Assyrian facades in their massive stateliness forming a 
Grand Portal to the Courts. 

Franklin Webster Smith. 



S CORRESPONDENCE. 

Great Malvern, England, Aug. jt/i, i8qq. 

My Dear Mr. Smith : I have repeatedly visited your reproductions of 
Greek and Roman architecture, both in Saratoga and in Washington, and 
highly approve your plan so far as it is carried out, and the still more im- 
portant conception that remains to be executed hereafter. If it be reduced 
to a material form, it will have great educational value for the country. 

I expect to do what I can to induce Congress to aid and promote the under- 
taking. But how far it will consent to any large immediate expenditure, 
until the war is over, I cannot say. I do not like to be one of the persons 
who volunteer advice to men of wealth what they shall do with their money. 
I think that men who know how to acquire large fortunes without other peo- 
ples' help or advice, generally know how to expend them without other peo- 
ples' help or advice. 

So I do not volunteer to call the attention of anybody in private station to 
your scheme, however generous may be any gentlemen of wealth among my 
acquaintance ; but I believe any aid which may be given to you in this mat- 
ter would be a great public service. * * * I think your illustrations of 
architecture, both public and domestic, will be a great ornament to the 
capital, and that they should be treated by Congress and the people as 
wholly public, and encouraged in every wa oossible. The devoting your 
time, money, and best thought to this great purpose is worthy of all com- 
mendation. 

I am with high regard, faithfully yours, 

(Signed) Geo. F. Hoar. 

Franklin W. Smith, Esq. 

Paris, September 2J, 1&98. 
Mr. Smith, 

President National Galleries Co., 

Care of Messrs. Baring Bros.. London. 

Dear Sir : We have been very interested by reading about your splendid 
plan for National Galleries in Washington. Moreover, we consider that 
every one taking the smallest interest in the life of the ancients will be 
delighted to see them. 

Allow us to suggest a new idea, which will please most people in the 
United States as well as in Europe. It would be of a great interest to pub- 
lish a book containing reproductions to life of scenes in the different Halls, 
with numerous people in costume, and we should not be surprised to hear 
that the well-known beautiful fair ladies of the States will be eager to have 
their photographs taken in splendid Roman or Assyrian costumes amongst 
the beautiful sceneries and furniture of the Galleries. 

Everybody would so learn the very life of the ancients and get a living, 
indelible remembrance of nice young American faces and dresses in very, 
very old time. Our firm probably might compose a magnificent work for 
this purpose with the newest process of reproduction, in colors, ornaments, 
etc.. and the profits of the sale might be employed for charity. 

We shall be very pleased to hear about the success of the enterprise, and 
we remain dear sir, 

Yours very faithfully, 

(Signed) Firmin Didot. 

The house of Firmin Didot (the Harpers of Europe) was founded in 1730. 
It is famous for the most splendid editions-de-luxe published by Napoleon, 
the French Academy, etc. 



PartL 

The Ancient royal Tyrian and 
Imperial Roman purple was in 
shade nearest to the modern bril- 
liant red or scarlet in color. 



HALLS OF THE 

ANCIENTS 

FOR 

PROMOTION of 
NATIONAL 
GALLERIES of 
HISTORY and 
ART in 
WASHINGTON. 



An Assyrian Column 

in the 

Halls of the Ancients, 

Washington, 



o^oTJoXroi 



SP? 




^W 



?^ 



JJL 



C. Chipiez, Restokuk. 




THE EGYPTIAN HALL OF GODS AND KINGS IN THE HALLS OF THE ANCIENTS. 



THE 

Halls of the Ancients 

CONSTRUCTED TO DEMONSTRATE 

THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE PRECEDING 

DESIGN 

FOR 

National Galleries of History and Art 



WASHINGTON. 



LAFAYETTE. 

o 

SQUARE 



PENNSYLVANIA AVE 








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it 


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aiii 


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WHITE HOUSE 



U.S 
TREASURY 




1312, 1314, 1316, 1318 New York Avenue, 

WASHINGTON. 



THE 



SECOND HAND-BOOK 



Halls of the Ancients 




Memorial Temples, Galleries of American History. 



Descriptions ok 



The Egyptian Portal 

Hall of Egyptian Gods and Kings 

The Roman or Pompeian House 
The Lecture Hall 
Moorish Hall of Benzaquin 

The Assyrian Throne Room 

Roman Historical Gallery 

The Cosmorama 

Hall of the Model of Design 

FOR 

National Courts and Galleries 



History and Art 
and Hall of Egyptian Arts and Crafts. 



THE HALLS OF THE ANCIENTS 

are constructed to illustrate the art, architecture, religion, life and manners of 
Egyptian, Assyrian, Greco-Roman, and Saracenic nations. 

Primarily the motive of the enterprise was not a novel and instructive 
exhibition as a business investment, but to demonstrate the feasibility, with 
material from modern archaeology, of such re-creations upon a scale cover- 
ing the entire range of the early nationalities, as proposed in 

A Design for National Galleries of History and Art. 

The Halls and their contents are simply specimens of a magnificent 
whole, conceived and modeled from data of ancient history and remains of 
ancient constructions. (V. Description of Hall of the Model.) 

THE EGYPTIAN PORTAL AND FACADE. 

" Concerning Egypt, I shall extend my remarks to a great length, 
because there is no country that possesses so many wonders, nor any that 
has such a number of works which defy description." — (Herodotus, B. C. 
484.) 

"When from the heights of modern civilization, as from a mount of 
vision, man endeavors to trace its rise and progress, he loses sight of its 
origin in the chaos of a remote past, ' without form and void' ; but from 
its distant horizon a sheen of light glimmering across the dark expanse 
breaks into corruscation from the banks of the Nile." — (Balzac.) 

"All things were singular or mysterious in this country evermore famous. 

" The first pages of human annals entertain us with its immense works, 
and the progress of science in our days has not weakened the interest they 
have always excited. All classical antiquity has preserved for Egypt a 
renown that proves a government habitually founded upon the true interests 
of the country." — (Champollion.) 

"Architecture is the printing-press of all ages, and gives a history of the 
state of society in which a structure was erected." — (Lady Morgan.) 

The design of The Portal reproduces a section of the Hypostyle Hall of 
Karnak, with two of its six pairs of columns 70 ft. high and 12 ft. in diam- 
eter, the largest interior supporting shafts ever reared by man. The capitals, 
22 ft. in diameter, have area sufficient for 100 men. The decorations are 
copied from Egyptian originals. 

"The temple of Karnak is perhaps the noblest effort of architectural 
magnificence ever produced. Its principal dimensions are 1200 ft. in length 
by about 360 in width, covering about 10 acres, or nearly twice the area 
of St. Peter's. The Hypostyle Hall is internally greater than the Cathe- 
dral of Cologne. The mass of its central piers are so arranged and lighted 
as to give an idea of infinite space ; at the same time the massiveness of 
forms and the brilliancy of colored decorations, combine to stamp this 
as the greatest of man's architectural works." — (Fergusson.) 



Jffall of €gyptian Sods and Jfings, 

or 

Jfaii of Columns* 




Rameses Fighting from His Chariot and Passing Sentence on Captives. 

The frontispiece is from the drawing for this Hall, which might well 
be named the Saulenhof, or Hall of Columns, after that built by Lepsius in 
the Museum of Berlin. It excels the latter in grandeur of dimensions and 
beauty of decoration. The paintings selected for the walls are more exclu- 
sively religious and royal symbols and ceremonials — pictorial semblances 
of godlike conceptions and kingly dignities, with enhanced solemnity by 
the aisle of vast uplifting columns. 

The dimensions of the Hall are in length 72 ft., width 33 ft., height 30 ft. 
Its twelve columns, in pairs, correspond with the order of the Hypo- 
stvle Hall of Karnak. They are 30 ft. high, 4 ft. 6 inches in diameter, 
and of three styles of capitals; the Palm, Lotus-bud, and the Hathor. 
They are 6 ft. 6 inches higher and one foot in diameter larger than the 
columns of the Saulenhof. The shafts of the palm columns will be covered 
with the subjects chosen by Lepsius for Berlin. The Hathor columns, with 
details from the temple of Dendera, are three-fourths the height of the origi- 
nals ; the largest of that style in Egypt. 

It is believed, therefore, that the Hall of Gods and Kings is the most 
imposing columnar reconstruction from Egypt that has yet been attempted. 

The largest columns in the Egyptian Court in the Crystal Palace in Hyde 
Park in 185 1 were 17 ft. 6 inches high and 3 ft. 6 inches in diameter. 

♦This hall was not finished in 1898. Thi palm and lotus-bud columns were fully 
constructed with capitals and the latter decorated. Ceiling and wall decorations, in 
part with the eight columns, give strong impressions of the grandeur and beauty in 
completion. 

14 



EGYPTIAN HALL OF COLUMNS. 



15 



The ceiling is for decoration in three compartments. One is " sown with 
five-pointed golden stars " relieved by beams covered with cartouches and 
hieroglyphic inscriptions. 

" The monotony of this Egyptian heaven is farther varied by the winged 
vultures of Nelsheb and Nati, goddesses of the south and the north, crowned 
and armed with divine emblems, which hovered above the nave of the Hypo- 
style Halls and on the under side of the lintels of the great doors above the 
head of the king as he passed through on his way to the sanctuary." 




The King upon His Chariot. 

The walls of the Hall of Gods and Kings will reproduce the paintings 
of the procession of the Gods in the Temple of Thothmes III, in Karnak, 
from which Maspero named it The Processional Hall — copied by Lepsius 
in the Saulenhof. 

The observer of these fantastic expressions of ideals from the religious 
system of a nation that has left the earliest and most imperishable monuments 
of its creative genius, and the most ineffaceable records of its faith and 
worship in existence, should consider that these multiplied tableaux, crowd- 
ing more and more the surfaces of temples, houses, furniture, and coffins, 
were deemed — 



" to possess a magical property, of which the power and nature were deter- 
mined by each word inscribed at the moment of consecration. Every subject, 
therefore, was an amulet as well as an ornament. At the time of the iSth 



1 6 HALL OF GODS AND KINGS. 

Dynasty it was thought that two or three such amulets sufficed to compass 
the desired effect ; but later it was believed there could not be too many. 
Under the Greeks and Romans the walls were more crowded and the figures 
more compressed. A chamber of Edfou, or Denderah, yields more material 
for study than the Hypostyle Hall of Karnak. * * * These multitudes 
of episodes form the links of one continuous chain * * * in the devel- 
opment of a religious dogma."* 

The lower belt will display kingly scenes from Karnak and Luxor of 
battle, victory, triumph, tribute, and sacrifice, leading to the greeting and 
welcome of the gods. These were in sequence of homage and worship. 

Illustrative objects will be supplied as rapidly as possible, of which draw- 




Attack of a Fortress. 



ings, prints, or photographs are on exhibition. On the pavement will be 
duplicated those accordant with the dignity of the subjects represented upon 
the surrounding walls. 

The Throne Pavilion and Chair set up by Lepsius will be duplicated 
precisely from a scale-drawing of the original supplied by Herr Bouchard, 
architect, Berlin. 

Later the seated statue of Ramesis II (Sesostris) will fill the throne, 
modeled by Signor Giordani, who has executed the statue of Sennacherib, 
columns, the altar of the Roman House, and many other details of the 
Halls., 

A royal divan, as restored by Hottenroth, in color ; a palanquin, standards, 
modeled after the most recent and authoritative drawings, casts of gods and 
kings, it is anticipated will be soon accomplished. 



* Maspero's Egyptian Archaeology, Chap. II. 



HALL OF COLUMNS. 



17 



Thus will be materialized the description of 

THE PALACE OF AMASIS. 

" The lofty reception hall, with its ceiling sown with thousands of golden 
stars and supported by gaily painted columns, presented a magic appear- 
ance. Lamps of colored papyrus hung against the walls and threw a 
strange light on the scene, something like that when the sun's rays stream 
throuo-h tinted glass. The space between the columns and the walls was 
filled with choice plants, palms, oleanders, pomegranates, oranges and 




Palanquins and Carriages.* 

roses, behind which an invisible band of harp and flute players was stationed, 
who received the guests with music." 

This description is borrowed from paintings on walls which have been 
reproduced by Wilkinson, Rosetti, Lepsius and others. — (Ebers, " The 
Egyptian Princess.") 

" THE WITNESS OF THE MONUMENTS." 

" Some of us can still remember the thrill of half-incredulous surprise with 
which the earlier announcements of the successful translation of Egyptian 
hieroglyphics were received. Champollion, following up the hint of our 
own fellow-countryman Young, found the key (rusty indeed, but still useful) 
to the monumental inscriptions of ancient Egypt ; and, albeit with much 
groaning of springs and wards, unlocked the gate which led straight back to 
the long forgotten past. Then Grotefend's inspired guess opened for us the 

♦Several of the above illustrations are from the German edition of Champollion- 
Figeac. 



iS 



HALL OF GODS AND KINGS. 



librariesof Assyria and Babylonia. Discovery followed hard upon discovery. 
Belzoni, Layard, Rawlinson, George Smith, Brugsch, Naville, Sayce, 
Renouf and others, scholars or explorers, threw themselves into the work, 
with a result that is little short of marvelous. Cities, temples, statues, 
books! The art, science, literature, religion, that had lain for millenniums 
in the dust of death — all are restored to us. The very languages these old- 
world people spoke — the accents of their tongues — we hear their echoes ! 

" Their histories, poems, romances, their ledgers, too, andbankingaccounts, 
the details of their daily business, are in our hands. The lover's sonnet, the 
mourner's plaint, the captive's cry, the hum of the busy city, the tumult of 
the market place, the tramp of soldiers marching to the war, are in our 




Judgment op the Soul. 



ears. The voice of the forgotten multitudes appeals to us, and we feel 
that we are linked to the venerable civilizations of the past by the myriad ties 
of a common nature, a common life. Day by day the truth of the wise 
man's apothegm is forced upon us : ' There is nothing new under the sun.' 
Creeds and customs are alike traced back to an antiquity till now undreamed 
of. Religion, above all, is found to have preserved, as flies in amber, the 
ideas which filled the minds of worshipers whose parting prayer was 
uttered six thousand years ago. Cherubim and Seraphim, the tempting 
serpent, the scaly dragon, the flaming sword, the tree of life, the solemn 
Sabbaths — these things were spoken of, with bated breath, by the waters of 
Babylon, long centuries before Abram set out from Ur for Haran and the 
land of Canaan. It has already come to this — that we know more intimately 
the modes of life and thought of the good folk of Memphis, Ur and Erech 
of six thousand years ago, than we do of the life of our own Saxon fore- 
fathers." — (J. H. S. Moxley, National Review.} 




Plan of 
First Floor 

Eq-YPTIAN 

HALL 
OF THE 

Kinqs 

An d 

Th e 
PompeiaNor Rokam Halls. 



^^vw^.>« s-*v\orw.,"s«.« 



^"5ca) t 



20 . DISCOVERY OF HERCULANEUM, 1689. 

The annexed most interesting fac-similes are from two pamphlets 
(London, 1750) discovered by Mr. Smith in Leipsig in 1S99. The foot- 
notes reveal the first published announcements of the discoveries, and that 
Herculaneum was found before Pompeii. 

MEMOIRS 

CONCERNING 

HERCULANEUM, 

THE 

Subterranean City, 

Lately difcovered at the 

Foot of Mount Vefuvius^ 

GIVING 

A particular Account of the mofl remarkable 
Buildings, Statues, Paintings, Medals, 
and other Curiofities found there to the pre- 
fent Time, 

CHAP. I. 
A*d:rount of the firjl Diftoveriesw 16S9, and 171 !• 

3g8£S^&£ ) R the Satisfaction of the curious Enquirer, into 

o new and unexpe<fr.<d a M..!:er, row brought to 

.ight from i'c rcrr vt<-. a Tune, it may be necefTiry 

jj^c o begin this Ducourfe from the firfi Attempts made 

in the latter End of the lnft Age. Therefore I mall 

recount all thnt is faid on that Subjtcl, in the Memoirs cf the 

royal Academy of Paris (1) ; and alio by the celebrated M. Biar.- 

chini, in his Book of Lniverfal Hiftory (2). 

*■• At the Foot of this Mountain, about two Miles from the 
".Sea, in the Year 1689, fome Earth having been removed, 
" the Workmen obferved Layers of E^rth. that feemed dif- 
*' poled in Order, as if they were Floors or Pavements, placed 
" honzontaliy over each other. 

" Tne Owner of the Ground being inclinable on this Occa- 
" Sion to fearch farther, continued tne Digging, and under the 
'* fourth Layer, found foi.it Stones with Infcriptiom on them ; 
" on which he ordered, thit they mould continue their Search 
*' till the Water prevented them. 

(1) Memoires de Literature torn. 15. Des embrafemens da Mont Vefuve. 

(2) Iftoria Univerfak- di Mrnf/pjnor Bianch:ni. P*orna 1693. pag. 2 4^' e 
Ivi 1 ?43. 




DISCOVERY OF HERCULANEUM, 1 689. 



The Congratulations of the Commonwealth of 
Learning in the North, 

On Account of the'Amient Monuments, which have been dug 
out of the larely discovered City of Beniilaneum, in the 
Kingdom. of Naples. 

Trom an Academical Oration of John Matthias Gefner, Public 
Profeffor in the Royal Uhi-ver/ity o/Gottingen, for fer -forming 
the Ten I ears Solemnities of , that Univerfity, and commenting 
vrw ones, fublijbed at Gotcingen in September 1747. 

TH E Report of an antient City about to be dug up 
out of rhe Alhes and Rubbifh of Mount Vefavius, 
which the French, Britijh, and German Papers calied/fr* 
taclea, but which rhey fhould with greter Propriety name Her- 
planum, or Herculaneum ; that Report, 1 lay, which for feveral 
Years pail had been fpread throughout Germany, hath been 
fome time revived: For this Sea'-porr Town, fituated a few 
Miles Diftance from the ver,y Opening of Vcfuvius, Parr of it 
having already fallen in the Confulfbipof Regulus and Virginias^ 
and the Remainder being in a tottering, Condition, a few Years" 
after,- that is, in the firft known Ertfpfion of Fefuvius y 
was utterly fwallowed up, burnt, and . overwhelmed by 
the Sand, Allies, and. Stones,- which were call out of its hor- 
rible Cavity. 

While therefore Charles King of rhe two Sicilies, whofe 
Diligence in furnilhing his Gallery is el fe where- celebrated, was 
founding new Structures and Villas; it is. affirmed, that there 
wefe discovered not only trifling Reliqucs, fuch as Statues, Piih 
Jars, and Urns; but evidently f.n entire City, and in it Houfes 
furnifhed, and Men completely habited, as they had been fur- 
prized by the Calamity. I am not now -at Leifure to inquire 
whether what we read of the newly found City carries, an. Air 
of Credibility; or by what .Means fo many Things could be 
preferved entire for eighteen hundred Years. When it appears 
by the Testimony of credible WitnelTes, what hath been found, 
it will be a proper Sealbn for fuch Enquiries. I am rather in- 
clined to dwell a little upon no unpleafing Speculation. If we 
may be permitted to fuppofe, that thole Things arc true, which 
a e related upon no fufficient Authority, what a new Face of 
Things, what a furprifingAcquifition of Learning, will hence arife! 
What mighty Contentions of Antiquaries will fubfide by the 
• Removal of the Duft of Vefyvius ! And how many new ones will 



DISCOVERY OF HERCULANEUM, 16S9. 

rake their PJacc ' Suppofe any one Kcok to be fourth, wbatf 
Knowledge would the Curious in that Part of Learning acquire ; 
Jince not i'o much as one Paper written by the Pen of any learned 
Hand, nor one Leaf marked by any skilful Pencil, of that 
Age, is arrived to the preient' But if Fortune fhould regard 
Jvlen ffudious of Antiquity, with Co much Benignly, as to pro- 
duce from that Sepulchre, one complete DioJoru> Siculus, whofe 
Book, int'tlcd The Library, no doubt, adorned the Libraiies of 
that Age and Neighbourhood ; any whole Pclybius, or Sailuft, 
or (a Gift perhaps too valuable for oliT Deferrs !} a Livy, or 
Tacitus, or the latter Part of the Fafii of Ovid j or, tp have an 
Eye principally to our own Country, thofe twenty Books of 
the Wars of Germany, which the elder Pliny began, when ho 
bore Arms there ; nay, if the u hole Library of any learned Man 
Should be found (and as the Villas in that Neighbourhood 
were furnifhed with rholb of C icero and Lurullus ; fo without 
queftion .they were with the Libraries of others, of which 
Places of Retirement they are not the meanest Ornaments); 
•what a Treafure to learned Men would thence accrue ! Would 
not that be, as it were, the Reftoration of the Roman Majefty? 
Would it not be a kind of happy Revolution of Times? 



This wondcrfuL Collection of Antiquities will become larger 
and more compleat, as the Work proceeds j and the Learned 
will fitd more new Monuments to clear their Doubts, concern- 
ing an infinite Number of Hiftorical Fatfs, as well as the Cuf- 
toms, Arts, and religioi s Ceremonies of the Anient*. 

LONDON: 

Printed for D.Wilson Bookfeller, at Plato's Head, near 
Round Court, in the Strand. MDCCL, 



1 lfck>*£*~ ' 


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JKWlVUfln'SWjFIWMAU'l"" _™ 


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m "ft Sw R JU ■ I ] I iRfflt 

rjjr/^'-^^^g* V<J{ * I 


■'" ^^"**LL. _^ 


fflllPS*'*' 



A RESTORATION OF THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER, POMPEII. ORIGINAL BY PROF. FISCHETTI, OF NAPLES. 



Jjhe !7loman or iPompeian Jfcouse, 



POMPEII. 

Go, seek Pompeii now; -With pensive tread 
Roam through the silent city of the dead. 
Explore each spot, where still in ruin grand 
Her shapeless piles and towering columns stand, 
Where the pale ivy's clasping wreaths o'ershade 
The ruined Temple's moss-clad colonnade, 
Or violets on the hearth's cold marble wave, 
And muse in silence on a people's grave. 

Now shall thy deathless memory live entwined 
With all that conquers, rules or charms the mind. 



— Macanlay. 



VESUVIUS, A. D. 79. 



It is conceded by all travelers that Pompeii is the most interesting and 
mpressive sight in all Europe. It combines with the charm of antiquity, 

the most interesting vol- 
canic phenomenon the 
world has known. All 
are in a measure familiar 
with the terrible fate of 
Pompeii ; its complete 
oblivion for nearly two 
thousand years, and a 
resurrection which has 
given this Roman city a 
power to interest, un- 
equalled even by the Im- 
perial capital. 

From the numerous 
private houses now ex- 
cavated in Pompeii, the 
houses of Pansa and of 
Vettius were selected as 
models from being the 
rros' extensive and most perfect in plan, and consequently the best known. 
In proportion and arrangement, this reproduction is nearly identical. 

In 1895 the House of Vettius was uncovered. Its plan and decorations 

23 




H 



PLAN' OF A ROMAN HOUSE. 



were more luxurious and elegant than those of any dwelling hitherto 
exhumed. More than one hundred photographs and colored transcripts 
of the paintings on its walls, its ground plan and casts of the objects in the 
peristyle were ordered for the Roman House of the Halls of the Ancients, 
and many have been reproduced. See pages annexed. 

The arrangement of the houses of Pompeii was generally upon the plan 
of all Roman houses of the period, and conformed closely to the prescribed 
proportions of Vitruvius, the architect whose authoritative work has come 




The Atrium, Tablinum, and Peristylium. 

down to us. It therefore lends an additional interest to the Pompeian house, 
that in it we see the usual Roman habitations in the time of Christ. 

The doors will be in accurate reproduction after casts in the Museum at 
Pompeii ; detailed drawings of which were supplied by Prof. Fischetti. 
Casts were made by pouring plaster into cavities left in the scoriae, where 
the doors had left their imprint before decay. 

A GRAND ROMAN HOUSE: 

ILLUSTRATING THE ART, ARCHITECTURE, MYTHOLOGY, AND 

CUSTOMS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.* 

No. i. The Vestibule — Opens inwardly upon the Atrium, or hall. 

The first object which greets the eve is a fierce dog in the act of springing 

*A more complete description of the Roman House and the Painting of the 



ATRIUM— CUBICULA AL.*. 25 

upon the visitor. This device, in Mosaic, was common to the larger houses, 
and indicates that it was a reminder of a dangerous dog within ; quite 
necessary where houses stood so invitingly open. Beneath is written the 
warning " Cave Canem," (Beware of the dog). 

In the vestibule are brackets with busts called " The great and good." 
This was a custom not only in Pompeii, but Rome : by which Socrates, 
Plato, Cicero, Homer and others were installed as exemplars. "Salve" 
(welcome) greets the visitor from the pavement as he enters. 

Nos. 2, 3. The small rooms at the side of the vestibule were occupied by 
porters, who not unfrequently were chained slaves. 

No. 4. The Vestiarium, or Wardrobe. 

No. 5. The Atrium was an imposing hall, where the master of the house 
received all who were not admitted to the inner apartments. In the center 
of the roof is seen the Compluvium (with a sacrificial cornice of festoons 
and skulls of bulls), toward which the roof sloped in order to throw the 
rainwater into the Impluvium ; a marble pool in the floor, where the 
fountain throws its cooling spray into the air — the bottom painted as the 
reflection of the sky above. In the frieze of the Compluvium roof, are 
lion's heads through which spouts carried the water into the pool, whence 
they passed into other cisterns, to be used for household purposes. 

Tables, chairs, couches, musical instruments, tripods, candelabra, and all 
other furniture have been reproduced from originals preserved in the Naples 
Museum or from wall pictures found in Pompeii and Herculaneum and 
models in the Naples Museum. The lamps also are modelled from one of 
the richest patterns in the great work on antiquities of Herculaneum. 

The chair of the Muses will be recognized as familiar in ancient Greek 
bas-relief. 

I^'PASS TO THE RIGHT, through the house, for nwnbercd rooms 
in their order. 

No. 6, 7. Are Cubicul v (bedrooms). These Cubicula are the exact 
size of those in the stately House of Pansa. Specially noticeable is the bed 
made after the bronze original exhumed in Pompeii, with its exquisite 
modelling. 

No. S. Al.e, or wings, on either side of the Tablinum, were recesses 
used for rest, or conversation. The ceilings are precise in size and color 
from the richest specimen published by Nicollini, in the most superb work 
yet issued upon Pompeian relics and art. 

Grandeur of Rome, is issued as a separate Hand-book. Details therein of Roman Life 
and Manners, with illustrations of their architectural environment, published during 
th.p last ten years, to the extent of 250,000 copies, from the House of Pansa, at 
Saratoga, have incited a demand for it as a text-book for classic instruction in many 
colleges and seminaries. 



26 



THE TABLINUM. 



No. 9. The Tablinum, a central apartment, entered from the center of 
the Atrium. This was the private retreat of the master of the house ; his 
Sanctum, where, in cabinets, were kept busts of ancestors, family archives, 
and genealogical tables, the latter giving the name to the room. The ceiling 
of the Tablinum is decorated with copies of the famous Mosaics from the 
Villa of Diomedes, exhibited in the National Museum at Naples. A general 
view suggests a collection of orchids. 

The cabinets are supplied with fac-similes of ancient papyrus manuscripts 




The Tablinum. 

and rolls of Latin, simulating accurately the books of the Pompeians. The 
busts are in part to illustrate kindred ; and therefore are not all contempo- 
raneous. 

The "Strong Box" is a precise copy of one in the Museum at Naples ; 
as may be recognized from the plate therewith of Signor Monaco. 

It will be seen from the various copies of mural paintings found in 
Pompeii that draperies were used, both at doors and windows, although no 
such textiles could, of course, have survived the destruction, even in carbon- 
ization. 

No. 10. From the Atrium again, we turn to the right into the Fauces 
(the jaws), a narrow passage which obviated passing through the Tabli- 
num to inner apartments. The principal of these is — 



THE PERISTYLIUM THE EXEDRi> . 27 

No. ii. The Peristylium, a court or hall still larger than the Atrium, 
with fourteen columns inclosing a space called the Viridarium, with Pan 
and a Satyr among the verdure. Above was another opening admitting air 
and 1 ; ^ 1 "'<". Here were given private entertainments, when the colonnade 
was fesh, _>ned with garlands of roses and was gay with birds of gorgeous 
plumage. Here beneath subdued lights moved those stately men and 
women, in their classic robes, while music from flute and lyre stole upon 
the ear from slaves concealed above. It is here that Sir Bulwer Lytton 




The Peristylium. 

depicts the meetings of the beautiful lone with Glaucus and Arbaces in the 
" Last Days of Pompeii." 

The ceiling of the Peristyle is copied from the Baths of Titus. Few 
ceilings escaped destruction in the falling of burning rafters during the 
catastrophe. 

No. 12. The Exedra, or conversation room, supplied the place of the 
modern drawing-room, although the peristylium rivalled it in elegance. 
Here were the choicest adornments of a rich Pompeian house. 

The bas-relief and engraving upon the wall illustrate the visit of Bacchus 
to Icarius — revealing that the Romans reclined in social converse, on couches 
large enough for several persons, and that Icarius did not rise in homage to 
the heaven-born son of Tove. 
3 



2$ 



THE BALNEUM — THE TRICLINIUM. 



No. 13. A Cubiculum. In a room of corresponding size and position 
was found the skeleton of a woman with exquisite jewelry. Her finger 
bone, encircled with rings found on it, is preserved in the Naples Museum. 
The wall panels are filled with replica of Pompeian paintings. 

No. 14. A Cubiculum. It contains six of a series of paintings by Mr. C, 
H. Ingraham, of Philadelphia, views in Pompeii, painted on the spot, during 
two years' residence in Naples. Others are in the Atrium and Peristylium. 

No. 15. Balneum, or bath-room. The wall of this room is from the 
unique decoration of the bath-room in Diomedes' villa — a representation of 
deep sea-water, with fish. 




The Exedra. 

No. 16. The Winter Triclinium (dining-room), named from the couches 
surrounding the table, as Romans always reclined during meals. The size 
of the couch was in accordance with the rule that the number at dinner should 
never be less than the Graces (three) , or more than the Muses (nine) , except- 
ing, of course, in larger banquets. Grand houses had two Triclinia, for 
winter or summer use, but the ancients were much addicted to the pleasures 
of the table, and called frequently into requisition the CEcus, or large hall. 
At such times the floor was strewn thickly with sawdust stained in bright 
colors, and at one end of the hall slaves danced during the meal. A silver 
hoop suspended above the table held chaplets of flowers, or even of silver, 
for distribution among the guests. Guests reclined upon the side, with the 
left elbow resting upon a cushion. 



SUMMER TRICLINIUM — LALARIUM. 



-9 



Over the wall is placed a copy, by Zurcher, of Boulanger's " Feast of 
Lucullus." The table service has been selected carefully in classic forms. 

No. 17. Summer Triclinium. Here in the summer the Pompeian fami- 
lies took their meals beneath the shade of trellised grapevines as screen from 
sun-rays. Flowers lined the walls, on which were panelled pictures making 
vistas — loopholes for the imagination to range beyond the narrow inclosure. 
The dining-couch is an exact reproduction of one remaining in Pompeii, and 




Summer Triclinium — Lalarium. 

A class from Washington High School at study in the Hortus ; photographed for U. S. Educa- 
tional Exhibit at Exposition in Paris in 1900. 



at its precise distance from the garden walls. The panels are painted in oil 
from originals in Herculaneum: 

The Amphorce were made either to stand in the ground or to be set in 
ether vessels, and held wine, oil, etc. The vases were used for holding 
water, wheat, and other articles of food. The base in masonry for a couch 
is a precise replica of one still in Pompeii. 

No. iS. The Lalarium, or household temple. Here the family propi- 
tiated their t; Lares and Penates" with flowers, fruits, and the blood of ani- 
mals. 

The altar is a precise reproduction in scale and decoration from that 



3° 



(ECUS HORTUS — CULINA. 



remaining in the House of Vettius. Details of the painting were taken by- 
Mr. Smith in June, 1899. 

Nos. 19-20. The CEcus, or large hall, was an innovation borrowed by 
Pompeians from the Greeks. It was used for a banquet hall. The propor- 
tions were so regulated as to accommodate two Triclinia, their respective 
couches facing each other, with space for servants to pass between and 
around them. 

The Hortus (garden), with walls oil painted in the fantastic style, always 
followed in their outside work. The first in order represents^ disciple of 
Bacchus after a revel ; the second, a more noble Roman, recumbent, in 
thoughtful mood; another subject is "Orpheus charming the animals" 
with his lyre. 

As soon as practicable, illustrations of Roman masonry will be placed in 
the Hortus with the specimens from Roman Baths in England. 

No. 21. Culina (kitchen). This was between the two Triclinia, and 
the brick stove in this room is a model of that found in the House of Pansa. 
When the cooks took flight they left loaves of bread, eggs, nuts, and many 
other articles of food which are found in a fossilized state. Spits for roast- 
ing were laid across the embrasures of the stone. The bread seen is modeled 
from those excavated after their long burial. Chimneys were not used, char- 
coal not requiring them. The wall-painting frequently seen in the kitchen 
is thus described by Mazois : 

" This is a religious painting found in the kitchen of the House of Pansa. 
It was a homage offered to the Gods, Lares, under whose protection they 
placed provisions. At the center is represented a sacrifice to these divinities, 
recognizable under the form of two serpents. This is evidence that it is a 
religious and consecrated picture. Birds, a hare, fish, a boar girded for 
sacrifice, breath etc., surround the principal picture, as placed under protec- 
tion of the domestic Gods." 

The two birds chasing flies are emblems of the genii of the kitchen who 
drive away these pests from the food. 

No. 22. PiNACOTiiECA (picture-room) contains oil paintings by Pascal 
(above alluded to) and Zurcher. Those now on exhibition are : 

Vesuvius before the great eruption, and Pompeii with an ancient Gal- 
ley, copied from a picture in Herculaneum. 
The Forum in Pompeii as exhumed, after photographs by Pascal in 

December, 1SS9, upon the spot. 
A Sacrifice before the Temple of Jupiter. A copy of Prof. Fischetti's 

Restoration in Pompeii, " Past and Present." 
Vesuvius during eruption. 

A copy of Prof. Fischetti's Destruction of Pompeii, by Pascal. 
No. 23. The Bibliotheca, or library, was never necessarily very large, 
as literature in those days was not voluminous. The rolls, or manuscripts, 



THE BiBLIOTHECA. 



3' 



however, wei-e not compact, like modern books. They were made of papy- 
rus or parchment, and written in ink, intended to be easily washed off. 
There was a ticket fastened to one end, designating the subject, and the books 
were frequently kept rolled up in boxes (Scrinia) with tickets uppermost. 
These books when found were at first supposed to be charred sticks of wood, 
but some have been successfully unrolled by painstaking efforts of scientists. 

The cases exhibit plates of the "Antichita di Ercolano " (Antiqui- 
ties of Herculaneum), a rich work, nine volumes, folio, 1757. 

A very complete collection of notable works on Pompeii has been obtained 




The BiBLIOTHECA. 



for authoritative study in reproduction. These comprise the works of 
Mazois, Barre, Cook & Donaldson, Zahn, Overbeck, Breton, Lagreze, Gell, 
Steeger, Preshun, Roux, and, latest and richest, the splendid work of Nicol- 
lini. From these authorities have been taken plates, as models for decoration 
of the Pompeia. That their careful reproduction may be observed, engrav- 
ings from the walls of Pompeii and the Museum of Naples are placed upon 
the respective walls which are their imitation. 

Other illustrations of the period, especially interesting to the student and 
the archaeologist, are the coins of the period ; the " Imperatonum 
Romanorum Numismata," 1697; fine copies of Bartoli's " Roman Law," 



147S ; the Natural History of Pliny the elder (who perished at Pompeii), 
i<2<5 ; Vitruvius, Ferrerio, Vauthier and Lacour, and Duchoul.* 

In the Bibliothhca are also views of Pompeii as excavated ; replica of 
busts found in Herculaneum, fac-similes of Graffitti, caricatures from 
walls of the city, etc., etc. 




Atrium and Ala. 



No. 24. Ala, another recessed alcove in Atrium. The walls are after 
a splendid copy reproduced in the u Denkmaler." The head of Achilles is 
a well-executed copy from the great Homeric painting found in the " House 
of the Tragic Poet," and founded upon scenes in the " Iliad." The illus- 
trious Greek warrior is looking at his enemies bearing away his beloved 



* As will be naturally concluded, these rare books are not intended for public use or 
handling. 



ARTICLES REPRODUCED FROM POMPEII. 



33 



handmaiden, Bn'seis ; his eyes glowing with indignation, and his brow 
contracted with suppressed emotion. The face so full of fire, and animated 
with a divinity difficult to express, has given the "Head of Achilles" the 
reputation of the finest youthful head left in ancient color. 

Nos. 25, 26. Cubicula. 

No. 27. Prothyron, containing articles in exact reproduction from 
originals found in Pompeii, now in the Naples Museum : models of bread, 
measures, censers, sacrificial patera, hinges, door-handles richly orna- 
mented like modern renaissance, mirrors, rich platters and fruit dishes, 




Taberna. 



bells, an axe, etc., perfume boxes, tessera (theatre tickets) ; the sistrum, 
flute, and other musical instruments ; braziers ; pastry moulds (like the 
modern) ; keys ; various and beautiful models of Roman lamps ; strigils, 
with which the perspiration was scraped off after the hot bath ; gargoils ; 
bells; ointment boxes ; compasses; weights; bas-reliefs of jewel cases, etc., 
etc. Mark the interesting bronze lamp of a human foot, with a taper between 
the toes ; a design probably brought from the East, where the device was 
for prevention of bites of adders in the dark, and thus suggesting the origin 
of the Scriptural comparison, " Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to 
my path." Reproductions of this tamp are for sale in the Taberna. 



34 THE TABERNA. 

Notice the tear bottles, which, containing the tears of mourners, were 
placed in or near the cinerary urns, holding ashes of the dead. Two 
models of such urns are in the Lararium. 

There is a slave's collar with this inscription in Latin, "I am a slave; 
arrest me ; I am running away." This collar was no doubt welded to the 
neck of some wretch who had endeavored to escape from the barbarity of 
his master. 

No. 28. Taberna, the Annex to the Halls on New York avenue. 
Houses in Pompeii, also in Rome, anciently, as in modern times, were 
frequently surrounded by small shops. The Roman nobles, like modern 
Italian proprietors, thus disposed of their own farm products. Here are 
for sale unique souvenirs of the different Halls. Moorish traceries, columns 
of various architectural orders, photographs ; especially an assortment of 
Greek vases with classic designs, sketches in water color, etc., etc. 

In concluding this sketch of the most elaborate reproduction of a Roman 
house of the first century of the Christian era as yet attempted, it may not 
be presuming to suggest that therein is a field for instruction, far bevond 
novelty and entertainment. Students of history may here find dry descrip- 
tions illuminated by color and object. With an entirety of the surroundings 
in Roman domestic life, painted by the eye upon the retina of the brain, the 
lives of Plutarch and other classics will take more vivid interest. 

A profoundly philosophical and interesting work* has this title : 



- POMPEII— THE CATACOMBS— THE ALHAMBRA." 

"A STUDY BY THE AID OF THESE MONUMENTS UPON PAGAN LIFE AT ITS 
DECLINI-:; CHRISTIAN LIFE AT ITS AURORA; AND MAHOMETAN LIFE 
AT ITS APOGEE." 

It opens upon its broad generalization by this inquiry : 

" To-day, above all, when history has so well comprehended the assistance 
it can draw from an intimate alliance with archaeology, is there a scientific 
pilgrimage more agreeable and more useful than that to Pompeii?" 
* Lagreze, Paris, 1872. 



TJhe jCecture Jfcall. 

Ir. the Lecture Hall is The Painting of the Grandeur of Rome 
in the Time of Constantine. 

The Great Painting above mentioned, 50 feet long by 11 feet high, is 
by eminent German painters, Mr. George Peter, figure and architectural 
painter ; Mr. A. Bieberstein, tree and foliage, and Mr. E. Gschmeidler, 
landscape and architectural artist. It is a copy in part of the work exe- 




The Grandeur of Rome in the Time of Constantini 



cuted bv Professor Buhlmann, architectural archaeologist, and Professor 
Wagner, artist, of Munich ; the result of years of that exhaustive study and 
research characteristic of the scholars of Germany. 

It is in beautiful harmony of colors : a glimpse of old Rome as it was in a 
bright and sunny day in the time of the first Christian Emperor. The 
amount of labor spent in collecting material for so grand an undertaking can 
bardly be imagined. Only a more detailed study of the buildings, such as 
temples, triumphal arches, theatres, circus buildings, etc., some of which 
are well known to many and of which portions are seen to this day, will re- 
veal what diligence was applied to place all these properly and with due 



.£ THE GRANDEUR OF ROME. 

regard to their time of construction and part renovation. It is certainly very 
interesting to observe that the marble monument at the foot of the grand 
stairs to the temple is new. It represents the Emperor Diocletian on horse- 
back in bronze, whereas the so-called Tabularium, the building on the left 
with its galleries crowded with sightseers, is of older construction. Above 
this building can be seen part of the Palatine Hill, crowned with the Em- 
peror's palace, and a part of the old city beneath. The grandest piece of 
architecture on the canvas is certainly the Temple of the Capitolian Jupiter, 
with its beautifully carved cornices and pillar capitals of pure marble, con- 
trasting in noble contour from the clear sky. The temple court is filled with 
many concentrated gifts ; and many a masterpiece of marble and bronze 
.statuary will be recognized in its natural place, which may now be a treasure 




in the Vatican or Louvre. The beautiful architectural reconstruction of the 
city is not the only part of interest on the painting. It also represents a great 
historical day ; the entry, as triumvir and victor, of Constantine the Great to 
the temple of Jupiter. At the foot of the stairs his chariot, with the affixed 
statue of Victory, is just being turned back and the Emperor may be seen 
on the first platform, received by the High Priest. In the procession are the 
chiefs he has conquered, bound to heavy timbers, and a painting represent- 
ing the last battle is carried through the streets amid the bearers of the differ- 
ent standards. 

The painting is full of life ; streets are crowded and on the housetops 
people of rank view the grand procession. The time of this event is when 
Rome must have been overfilled with monumental buildings of the greatest 
splendor. It is well known that this same Constantine, a heathen until a few 



THE TRIUMPH OF CONbTANTINE. 



37 



hours before his death, but the great friend of Christianity, plundered Rome 
to embellish his favortie city Constantinoplis, as it was called in his time. 

The unobstructed foreground offers a view of the Circus Maximus, many 
great buildings, mausoleums, statues, pillars, etc. The river Tiber, the 
islands and the bridges, the different hills and parts of the city wall, are all 
so natural that one can form a clear idea of the topography of Rome. 

Returning to the design and composition of this painting, it may be of 
interest to know that a great many fragments of ancient plans of Rome, en- 




graved on marble slabs, have been found. They may be seen to-day walled 
up in the halls of the stairway of the Capitoline Museum. Besides these 
plans, the constructor was obliged to study minutely the descriptions of 
ancient writers, the works of many having come down to our day. The 
material for the reconstruction of temples, pillars, and other monuments were 
taken from vase paintings, seal rings, cameos, coins, etc., so that the general 
appearance of Rome, as here compiled, must be approximately correct. It 
is therefore exceedingly interesting for the student. 

The illustration of ancient Roman architecture has been thus effectively 
accomplished through the scholarship and artistic ability of painstaking 
German professors and artists. A panoramic key gives explanations of the 
details. 



7/foorish JCalt of ffiensaquin. 

<■<■ The Arabian style is the product of the most refined physical enjoyment, 
with all that is beautiful. The qualities exhibited are elegance and grace of 
form, with gorgeous ornament, and in these qualities their style may be 
said to approach perfection. The journey to Granada in search of Moorish 

architecture is a 
deathless memory 
to one capable of 
being impressed 
with the labors of 
one of the greatest 
races of decora- 
tors the world has 
seen. 

" Spain. Africa, 
Persia, and India 
bear witness to the 
wonderful beauty 
of Saracenic 
structures that 
seem more the 
realization of 
dreams than the 
actual work of 
mortal hands. 

"When we 
think of the cour- 
age, the faith, and 
1 h e voluptuous- 
ness of the fol- 
lowers of Mo- 
hamet, as well as 
iheir fanaticism 
and cruelty, we 
are not surprised 
at such an out- 
come of the Arab- 
ian soul. Like a 
flower that seems 
all the more pre- 
cious because it 

blooms in the crevices of the volcano, so also these dreams of Moorish art 
become all the more bewilderingly beautiful, because they are the voluptuous 
reaction of spirits that in their periods of activity drenched the earth with 
human blood." — ( The Decorator.') 

This critical description is pictured in Tennyson's Recollections of the 
Arabian Nights — The palace of good Haroun-al-Raschid. 

The Moorish Hall is a reconstruction of the pat/o in the House of Bensa- 
quin in Tangiers. The ceiling is 30 ft. high, and is an elaborate combination 
of Saracenic columns, brackets, pendants, arches, and openings of wood 
construction. Later will be added a Hall walled with traceries from the 
Alhambra on arches of an arcaded gallery. 

38 




Hall in House of Bensaquin. 



Tjhe jissyrian Uhrone ffioom. 




West End ok Assyrian Throne Room. Vtsta in the Palace of Sennacherib 



Assyrian Palaces. — "All the knowledge which we in reality possess 
regarding the ancient palatial architecture of the Euphrates Valley is 
derived from the exploration of the palaces erected by the great Assyrian 
dynasty of Nineveh during the two centuries and a half of its greatest pros- 
perity. Fortunately it is a period regarding the chronology of which there 
is no doubt, since the discovery of the Assvrian Canon by Sir Henry Rawlin- 
son, extending up to the year 900 B. C. This, combined with Ptolemy's 
Canon, fixes the date of every king's reign with almost absolute certainty. It 
is also a period regarding which we feel more real interest than with almost 
any other in the history of Asia. Almost all the kings of that dynasty 
carried their conquering arms into Syria, and their names are familiar to 
us as household words from the record of their wars in the Bible. It is 
singularly interesting not onlv to find these records so completely confirmed, 
but to be able to study the actual works of these very kings, and to analyze 
their feelings and aspirations from the pictures of their actions and pursuits 
which they have left on the walls of their palaces." — Fergusson. 

At the conclusion of the tk Design and Prospectus for a National 
Gallery of History and Art. " by F. W. Smith, it was stated as follows : 



4° 



THE ASSYRIAN THRONE ROOM. 



" If time and ability for study and travel are allowed to the writer, 
including, if possible, travel to the East, there will be published a Design 
for a Reconstruction of an Assyrian Throne Room, with colored illustration." 

With this special aim, a journey has been made to London, Paris, Athens, 
Constantinople, and Cairo for study and conference with archaeological 
authorities. 

The writer herein makes his grateful acknowledgment for the cordial 
interest and advisory aid in his mission of— 







Gallery of Assyrian Throne Room. Casts of Layard Slabs in British Museum. 

Mr. Ernest A. W. T. Budge (Litt. D. Cantab.), Principal of the Assyrian 
and Oriental Departments of the British Museum. 

Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen.* General Director of the South Kensington 
Museum, London. 



They wrote as follows : 

"British Museum, 12, 10, '91. 
" Dear Sir : 1 have read with much pleasure your book in which you 
set forth the details of your proposed Gallery at Washington, to contain 
objects illustrative of History and Art. I note with special interest your 

* Since deceased. 



CORRESPONDENCE BRITISH AND KENSINGTON MUSEUMS. 4! 

idea of reproducing buildings, temples, etc., etc., full size; this is perhaps 
the only way of bringing all the various scattered details of such things 
into a focus, and I believe that such a work, carefully carried out, would 
be of the greatest use as an instrument of education. 

"The increasing scarcity of antiquities from Egypt and Assyria, and 
the enormous prices which are now paid for such things, make it quite 
impossible for any newly formed museum to compete with those of England, 
France, and Germany, either in the interest or variety of original subjects. 
In this case casts, reproductions, photographs, electrotypes, etc., are the only 
things available, at a comparatively moderate cost, to give students to-day 
accurate ideas and conceptions of the great buildings and works of art of the 
ancients. 

" I am, yours truly, 

" E. A. Wallis Budge,. 
"(Lttt. D. Cantab.) 

"Franklin W. Smith, Esq're, etc., etc." 



" 2 The Residences, South Kensington Museum, 

" London, S. W., ijt/i October, iSgi. 

"Dear Sir: I have examined your project of a national Gallery of 
History and Art at Washington with much interest, and I most fully agree 
with you that it is, above all things, necessary to provide adequate space, not 
only for the present requirements of such an institution, but also for its future 
development. 

"The experience of all European museums shows that when well 
administered they grow with unexpected rapidity, and almost everywhere 
the cry is for more space. 

" This is of course the more necessary as your project includes representa- 
tions of domestic apartments such as the two original rooms from Damascus, 
the panelled XVI. century room from Sizergh Castle, Westmoreland, 
the French XVIII. century boudoir, and the old London house-front in 
the South Kensington Museum, where they are among the most popular 
and attractive objects. 

"At the South Kensington Museum, as you know, we have several large 
reproductions, generally in plaster, as that of the Trajan Column, the Door- 
way of the Cathedral of San Diego da Compostella in Spain, the Chimney 
Piece at Bruges, the Sanchi Tope, etc. For these and similar casts large 
and lofty courts are necessary. At the Crystal Palace at Sydenham are still 
larger reproductions, as the Alhambra, the Pompeian House, etc., and if, as 
I understand, your project includes these also, a very liberal provision must 
be made for their due exhibition. 

" Herewith I send copies of labels of some of our larger casts. You will 
see that while some of these were made expressly for the South Kensington 
Museum, some have been made in conjunction with other institutions, thus 
much lessening the cost to each, and some have been acquired by exchange 
with other countries. 

" Such an institution as you propose would he in a position to enter into 
arransrements with the older museums for a similar system of exchange. 



i- 



THE ASSYRIAN THRONE ROOM. 



"■Assuring you of my earnest sympathy with the important enterprise on 
which you are engaged, and of my hearty wishes for its successful accom- 
plishment, 

" I am, dear sir, yours very faithfully, 

" Philip Cunliffe Owen. 
"■Franklin W. Smith, Esq." 

Also to Professor George O. Perrot, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, and 
his eminent architectural associate and collaborateur, M. Charles O. Chipiez, 




East End of Assyrian Throne Room. Sennacherib on the Throne of Xerxes. 



whose joint publications are the latest and most authoritative on Assyrian, 
Chaldean, and Egyptian archaeology. To 

Professors T. Buhlmann and Wagner, of Munich, designer and artist of 
" Das Alte Rom," the superb representation of Roifie in the time of Con- 
stantine, in Berlin ; and also to the Hon. A. Louden Snowden, Minister 
Plenipotentiary, and Irving J. Manatt, Ph. D., Consul of the U. S. at Athens. 

His Excellency, John Gennadius, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom 
of Greece to the Court of St. James. 

Correspondence with these gentlemen permitted to publication will be 
interesting material in the Records of Progress toward National Galleries. 

With zealous interest in his purpose, these eminent scholars and efficient 



THE THRONE OF XERXES. 



43 



national representatives opened exceptional opportunities for examination 
and photography of objects in museums, and for access to historical sites and 
remains that were closed to public approach. 

Messrs. Perrot and Chipiez were the constructors of the exquisite and exact 
models of the Parthenon, Pantheon, etc., recently added to the Metropolitan 
Museum, N. Y., by purchases under the Willard bequest. These gentlemen 















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The Throne of Xerxes. 



generously offered their services toward designs for Egyptian reconstructions 
as a contribution to an American National Gallery. 

The construction of the Halls of the Ancients fulfills far more than the 
above-quoted intention " to publish A Design for an Assyrian Throne 
Room." 

Now an actual simulation of its interior is announced ; revealed by the joint 
conclusions of Layard and Fergusson, with heightened effects of details added 
by Viollet-le-Duc — the open side walls or clearstory with Giraffa battle- 
ments. 

The decorations of the Throne Room follow the description of Lafever. 

" The interior of the Assyrian palace was magnificent and imposing. The 
4 



44 ASSYRIAN THRONE ROOM. 

stranger was ushered in through the portal guarded by colossal bulls of white 
alabaster. He found himself surrounded hy the sculptured records of the 
empire. 

'■ Battles, sieges, triumphs were portrayed on the walls sculptured in ala- 
baster and painted in gorgeous colors. Above the sculptures were painted 
other events ; the king, attended by eunuchs and warriors, receiving prisoners 
or performing religious ceremonies. These representations were enclosed 
in borders of elegant design. The emblematic tree, monstrous animals, 
winged bulls were the subjects. 

" The ceilings were in compartments, painted with flowers or with figures 
of animals, surrounded by elegant borders and mouldings. The beams may 
have even been plastered with gold or silver. Through apertures, just below 
the roof, was seen the bright blue of an eastern sky in frames on which 
were painted in vivid colors the winged circle in the midst of elegant ideal 
ornaments. The edifices were national monuments on which might be read 
the glories and triumphs of the kingdom." 

The slabs are casts imported from originals in the British Museum, brought 
by Layard in 1S47. 

In this hall will be models of a Royal Tent, a temple, altars, terra-cotta 
cylinders (the books of Assyrians), potteries, etc., and a modern painting 
of the Palace (exterior), as restored by Layard. 

While searching for material in the Assyrian Halls of the Louvre, the 
writer noticed in the catalogue "• Trone de Xerxes — Palais de Persepolis." 

Attendants in the Exhibition Halls had no knowledge of it, until upon 
inquiry it was reported to be high upon the wall of the upper landing of 
the grand staircase. It was a large slab of one side. A photograph was 
obtained with the metre-scale. Measurements were 13 ft. 10 in. wide and 
10 ft. 6 in. high. 

Signor Giordani has modeled it; Signor Paladini cast it in duplicate 
and the throne is re-established in Washington. 

It is marbleized, as history records that Xerxes, 



" the king, sat on a throne of white marble inspecting the army as it passed. 
It consisted of forty-six different nations. The vast army was seven days in 
crossing upon two magnificent bridges of boats, built across the Helles- 
pont.' 

The sides of the throne have three tiers of figures in bas-relief of captive 
nations supporting the throne. 

Since the above-mentioned photograph was obtained the great work of 
Montfaucon, L? Antiquite Exfliquee, 10 vols., royal folio, Paris, 1722, has 
been purchased in Europe. 

In vol. 2 (part 2, plate 1S3) is exhibited near the Throne a view of the 
Throne in the desert, before removal to France; the lower tier of captives 
being partly buried in earth with foliage and fallen ruins. 



SENNACHERIB ON" HIS THRONE. 



45 



Upon this restoration of the throne of Xerxes is placed the modeled 
figure of King Sennacherib — 

" the son of Sargon, who founded the house of the Sargonidae, who were 
the most brilliant of all the Assyrian kings and who made all neighboring 
nations feel the weight of their conquering arms." 

"He, Sargon, so subdued the Egyptians that they never after recovered 




Sennacherib on His Throne Before Lachish. 

their former strength. He reduced also Syria, Babylonia and a great part 
of Media. 

" His son, the proud, haughty Sennacherib, captured the fenced cities of 
Judah," but afterwards " lost 185,000 men in a single night. Sculptures 
represent him as standing in his chariot directing the labor of his war 
captives, often loaded with fetters." 

" Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Platea gave the death blow to 
Persian rule in Europe. Grecian valor saved a continent from Eastern 



46 ASSYRIAN THRONE ROOM. 

slavery. It gave rise to Hellenic civilization. Marathon and Salamis were 
the birth-places of Grecian glory." — (Barnes' General History.) 

The period of Sennacherib was 705-6S0 B. C. That of Xerxes, the son of 
Darius at Thermopylag, 4S0 B. C. 

This brief record in association of Sennacherib and Xerxes gives great 
interest to the representation of Sennacherib upon the Throne of Xerxes, if 
the simulated personality is warranted. 

Fortunately the authenticity is undeniable. 

Among the slabs removed from Assyria to London is a series portraying 
Sennacherib on his throne, in review of the captives of the city of Lachish. 
From them in Layard's Nineveh,* p. 127, is a picture of the king on his 
throne. It is a restoration plainly correct from the original slab.f Plates 
from photographs of both are annexed. 

Of the former, Layard wrote as follows: "•The throne appears to have 
resembled in every respect one discovered in the palace at Nimroud. The 
royal feet rested upon a high footstool of elegant form, cased with embossed 
metal." The monarch was attired in long loose robes, richly ornamented and 
edged with tassels and fringes. In his right hand he raised two arrows and 
in his left rested a bow.J 

The attempt to restore an Assyrian Throne in its own environment of 
architecture and ornamentation, probably may have been regarded as pre- 
sumptuous, especially as it has never been before undertaken ; but the design 
of the hall, its ornamentation, and scenic illustration, all have full authority 
and can be as well vindicated as the details of the king and the throne. 

In the Roman house the patterns of decorations from Pompeii, Hercu- 
laneum, and Rome are placed against copies on the walls. Likewise in the 
Assyrian and Egyptian halls, exemplars from the pencil, brush, and camera 
of explorers and archaeologists are in evidence near the reproductions, which 
are on the exact scale of their originals. The colors of the Assyrian walls, 
on the casts from the British Museum and the painted figures are after plates 
in the Atlas of Victor Place (Nineve et Assyrie) ; and the scenes are of 
the size on the alabaster slabs in London and Paris. They are accepted by 
Perrot and Chipiez in their standard History of Art in Assyria and Chaldea 
and by them are imitated precisely in their colored illustrations. The pre- 
dominance of blue ground and yellow in figures is fixed by glazed tiles in 
Assyrian collections. 

From the front of the throne two columns 33 feet in height rise to the 
ceiling having horsehead capitals of the Great Hall of Xerxes at Persepolis. 

* Harper's edition, 1S37, p. 127. 

t Discoveries among the ruins of Nineveh, Layard, p. 127. 

JThis slab is one of a series of thirteen, fully detailed in monuments of Nineveh, 2d 
series, plates 20-24. 

The colors of the costume follow the Trachten of Hottenroth. 




Plan of 
Second Floor 



# Scale 



4© ASSYRIAN THRONE ROOM. 

They are remodeled in the Louvre, about two feet in height. The Great 
Hall of Xerxes, according to Fergusson, "was the most splendid building 
of which any remains exist" in the East. It was 300 x 350 feet. 

Human-headed bulls flanked the entrance as at Nimroud. Thus details 
are revealed of the architectural environment in the histories of Mordecai, 
Abraham, and Ruth. — (Fergusson.) 

Decorations of Assyrian Throne Room. 
Wall at left of the Throne. 

1. The worship of the sacred tree. Above the tree, the image of Baal. — 
From Nimroud. 

2. The king in battle — divinity above — bird preying on the dead. — From 
Nimroud. 

3. Warriors on horseback pursuing the enemy. — From Nimroud. 

4. The league or treaty of peace. — From Nimroud. 
Wall at rear of Throne. 

1 . Men cutting down date palms in the country of a conquered people to 
render it desert. — From Nimroud. 

2. The king's foresters hunting. From a frieze in basalt. — From Khor- 
sabad. 

Wall at the right of Throne. 

1 . The god of day and brightness struggling with the demon of night and 
darkness. — From Nimroud. 

2. Four casts from alabaster slabs in the British Museum. The king 
divining before the gods of Assyria. — From Nimroud. 

3. A beardless winged divinity found in the hall of the oracle at Nimroud. 
Winged Bulls at Entrance. 

The bulls of heaven placed at the portal as defenders of the king are from 
Khorsabad. 
Gallery over 7 hrone. 

1. A band of enameled brickwork. Various scenes. In the center, the 
king offers a libation for his successful hunt. 

2. Cast of black basalt column of Shalmaneser II. 

3. Cast of Moabite stone. 
Gallery over Portal. 

1 . Band of enameled brickwork. To left, a caged lion being turned loose 
in hunting ground. To right, King Assur-bani-pal feasting in the garden 
with his favorite wife. — From Nineveh. 

2. Thi-ee casts of lion hunt from slabs in British Museum. 

3. Cylindrical seals and tablets representing impressions made by various 
seals. 

4. Many illustrated plates from Place, exemplars for ornaments and 
painted scenes. — Views in Assyria. — Removal of slabs. — Transportation on 
the Tigris, ancient and modern. — Facsimiles of tablets, cones, cylinders, 
etc., etc. 

5. Writings on baked clay. — Tablets and bricks. 



ASSYRIAN SEALS AND CYLINDERS. 



49 



Assyrian Cylinder-seals, Tablets, and Bricks. 

From Mr. Ready, numismatist of the British Museum, have been received 
casts of the most interesting specimens in its possession. They include the 
Deluge tablet, a boundary stone, a circular brick — inscribed, and the 
cylinder-seals of Nebuchadnezzar, Sennacherib, and Darius. These cylin- 
ders are marvelous relics of the skill of the ancients. They are arranged in 
the West gallery. The chronology of the cylinders is as follows : Early 
Babylonian 3500-2000 B. C, Later Babylonian 1S00-600 B. C, Later 
Assyrian 800-600 B. C, Persian 600-400 B. C. 

There is a cast of a case-tablet — an inner tablet inscribed which was closed 
in an outer case also inscribed. 

The Deluge tablet is named from its Chaldean mention of the flood. 

Mr. King, the gem critic of the museum, says that — 

" The actual invention of the true art of gem-engraving (the incising a 
gem by means of a drill charged with the powder of a harder material) is 
undoubtedly due to the seal-cutters of Nineveh, and that at a date shortly 
preceding the times of Sargon — that is, as early as the year B. C. 729. This 
is the era at which cylinders begin to make their appearance in the so-called 
hard stones, covered with engravings executed in precisely the same style 
with the archaic Greek intagli, and marked by the same minuteness of detail 
and elaborateness of finish." 

'■' These qualities are especially noticeable 
in the state seal of King Sennacherib. He 
and his queen are represented as standing by 
a sacred tree, under the protection of the 
supreme deity ; a wild goat near them is 
standing on a lotus flower, which in its turn 
is upheld by a large lotus." The cylinder 
was found close to the principal entrance of 
Sennacherib's palace. Perrot and Chipiez gave satisfactory proof of the 
identity of the seal as of Sennacherib. The figure of the king thereon is 
identical with one found of the monarch in a bronze bas-i"elief and they add, 
" it was perhaps the actual signet of the king" (V. I., pp. 195-196). Such 
evidence of reliability in conclusions of scholarship is a gratification. 

Reference Books and Plates in Case in Assyrian Throne Room. 

Victor Place — Atlas of " Nineve et Assyrie." 

Benomi — Nineveh and its Palaces. 

Perrot-Chipiez — History of Chaldean and Assyrian Art. 2 vols. 

Botta — Memoire L'Ecriture Cuneiform. 

World Atlas. 

Murray - Italy. 

Baedeker — Central Italy. 




ffioman jfcistorfcal Sallery. 

The Roman Historical Gallery is devoted to illustrations of Roman 
History. The walls are surrounded by 102 plates of Pinelli's Istoria 
Romana, engravings in historical order from the foundation of Rome. 
Three of the series have been painted on canvases 10 ft. x 7 ft., viz., 
Cornelia and the Gracchi, Marius amid the ruins of Carthage, and Hamilcar 
swearing Hannibal to eternal hatred of the Romans. 




They forecast the grand impression of the entire series, th 



mlareed and 



The three specimens were painted by Pascal and Zurcher at a cost of 
$150.00 each. One hundred (100) would cost but $15,000. The style is 
the modern panoramic — effective and realistic — that has been perfected the 
last twenty-five years in Germany and France. Vernet was scouted as a 
panoramic painter, but he perpetuated the triumphs of France in Versailles. 
The history of Bavaria is painted in the same manner around the walls of the 
Museum in Munich. It is the only example of a chronological series of 
paintings showing the literal history of a nation, for instruction, in Europe. 



THE ROMAN HALL. 



51 



Let the observer in this hall conceive the value to the American people of 
such galleries, portraying the history of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome ; 
four hundred (400) paintings ranging over 4,000 ft. of canvas through four 
Galleries, each in its national architecture, at a cost of $60,000 (less than 
the cost of a small Meissonier), and consider the expediency of such use 
of art; not in dilettanteism, but for the increase and diffusion of knowl- 
edge. 

He will be prepared to appreciate the architectural scheme proposed, — 
to house these and other object lessons of history, in surrounding courts 
filled with reconstructions of their temples, dwellings, and monuments, as 
shown in the adjacent Hall of the Model. 

• The Roman Hall contains the full series of engravings made by order of 
Popes Clement XIII and XIV of Raphael's decoration of the Loggia of the 




Temple of Denderah. 

Vatican ; the motifs of which he drew largely from decorations left in the 
Baths of Titus ; reconstructions of the Baths of Diocletian and Caracalla ; 
plates of Piranesi's Vases of the Vatican ; and Magnificentia Romanorum, 
showing the splendid elaboration in stone of Roman ornament ; restorations 
of the forum ; Vasi's plan of Rome, in 1765, 9 ft. x 3 ft. with 390 numbered 
constructions ; a large colored plate of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, 
original by David Roberts, R. A., owned by the Earl of Elsmere. Rossini's 
views in Rome 1S20-1S30, copper plates; the celebrated Marriage of the 
Aldobrandini and others from Mercante's Remains of Art in the Baths of 
Titus. These are the most perfect specimens of ancient painting which 
have been preserved in Rome. 

V. Murray's hand book of Rome for many interesting details of their 
discovery, concealment, use by Raphael and his pupils, their condi- 
tion, &c. 



j{ Cosmorama 

exhibits grand Egyptian scenery and constructions of Karnak, the Pyramids, 
etc., also of Pompeii. 




Sketch Like Above for Illustration of Moorish Court, with Reproductions; Court of the Lions, 
Alhambra, Mosque of Cordova, Mosque at Cairo, Etc., Etc., Etc. 

Above the Cosmorama are three fine paintings by Bieberstein, of designs 
for the Egyptian court of the National Galleries. 

i — Egyptian Pylon : The Portal of the Egyptian Court. 




Egyptian Pylon, with Obelisks and 
Sphinxes. 




Colonnade of Columns: the Lotl 
Hathor, and Other Capitals 




The Royal Pavilion of Medinet- 
Abou Thebes. 




Perspective of the Galleries. 
Corridors for Casts. 



2— Colonnade of Lotus and Hathor Columns of the Egyptian Court. 
3— The Pavilion of Medinet Abou, Thebes ; as restored by Chipiez. 



Sgyptian Jfall of jirts and Crafts. 




Restoration of an Egyptian Court by Racinet. 

" The most enormous monuments known to architecture ornament the 
chief cities with all arts — sculpture, painting, the use of precious metals, and 
the richest enamels. 

" Egypt wrought mines, fabricated stuffs of linen, wool and cotton; and 
received the rich tissues of India. These are the true signs of an advanced 
civilization ; of established law ; of a nation thoroughly organized and wisely 
controlled." — (Champollion.) 



The Hall of Arts and Crafts is walled with paintings and engravings of 
the mechanical arts, agriculture, domestic life, sports, punishments, imple- 
ments, potteries, musical instruments, boats, weapons ; of the transporta- 
tion of obelisks, manipulation of statues ; of brick-making by the Israelites 
in Egypt, &c, &c. 

There will be models (later) of the houses of the wealthy and the humble 
classes ; the former with gardens and store-houses. 

53 



54 



HALL OF ARTS AND CRAFTS. 



THE ANCIENTS AS GLASS WORKERS. 

" The glass-blowers of ancient Thebes are known to have been as proficient 
in that particular art as is the most scientific craftsman of the same trade of 
the present day, after a lapse of forty centuries of so-called ' progress.' They 
were well acquainted with the art of staining glass and are known to have 
produced that commodity in great profusion and perfection. Rosselini 
gives an illustration of a piece of stained glass known to be 4,000 years old, 
both in tint and design. 

"The priests of Ftah at Memphis were adepts in the glassmaker's art. 
Their imitations of the amethyst and of the various other colored gems were 
so true to nature that even now, after they have lain in the desert sands from 
2,000 to 4,000 years, it takes an expert to distinguish the genuine article 
from the spurious. It has been shown that, besides being experts in glass- 
making and glass coloring, they used the diamond in cutting and engraving 






Vineyards and Wine-Making. 

glass. In the British Museum there is a beautiful piece of stained glass, 
with an engraved emblazonment of the monarch Thothmes III, who lived 
3,400 years ago." — {Jewellers' Circular.) 



The Egyptians regarded man as composed of three entities : First, the 
body ; second, the Ka, or double, an ethereal projection of the person — pre- 
ciselv in form and features ; third, the Soul, Bi, popularly represented as 
a bird. 

The burial vault was the Eternal House of the dead, sealed on the day ot 
burial, to be forever the secret home of the Soul. The Serdab was the dwell- 
ing of the Ka. A chapel connected with it was for reception of friends 
bringing offerings of votive meats and drinks. Finally, that these offerings 
might preserve forever their virtues, survivors conceived the idea of drawing 



HALL OF ARTS AND CRAFTS. 



55 



them on the walls. Pictures, persons, or things became the reality — the 
real presence of those persons and things. 

" The tombs of Beni-Hassan are the most interesting of all Egypt, because 
they are not consecrated to kings and court officials. 

' k The pictures introduce us to the very life of the people ; its family circles, 
its sports and games, such as pitch and toss, tennis, hot cockles, and even 
cricket. The painted bas-reliefs of the tombs reveal to us the Egyptians of 
olden time, such as they were in wars, on their farms, in the work-shop, in 
their hours of relaxation and repose. Here are revealed all the secrets of 
their crafts and the very tricks of their jugglers and mountebanks." — (Re- 
clus, " The Earth and its Inhabitants.") 

" The double saw himself depicted on the walls eating and drinking, 
and he ate and drank. Theologians and artists carried the notion to the 
fullest extent. They added to the offerings the whole history of the animal — 






\^ „ 




&i)j~*y^\ >s 




Music and Sport. 



the fields, the slaughter — and to bread, clothing, ornaments, and furniture 
they added the processes of tillage, harvest, the crafts, spinners, weavers, 
goldsmiths, and cabinet-makers." — (Maspero.) 

"In time pictures were supplanted by models or real utensils — funeral 
boats, imitation bread offerings of baked clay, moulds for the dead to make 
models of fish, flesh and fowl. Arms, too, and other implements were 
there, that their souls might still serve their master in the shadowy world." — 
(Ely, " Manual of Archaeology.") 

Thus the more complete the imagery the greater the outfit of the Ka for 
its future. Hence the vast multiplicity of tableaux within the tomb-chapels 
of Egypt. 

With this knowledge of their religious and sentimental origin, akin to that 
of Gods and kings on their temple walls, the apparent childishness disap- 



56 



EGYPTIAN SPORT AND CARICATURE. 



pears. We read from them a faith that they were to remain continuously 
real, with magic power for the welfare of souls of the departed, and they 
are lifted to a high plane of significance. 

Another reflection arises of the controlling power of those religious con- 
ceptions, absurd, to modern reason. That religion entered as a governing 
element of the people, through cycles far beyond those of the doctrines of 
Confucius. No state in modern civilization has shown such stability and 
unchangeableness. 

These considerations will make instructive and interesting the decoration 
of the walls of the Halls of Arts and Crafts, with tomb-paintings of Egypt, 




Historic Caricatures. 

for from them have been revealed their practical arts in life and their theories 
of another life. 

They will make especially attractive the single exhibit of a mummy 
and the arrangement of a tomb-chapel. 

All existing Egyptian museums are haunted by spectres of death in 
repulsive mummied remains, giving a conception of the life of that race as 
dismal and funereal. It is the aim of these illustrations to reveal their life, 
activities, and pleasures, not the cerements of their dissolution. 

Champollion-Fijeac copies several comic scenes, from walls in Thebes — 
an ass. lion, crocodile, and ape giving a concert. The most remarkable, 
republished by several authors, is a burlesque of Rameses II in war. A 
Pharaoh of rats in a chariot drawn by dogs gallops to the assault of a fortress 
garrisoned by cats. 



" The Egyptians, naturally laughter-loving and satirical, were caricaturists 
from an early period. One of the Turin papyri chronicles the courtship 



AN EGYPTIAN FEAST. 57 

of a shaven priest and a songstress of Amen in spirited vignettes. Cats 
were the famous favorites in caricature. An ostrakon depicts a cat of 
rank e?i grande toilette, seated in an easy chair, and a miserable Tom, 
with piteous mien, and tail between his legs, serving her with refreshments." 
— ("Manual of Archaeology.") 




%{iiaot^uo(jj 



In this Hall is placed a copy of Long's Egyptian Feast, 10 ft. x 7 ft. The 
scene is of revelry, when a mummy is drawn into the company by priests to 
remind them of their mortality. Probably the custom was imitated in the 
presentation of a skeleton at Roman feasts. 

To enhance this illustration one mummy only has been purchased for 
the Company by Mr. S. W. Woodward in 1897, at the Ghizeh Museum.. 
It was the most costly on sale because of the excellent condition of the case. 

The Egyptian Museum in Berlin has a Hall of Tombs. The upper large 
Egyptian Hall in London is walled with mummies, and the floor is nearly 
covered with them — a veritable necropolis. Lepsius transported a tomb of 
stone entire. For like instruction two rooms of about the same dimensions 
have been arranged. One holds the mummy in a chest of Egyptian form ; 
the other represents the visiting chapel, and is filled with rich copies of 
tomb paintings. Later will be added tables with modeled offerings. Or. 
the breast of the mummy is a photograph of one of the portraits found on 
mummy cases after the time of the Roman Conquest, B. C. 30. The mummy 
is ascribed to t 700-1 500 B. C. 

The board of the mummy case on which it rested through twenty centuries 
is on exhibition. It was pinned with wooden pegs, and shows clearly 
remains of its original elaborate decoration ; vividly revealing the religious 
belief above mentioned of the perpetual spiritual power of its representations. 



AN EGYPTIAN COURT. rg 

A fac-simile of the Book of the Dead— the Papyrus of Ani — from the 
British Museum, the most elaborate and best preserved in the world, is a dado 
72 ft. in length in the Hall of Arts and Crafts. 

A second belt is continuous with the richest plates in color that have been 
made from the elephantine folios of the Description of Egypt, published at 
the order of Emperor Napoleon by the savants who accompanied him on the 
Expedition to Egypt; and the great works of Belzoni, Lepsius, and Cham- 
pollion. 




Court in Racinet's Restoration of an Egyptian House. 

A very beautiful exhibit is made of many examples of Decorative Art, 
from twenty nationalities or periods from savage to modern, civilized life. 

A section of the Hall is filled with the construction of an Egyptian Court 
of high antiquity, within galleries designed by M. Paul Renard, architect. 
It is from the series of illustrations edited by Prisse d'Avessenes. 

" No vestige remains of a private house of ancient Egypt ; but guided by 
ancient texts and resting upon the immutability of the Egyptian people, we 
have not hesitated to approach this most interesting subject. Their relig- 
ious philosophy attributed to private dwellings only an ephemeral char-« 
acter." — (Renard . ) 

The walls of the Court are very richly decorated with conventional forms 
of lotus and other flowers grouped as in a garden. At the rear of the Court 
5 



60 HALL OF ARTS AND CRAFTS. 

a vista across the Nile displays upon the island of Philae in a " boquet of 
palm trees" the picturesque ruin known variously " as the bed of Pharaoh," 
the " summer house of Tiberius," etc. 

There is a cast of the Rosetta stone, the key that unlocked the secret of 
Egyptian hieroglyphics. It bears three inscriptions, Greek, and two in 
Egyptian characters, the hieroglyphic and euchorial. Thereby Young and 
Champollion deciphered the signs, sealed through ages : 

" Chederlaomer, Arioch, Pharaoh, Sennacherib or Nebuchadnezzar ! Forty 
years ago these were but unreal shadows, ' airy nothings.' To-day they 
have 'a local habitation and a name': they fit each into his own niche in the 
galleries of history. The mortal bodies of some of the most famous of the 
ancient heroes are with us ; the mighty Rameses sleeps his long sleep under 
our very eyes, wearing still the majestic calm, the lofty grandeur of the 
renowned Sesostris." — (J. H. S. Moxly, in the National Review.} 

On the staircase is a copy of Richter's Building of the Pyramids, 20 ft. 
x 7 ft. The original of this superb work is in the Maximilian Museum in 
Munich. The stately figure of the queen alighted from the palanquin and 
the noble peasant form under the palm were from a model in L'Ecole des 
Beaux Arts, Paris. 

For the use of students books of reference — Wilkinson, Perrot and Chipiez, 
Champollion-Fijeac, Maspero, Lenormant, Budge, Erman, Salvardy, Trevor, 
Lepsius' illustrated description of the Egyptian Museum at Berlin, Binion's 
Mizraitn, etc., are available, under charge of the assistants. 





FRANKLIN W. SMITH. ARCHT. 



o o 

Plan of ' f loor. 



WM F. WAGNER, 



Vhe Jfall of the 7/fodol, 



52 feet by 40 feet, named from the models and drawings which fill it upon 
*V scale of the proposed National Galleries of History and Art, the 
promotion of which for our country is the sole purpose of the con- 
struction of the Halls of the Ancients ; to demonstrate the realism with 
which all art, architecture, mythology, etc., of passed nationalities may be 
revived for the instruction and entertainment of our nation. At the front is 
a very beautiful model of the temple of Denderah, eight feet in length, on 
one side of the Egyptian court. At the right is represented the facade of 
the proposed Assyrian court. Beyond these successively arise those of the 




Greek and Roman ; Byzantine and Moorish ; the East Indian and Mediaeval 
courts. The Courts are ranged with Galleries for historical paintings, in 
chronological order, of the history of Egypt, Assyria, Rome, etc. ; with corri- 
dors for suitable plastic illustrations. 

Terraced upward to the proposed Acropolis is a model of the Parthenon 
for a Memorial Temple of Presidents of the United States, and on either 
side others of the Thesion at Athens ; one each for the Army and Navy of the 
United States, or perhaps for the memorial temple of the Sons of the Revolu- 
tion, the other for the Daughters of the Revolution. Beyond these are seen 
drawings for Galleries of illustrations of American history. The site pro- 
posed of the old Naval Observatory was designated by Washington for an 



THE AMERICAN ACROPOLIS. 



63 

facsimile in 



educational institution over his own signature, as shown 
the Prospectus of the Halls. 

Adjacent is placed the drawing of the design above mentioned, by Frank- 
lin W. Smith and James Renwick, and in still more elaborate detail the 
splendid perspective of the Galleries — a gift of Mr. Henry Ives Cobb, Archi- 
tect, herewith reproduced and described. Before the Egyptian Court is 







> 






The American Acropolis— Memorial Temples and Galleries of American History, 
Surmounting National Galleries of History and Art. 

a painting of the Roman Court. It contains a Roman house, a Temple, 
a Column of Trajan, Columbarium, a Tomb, etc., etc. 




The Roman Court of the National Gallery. A Free-Hand Sketch, not in Accurate 
Scale or Perspective, Simply to Illustrate Reproductions Therein. 

Another painting of the Saracenic Court exhibits a portion of the Alham- 
bra ; of the Mosque of Cordova, the Puerto del Sol of Toledo, etc. 

The base for the models is copied from that in the Louvre supporting one 
only of a Hall in Persepolis. The group above designated covers a range of 
architectural stvles never before modeled in juxtaposition. 



64 



CENTENNIAL AVENUE. 




Forum of Pompeii Restored. A Colonnade on the Potomac. 

The model of National Galleries and the drawing (p 67) exhibit American Galleries at 
the rear of the Temples on Observatory Hill. The design for these in the Hall of the Model 
displays a portico 800 ft. in length, overlooking the Potomac. The above view of the 
Pompeiian Forum reveals its beauty and luxury. 




Section from Plan of Washington, Showing the Proposed New Ontennial Avenue, Direct from 
the Capitol to the Parthenon and Galleries on Observatory Hill. (See p. 67.) 



NATIONAL GALLERIES OF HISTORY AND ART. 

Evidence of Unanimous Commendation of the Enterprise by the Press. 

By 255 articles in journals and newspapers of 51 places in 25 States, from 
Maine to Louisiana, California and Oregon, it has been emphatically endorsed. 

Elaborate descriptions of the Design have been published in papers of 
largest circulation in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Wash- 
ing, Charleston, New Orleans, and San Francisco. Brief extracts are 
appended. 

... It is unnecessary to repeat the many benefits which such an Institute would 
dispense, for they are self-evident. . . . — Washington Post. 

... If it could be built in Washington it would be a most glorious crown to the 
city; far surpassing anything devised for either ornament or usefulness of a capital. 
. . . — N. Y. Tribune. 

. . . The educational value of an institution of this kind is unquestionable. The 
architecture, archaeology, and the home-life of the nations of antiquity will be brought 
forward in a wonderfully realistic manner. . . . The field is open to America to 
eliminate by reproduction from all the gathered material of the past and the present, 
and in its advocacy the enlightened press of this country " has a cause worthy its moral 
power and in its aid wealth for its noblest use. . . . — Scientific American. 

. . . When all is done the world will have another wonder; the greatest school in 
the world. It is not to be a gallery for the rich dilettante or even for the sight-seeing 
tourist alone; but above all else for the education of the people; for all those who 
work with their hands either through brush or pen, in art, architecture, or industrial 
processes of any kind. . . . 

Mr. Smith's practical wisdom, as well as his sensible economy, is well shown by his 
selection of the material for the structure he proposes. Instead of costh' marble or 
granite, he proposes to use Roman concrete, such as stood in Roman buildings the strain 
of twenty centuries, and which is one-fourth as expensive as the other materials. 
. . . Architecture and Building, N. Y. 

Mr. Smith's Design and Prospectus is admirable. From an architectural point 
of view it must be acknowledged to be such a dream as genius might entertain and 
revel in. The American people are the richest on earth, and they will insist that 
a great national temple of art shall in its proportions and scope be worthy of the land, 
whose achievements in the finer triumphs of civilization deserves the noblest tributes. 
. . . Columbus, Ohio, Dispatch. 

. . . We sincerely wish that Mr. Smith may see his desire fulfilled, and that a 
National Museum after his plan may be speedily commenced. . . . — American Archi- 
tect, Boston. 

. . . The plan is certainly teasible. The estimated cost is not great. . . . — 
Chicago Tribune. 

... A writer in the University Magazine writes thus glowingly of the project : 
"... Such a place is not a Gallery or Museum ; it is a college — a university if you 

will — for the 'noblest study of mankind'; it is a temple to all culture." 

Those who have seen the Pompeian House at Saratoga have some idea of what can 

be done in such reproductions. — Neiv Haven Register. 

65 



66 EXTRACTS FROM PRESS NOTICES. 

. . . The idea is a grand one, and not beyond possibility when individuals are giv- 
ing millions to educational institutions. . . . — Oregonian, Portland, Oregon. 

In the parlors of the Palace Hotel, on Saturday evening, Mr. Smith addressed a 
number of artists, architects, and others who had been invited by President Geo. H. 
Sanders of the local Chapter of Architects to meet him. ... He pointed out that 
every other civilized nation has its National Gallery, and that this nation should lose 
no time in founding an American Acropolis. . . . — San Francisco Bulletin. 

This reception followed a Lecture in the Hall of the Academy of Sciences, by joint 
invitation of the Technical Society of Engineers, the Chapter of Architects, and the 
Mechanics Institute, which was reported as follows : 

There was a crowd of people interested in art, architecture, and related topics, at 
the Academy of Sciences last night, the event drawing them thither being a lecture by 
Mr. Franklin W. Smith. 

People of the East during the past three or four years have become more familiar 
with Mr. Smith's project than are Californians. 

Briefly it is to construct, on a suitable site, in Washington an American Acropolis 
with a " parthenonic temple " with courts and galleries adjoining, the whole to possess 
distinct educational advantages in special lines. ... He spoke with an enthusiasm 
that became contagious and the audience applauded very energetically every time he 
foretold with earnest confidence of the great things for art that Americans must accom- 
plish. A stereopticon, skilfully worked, portrayed the lecturer's ideas. . . . — Daily 
Bulletin, San Francisco, April /J, /8<pj. 

. . . Imposing and beautiful in architecture, rich in educational significance, and 
noble as a national memorial, the influence for good of this National Gallery upon the 
people can hardly be overestimated. 

Abundant and enthusiastic approval of Mr. Franklin W. Smith's project has already 
been accorded, and this journal adds its cordial endorsement of it as a thoroughly 
patriotic, noble, and practicable scheme, which deserves the encouragement of the 
American people. — Youth's Companion. 

... I spent more than half a day in going over the details of the plan with Mr. 
Smith. . . . and I am convinced that wherever he explains the plan he will make 
friends for it and believers in it — enthusiastic believers in it, too, for he makes every- 
thing perfectly plain and practicable. . . . — W. D., Regular Weekly Correspondent 
N. T. Times. 

The editorial of the Telegraph, London, England, of December 3, 1891, is a descrip- 
tive review of the Design and Prospectus. It closes as follows : 

Two questions, however — the most practical of all— remain to be propounded. 
What, in the first place, will be the cost ? and, secondly, will it pay ? We will answer 
the last question first. Mr. Smith's experience at Saratoga with his exquisite and 
elaborate reproduction of the Pompeian house of Pansa (noticed in these columns 
a few weeks since), is of the most encouraging kind. To the most intelligent classes 
of Americans — college professors, teachers, scholars, and artists — it has been a con- 
stant delight, a perpetual resort. 

Turning to the first question, no one who knows the American people — their 
passion for antiquity, their thirst for knowledge, their patriotism, and, best of all, their 
generosity— will doubt what their response to the hand of such an Enchanter will be. 

" Never," he exclaims, " in the history of mankind has a city been favored with a 
" fairer promise than this work presents. Founded upon the popular devotion of 
" a nation, it will inevitably reflect their liberality. Washington will become a glory 
" to the Republic in its resources of knowledge, its grandeur of architecture and art." 



EXTRACTS FROM PRESS NOTICES 
OF THE HALLS OF THE ANCIENTS. 



THE WASHINGTON POST. 

OCTOBKR 30, 1S98. 

The hundreds of people who have curiously watched the progress of the work on 
the peculiar looking building on New York Avenue, near Fourteenth Street, for nearly 
a year past, will within a few weeks have their curiosity satisfied in a most agreeable 
manner, when one of the strangest and most unparalleled restorations of antiquities 
will be first opened to the public. The building, with its grand Egyptian facade, will 
contain an exhibit which eminent authorities assert is not equaled in any museum, 
public or private, in the world. 

The building and its ancient interior reconstructions have been put in place by an 
association known as the National Galleries Company, organized by Mr. Franklin 
Webster Smith, who, for nearly half a century, has made a study of antique architec- 
ture and manners and customs. . . . 

Mr. Smith will leave to posterity in the Halls of the Ancients the most unique 
educational heritage that could be left as a legacy to any city. . . 

INSIDE THE BUILDING. 

The Halls of the Ancients, on New York Avenue, are intended merely to prepare 
the people for what is intended next. Mr. Smith believes that it will be necessary to 
educate the public to a certain extent before they will properly appreciate the scheme 
which he has originated. Hence he has gathered together in the various halls of the 
large building which he erected on New York Avenue specimens of the architecture, 
decorations, paintings, life and customs of the ancients. 

He is authority for the statement that it is the first time such a thing has ever been 
done in the world. Museums have contented themselves only with relics and originals 
for the most part. Mr. Smith, however, has gone back into the past and has brought 
a part of that past into the present. After passing through only one or two rooms of 
the building which he has fitted up in the styles of the dead races, one feels as though 
he has just stepped either from a Roman drama or a novel of Bulwer Lytton. The 
surroundings, the atmosphere, the decorations are complete in every detail. The 
illusion is almost perfect. It is truly a part of another world, a world long dead, that 
Mr. Smith has transplanted into the heart of Washington. 
THE EVENING STAR. 

WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 6, 1899. 

The Halls of the Ancients, the unique structure lately erected on the site of the 
"Rink," on New York Avenue near 13th Street, was thrown open to the President, 
the Cabinet, Congress and the press, exclusively, last Saturday night. 

These halls are constructed to illustrate the art, architecture, and life of the ancient 
Egyptian, Assyrian, Grgeco-Roman and Saracenic people. The special purpose is to 
show the natural, practical life of' the nationalities of the early ages. 

DESIGN OF THE STRUCTURE. 

The structure is designed to demonstrate, the prospectus states, the unequaled educa- 
tional facilities, the exhaustless popular entertainment and the ready feasibility of a 
group of national galleries and courts, which shall exhibit, in full size, architectural 
reconstructions of ancient nationalities, paintings of their history in chronological 
order and realistic representations of their religious, civil, and domestic life, upon a 
grand systematic plan, greatly surpassing all existing museums, with their fragmen- 
tary collections, for historical illustration. 

A few steps from the street last Saturday night carried the visiting throngs back to 
the mysterious times of world-old Egypt. 

The halls are most striking and faithful in their color scheme, and will be found of 
absorbing interest. They were opened permanently to the public today. 

67 



58 EXTRACTS FROM PRESS NOTICES. 

THE WASHINGTON TIMES. 

FEBRUARY 5, 1S99. 

Many men and women of the nineteenth century trod the Halls of the Ancients last 
night. 

The building on New York Avenue between Thirteenth and Fourteenth Streets, 
once known as the Rink, but which during the last two years has been reconstructed in 
the architecture of many ages ago, was opened for a reception arranged for the Presi- 
dent, the Cabinet, members of Congress, and newspaper correspondents. 

As the guests moved through the Egyptian Hall of the Kings, it was not difficult for 
them to fancy that they were living in that great civilization which Abraham, after 
leaving Ur of the Chaldees, found in Khaine, then the native name of Egypt. Their 
fancy carried them back thousands of years and their memories recall the tales which 
Diodorus, Siculus, Herodotus, and Manetho wrote of the Hamites, the Pharaohs, and 
the Hyksos. 

INTO THE DIM PAST. 

When the guests stood in the Assyrian Throne Room, they could imagine them- 
selves back in the Land of Shinar and in that country between the Euphrates and the 
Tigris, where, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, mankind came into being. They 
could recall the struggles of the Assyrians for independence from the Chaldeans, and 
the wonderful names of the Tiglath-Pileser and Assurpanipal, forgotten since school 
days, came again to mind. In memory, they walked the streets of Babylon, Nineveh, 
Erech, Accad, and Calneh. 

When the visitors moved into the Roman House, all the stories they had read about 
the " Mistress of the World " were revived and some of them recalled that passage from 
John Lord's " The Old Roman World," which runs : " Roman history, so grand and 
so mournful, on the whole suggests cheering views of humanity, since out of the ruins, 
amid the storms, aloft above the conflagration, there came certain indestructible forces, 
which, when united with Christianity, developed a new and more glorious condition of 
humanity." 

LED THROUGH ANCIENT HALLS. 

When the guests assembled last night they were led by Mr. Smith by the Portal of 
Karnak into the Egyptian Hall of the Kings. 

In telling of the things presented to view Mr. Smith said that existing museums 
have established a general impression of Egyptian life as gloomy — perpetually funereal 
in its thought, imagination, and forecast; of Egypt as a nation of mummies in resur- 
rection, breathing in awe and ghostliness. The present reconstructions will correct 
this dismal conception as utterly erroneous. 

ASSOCIATED PRESS 



NEW YORK TIMES, BOSTON POST AND HERALD, CHICAGO RECORD, ETC. 

Washington, Feb. 5. — A novel, artistic, and educational institution was opened here 
last night, known as "The Hall of the Ancients." The Hall is a large, specially con- 
structed building, intended by its projectors as the precursor of a great series of 
national museums and art galleries. The present building represents Egyptian, 
Assyrian, Roman, and Moorish interiors. The walls are covered with frescoes drawn 
from classic models, and the furniture and ornamentations of each section are 
historically correct. 

The originator of the idea is Mr. Franklin Webster Smith, of Boston. The ultimate 
object is to induce the government to set aside a large tract of land between the Capitol 
and the river, to be covered with galleries and courts, to form great national object 
lessons in architecture, art, life, and manners of past nations- 



A Concrete Monolithic Construction: Facade of 450 Ft. Range: 
Tower 100 Ft. in Height. 




FRANKLIN W. SMITH, ARCHITECT. 



Hotel Casa-Monica 



A SARACENIC RECONSTRUCTION IN CONCRETE. 






Ill 






The Court of Villa Zorayda 

The walls and arches are of concrete ; the latter destructible 
are plated with Alhambresque tracery. 



The Hotel (originally) "Casa-Monica," in St. Augus- 
tine, and Villa Zorayda, are substantial demonstrations 
of the durability, beauty, and cheapness of concretel 
construction. The Villa Zorayda was the experimental 
beginning in method and material that continued into 
superb and vast constructions, now world-famous. Lately, 
concrete has been utilized in thin and economical, yet 
durable fire-proof walls: upon metal-expanded lathing, 
with steel frame-work. Buildings in various styles of 
form and ornamentation have been thus constructed in 
different cities, with a success that promises its ultimate 
development in common use. It is specially adapted to 
the long ranges of galleries herein proposed : as in the great 
buildings of Chicago, it can be moulded into any structural 
form, and receive any style of carved or super-imposed 
ornamentation. Unlike the temporary wood-frame 
work and lime staff at the Fair, it would be in- 



Washington, D. C, January 2, /8pp. 
Mr. Franklin Webster Smith. 

Dear Sir: — As a strong advocate of Concrete Construction I am glad to observe that you have 
used Concrete for your stairs, columns and other parts of the Halls of the Ancients. 

For a practical demonstration of the durability and beauty of Concrete we have but to glance at 
the Ancient Roman Monuments How extensively and practically it was used ; how everlasting 
it has been. It is a mystery to me why its use was forgotten during the long centuries intervening 
between the fall of the Roman Empire and the present time. 

For my own part 1 believe that the day is not far distant when we shall use no materials in 
their natural state in the construction and ornamentation of our buildings. Natural materials were 
given man to use until by his science and his learning he should be able to evolve something new 
and better. Although that day has not arrived the scientific use of Concrete is one of the first steps 
in that direction. 

It is more homogeneous and entirely free of all the fissures of natural stone ; beside being 
absolutely fireproof. Its cost, too, especially when Architectural and Ornamental forms are desired, 
is but a tenth of that of cut stone. Indeed I am fully convinced that you could employ no better 
material for the erection of National Galleries than Concrete. 

Concrete and plaster work we first used in the construction of the Irish Village at the World's 
Fair in 1892. Not following the generally adopted scheme of staff construction, we found that we 
could get the same effect more cheaply. 

We have several examples of concrete ornamentation in private work here in Washington and 
we have built all our outside staircases and window sills on the new Census Building of it. 

I greatly admire your staircases in the Halls of the Ancients, cast in red and black concrete. They 
are more imposing than iron could be, besides being, as you state, but one third the cost. 

Trusting that your whole grand and noble scheme for National Galleries may immediately 
materialize, I remain, Yours very trulv, 

G. O. TOTTEN, Jr., of Totten & Rogers, Architects. 
60 



The halls as fields for biblical illustration. 




Hebrews at Their Tasks as Brickmakers. 

"And Pharaoh commanded the same day the task-masters of the people and their 
officers saying: Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore; 
let them go and gather straw for themselves." — Exod. v. 6th and 7th verses. 

The following texts are exemplified or explained by various details of 
ornamentation and by objects in the Halls : 

Roman Illustrations. 

Luke vii, 36-3S — John ii, 1-11 — John xiii, 25 — xiii, 1, 26-28 — Acts i, 
13 — Acts x, 9 — xii, 4 — xxviii, 14-19, 30 — xxv, 10 — Romans xvi, 5, 7—1 1 — 
1 Corinthians ix, 24-26 — Philippians iv, 22. 

Assyrian Illustrations. 

Genesis x, 11, 12 — 1 Kings vii, 7 — 2 Kings xv, 15, 19, 20, 25, 29 — 
xvi, 5-10 — xvii, 1, 3-6 — xviii, 7, 11, 14-17 — xix, 27, 35, 37 — xx, 12 — xxv, 
7 — Ezra iv, 2 — Esther vi, 1 — Jeremiah xxxix, 7 — Ezekiel xxiii, 14 — xxvii, 
14 — Daniel i, 3, 5, 8, 10 — vii, 14. 

Egyptian Illustrations. 

Genesis xxii, 5 — xxiv, 5 — xli, 19-57 — xlv, 9, 13 — Exodus iii, 7— xiv, 11 — 
Joshua ix, 9 — Isaiah x, 24 — xi, 11, 15 — Jeremiah ii, t8 — xxxvii, 5 — Ezekiel 
xx, 7 — Daniel xi, 43. 

Moabite Stone. 

1 Kings xi, 33 — 2 Kings i, 1 — xiii, 20 — xxiv, 2. 

The Roman House especially provides vivid object lessons, explaining 
incidental scriptural references to Roman manners and customs. With 
impersonations the occurrences at meals, the scene of St. Paul preaching 
" in his own hired house," &c, &c, can be made clear and realistic. (V. 
Conybeare and Howson.) 

Psalm cxix, 105 : " Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my 
path," is delightfully illustrated by the model of a Roman foot-lamp from 
Pompeii. — See Taberna, Roman House. 

Paintings from Pompeii show the vessels of the Romans, on one of which 
St. Paul was wrecked at " Melita ;" the food of their tables; the mode of 
its service. Objects exhumed which have been modeled precisely reveal 
the appliances of their households : the amphora for storing wine ; the 
crater for mixing it ; the appliances of the kitchen, the rich service for the 
table, the censers for the domestic altar, &c, &c. 

When the clergy and Sabbath School instructors learn of these facilities 
for religious as well as secular education, doubtless they will be eagerly im- 
proved for dissemination of biblical knowledge. 



Part II. 



"DESCRIPTION 

AND 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

OF PROPOSED 

National 
Galleries 

BY 

Franklin Webster Smith, 



An Egyptian Column 
from a bas relief, 
restored in the 
Halls of the Ancients, 
Washington. 



5SS 



^c^M 



^eisst 



K^-J&L 






<S^2 



,I ^D: 



z 



.^x 



2: 



C. Chipiez, Restorer. 



56th Congress, ) SENATE. j Document 

1st Session. j | No. 209. 



PART II 



DESIGN AND PROSPECTUS 



National Galleries of History and Art 



WASHINGTON, 



Franklin Webster Smith, 



February 12, 1900. — Presented by Mr. Hoar, referred to the Committee 
ou District of Columbia, and ordered to be printed. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
I 9OO. 



F»ART I. 

Petition of Franklin Webster Smith for a site for National 
Galleries of History and Art. 

Descriptive Handbook of the Halls of the Ancients, 

Constructed foe promotion of said Galleries according to the design 
annexed.— 74 pages, 53 illustrations. 

The author furnished electrotypes of the text and illustrations ready for the press. 



PART III. 

Designs, Plans, and Suggestions for the Aggrandizement of 
Washington. 

For Part II electrotypes for 113 illustrations, and for Part III for 30 illustrations were supplied; 
also all colored leaves inserted with color printing. 






PART II. 





NATIONALGALLERIES F 

OF 

HISTORY 

AND 

ART 

AT 

WASHINGTON. 




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REMARKS OF MR. HOAR IJtf THE SENATE. 

[From the Congressional Record, Fifty-sixth Congress, first session. Washington, Monday, 
February 12, 1900.] 

National Gallery of History and Art. 

Mr. Hoar. I present the petition of Franklin W. Smith, of Boston, 
Mass. , praying for an appropriation of land for a site for National Galleries 
of history and art, and for aid in the establishment thereof. 

I ask unanimous consent to make a statement in regard to this petition. 
The petitioner is a business man of great distinction and success, who for 
many years has devoted his life to the promotion of National Galleries of 
art which shall represent and reproduce the architecture, both public or 
ornamental and domestic, of the ancient nations, especially Greece and 
Rome, but also the Oriental cities. He has devoted his whole time to a 
study of that subject and has become an eminent authority. He has 
made a large collection of books and prints, and has, with the financial 
cooperation of Mr. S. Walter Woodward, of Washington, on New York 
avenue, in this city, built and adorned some halls showing great beauty 
and in full size Roman, Egyptian, Assyrian, and Saracenic architecture. 

What the petitioner desires is to have the site of the old observatory 
appropriated by the United States, and some land in the neigborhood, 
where he will place his own collection and devote himself entirely, if he 
may be permitted, to advancing that work. It will become, at a very 
moderate cost, a great ornament to the capital of the nation, and it will 
have an educational power, he thinks, more potent than many lecture- 
ships or professorships. He hopes very much that the members of the 
two Houses will, before acting upon his petition, visit, as some gentlemen 
I am told have already visited, the beautiful collection and buildings here. 

I ask unanimous consent that this petition, which is very brief, com- 
prising a page or two, and the Design and Prospectus which accompany 
it, may be printed as a document, for the use of the Senate. I under- 
stand that there are some plates, but he has all the plates prepared, so 
that that will be no cost to the Government. 

The President pro tempore. The petition will be referred to the 
Committee on the Library. 

Mr. Hoar. I rather think it would be better on the whole that the 
petition should go to the Committee on the District of Columbia, as it 
asks for the occupation of certain lands within the District. 

The President pro tempore. It will be so referred. The Senator 
from Massachusetts asks that the paper which he presents may be printed 
as a document. 

Mr. Hoar. The petition and papers. 

The President pro tempore. Is there objection? The Chair hears 
none, and it is so ordered. 
4 



CONTENTS, 



Page. 

Prefatory 6 

National Galleries a national necessity 23 

Foreign Galleries and Museums— The Vatican, Pitti and Uffizi Galleries, 
Louvre, Galleries of Munich, Dresden, St. Petersburg, Berlin, London, 
Naples, Versailles, School of Fine Arts, Paris; The Cluny, Trocadero, 
Bavarian National Museum, The Kensington in London 28 

Description of the design and plan of the proposed National Galleries of 
History and Art — The Courts, with reconstructions — Galleries in Historical 
Buildings, Lecture Halls 41 

Concrete construction advocated — Ancient and modern concrete works — Its 

advantages and economies 53 

Contents proposed for the Galleries and Courts 69 

Educational administration of the Galleries: Methods and facilities for the 

diffusion of knowledge 107 

Estimated cost of the Galleries- A central and most advantageous site in 

Washington, now cheaply available — The future of Washington 119 

Ways and means for the National Galleries 128 

Addenda: 

1. Comparative grandeur of the design 135 

2. Art in utility for object lessons in education 135 

3. Color for the temples advocated, as upon the originals 140 

4. The fascination of the realistic illustrations imagined, in confirmation 

of the opinion of Senator Hawley, president of the Centennial Expo- 
position, that when specimen sections are built the people will 
hasten all to completion by their gifts 140 

5. The educational value of models of architectural examples — Illustra- 

tions of those in the New York Metropolitan Museum from the 
Willard bequest, in the Louvre, and in the Halls of the Ancients. . . . 152 

6. Paper in reference to the facilities for the modern reconstructions pro- 

posed, supplied by the results of modern archaeology 164 

7. Further statements comprising the estimated cost of the galleries 181 

Pages printed in color were furnished by the author. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Part II. 



No. i. Title page. Renaissance arch. Page. 

No. 2. Plan of Washington io 

No. 3. Design for National Gallery 14 

No. 4. Design for American Acropolis with Temples 15 

No. 5. Model of the Porta Maggiore, Rome 16 

No. 6. Model of Micklegate Bar, York, England 17 

No. 7. Mode] <if Chinese Pagoda and Campanile, Florence 18 

No. 8. Solarium of Pompeian House, Saratoga Springs 19 

No. 9. Atrium and tablinum, Pompeian House, Saratoga Springs 20 

No. to. Atrium and cubicula, Pompeian House, Saratoga Springs 21 

No. 1 1. Glaucus, Nydia, and lone, Pompeian House, Saratoga Springs 22 

No. 12. Restoration of Roman Forum 23 

No. 13. Ribliotheca, Pompeian House, Saratoga Springs 25 

No. 14. Exterior of the Trocadero Galleries, Paris 28 

No. 15. Interior of the Trocadero Galleries, Paris 29 

No. 16. Gallery of Architectural Casts in the Trocadero 30 

No. 17. Grteco-Roman Room, British Museum 31 

No. 18. Halls of the Clunv Museum, Paris 32 

No. 19. Pavilion of the Louvre, Paris 33 

No. 2( 1. Exterior of the Louvre 34 

No. 2 1 . Gallery of Apollo, Louvre 35 

No. 22. Hall of Casts in School of Fine Arts, Paris 36 

No. 23. Design of British Imperial Institute 37 

No. 24. Perspectives of proposed Galleries of History 40 

No. 25. Colonnade of the Forum, Pompeii 43 

No. 26. Section of proposed galleries 44 

No. 27. Proposed design for Roman lecture hall 45 

No. 28. Design for Greek lecture hall 46 

No. 29. An angle tower of Roman galleries 47 

No. 30. Roman pavilion, entrance to court 48 

No. 31. Court of Lions, Alhambra 49 

No. 32. Taj Mahal for Indian court 50 

No. 33. Gothic hall, Mediaeval court 51 

No. 34. Villa Zorayda 54 

No. 35. The first concrete arch in St. Augustine 55 

No. 36. Vestibule, Villa Zorayda 56 

No. 37. Interior court, Villa Zorayda 57 

No. 38. Concrete residence, Port Chester, N. Y 58 

No. 39. Interior of residence, Port Chester, N. Y 59 

6 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 7 

Page. 

No. 40. Hotel Casa-Monica, monolith of concrete 61 

No. 41. Hotel Casa-Monica in construction 62 

No. 42. Chimney and mantelpiece in concrete 63 

No. 43. Moorish arches in Villa Zorayda 64 

No. 44. Mausoleum of Halicarnassus 67 

No. 45. Canina's restoration of the Roman Forum 68 

No. 46. Spanish cloister, Naranco ■ 69 

No. 47. Spanish staircase, Toledo 70 

No. 48. Pinelli's Triumph of Romulus , 71 

No. 49. Pinelli's Lucius Junius Brutus condemning his sons 72 

No. 50. Pinelli's Condemnation of Coriolanus to exile 73 

No. 51. Pinelli's Gifts of Roman women for war against the Gauls 74 

No. 52. Pinelli's Death of Regulus 75 

No. 53. Pinelli's Oath of Hamilcar to his son Hannibal 76 

No. 54. Temple of Philae , -. 76 

No. 55. Details of Corinthian architecture 77 

No. 56. Cloisters of St. Paul, Rome 78 

No. 57. Casa Zaporta, Spain . 79 

No. 58. Gothic portal, Beauvais 80 

No. 58^. Chart of comparative architecture 80^ 

No. 59. Indian pavilion 81 

No. 60. Jania temple, India 82 

No. 61. Balcony, Benares, India 83 

No. 62. Pillar, Tschultric, India 84 

No. 63. Tope of Sanchi, India 85 

No. 64. Hall in Palace of Allahabad, India 85 

Nos. 65, 65a. Ceramics of the nations 86, 87 

No. 66. Interior of Egyptian palace 88 

No. 67. Paris in the time of Francis I 89 

No. 68. Bird's-eye view of Egyptian palace 90 

No. 69. Atrium of a Greek house 91 

No. 70. Triclinium of a Greek house 92 

No. 71. Design for proposed Roman court 94 

No. 72. Catacombs, Rome 95 

No. 73. A Roman columbarium 96 

No. 74. Inscriptions from the Alhambra 96 

No. 75. Puerto del Sol, Toledo 97 

No. 76. Mosque of Cordova 98 

No. 77. Design for proposed Moorish court 99 

No. 78. Castle of Rheinstein 100 

No. 79. Piers in lantern of Burgos cathedral 101 

No. 80. Restoration of an Assyrian throne room 102 

No. 81. Exterior of an Assyrian palace 103 

No. 82. Town hall, Antwerp 105 

No. 83. Gate from Paris in the time of Francis 1 107 

No. 84. Salon, Fontainebleau 10S 

No. 85. Chamber at Aizrey 109 

No. 86. Gallery of Francis I, Fontainebleau no 

No. 87. Chamber of Marie de Medicis, Fontainebleau Ill 

No. 88. Court in palace, Saragossa 112 

No. 89. Norman gate, Bristol, England 113 

No. 90. German cloth hall, Brunswick 1 14 

No. 91. Fountain, Nuremberg 116 



8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page. 

No. 92. Japanese pavilion 117 

No. 93. Chinese dwelling, interior 120 

No. 94. Chinese dwelling, exterior 120 

No. 95. Norwegian church 121 

No. 96. Russian cathedral 121 

No. 97. Mosque of Kait Bey, Cairo I2J 

No. 98. Old Observatory building, Washington 123 

No. 99. View eastward from Naval Observatory 1 24 

No. 100. Premises adjoining old Observatory 125 

No. 101. Nozze Aldobrandini 128 

No. 102. Decoration from Raphael's Loggie 131 

No. 103. Ceiling from the Baths of Titus 132 

No. 104. Elevation of palace in Yucatan 134 

No. 105. Elevation of sacrificial mound, Yucatan 134 

Nos. 106, 107. Giacomelli's illustrations, " The Bird" 136 

No. 108. Scenes in the Roman Forum in the days of Marcus Aurelius 141 

No. 109. Moorish court in Villa Zorayda, with Alhambresque tracery 143 

Nos. no, in, 112, 113. Views in the court of the Moorish Villa Zorayda, St. 

Augustine 144-147 

No. 1 14. Entrance to the Court of the Lions, Alhambra 148 

Nos. 1 15, 1 16. Traceries of the Alhambra 149 

No. 117. Section of the Court of the Lions 150 

No. 1 ] 8. Convent of La Rabida 150 

No. 119. Court of Bensaquin, Tangiers 151 

No. 120. Byzantine portal 152 

No. I2i. Model of Hall of Darius, Louvre 153 

No. 122. Model of the Pantheon 153 

No. 123. Hall of One Hundred Columns, exterior 154 

No. 124. " " " " " interior 155 

No. 125. Doorway of cathedral in Spain 157 

No. 126. Model of a section of Wittenberg 158 

No. 127. " " Temple of Denderah 159 

No. 128. " " Pagoda of Wat Chang 160 

No. 129. Restoration of Olympia 161 

No. 130. Exterior of Palace of Sennacherib 162 

No. 131. Court of an Assyrian palace 163 

Nos. 132, 133, 134, 135. Restorations of Egyptian furniture 165 

No: 136. Section of Chaldean temple 166 

No. 137. Chaldean temple 167 

No. 138. Painting of the Grandeur of Rome 168 

No. 139. Restoration of the Baths of Diocletian 169 

No. 140. Bird's-eye view of an Egyptian villa 171 

No. 141. Gateway and wall of an Egyptian temple 172 

No. 142. Portico in Temple of Medinet-Abou 173 

No. 143. Treasury of Atreus 174 

No. 144. Casts — caryatides, masks, etc 176 

No. 145. Greek vases 177 

No. 146. Pinelli's Frontispiece, vases, etc 178 

No. 147. Damascus Gate in Jerusalem 179 

No. 148. Chinese reconstructions 179 

No. 149. Dwellings of modern nations 180 

Nos. 150, 151. Birthplace of Benjamin Franklin 181 

No. 152. Halls of the Ancients 182 



IO 







This publication is in advocacy of a National Educational Institution in which 
Art shall by beauty and ilhunination stimulate inquiry, and Actuality in environ- 
ment of historical incidents impress and intensify memory. 

Its aim is to stimulate the unlearned, to study, and to provide for scholarship vast 
and systematic treasures of material. 

The author solicits the reader to delay conclusions upon this Plan and Prospectus 
until consideration of the da^a and requirements therein anticipated. 

It is believed that they will counteract any impulsive impression of an 
excessive scale of plan, and that they will prove — 

First. That while the design is surpassingly grand in architectural 
effect, and may appear exaggerated above probable demand, it is in fact 
only proportionate in area to the capacity of existing institutions. 

Second. That the apparent vastness of the constructions is the effect of 
only one-story galleries (with basements) upon terraces, giving unequaled 
grandeur to the mass, and suggesting excessive cost; while in fact, from 
simplicity of form and internal vacuity, they will not cost the half of corre- 
sponding cubical area in other national constructions, with their usual 
heights, successive stories, internal divisions, and lavish ornamentation. 

Third. That the galleries as designed are not only the most econom- 
ical for great accommodation, but are best adapted to the uses demanded, 
their arrangement around open courts being essential for the new and 
extraordinary facilities proposed for a modern and advanced institution — 
that should forecast the needs of 100,000,000 population, in oceanic 
separation from all remains of former civilizations. Three of the most 
novel and important of these provisions contemplated are: 

A. Galleries for illustrations in chro?iological order, of events of historic 
periods and nationalities, by paintings in series, and by replica of artistic 
and archaeological material upon ample scale. 

B. Galleries, likewise, of casts and models of all architectural orders 
and national styles, of statuary, inscriptions, bas-reliefs, etc., more 
systematic in arrangement and extensive in range than any now in 
existence. 

C. Reproductions in full size, in the courts of the respective galleries 
of historic nationalities; of their remaining monuments; and reproductions 
of temples, dwellings, tombs, etc., typical of their religion, life, man- 
ners, and art. 

Fourth. That this asserted economy in construction will result from 
the use of the material and methods advised, viz, of sand- Roman-cement- 
concrete, molded in repetition of the simple forms delineated, at much 
less cost than of ordinary brickwork, the advantages of said material 
and the feasibility of said methods being illustrated from both ancient 



12 DESIGNS AND CONTENTS OF THE GAELERIES. 

and late modern practice. This opinion has also the concurrent judg- 
ment of the eminent architectural firm associated with the author in this 
publication. The argument for concrete is by no means based tipon its com- 
parative cheapness alone. On the contrary, it is believed to be better, in view 
of all requirements involved, than any stone. An experimental constructio?t 
is proposed; then, if marble or stone may be deemed preferable , either should 
be used, regardless of cost. The United States of America can afford the 
best facilities the world offers for such important and enduring interests. 

Fifth. That the aggregation of material proposed to be gradually 
obtained is inexpensive in comparison to the cost of original art and 
antiquarian treasures, while as valuable in practical use. Masterpieces 
and gems of art, it may be anticipated, will steadily accrue to national 
ownership from individual generosity and such foundations as the Cor- 
coran Gallery. 

The area proposed for the galleries, courts, and avenues is 62. 17 acres — 
about 6 acres to each, 500 feet square. The old Observatory site, national 
property, covers 22.78 acres. To obtain the required 62. 17 acres only 17 
acres, or less than one-fourth the area, must be purchased, the intermedi- 
ate streets which will fall within the lines without cost measuring 22 acres. ' 

The 17 acres (740,520 square feet) are now valued at 50 cents per 
foot; all $370,260. At $500,000 they would be an opportunity for the 
Government that will soon be lost. 

Doubtless a commission would advise the Government to secure now 
the entire dump along the north side of Potomac Park, to the President's 
grounds. Betterments upon E street for 2 , 2 2 7 feet would repay the outlay. 

The late Mr. James Renwick, architect, estimated the cost of the gal- 
leries per 100 feet length, 32 feet wide, and 35 feet high, with side cor- 
ridors for casts, 25 feet high, 13 feet wide, and corner towers, with steam 
heat, at $31,363. " This is probably a safe estimate within 7 per cent." 
(Signed, James Renwick.) The square of 500 feet would make 1,700 
feet range of gallery for construction with exterior length of 2,000 feet — 
at the above estimate to cost $533,171; adding $466,829 for construc- 
tions at greater elevation, would make $1,000,000 for each gallery and 
court — $8,000,000 for eight, leaving $2,000,000 for structures repro- 
duced, illustrative paintings, etc.; $10,000,000 would cover the cost. 
This could be extended through several years, a section of each style 
being commenced. 

' ' I believe that if a section of the Egyptian and Roman courts and 
galleries can be built with the illustrations proposed, the rich men of the 
country will rapidly complete the series. They will welcome a scheme 
of such national and permanent usefulness. The people generally will 
freely contribute buildings or objects required. They would be the 
most lasting and creditable monuments to their memory." — Hon. Jos. R. 
Hawley, United States Senator from Connecticut; President of Ce?iten?iial 
Exposition, 1876. 










No. 4. — The American Acropolis — Memorial Temples and Galleries of American History, Sur- 
mounting National Galleries of History and Art. 



PREFATORY 



PROSPECTUS FOR NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



(Revised February, 1900.) 

By Franklin Webster Smith, of Boston. 

The following paper is an imaginative consummation of what modern 
philosophy would name a mental evolution. Its substance is by no means 
an impulsive vision nor the exaggeration of a dream. Its inception and 
development have been through a period of forty years of considerable 
study, travel, and practical (amateur) experience in architectural design, 
modeling, and construction. 

In warrant for the prominence now given to it, the appearance of a 
personalty is unavoidable. It involves a sketch somewhat autobiograph- 
ical, to show the origin and growth of a conception which has now taken 
shape in the magnificent drawing herein reproduced, and the details of 
an institution described. 

In 1 85 1 the writer made his first tour of European travel, after exam- 
ination of the first World's Exposition in London. Returning home, 
impressions of places and objects revived with covetous yearnings for 
their more substantial resemblance than the poor pictures of the time. It 
was before the application of Daguerre's invention to the modern treasure 
of photography. This desire was satisfied in good degree by the pleasure 
of construction of models in the intervals of leisure from mercantile life. 
For instance: Topographical, of Jerusalem; of localities in Wittenberg, 
notable by the history of Luther, Melancthon, and Frederick the Elector; 
of feudal architecture, in the Mickelgate Bar of York; of classic, in the 
Porta Maggiore, Rome; of historical structures, Queen Mary's Palace of 
Holyrood, the Castle of Wartburg, Kenilworth Hall, the Campanile of 
Giotto, a Chinese Pagoda, etc. 

15 



i6 



PREFATORY. 



Meanwhile, to this date, during nineteen visits, some sufficiently 
prolonged to admit of a general conception and comparison of foreign 
museums and galleries, he has craved for his countrymen and himself the 
transfer to our land of thousands of reproductions that could be immedi- 
ately commanded at comparative trifling cost if halls were ready to 
receive them. 

In the models mentioned he anticipated by a generation the idea now 
richly initiated by the Metropolitan Museum, in New York, through the 
beneficence of the Willard bequest. 




No. 5. — Photograph of model of the Porta Maggiore, Rome, showing the Aqueducts of Claudius 
above the gateways, with inscriptions of their restoration by Vespasian and Titus. R. 1 

But miniature models only stimulated an impatience for architectural 
reproduction on a full scale. This was intensified in Spain, within the 
Alhambra, and subsequently gratified by the application of some of its 
forms and traceries to a Moorish Court in St. Augustine. 

The enjoyment to himself and others resulting from this surrounding 
suggested another indulgence, in the reproduction of a Roman house — 
the house of Pansa, in Pompeii — at Saratoga Springs. 

In two years this has been accomplished successfully upon full scale, 
about 200 feet by 75 feet— 15,000 square feet; much larger and far more 

1 R attached to illustrations is to signify recommended for reproduction on full 
scale in the appropriate court. 

M attached to signify to be modeled on a reduced scale. 



INCEPTION OF THE DESIGN. 



I? 



completely than the two illustrations previously attempted at Sydenham 
and Aschaffenburg; that of King Dudwig, of Bavaria,' measuring only 
7,000 square feet. The Chateau of Prince Napoleon, in Paris (destroyed 
about 1894), could only be called Pompeian for its decorations. 

The success of this archaeological museum is evidence of the educa- 1 
tional value of such reproductions and of their popular interest. 

It has demonstrated the feasibility of their creation. It stimulated 
courage for this advocacy of their extensive multiplication under national 
supervision. 

Several illustrations of the interiors and ornamentation of "The Pom- 
peia ' ' are inserted with the following statements in support of the above 
opinions. 




F. W. Smith, Modeled 1851. 
-Photograph of model of Mickelgate Bar, York, England, with No. 5, a contrast of classic 
and feudal architecture. R. 



During ten years since its completion, without any previous announce- 
ment, and with ignorance on the part of many of ' ' what is a Pompeian 
house," it has been visited by about 100,000 people, whose stay has 
averaged between two and three hours. The most intelligent — classic 
professors and other scholars — have made it a daily resort. 

Over 700 teachers of the American Institute of Instruction and the New 
York State Teachers' Association found edifying entertainment therein. 
It was a memorable gratification when the young ladies of Yassar Col- 
S. Doc. 209 — Pt. 2 2 



[8 



POMPEIAN HOUSE AT SARATOGA. 



lege, with their zealous professors, came for a day's study by a special 
train of the New York Central Railroad. 

The Presbyterian convention gave an evening to the Pompeia. Some 
of its clergy were interested to read a silent lesson from history in the 
replica of the exquisite bronze tripod found before the Temple of Isis, 
whereon Greek ornamentation combined with the Egyptian Sphinx, 
showing that pagan faiths were in dissolution and coalescence at the dawn 
of Christianity that a century previous had been in deadly antagonism. 
But these instances are of the scholarly class. The curiosity, if not 

the comprehension, of less in- 
telligent observers has been as 
intently awakened. 

A young lady came with an 
excursion from a western town 
in New York State to Saratoga. 
She stayed the entire day in the 
Pompeia, remarking as she left: 
" If I never come again to Sara- 
toga I shall not regret this time, 
for I can see other large hotels, 
but not again a Pompeia." 

A foreigner, evidently a work- 
man, as he departed, said to the 
janitor: "I have bought the 
book" (Bulwer's East Days of 
Pompeii ) ; " my boy will read to 
me the story, and then I will 
know all about it." 

These relations will be kindly 
accepted for their purpose, as 
has been said, to demonstrate 
the benefits, inestimable and in- 
numerable, to flow forth upon 
the nation, were a grand system 
of illustration, realistic and beau- 
tiful, supplied to the people at 
the Capital. 
There are few more. impressive instances of a conscientious and self- 
denying struggle for knowledge, in preparation for a service of supreme 
importance to the American people, than the economical travel of teachers 
to Europe. When an excursion party jostles the costumes of the wealthy 
in foreign palaces, among them will be seen the intelligent faces of earn- 
est women seizing with all their souls the memorable but flitting impres- 
sions of the moment. My sympathies have been moved as I have seen 
the teacher's glance wrested from the most thrilling and instructive 




P. W. Smith, Modeled 1S60-1873. 

No. 7. — Photographs of models of Chinese Pagoda 
and the Campanile of Giotto, Florence. M. 



EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS OF THE GALLERIES. 



J 9 



object lessons in existence by the summons of the guide to "pass on ! " 
What economies and computations secured that brief visit after years of 
hope and anticipation ! 

A sad story is related that two sisters, teachers, some years since, were 
on a European round, when the insolvency of their banker left them, 
strangers, with but money enough to take a second-class passage home- 
ward immediate^. From the anxiety and sorrow, added to undue effort 
of a delicate constitution, one 
sister died on the passage and 
was buried at sea. 

Few communities in the 
United States, rejoicing in the 
mental acquisitions of their 
children, realize their indebt- 
edness to those hardly earned 
travels of their teachers. 
Were their reflex benefits ap- 
preciated, towns would, by 
subscription, send teachers, 
and parishes preachers, abroad. 
An inspiration from monu- 
ments of past civilizations 
would henceforth vivify their 
conceptions, to be transferred 
to a new generation. Yet, 
returned from the one grand 
travel experience of their lives, 
they thirst for further study 
of such treasures, and deplore 
the barrenness of their coun- 
try of all like material. 

It is, therefore, from both 
experience and observation at 
home and abroad that I have 
craved for my country the im- 
mediate inauguration of a 
grand National Institute of 
Illustration. It would be a 
boon of priceless satisfaction to the graduates of colleges and seminaries; 
to youths, graduates of high schools, in Boston, Chicago, and San Fran- 
cisco, in their aim toward further learning. The want is now described by 
one who has keenly realized it, having been taught in a day when no les- 
sons in drawing were given in the Boston High School; when there was 
no Lawrence Scientific School in Harvard University; no Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology ; no School of Architecture in Columbia College. 




F. W Smith. Architect. 

No. S. — Fromthe "Pompeia," Saratoga Springs, U.S. A.; 

a reproduction of the House of Pansa, at Pompeii. 

buried by Vesuvius, A. D, 79 ; an angle of the solarium, 

or roof garden. R. 



20 MATERIAL FOR REPRODUCTIONS. 

It is time that, upon a scale worthy the greatness of our country and 
the vast aggregate of its wealth, the pursuit of knowledge and the 
patronage of art shall be facilitated. 

Ships of our Navy could be loaded rapidly and cheaply with simula- 
tions of archaeological and architectural treasures, such as are listed in 
the following pages. Reproductions and models, topographical, anti- 
quarian, and architectural, can be made on the spot. Buildings, coun- 
terparts of ancient and modern national styles, are readily constructed. 
They have been repeatedly built and destroyed in successive international 
expositions. 




F. W. Smith, Architect. 
No. 9. — Interior of the Pompeia. View from the atrium. R. 



The prediction is here confidently recorded that if Government shall 
begin such constructions and acquisitions not a decade will pass before 
buildings as extensive as those depicted will overflow with their treas- 
ures, and the institution will be the object of national pride and support. 

Finally, not in apology, but in satisfaction, a further reason is given 
for this agitation of a new and important sphere of govermental responsi- 
bility and beneficence. 

The first exhibition of the grand drawing was to a gentleman in New 
York, eminent in the promotion of art by personal labor and liberality. 1 

1 Mr. Henry G. Marquand, president of Metropolitan Museum of Art. 



ILLUSTRATION FROM THE POMPFJA. 21 

At the first glance he said, " You are a hundred years before your time!" 
The reply was, "Wait for a conference, and you will alter your judg- 
ment. ' ' After explanation of the scheme, he was asked: ' ' If the Roman 
court, as represented in the drawing, could be supplied and filled as 
proposed, do you not believe that all the others would follow?" He 
replied, "Yes, I believe they would — quite rapidly. " He added, "But 
this enterprise hangs upon your life. ' ' This remark has impressively 
followed the writer. In the possibility that his suggestions may be some- 
what in advance of old institutions, and in conciousness that they may die 




F. W. Smith, Architect. 
No. to.— The Pompeia. View of the atrium R. 



at any time with their possessor, he resolved upon this published record. 

While it invites discussion of the practical expedients, it pretends to no 
precise knowledge of the technique in art. 

In a rapid survey of the course of human intellect through the ages, it 
can give but a glance at some of its relics left upon the highways. A 
balloonist, in his flight over Washington, could not accurately measure 
the distance of its Monument from the Capitol, nor could the artist, from 
free-hand sketches along the Atlantic coast, supply precise charts of its 
shores. 



22 



IMPERSONATION IN THE POMPEIA. 



" Glaucus found lone sitting among her attendants, her hands at her side, in her 
simple robe, and decorated with the costly jewels of the previous night. They spoke 
of Greece, a theme on which lone loved to listen." * * * 

* * * "A shadow darkened the threshold, and a young female broke upon the 
solitude. She was dressed simply in a tunic that reached to the ankles. Under her 




No. 11. — Glaucus, lone, and Nydia in the Peristylium. From scenes in the Pornpeia Improvised 
fur Mission to the Poor. Impersonation of scene from Bulwer's Last Days of Pompeii in the 
House of Pausa for charity. 



arm she bore a basket of flowers. Her features were made more beautiful by their 
beauty of expression. A look of resigned sorrow had banished the smile, but not the 
beauty, from her lips. She was blind. 'Ah, my Nydia,' said the Greek, 'is that 
you?' " 



hyu^ 



No. 12. — Restoration of the Roman Forum. By C. R. Cockerell; A. R. A. 



NATIONAL GALLERIES A NATIONAL NECESSITY. 



Promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion 
of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a Government gives force to public 
opinion, it should be enlightened. — Washington. 

Knowledge is the only fountain, both of the love and the principles of human 
liberty. — Webster. 



A recent British Tory critic of ' ' The Great Republic, ' ' sums up the 
"America of to-day" as "the apotheosis of Philistinism; where the 
people are drunk with materialism, and wealth is a curse instead of a 
blessing. ' ' 

The malevolence of such an utterance is apparent and destroys its force. 
Yet it will be admitted that the genius and efiergy of our people should 
be diverted somewhat from financial to mental acquisition. 

Hitherto the brain power and industry of Americans have been zeal- 
ously devoted to the gain of material riches, in which they have surpassed 
their progenitors and contemporaries; but although at an average of 
greater general intelligence than foreign nationalities, yet in the finer and 
artistic intuitions we are not their equals. This disparity has been inevi- 
table in the lack of environment, to stimulate a more refined cultivation. 
Americans have subdued a wilderness from its wilds, while Europeans 
have dwelt among the monuments and treasures of former civilizations. 

It is rightfully argued that the present rapid accumulation of wealth 
is ominous of the luxurious dissipation that sapped the life of former 

23 



24 NECESSITY FOR NATIONAL GALLERIES. 

empires. The fierce pursuit of mercenary gain undermines . integrity 
and debases the moral standard. 

Americans, as "heirs of all the ages," should vindicate the responsi- 
bility of their inheritance. 

What constitutes a State? 
Not high-raised battlement or labour'd mound, 

Thick wall or moated Gate ; 
Not cities proud with spires and turrets crown'd ; 

Not bays and broad-arm 'd ports, 
Where, laughing at the storm, rich Navies ride; 

Not starred and spangled courts, 
Where low-brow' d baseness wafts perfume to pride. 

No : Men, high-minded Men, 
With powers as far above dull brutes endued, 

In forest, brake, or den, 
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude. 

— SirW. Jones. 

The present aggregate of our national wealth is admitted by statisti- 
cians to be the greatest in the world. 1 It will prove to have been an 
unhealthful growth without equal mental and moral elevation; a disas- 
trous prosperity, if "while wealth accumulates, men decay." 

To counteract such tendencies, there must be enterprising, wise, and 
grand instrumentalities. 

To the measureless storage capacity for merchandise through the land, 
there is needed one extensive addition at the Capital for the world's 
educational objects. Hitherto we have had only reports of their silent 
lessons to travelers, instead of the fullness of their inspiration and revela- 
tion in actual presence. 

An institution to cover this deficit is the only one of like corresponding 
importance that has not been initiated by our Government. It is an 
impressive fact, in proof of its necessity, that we are the only power, 
great or minor, like even Sweden and Denmark, that has not long since 
created its National Gallery, and supported it by liberal expenditure. 

The indifference and inaction of the people of the United States in this 
matter, in contrast with the feal of other nations, are powerfully set forth 
in the report of Mr. W. W. Story (the American sculptor-artist-author, 
at Rome), as United States commissioner to the Paris Exposition of 
1878. Extracts therefrom are annexed, as a fitting prelude upon the 
importance of the matter herein discussed. 

1 Political economists have agreed that the production of iron is a gauge of the 
material progress of a nation. England dates her rapid development of wealth from 
the working of her mines of coal and iron. Iron is ' ' the source and badge of national 
power. ' ' By this standard of greatness the prestige of Great Britain has passed to 
the United States. 

With such resources of wealth, the Republic should vie with the mother country 
in resources of intelligence. 



REPORT OP UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER AT PARIS, 1 878. 25 

A NATIONAL GALLERY A NATIONAL NECESSITY. 

[Extracts from the report of the United States commissioner W. W. Story, resident at Rome, on the 
French Exposition of 1878.] 

# * * America is the only nation which, as a nation, has done 
nothing to acknowledge the claims of art. Earnest efforts have been 
made in some of the principal cities of the United States, and museums 
have been founded by private munificence, which, as far as their funds 
will allow, are endeavoring to supply the absence of all action by the 
nation. But these are all local in their character. They are not national 




No. 13.— The Pompeia. View of bibliotheca, with scriuia, etc. 

institutions. No great national academy or museum of art exists to 
confer honors and rewards, to educate students, or to improve the public 
tastes. The American artist therefore is forced to expatriate himself 
for study. * * * 

* * * If we are a great country, as justly we claim to lie, let us 
behave like a great country. Is it creditable for us, with all our wealth 
and prosperity, to be without a great national museum and academy of 
art, such as is to be found in every great capital in Europe? How can 
we expect to take rank with the great nations of Europe when neither 



26 LIBERALITY OF EUROPEAN NATIONS. 

our nation itself nor any State or city in the Union possesses a gallery of 
art of which any second-rate government in Europe would not be 
ashamed? While we have nothing, can we without mortification look at 
the magnificent collections abroad and consider the munificent manner 
in which they are supported and constantly enriched by public grants? 
In England, besides the treasures of private collections, there is the 
National Gallery, rich in the most splendid works of the greatest 
painters; the British Museum, adorned with the noblest relics of antique 
sculpture, vases, gems, terra-cotta ornaments, bronzes; the Kensington 
Museum, a storehouse of treasures of the mediaeval world and of the 
Renaissance. Costly as these collections are, they are constantly enlarged 
by munificent grants from Parliament. Not a year passes that con- 
spicuous sums are not paid to secure still additional treasures. It suffices 
that England knows that anything of real value and excellence is to be 
procured, and her purse strings are liberally opened to obtain it. Not 
only this, large sums of money are constantly granted to explore the soil 
of ancient Greece and to unearth the masterpieces of antique sculpture 
and architecture. There is no corner of the world where she is not pry- 
ing, regardless of cost, to discover valuable relics of the ancient world of 
art. Under her auspices the soil of Halicarnassus yielded up the last 
sculpture of the famous Mausoleum. The Parthenon conceded to her 
its glorious but defaced works. To her liberality, enterprise, and deter- 
mination we owe it that we still have the massive sculpture and cuneiform 
inscriptions of Nineveh — the Phigalean marbles. Besides these great 
museums, it was under her patronage that the Royal Academy was 
founded as a national institution. 

Not far behind her is France, with her magnificent galleries of sculp- 
ture and painting, covering acres of ground; with her academies of art, 
science, and literature, whose hard-won honors are coveted throughout 
the world; with her annual prizes to those who distinguish themselves 
in art, her golden medals of merit, her ' ' Prix de Rome. ' ' In no grudging 
spirit she expends from the public purse large annual sums to add to her 
already rich collections of art, and has built the great palace of the 
Trocadero as a permanent gallery of retrospective art. This she has done 
to sliozc the world that the Republic does not intend to be behind the Empire 
in the liberal fostering of art. Nor can it be said that all the galleries of 
Europe are the accumulations of the past onby, and that it would be 
impossible for us even to attempt a rivalship in this regard with the 
nations of Europe. The Kensington Museum and this ver}^ palace of 
the Trocadero, among others, are a proof of the contrary; and still more 
have we an example in Munich of what a large and generous spirit can 
do in our day. It is within our own recent memory that King Eouis 
founded the Glytothek and Pinacothek there, and created and developed 
a new school of art. This at least is certain, that we never shall make 
any progress toward having a great national museum or academy or 



FOREIGN MUSEUMS AND GAUUERIES. 27 

school of art until we begin in earnest. Up to the present day we have 
not begun. How, then, can we expect to have a national character in 
our art ? * * * 

As I lingered in the Trocadero day after day I could not but sigh to 
think how utterly America is wanting in all these ancient spoils of time 
and art. How slight is the national interest in all such treasures ! 

>fc >!< ^ 

We as a nation have built our house. It is useful. It is commodious. 
To its practical departments we have given much thought. But art, as 
yet, has no place in it. * * * We talk perpetually of our being a 
new country. * * * A new country, forsooth ! as if any people of 
Anglo-Saxon origin — with all of its world of inherited literature behind 
it; with all its history stretching back in direct line two thousand years; 
with all its religion and law derived from the past — could possibly be 
called young. We are one of the most luxurious nations in the world; 
one of the most developed in all that relates to convenience and the 
practical requirements of life; one of the most accomplished in all the 
so-called useful and mechanical arts; but in art we have accomplished 
little, because we have desired little. Use has its buildings and habita- 
tions, but beauty has not yet its temple. 




No. 14.— Exterior of the Trocadero Galleries, Paris. 



FOREIGN GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS. 



By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great, myste- 
rious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or 
middle-aged, or young; but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on 
through the varied tenor of perpetual Decay, Fall, Renovation, and Progression. — 
BiRKi;. 



A brief analysis of the contents of foreign galleries and museums will 
more clearly reveal our national destitution. It will also indicate the 
elimination desirable for a new, systematic institution in a utilitarian 
age, the extent and kind of accommodation demanded, and the adaptation 
thereto of the design submitted. 

Those treasures are the accumulation of centuries by conquest, pur- 
chase, bequest, or pillage. They are, therefore, the result of no prior 
selection or preconceived arrangement. They present no broad general- 
ization of the progress of history and art, such as is practicable by com- 
mencement de novo. With a vast multiplicity of objects, it will be seen 
they are incomplete and disjointed for facile object lessons of their story 
of the past in its continuity. 

In order of extent and value foreign galleries may for our purpose 
take the following rank: The Vatican; the Pitti and Uffizi galleries; the 
Louvre; the galleries of Munich, Dresden, St. Petersburg, Berlin, London, 
Naples, and Versailles; the halls of the British Museum; the School of 
Fine Arts, in Paris; the Cluny; the hemi cycle of the Trocadero; the 
Bavarian National Museum; and lastly, yet preeminently, the South 
Kensington Museum of London, as the most modern, practical, and pro- 
gressive, and therefore most analogous to the scheme advised. 

Returning to the Vatican, we observe vast and incomparable remains 
of classic sculpture, exhumed from the ancient Roman Empire. They 
comprise architectural fragments — statues of mythological gods, Greek 



FOREIGN MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES. 



29 



and Roman celebrities, bas-reliefs, sarcophagi, vases, inscriptions, etc. — all 
readily reproduced in casts, but all relating to Greek and Roman history. 

The pictures of the Vatican Gallery are limited in number — relating 
to church history and tradition. To this summary should be added 
the frescoes on the Loggie of Raphael, an aggregation of pagan and 
Christian symbolism, enriched with Greek ornamentation, mosth' original 
in the Baths of Titus. 

These treasures offer unequaled material for the study of classic life, 
history, and art, though in the fragmentary manner of a museum; not in 
order of subj ect or of age. The paintings are reverenced as masterpieces — 
a reverence that perhaps has exaggerated their merit — through the halo 




15.— Interior of the Trocadero Gallery of Retrospective Architecture, with full size portal of 
Cathedral of Amiens. 



of sacred corona. They are unsatisfactorj- in color, especially the frescoes, 
which are too faded for distinct recognition. 1 The magnificent repro- 
ductions of the latter on copper, under the patronage of Popes Clement 
XII, XIII, and XIV, are of more practical value in study of design. 
The Pitti and Uffizi galleries of Florence are immense collections of 
paintings covering all .subjects and periods from the dawn of medi- 

x " There can be no doubt that while these frescoes continued in their perfection 
there was nothing else to be compared with the magnificent and solemn beaut}- of 
this (the Sistine) Chapel. But methinks I have seen hardly anything else so for- 
lorn and depressing as it is now — all dusty, dusky, and dim; even the very lights 
having passed into darkness, and shadows into utter blackness." — Hawthoknk. 



3Q 



SUBJECTS OF EUROPEAN GALLERIES. 



seval art. The same is true of the picture galleries of Paris, Munich, 
Dresden, and Berlin. From these many canvasses would be rejected in 
choice of a practical working galley for modern work. 1 Thousands of 
pictures have places simply by right of possession, as items in collections 
purchased entire or else for the sole interest of age. 

Even if all were of high- execution they are in cumbersome superfluity 
of religious themes. They are the remains of dark ages, when church 
dogmas and traditions held entire sway over the human mind; when the 
religious sentiment could find no expression other than architecture, 
sculpture, and painting. 




A T ictor Hugo, in "Notre Dame de Paris," makes the archdeacon of 
the abbey turn from an open Bible, fresh from the new press of Gutten- 
berg, to the spires of the cathedral and utter the knell of that form of 
religious expression and power, " Ceci tuera cela " (This will kill that). 
With the printing press passed away the sacredness of countless rude 
representations that had served their purpose in a darkened age. 

1 Five hundred and seven paintings in the Pitti Gallery of Florence, including ten 
ceilings mythological, are in subject as follows: 

Portraits, unknown, 94; Portraits, known, 78 172 

Scriptural, 73; Holy Families, 45; Saints, 68; Virgins, 55 241 

Fanciful or Landscape, 59; Allegorical, 17; Mythological, 15 91 

Historical, only 3 (viz, Oath of Cataline, Cleopatra, Death of Lucretius) 3 

507 



FOREIGN MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES. 



31 



The Louvre is like the galleries of Florence, an enormous aggregate 
of paintings without order of subject or date, and also a very considera- 
ble collection of architectural fragments and curios in all departments of 
knowledge. But these also are by no means as complete as the}? - might 
be in their delineation of the great historic periods. 

Incongruity of subjects results inevitably from the arrangement by 
schools, as generally in European galleries. For instance, the Salon 
Carre has the " Marriage at Cana," by Paul Veronese, introducing 
Francis I, Charles V, the -Court Jester, etc., with two works of Titian, 
his mistress, and The Entombment. 

An attempted historical series — the Marie de Medicis, by Rubens — 23 
pictures, illustrative of her life and reign, are an aggregation of mythol- 




No. 17. — Grteco-Rom 

ogy and allegory. Thus, No. 440, "The Marriage at Eyons," the eit}^ 
of Eyons seated in a car drawn by two lions, Henry and Marie repre- 
sented as Jupiter and Juno. 

The Glyptothek (for sculptures), and the Old and New Pinakothek 
of Munich, are exceptionally choice collections of art of different periods, 
the sculpture being in halls apart for distinct periods of the history of art. 
It is vain to seek realistic history depicted in series. A grand work, 
"The Triumph of Germanicus," and Kaulbach's "Destruction of Jeru- 
salem," are the only historical subjects among 150 masterpieces. 

The Dresden Gallery, one of the finest and largest in Europe (about 
2,500 paintings), has a proportion of religious subjects like that enumer- 
ated from the Pitti Gallery. They are of exceeding value, by old mas- 
ters whose themes were exclusively sacred. 



32 



SPANISH AND FRENCH GALLERIES. 



The Madrid Gallery is a noted exception to those above cited, as a 
selection of the greatest masters, surpassing all others in rarity, variety, 
and richness, for the number on its catalogue. It is unrivalled in 
treasures, exclusive of mediocrity. 

The picture galleries of Versailles may well bear upon their pediments 
' ' To the glorification of France. ' ' Therein are arranged miles of pano- 
ramic paintings of the military triumphs of France, and in exaltation of 
its rulers. Tiresome in their repetitions of armies and war paraphernalia 
in collision and confusion, a few would suffice for all, except for divers 
names of the many-claimed fields of glory. The style of these works, 
however, is a model for the scheme proposed for our country, as will be 
further particularized. One essential element for permanent approbation 




No. iS. — Halls of the Cluny Museum, Paris. 

they lack — truthfulness. When the surrender at Yorktown is set forth 
as General Rochambeau giving final orders for attack, while Washington 
stands humbly in the door of his tent, the license of art has been trans- 
gressed. 

In the academies of Sweden and Denmark are found model institutions 
for the encouragement of art in select specimens of all schools; but above 
all for commendation is their provision for free education of talented appli- 
cants at the expense of the state. Not only do the governments train 
them to highest proficiency, but they afterwards patronize them in pur- 
chases for the galleries. The national purse also sends pupils abroad for 
study. Hence, Swedes and Danes have taken highest rank on the Con- 
tinent in decorative departments of art, and fill many continental profess- 
orships. Professor Nordenberg, at the head of the Dusseldorf Academy, 



FOREIGN MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES. 



33 



is a Swede. These facts will furnish suggestions in the latter details of 
our subject. 

The Bavarian National Museum, the hemicycle of the Trocadero, and 
the Cluny of Paris have enviable material for eliminition. 

The first of these contains objects of art and mechanism in great 
variety from the Roman period to the present day, systematically and 
chronologically arranged. The halls have frescoes illustrative of Bava- 
rian history, and are filled with wares, implements, casts, tapestries, 




No. 19. — A pavilion of the Louvre, Paris. 

furniture, architectural fragments, glass, reproductions, earrings, 
weapons, costumes, armor, musical instruments, models of ships, build- 
ings, fortifications, and cities, ceramics, textiles, laces, bronzes, vessels 
in silver, cabinets, mosaics, ivories, forgings, reliquaries, enamels, charts, 
parchments, altars, bas-reliefs, coins, medals, locks, toys. 

The mention of toys in this connection savors of burlesque. Yet the 
lead toys found in the foundations of Roman houses indicate the forms 
of Roman armor. Jewelry in the Roman Museum at Homburg, from 
S. Doc. 209— Pt. 2 3 



M 



THE BRITISH AND KENSINGTON MUSEUMS. 



the Praetorian camp on the Saalburg, betokens the national symbolism. 
Such valuables are constantly brought to light, and are in the market by 
reliable antiquaries. In this institution we have one of the most admi- 
rable examples for some departments of the proposed institute. 

The British Museum is, in the first place, a library of unrivalled value. 
Its invaluable collection of marbles and casts is very incomplete in chro- 
nological arrangement for lack of area. Its caves have been packed for 
a quarter of a century with original remains; stored for want of room. 
Casts of these have been exhibited for the first time in other countries, 
as was the fact with bas-reliefs for a Roman altar in the Pompeian house 
at Saratoga. 




No. zo.— Exterior of the Lc 



The Trocadero has an exhibit hitherto unequalled of architectural 
ornament of the Middle Ages, comprising, in full proportion and detail, 
casts of portals, columns, pulpits, capitals, screens, caryatides, gargoyles, 
etc. , of the most elaborate execution. 

Finally, the Kensington Museum in London surpasses all others for 
its object lessons in art. It is a magnificent creation, commenced with 
the profits of the World's Fair, in Hyde Park, in 1851, of ,£150,000. 
Its benefits have been so conspicuous that it commands the unanimous 
support of the Kingdom, even in such lavish outlay as majolica plates 
at 2,000 to 3,000 guineas ($10,000 to $15,000) each. It is the grandest 
triumph of the intellectual enterprise of the British nation. It is steadily 



FOREIGN MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES. 



35 



enlarged by the demands upon it. Vast piles are succeeding each other 
to receive the overflow of its acquisitions. Its entire scheme may well 
be adopted by our country, and, as we shall argue, enlarged, perhaps 
with greater economy in some departments of costly curios and greater 
expenditure in others, demanded by the industrious status of our people. 
Its predominance is in its objects of ornamental art as applicable to manu- 
factures. Wide as is its scope, and marvelously rich and extensive as 
are its collections, it is yet short of the facilities demanded. 

It is to be supplemented by the Imperial Institute, in honor of the 
Victorian Jubilee. 




No. 21.— Gallery of Apollo, in the Lot 



As the Kensington Museum is the most modern, most extensive and 
prosperous of institutions with its purposes, and therefore supplies the 
most valuable example for repetition, I sent to London for the best publi- 
cation upon its history and development. It was a pleasant surprise to 
receive from the bookseller "Travels in South Kensington," by M. D. 
Conway, a familiar American name. It is an instructive and elegant 
resume of the origin and present wealth of the museum. The author 
will be gratified to know that his work may aid in preparation for like 
"travels" by his countrymen through their National Gallery. 

To Mr. Conway is due acknowledgment for additional details, as 
follows : 

_, The buildings resulting from the appropriation of $5,000,000 now con- 
tain collections worth at least $20,000,000. Added to purchases by the 



36 



THE KENSINGTON MUSEUM. 



Government there have been unceasing donations of invaluable private 
collections, which "gravitate to it, and the buildings are constantly 
expanding." Present constructions show a prospective embarrassment 
for space in an early future, beyond all possibility of permanent order and 
system, such as are provided for in the plan for the National Galleries. 1 

More than 1,000,000 people visit the museum annually. 

In 1844 there were but three museums of like character in Great 
Britain; now they are in every large town. Roman remains are being 
uncovered and preserved throughout England. 

The museum received a donation of 4,854 engravings from the L,ouvre. 




-School of Fine Ar 



A novel and enterprising provision is of Circulating Museums from 
the Kensington, collections being sent abroad in the country to awaken 
curiosity and study. In responsive return, the museum has constantly 
loan collections on exhibition, bringing perpetual variety and novelty 
that secure repeated visitation. 

Mr. Conway makes this interesting record for encouragement in this 
beginning: "I remarked to a gentleman connected with the museum 
at its origin, that I had heard various American gentlemen inquiring 
whether such an institution might not exist in their own country, and he 
said: ' L,et them plant the thing and it can't help growing, and most 
likely beyond their powers — as it has been almost beyond ours — to keep 

1 Superb and extensive additions were commenced in 1899. 



FOREIGN MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES. 37 

up with it.' " Further valuable encouraging and advisory statements 
are given that will be important for future reference. 

Sir Sydney Waterlow 1 remarked in St. Augustine, that Mr. Cole (now 
Sir Henry Cole, K. C. B. ) was thought visionary, as doubtless he antici- 
pated, when first he agitated his conception for the museum as a wise 
departure and complement beyond the British Museum, then assumed to 
be the ne plus tdtra. Afterwards there were reports of competition by 
the latter in purchases. Now, as the result of the increased craving for 
knowledge, both institutions are struggling with the vastness of their 
accretions and activities. The Natural History Department of the 
British Museum has been removed to a new and immense structure in 
South Kensington. 



';■■'■ --. 




f(-- i - v - - - ' ,--.-■ < 


^nM ^MHkjkis wt£ fctTjiKitt t JBBfc- v jfc'^te'r3^rFffl ^fiJpiiHR^i 


i . j s 


MJIiillJ'** — -.-._—... riii—, ^-Bh«a.7, 


*^^^*35" 


■■■fifilnHHifi Wmmfrrm^-i ' " "' -" - • ~ : - "' "^^SE&t 


■■ ---S.-sr 1 -;" 



No. 23.— Design for New British Imperial Institute. 



The grand system of the service and Art Department of the Kensing- 
ton ' Museum for the promotion of instruction therein throughout the 
Kingdom by monetary grants in aid of ' ' local efforts for founding schol- 
arships and exhibitions," or "in aid of a new building or the adaptation 
of any existing building," will ultimately be imitated in our country. 
The museum disburses the principal part of the $ 1,5 00, 000, " annually 
appropriated by the British Government for its support in these subsi- 
dies for instruction. 

It is a confident prediction that our nation will rapidly awaken to its 
interests, and with such energy in execution that not another generation 
will pass until all that is herein cited shall be in active beneficence, to 
keep pace henceforth with incessant progress. 

Its citation as an example is emphasized; for its inception, its rapid 

x The recent munificent donor of Waterlow Park to London. 

2 This appropriation for the annual support of the Kensington Museum in 1SS9 
was doubled in 1S99, i. e., ^600,000 or $3, 000,000. 



38 SUBSTITUTIONS AVAILABLE FOR AMERICA. 

expansion, and present magnitude demonstrate that in the vastness of 
the institution herein advocated, from the wealth, progress, intelligence 
and promise of our nation, there is nothing chimerical. 

From the above review of foreign art and antiquarian collections 
abroad, it is seen that none of them supply illustrations of the historic 
periods of the human race, se?iatim. One only attempts it for a single 
nation, and almost exclusively in the line of military glory, that of Ver- 
sailles. The etchings of its paintings are properly styled ' ' Gallerie 
Historique de Versailles." 

A survey of material in Europe makes apparent the impossibility of 
duplication. If, therefore, there can be no substitution, Americans 
must forever be deprived of educational facilities common to European 
communities. 

Upon study of this contingency, the writer believes that the depriva- 
tion can be compensated, and that by practical employment of art; by 
liberal importation of casts and models, and especially by ingenuity in 
restoration of monuments and structures, the illustration of the past may 
be amplified and enlivened in the New World to a grandeur and useful- 
ness beyond all precedents. 

We will now in imagination construct American National Galleries, 
and then by its further aid forecast their occupation. 



. DESCRIPTION OF THE DESIGN AND PLAN. 



I shall * * * straight conduct ye to a hill-side, where I will point ye out the 
right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious, indeed, at the first 
ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect, and melodious 
sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming. — Mii/ton. 

Earth proudly wears the Parthenon as the best gem upon her zone. — Emerson. 

Since it (architecture) is music in space, it is, as it were a frozen music. — Schem- 
ing. 

The design exhibits eight courts and galleries, viz, Egyptian, Assyrian, 
Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Mediaeval, Saracenic, and East Indian, sur- 
mounted by American galleries for illustration of the history of the 
United States, and a memorial Parthenonic temple; this temple to 
contain a hall of the Presidents, an American Walhalla, such as stands 
to-day in grandeur and beauty of marble upon a hilltop of the Danube, 
a proud manifestation of the patriotism and artistic inspiration of the 
Bavarian people. 

Its colonnade may ultimately range the horizon as a counterpart to 
the stately dome of the Capitol — the one an expression of the highest 
constitutional wisdom, the other of its resultant intellectual development 
of a nation. 

The courts are to contain reproductions in full size of dwellings, tem- 
ples, monuments, etc., of their respective nationalities, typical of their 
religion, life, and art. 

It is proposed that the ranges of galleries inclosing the courts be filled 
with mural paintings, illustrating in its orderly, chronological succession 
the history of the peoples whose architecture is shown upon their walls, 
similar to the pictorial history of Bavaria in the National Museum in 
Munich, the side corridors being filled with casts and models, archi- 
tectural, artistic, and historical, supplying abundant material for eluci- 
dation in study. 

The galleries to be built of fine Portland cement sand concrete, pre- 
cisely the material already tested in the great hotel constructions in 
St. Augustine, the Stanford Museum in California, and the Pompeia at 

4i 



42 DESCRIPTION OP DESIGN AND PLAN. 

Saratoga Springs. The cheapness of concrete construction as less than 
that of ordinary brickwork has already been proven by the constructions 
above named. 

The entire range of galleries will demand ultimately 60 to 70 acres 
of land. 

The courts for reconstructions cover 4 to 5 acres each. 

The entire floor area of galleries is about 40 acres, or 8 acres less in 
surface than one building of the Chicago Exposition. The cost of all 
constructions finally completed in concrete will not be over $10,000,000, 
one-half that of Philadelphia City Hall. 

The facade will be continuous for 1 , 200 feet ; more than one-half longer 
than the Capitol, 750 feet. 

While the design, in the combined perspective of its parts, equals or 
excels in grandeur the National Capitol, it is, in fact, composed of the 
most simple and durable constructions possible for their purposes, viz, 
ranges of galleries of one story with basement, terraced upon a hillside. 

The National Galleries of the American Republic, it is proposed, shall 
surpass in architectural grandeur and extent all similar constructions; 
but while grandly monumental in effect they shall be thoroughly utili- 
tarian as an educational institution. 1 All expenditure in their creation 
will be in economical use for intellectual elevation of the people. 

Crowning a height is represented the Parthenon, 2 one-half greater than 
the original at Athens, with other temples of the same pure and stately 
order, all for commemoration of Presidents and patriots of the United 
States of America. 

At the right and the left of the commemorative temples will be colon- 
nades for the promenade of the people, that they may look down upon 
a "marble population" of the great and good of the nation, as did the 
Greeks upon their gods and heroes. 

The irregular constructions that covered the steep hills of Rome are 
herein replaced by galleries and porticos, as systematic and beautiful in 
aspect as they will have been unsurpassed in extent. 

Descending from the esplanade of the Parthenon, successive terraces 
support galleries and courts proportioned to the extent and importance 
of historic periods and races, for orderly delineation of life and art 
through the ages — Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, East 
Indian, Mediaeval, and Saracenic. 

These will present the amazing grandeur that arose from the Forum 
of Rome to the summit of the Capitoline Hill. From their colossal 
portal extends a Via Sacra, through memorial colums and arches. 

This sketch limns a vision of the splendor of Athens in the Peri- 
clean age; for it is an appropriate fact to recall that the structures 
which were the glory of all antiquity, which have been models for all 
subsequent ages as combining ' ' a perfection of solemn and wondrous 

'Addenda. 2 Addenda No. %. 



THE AMERICAN ACROPOLIS. 



43 



harmony," were from the impulsion of a democrac3", conceived and 
wrought under one master, Phidias, in the time of Pericles, in a period 
of thirteen years. 

It will be a transcendent honor for our Republic if it shall celebrate a 
century of progress by creations which shall win from posterity the trib- 
ute of Demosthenes to the Athenians : 




No. 25. — The colonnade of the Forum of Pompeii, restored ; for the Portico of American Gallene 
on the Potomac. 



Our ancestors were inspired not by the desire of wealth, but by the love of glory; 
and, therefore, they have left us immortal possessions — the memory- of illustrious 
deeds and the beauty of the works consecrated to them. 

Five centuries later Plutarch wrote : 

These works appear at the present time fresh and newly wrought; they seem to 
wear the bloom of perpetual youth; its glow untouched by time, as if they breathed 
the breath of immortality and had a soul that age could never reach. 

In these courts should be reproduced structures typical of the highest 
development in the respective styles. The Byzantine of St. Sophia, the 



44 DESCRIPTION OF DESIGN AND PLAN. 

Gothic of the Campo Santo, the tracery of the Alhambra, and the pierced 
screenwork of the Taj, will be grouped in superb proximity, and with 
effective contrast to the overshadowing dignity and grandeur of classic 
and Egyptian orders. ' It will inspire enthusiasm to study realistic por- 
trayals of ancient life in the restored architectural environment of each 
nationality, exclusive of all modern surroundings. 

In the inclosures of the galleries should be placed reproductions such 
as herein mentioned, and casts in concrete of antiquarian remains. For 
instance, the early Christian crosses of Iona and other places in England 
and Ireland, full-sized specimens of rich fountains, cloisters, the gorgeous 
portals of Spain, etc. The effect may be superb, mingled with verdure 
and herbage. 




Renwick, Aspinwall & Russell, Architects. 
No. 26. — A Constructional Section of the Galleries. 

Reproductions of the divers nationalities should serve as museums of 
their life, manners, industries, etc. 

Houses of the ancients should be reproduced, like the Pompeian home 
of Pansa, at Saratoga, with apartments revealing their domestic life, 
manners, religious symbolism, art industries, etc. 

Instead of a house of Pansa, a dwelling from a small provincial city, 
there should be recreated the house of Scaurus as elaborated by Mazois, 
a Roman palace of great extent and grandeur that would moderate our 
estimate of modern attainments. It would reveal the excellence of art 
and the splendor even of domestic architecture that were annihilated by 

1 This variety may suggest incongruities of mixed architecture. The proposed 
height of the galleries with their basements will screen the contents of each court, 
in the silhouette of the sky line, except with domes, towers, and columns, which 
can be selected to enhance the general effect. 



REPRODUCTIONS PROPOSED. 



45 



the deluge of northern barbarians upon the Roman world, as was Pompeii 
entombed by Vesuvius. Such realistic revelations would be tangible to 
those ignorant of the glowing pages of Gibbon, and waken curiosity to 
hunt the facts of history. 

A mediaeval castle should have its banqueting hall, and gather the 
arms, furniture, metal work, etc., of its age. Indian gorgeousness 
should be shown with the traceried ornamentation of the Orient. 

The Kensington Museum has original interiors of rooms from Cairo 
and Damascus, with their jalousies and lattices, but miserably placed in 
a dark, low, narrow, and crowded hall. Instead of. two rooms, the 
National Galleries of the United States should have a house of full pro- 
portions, with all the elaboration of oriental handiwork and the gorgeous- 
ness of the harem. 




R., A. & R., Architects. 
No. 27. — Roman Pantheon and Lecture Halls. 



In such details Europe would have no advantage. By proper juxta- 
position of articles only is their purpose revealed. The Moucharabieh 
that screens the women of the East may as well be bought in Cairo for 
Washington as for L,ondon. In the show case of a museum objects are 
often meaningless that would have great interest in proper environment. 

These creations would be the utmost possible compensation to the 
great majority of the people, who in the limits of economy can not range 
the earth for either study or pastime. 

They would be substitutions for the monuments of the Old World, 
which are themes for admiration and romance. Ity their combination in 
their respective surroundings they would outweigh all existing works 
for the inspiration and stimulus of genius. 



4 6 



DESCRIPTION OF DESIGN AND PLAN. 



The accommodation of the constructions above proposed on 60 acres of 
land, it is believed, is clearly vindicated by facts, comparisons, and statis- 
tics appended. 

It is seen that the galleries are of simple and uniform design, of eco- 
nomical form, of cheap, yet enduring material, and are without external 
ornamentation. 

The plan provides for 16,000 feet range of picture galleries and 40,000 
feet range of corridors for statuary, casts, models, etc. 

The galleries in part will have basements for storage, workshops, etc., 
with basements. . 




,„„.., .'SlWteii,;;!',, 



R., A. & R , Architects. 
No. 2S.— Greek Theater. 

The central, or picture, galleries have top light, and may be the counter- 
part of the Louvre; the corridors would have side light, as in the Vatican. 

When the 16, 000- feet range of picture galleries is divided among eight 
periods or nationalities, an average of about 2,000 feet to each, with 
allowances for entrances, alcoves for seats, etc., it will be seen to be 
a minimum estimate, especially for the historical series of paintings and 
other pictorial object lessons hereinafter proposed. 

The corridors (halls for casts, models, and the field covered by the 
Bavarian National Museum above cited) -will rapidly overflow, in accord 
with all precedents. 

The basement stories throughout the structures will be indispensable. 
Extensive shops would be required for the multiplication of all objects 
practicable for distribution to local institutions throughout the land, as 
now such treasures are distributed by England and France. T 

1 It was a mortification to find the ateliers of the mouleur-en-chef 'of the Louvre, 
and even the half-underground passages thereto, crowded with cases for American 
institutions and citizens, of casts to be imported at an expense of 100 per cent with 
the tariff tax. These long since should have been supplied from our national insti- 
tutions. It was a greater aggravation to the writer to be taxed 40 and 60 per cent 
upon bronzes, terra cottas, etc., for importation of replica from Pompeii, and to be 
assessed likewise upon architectural models for the Pompeia from the British 
Museum, the Louvre, and Ecole des Beaux Arts, of Paris. It is to be hoped that 
such fines upon artistic and educational work for our country will soon be relieved, 
and that art will be free. 



THK CONSTRUCTIONS. 



47 



There would be a chief moulder and staff, as at the Louvre; potteries 
and kilns for terra cotta; photograph and electrotype departments; 
modelers in clay, plaster, and wood; receiving and shipping offices, 
storerooms, guardians' quarters, etc. 

It is claimed as a special merit of the present design that it provides 
for future enlargement in harmony, both architectural and practical, 
with the existing buildings, and without disturbance of all previous 
material for rearrangement with accessions, 

The ground plan of the Kensington Museum— crowded, awkward, 
irregular — is already obstructive by its limits, as stated in its 
publications. 



'2B 




~'£^^^<^>**<rtb*i&xJi^^&tift(toi 



R., A. & R., Architects. 
No. 29.— An Exterior Angle Tower. 



Extracts from ' ' The Preface " of a " Catalogue of the Casts from 
the Antique in the South Kensington Museum' ' : 

The principal objects aimed at in the formation of the historically arranged 
Museum of Casts from the antique are: 

I. To give the artist the opportunity of studying the best representatives of the 
different periods of Greek Art. 

II. To provide the archaeologist with the indispensable means of studying his 
science and of illustrating his lectures. 

III. Relates to advantages afforded to students. 

IV. To inform amateurs who are about to visit foreign museums where the best 
remains of ancient plastic art are to be found. [We would bring casts of all these 
"best remains" at once to our National Gallery.] 

V. Relates to the educational influence upon the public. 

But an explanatory note adds an important caution. Although the 
catalogue numbers but 271 specimens of the thousands that can be 



4 8 



DESCRIPTION OF DESIGN AND PLAN. 



cheaply commanded, and refers students to foreign museums for others, 
yet the area is confusedly crowded. It is said: 

The arrangement is in the main chronological. We say in the main, because the 
gallery assigned to the collection does not admit of this arrangement being rigidly 
adhered to. The larger reliefs have had to be placed out of their proper sequence 
on the walls as suitable space, considerations of light, etc. , determined. 

The government of the British Museum is embarrassed with its riches 
in the Townley marbles and other accumulations. The building that 
was supposed ample for the library and natural-history collection and 
museum must be given only to books. 

The museums of Boston and New York have made their moderate 




R., A. & R., Architects. 
No. 30.— Entrance Pavilion in Colonnade. 



growth in about thirty years for the lack of space. As soon as an 
addition is obtained it is filled. The contents of the Cluny and the 
Trocadero museums crowd their premises. 

Versailles, almost exclusively a gallery of paintings, has a range of 
1,300 feet, repeated probably ten times, say 13,000 feet on different 
floors, and by the side walls of apartments built for bed chambers, ball 
rooms, and banqueting halls, yet it is compactly filled. Its historical 
series numbers 1,204 paintings, probably requiring 2 miles in range for 
proper exhibition. The National Library of France covers 3^ acres, 
demanded for books and their use. The new National library at 
Washington covers 4 acres in a plot of 6 acres of ground. 



FRENCH GAIXERIES. 



49 



The School of Fine Arts in Paris has its dark attics packed under 
rafters to the eaves with valuable casts that can only be selected by the 
crouching of the purchaser with the dim light of a candle. 

The catalogue of the L,ouvre objects moulded for sale numbers 1,169 
specimens, and includes Egyptian, Assyrian, Ninevite, and Phoenician 
relics, as well as classic and modern. In the latter it is rich of the 
French School, Jean Goujou, German Pilon, etc. 

Brucciani, of London, offers 1,489 specimens upon sale, besides the 
catalogue of the British Museum of reproductions of ancient marbles, 
bronzes, etc., Egyptian, Assyrian, and the famous fragments of the 
Parthenon, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, etc. 

The Assyrian sculptures number 60 slabs, averaging about 30 square 



m 




M. Goodhue, Pinxt. 

No. 31. — Court of the Lions, Alhambra, for Arabic Court. 



feet each of surface. These figures illustrate the capacity demanded for 
such exhibitions, even in fragments. 

These 60 bas-reliefs, many of them 7 to 8 feet in length, are offered for 
^■308 ($1,540), packed for shipment. 

The Vatican contains a museum of twenty courts. It is an irregular 
mass of buildings, covering a space 1,200 feet long by 1,000 feet 
broad, of several stories. The buildings enlarged in emergency are very 
irregular in plan. 

Its galleries of vast extent are filled with but one class of archaeologi- 
cal remains. Before reaching the main entrance a corridor, 2,000 feet 
in length, is walled with ancient Pagan and Christian inscriptions. This 
S. Doc. 209 — Pt. 2 4 



5Q 



DESCRIPTION OF DESIGN AND PLAN. 



exceeds in length the entire range of galleries proposed for the illustra- 
tion of Roman history; but the plan provides on either side the same 
range for the casts of statuary and divers objects. 

The galleries should also be utilized extensively for topographical 
models of the Acropolis, the Forum, etc. These are the most tangible 
realizations possible of the relative size and position of objects. 

The model of the Pueblo of Zuny, in the Smithsonian Institution, is 
an admirable specimen of 'such works. It is upon a small scale, yet it 
measures 18 feet 6 inches by 9 feet 6 inches. Beneath are boxes of 
implements and pottery that should be seen with it; unopened, for want 
of space. The cast of the Aztec Sacrificial Stone, in the Smithsonian 




B. W. Goodhue, Designer. 
No. 32.— Taj Mehal for Indian Court. 



Institution, measures 10 feet in diameter, and the calendar is 12 feet 
wide. Such models are not costly, and for them a large area should be 
anticipated. 

The walls of the corridors should supply ample space also for casts of 
inscriptions. Most liberal selections should be brought from the Chris- 
tian Museum of the L,ateran, founded as lately as Pius IX; its Christian 
sarcophagi of the fourth and fifth centuries; its inscriptions and paint- 
ing from the Catacombs. Pictures of these in books give no such vivid 
impressions as exact counterparts in size, color, and perspective. Such 
thrilling memorials of eras from which flowed and widened the tides of 
modern civilizations should be precisely duplicated. 



CONTENTS OF THE CORRIDORS. 



51 



Systematic search for inscriptions, etc., is now made with great zeal 
throughout the territory of ancient Greece. Cyrene, Halicarnassus, 
Rhodes, Ephesus, and other places have been explored by the English; 
Athens, by Greeks and English; Olympia, by Greeks and Germans; 
Cyprus, b\ r General Cesnola, and other sites by French and Germans. 

The American School at Athens, it was expected, would secure the 
concession of an exploration of Delphos. Unfortunately, the subscrip- 
tion of $80,000 was too late, and the French secured the opportunity. 
It is now at work upon Corinth. 

There are now preserved from 20,000 to 30,000 Greek inscriptions, 
from which most valuable literary and archaeological data have been 




r ^itmm 



m 




Vvi , HPAflT-Qf- 



R., A. & K., Architects. 
No. 33.— Gothic Hall in Gothic Court. 



secured. It is, indeed, to be desired that Americans may yet secure a 
share of these scholastic records and relics. 

In further vindication of the scale for the National Galleries, compara- 
tive measurements and areas are given. 

The Capitol of the United States has a frontage of 751 feet by 324 
feet, covering with porticoes and steps 153,112 square feet, or 3^ acres 

Square feet. 

The American Parthenon (upon the plan) covers with its por- 
ticoes 200 feet by 450 feet 90, 000 

The American Galleries with porticoes cover 1 65 , 000 

255,000 

But the walls of these buildings inclose only 132,125 square feet, or 
less than 3 acres. 



52 DESCRIPTION OF DESIGN AND PLAN. 

The parallelogram of the old and new Louvre of Paris covers 2,640 
feet (more than half a mile) by 1,008 feet in width. With the Tuile- 
ries, the buildings covered 24 acres — an area repeated more than four 
times in different floors — that is, there must have been more than 100 
acres of flooring. Deducting the portions used for governmental 
departments, there must be a much larger area of gallery and museum 
space occupied than in the American institute designed. Yet its halls 
are packed; its basements crowded with its ateliers and storage. 

And this, it should be remembered, is but one of the French museums, 
besides Versailles, the Cluny, the Luxembourg, etc. 

The illustrations of Roman history, proposed for a historical series of 
paintings, would need a range of 2,000 feet. 

The art gallery of The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, measures 515 feet 
by 375 feet. Its two floors therefore equal 5,150 feet of range of gal- 
leries, 75 feet in width. The Palais de 1' Industrie, Paris, for exhibition 
of works of art, is 800 feet long and 1 15 feet high. 

It is not expected that the entire range of buildings would be immedi- 
ately completed. But the above facts prove that the vast galleries pro- 
posed are no exaggeration for the inevitable demand. The experience of 
all existing similar institutions vindicates their necessity. 



ANCIENT AND MODERN CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION-ITS 
ADVANTAGES. 



In strength and durability no masonry, however hard the stone or large the blocks, 
could ever equal these Roman walls of concrete; for each wall was one perfect 
coherent mass, and could only be destroyed by a laborious process like that of quar- 
rying hard stone from its native bed. — Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

It is self-evident that structures of the National Galleries should be — ■ 

First. Imperishable by fire or decay. 

Second. Impervious to moisture or vermin. 

Third. Independent of external repairs. 

These are essentials. 

Most desirable for permanent satisfaction is an architecture of standard 
purity in design, of dignity 1 and beaut)' in effect. 

These essential requirements must be found in the nature of the 
material. Alone to be named for these qualities are: (i) Stone or 
marble; (2) brick; (3) concrete. 

They are named in the order of general popularity, but in the reverse 
order of real value. 

Experience has demonstrated that their order of merit for the above 
requirements is: (1) Concrete; (2) brick; (3) stone or marble. 

After the fire in Chicago a commission investigated the comparative 
fireproof qualities of material in the ruins, and reported their order as: 
(1) Concrete; (2) brick; (3) stone. The Boston fire swept streets of 

1 " Sublimity is nearly impossible in brickwork. The smallness of the material is 
such a manifest incongruity with largeness of parts that even the Romans, though 
they tried hard, could never quite overcome the difficult}-." — FERGUSON. 

" The ancients used brick, cased over with plaster as smooth as glass." — Rolun. 
Such was the construction of the Baths of Caracalla, etc.; vast and magnificent piles. 
It is to be regretted that the late national buildings along the future park, from the 
Capitol to the Potomac, do not rise in grandeur above the factories of Lowell in the 
poverty of their brick walls. 

53 



54 



CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION. 



granite blocks into ruins even more quickly than if they had been of 
wood. Sheets of flame spread over ranges of granite warehouses; slates 
flew into fragments; the iron beams and girders warped and bent, while 
the stone blocks cracked, tumbling the so-called fireproof piles into 
heaps of ruins before the wooden floor beams were half consumed. 

By concrete is commonly understood a conglomerate of broken stone 
or gravel, sand, and cement, according to the formulas of General Gill- 
more and other authorities. For the use herein debated for construc- 
tions above ground is intended a finer concrete of sand only with Portland 
cement, as more dense, therefore less porous, and presenting a finer and 




F. W. Smith, Architect. 
No. 34. — Villa Zorayda The first concrete building in St. Augustine. 



more uniform surface and tint than the coarser mixture. Facts are 
appended in demonstration of the values in ordinary concretes both in 
ancient and modern use. For foundations it is universally accepted as of 
greatest value. Fortifications and large structures of the highest class, 
the Washington Monument, the Bartholdi Statue, etc., are based on con- 
crete. The Hotel Metropole, L,ondon, has a foundation of concrete, 
reenforced by "65 miles of band iron. ' ' 

But in walls above ground there is less familiarity with its use, and 
custom excites timidity in its adoption. 

The sand and Portland cement concrete proposed was the material 



QUALITIES OF CONCRETE. 



55 



; ■ 1 


1 




|| ^L 


'- 


i^C 








.... 


.••• - -;&' '-■' ■ 


m>^^fe 











F. W. Smith, Architect. 
No. 35.— Zorayda. The first concrete arch in St. 



used in the construction of the Villa Zorayda and the Hotel Casa- Monica, 1 
in St. Augustine, there with a fraction of "coquina" or shell. It was 
erupted in the Pompeia at Saratoga Springs, on the exterior wall and 
for pavement, and in the interior for columns, architraves, etc. These 
have withstood the severe frosts of ten winters in Saratoga absolutely 
unaffected, except to increased hardness. The facade is a concrete 
facing upon brick, precisely upon the Roman method, and all its lines 
and angles are as perfect as when 
finished in 1889. 

Blocks of the material left upon 
the ground since that date show 
no effect whatever of temperature 
or storms more than granite or 
marble. In fact, many stones 
used for building purposes in the 
United States cleave by frosts. 
The steps upon the east front of 
the Capitol are wrecked hj lateral 
cleavage in seams, and must soon 
be restored. Concrete staircases 
may be seen in Geneva, Switzer- 
land, for ascents from the streets, 
as solid and homogeneous as flint. 

It has been used, sufficiently to 
demonstrate its solidity and strength ; its increasing hardness bej'ond any 
natural stone ; its resistance to cold at 20 degrees below zero ; its capa- 
bility to receive any required tint in color except white, and its cheapness 
against brickwork. 

The use of concrete has lately been familiar in cities for pavements 
which are exposed to the most severe action of frost. 2 Fortunately the 
latitude of Washington, with its gentle climate, dispenses with much 
expense against this risk. 

In its adoption we are returning not onty to the examples of the 

x The original name of this construction is recalled for its significance and tendei 
historical associations. "Casa" — house, "Monica"— the name of the mother o: 
St. Augustine. Vide " The Confessions of St. Augustine," in allusion to her death 

2 Washington and other cities are being paved largely with a coarse concrete, ir 
place of granite and North River slate. The superiority of concrete above natura! 
stone nagging is thoroughly proven by contrasts of the two on Farragut Square 
and the next block southward, where the latter is scaled into large pockets holding 
water. 

The approaches to the new Armor}*- at Saratoga Springs, the terrace rail and termi 
nal posts, the curbing, and 12-inch waterway will be constructed of the best Port 
land cement and gravel; i. e., concrete. The same material is used in the construe 
tion of over 200 miles of sidewalks in Minneapolis, and stands the temperature ol 
40 degrees below zero without cracking or springing. But, as above stated, the con 
crete for walls above ground would be of much finer and stronger components. 



56 



ROMAN CONCRETE; CONSTRUCTION. 



ancients, but of modern Europe, where dwellings, bridges, and aqueducts 
are entirely built thereof. 

A Mausoleum Company, of Brooklyn, prepared plans for a structure 
of marble and concrete 350 feet square, three stories below ground, and 
two or three stories above ground, with a tower 160 feet in height and 
on the main floor a memorial hall. 

Concrete was^the most important of all the materials used by the Romans. 

* :: Large spaces were covered with vaults and domes, cast in a semifluid 
concrete. * * * The enormous vaults of the great thermae and the like cover 




F. W. Smith, Architect. 
No. 36. — Vestibule, Zorayda. 



their spaces with one solid mass like a metal lid, giving the form but not the principle 
of the arch, and thus allowing the vault to be set on walls, which would have been 
at once thrust apart had they been subjected to the immense leverage which a true 
arched vault constantly exerts 011 its imposts. * * * 

Massive walls were cast in a mould ; a sort of box of planks held by upright tim- 
bers into which the semifluid mass was poured. When this was set, the timbers 
were removed and refixed on the top of the concrete wall ; then fresh concrete was 
poured in, and this process was repeated till the wall was raised to the required 
height. In some cases the whole wall to the top was cast in this way and the brick 
facing was omitted; i. e., the building was wholly of concrete. * * * About 3 
feet high appears to have been the average amount of wall raised in a day. 



CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION. 



57 



A reference to fig. 41 of the Casa- Monica in construction will show 
how precisely Roman concrete methods, as above described, were illus- 
trated upon a large scale in 1887. 

The enormous dome of the Pantheon, 142 feet 6 inches in space, is cast in con- 
crete; being one solid mass, it covers the building like a shell, free from any lateral 
thrust at the haunches. The walls of the Pantheon are of concrete, with a facing 
of bricks. Steps in the Forum had concrete coves, which remain. Pedestal coves 
of concrete also remain. The circular podium around the temple of Vesta, about 
10 feet high, of concrete, still exists. The great platform in Nero's palace and the 
pyramid of Cestius are other of the many remains of concrete in ancient Rome. — 
Encyclopaedia Britannica, last edition. 




No. 37. — Zorayda, inter 



F. W. Smith, Architect. 
A monolith of concrete. Walls and galleries of concrete, 
with traceries of the Alhambra. 



In the recent extension of the Via Nazionale in Rome, the concrete 
foundations of the house of Sallust were encountered, and it was neces- 
sary to blast them with dynamite. 

The opinion of Mr. James Renwick upon the expediency of the use 
of concrete for the National Galleries is stated, as follows : 

Renwick, Aspinwale & Russia,:,, Architects, 

7/ Broadway, New York, January 21 \ iSgi. 
Frankijn W. Smith, Esq. 

My Dear Str: In answer to yours of the 10th, in which you desire me to give an 
opinion as to the value of concrete, or hiioii , as it is called by the French, as a 
building material, and a history of its use, I would state that concrete was used by 



58 



CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION. 



the Romans, and also in small quantities by the architects of the Middle Ages. In 
modern times, owing to the discovery of cements and hydraulic limes and the per- 
fection of these manufactures, it has been used much more than previously, and this 
is due to its great value in moist as well as dry foundations, and also to the fact that 
it will set under water, and for building purposes because it is more durable than 
sandstones, and as durable as marble or granite. Concrete is composed either of a 
mixture of hydraulic lime, cement, and sand, or of cement and sand and broken 
stones, or broken bricks or gravel. 

Its use for foundations is now almost universal. For superstructures it has also 
been largely used. The biton Coignet has been extensively used in France in the 
great aqueduct which supplies Paris, in which it is carried across the depression in 
the woods at Fontainebleau by arches of beton, one of which, of 80 or more feet in 
span, crosses the public highway. A church has also been built of it from founda- 



A#Kttf' 



^^VVMpw,^ 



■I 



3 snS t\ 



S a . II 





No. 38.— Concrete residence of Mr. W. E. Ward, Port Chester, N. Y. 1873-77 

tion to the top of the spire, and houses, pavements of streets, and the cavalry bar- 
racks at Paris are also made of this material. 

In Germany many houses are built of it entirely, with the steps of the same 
material. The great breakwaters in the Mediterranean at Alexandria and Port Said 
are of concrete, which is made in the form of a cube of about 6 feet 6 inches, and 
thrown into the sea. 

In this country biton Coignet was used by me for all the interior walls of the 
Cathedral of New York except the columns and traceries, which are of marble, and 
was exposed for years to the action of the weather without damage. Many houses 
also are faced with this material, colored to resemble brownstohe. The arch in 
Prospect Park, in Brooklyn, is also of this material, and the underpinning of many 
of the bridges on the Erie Railroad, the masonry of which has been damaged by 
floods, in which it was very successful. 

The material of which it is proposed to build the National galleries is better than 
this, as it is made of Portland cement and not of hydraulic lime and sand. It will 



CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION. 



59 



stand a very great pressure and is stronger than many building stones; it can be made 
in any color, except white. It has been used with great success in St. Augustine, 
where there is not other material easily procurably which is durable, and it ought to 
be used much more largely, as it is, in addition to its durability, the cheapest known 
material. If mixed by machinery, the walls of a building can be built for 22 cents 
a cubic foot; more than 10 cents less than common brickwork. For columns, cornices, 
doors, windows, and all moldings and ornaments, its relative expense is at least 
from one-third to one-half that of cut stone, as after the molds are made the whole 
work can be done by unskilled labor. For a great public building, such as the 
National Gallery, it is, therefore, the most economical material that can be used. 

With regard to the height and dimensions of the galleries, I -would advise a base- 
ment from 10 to 15 feet high, depending upon the position chosen for the building, 
with the galleries above it, which should be from 30 to 40 feet in width. As the 
plan is drawn with colonnades for statuary, etc. , on each side of the galleries, this 




Ko, 39.— Interior of Mr. Ward's house. 



will keep all objects of interest on the same level. The basements can be used for 
workshops and apartments for the officers and employees of the institution, and in 
some cases may be omitted if the ground on which the building is placed requires it. 
I have no doubt, in my own mind, that this plan is the most convenient and best 
adapted to the purposes for which the building is to be used. * * * 

Yours, truly, 

James Renwick.' 

The massive and extensive concrete residence of Mr. W. E. Ward, of 

the iron manufacturing firm, Russell, Burdsdall & Ward, Port Chester, 
N. Y., of which illustrations 47 and 48, is a scientific and practical 
proof of the adaptation of the material to general construction. 



1 A further extract from the letter of Mr. Renwick is placed with the consideration 
of cost. 



60 CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION. 

Before the commencement of the work, Mr. Ward made tests and 
experiments with the material at large expenditure of thought, time, and 
money. These investigations were made in 1871-72, and published in 
Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at the 
regular meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, 1883. The following is an extract 
from the report: 

When all doubts were removed concerning the reliability of the several combina- 
tions of materials required in the construction, a building embracing the following 
radical new features was erected (during four years, 1873-77), for dwelling pur- 
poses, near Port Chester, N. Y. Not only the external and internal walls, cornices, 
and towers of the building were constructed of beton, but all of the beams, floors, 
and roofs were exclusively made of beton, reenforced with light iron beams and 
rods. 

Furthermore, all the closets, stairs, balconies, and porticoes, with their supporting 
columns, were molded from the same material, the only wood in the whole struc- 
ture being window sashes anil doors, with their frames, moss boards, and the stair rails, 
thus excluding everything of a combustible nature from the main construction. 

Beton can be used in any form of construction, and is able to serve the require- 
ments of any architectural or decorative effects, etc. 

On the 26th of January last, I wrote Mr. Ward asking whether he had 
discovered, any cause for qualifying his judgment as to the value of 
beton for a reliable building material. 

Ik- replied February 3, as follows: 

No, sir. I have not found through experience and close observation any reason for 
qualifying my opinions of the superior excellence of beton as a first-class building 
material, and only wonder that after the complete success of my big experiment 
the building public are so slow in adopting it more generally. 

In a subsequent letter (March 7, 1891) Mr. Ward wrote: 

I am unable to emphasize its merits as strongly as it deserves. 

For such a structure as you propose to build, and as you aim to realize equal 
duration in all parts, I would certainly construct the roof out of the same material. 

Mr. Ward made his roof of large slabs of concrete resting on the sup- 
porting walls with paper (slip) joints, to admit of expansion and 
contraction. 

The history of the extensive concrete constructions in St. Augustine 
is interesting, and the facts involved therein are conclusive as to the 
expediency of its use for the National Galleries. In the winter of 1882, 
while in Spain, I decided to build a winter home in St. Augustine after 
the model which the experience of centuries had proved desirable in 
semitropical countries. 

An oriental house of wood would be an anachronism ; yet there was 
no stone in Florida. To freight it from the North would be an extrava- 
gance. At Vevay , on Lake Geneva, subsequently, the dilemma of material 
was relieved. In the neighborhood a chateau was in construction. Con- 
crete partition walls 4 inches thick were being cast of the rubbish, bricks, 



HOTEL CASA-MONICA OP CONCRETE. 



6l 




62 



CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION. 



etc., left from the main walls, in a wooden boxing. 1 Near by Grecian 
balusters were being cast of fine sand and cement in iron molds, very 
rapidly, with unskilled and cheap labor. The problem was solved. I 
saw henceforth an age of stone for St. Augustine instead of pitch-pine 
wood. 

In the following December, with a Boston mason, experiments were 
made, and the first concrete blocks of coquina sand and Portland cement 
were cast in St. Augustine for the Villa Zorayda. They are preserved 
as valuable relics. Then the first course around the lines of the dwell- 
ing herein depicted was laid in planks 10 inches high and filled with the 
mixture. In two days a range of handsome smooth stone was revealed. 
It was followed by another immediately, and these layers hardened 




Casa-Monica " in construction. 



sufficiently to allow the raising of the walls a course every other day. 
The partition walls were cast in with the main walls in even courses, 
also the arches of the court, so that the building is practically a mono- 
lith. Arches like the first cast, as seen in the illustration (PI. 45), were 
reenforced and anchored to the walls by round iron rods. The outer 
walls were cored with an air chamber, by a board buried in the boxing 
and then raised, like a boat's centerboard, before the concrete hardened. 
In thirty days the walls were as hard as any building stone, and in a 
year as defiant of a drill as granite. 



1 "Even party walls of small rooms [of Roman houses] are not built solid, but 
have a concrete core faced with brick triangles about 3 inches long. " — Encyclopaedia 
Britannica. 



INTERIOR CONCRETE DETAILS. 



63 



The result is a building that can hardly be excelled for durability, 
solidity, and richness in effect, dryness, and fireproof qualities. Fire- 
places cast in concrete have withstood, to the date of this writing, 
occasional fires, during eight winters, of live-oak wood, without as much 
impression as would have been made upon fire brick. 

The famous and extensive constructions of concrete in St. Augustine 
followed, and now it is in universal use, not only for first-class and rich 
buildings, but for fence posts, sidewalks, chimney flues, etc., and the 
piers beneath the poor man's cottage, formerly built of bricks from the 
North at double the cost. 




F. W. Smith, Architect. 

No. 42. — A chimney and mantelpiece of concrete in the drawing-room of the Hotel Casa Monica, 

.St. Augustine. 

The Casa-Monica, of which illustrations are annexed, stands as a 
superb illustration of concrete. A facade of above 400 feet, a tower of 
100 feet in height, balconies, arches, cornices, battlements, etc., are a 
homogeneous mass of solid and elegant stone. It was a new departure 
in this building to use the sea sand simply dredged from the flats of the 
harbor, having not more than one-tenth of the coquina. It was found 
that the finer the material the more dense and uniform in color the result. 
This building challenges comparison with any in the United States for 
the desiderata of a first-class stone construction, and especially with 
its ornamentation and impressive grandeur illustrating the Spanish 
castellated and the Hispano- Moresque forms — for its cost. 



"4 



CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION. 



The annexed illustration proves the availability of fine concrete for 
ornamental details. It shows a chimney and mantel in the Casa Monica 
with supporting brackets, all of fine, washed sand and cement. 

The Caryatides are of Florence carved walnut. The tiles (Spanish 
from Valencia) are set in the concrete. 

This material can claim no patent right. It is as old as Roman con- 
struction, and long familiar in our country in coarse work. But its use for 
fine details with a purpose of utmost endurance has slight precedent pre- 
vious to its introduction in St. Augustine. 




F. W. Smith, Architect. 
No. 43. — Moorish arches in the Court of Villa Zorayda, showing the Alhambresque tracery. 



The Museum of the Stanford University, California, next to the Memorial Chapel, 
will be the most important edifice on the grounds. It will be 300 feet in length, 
three stories in height, and the entire structure from foundation up — walls, floors, 
and roof — is to be of concrete and twisted iron, the whole edifice to be molded 
into a single monolithic structure, without seam, break, or joint. The bars of iron 
embedded in the concrete are immovably held at every point by the enveloping 
material, and thus impart their own tensile strength to the concrete, which obviates 
the necessity for great thickness or heavy weight, especially since it is found that 
bars of iron subjected to cold twisting gain largely in tensile strength. 



SPECIMENS OF CONCRETE COLUMNS. 65 

Thus a precursor of what is proposed for the National Galleries precisely 
illustrates the present theory in advance, by the liberality a?id independent 
enterprise of Senator Stanford. 

Stones placed in contact with merely joints of mortar have no bond, 
such as exists in concrete held throughout an entire range by embedded 
iron. The former will not resist settlement of sections or the shocks of 
earthquakes ; the latter, better than any known material or expedient, 
will resist both. Doubtless this was one reason for the adoption of con- 
crete, reenforced by iron, for the Stanford Museum. 

It may be observed that the facade of the Villa Zorayda (fig. 34) is 
nearly in three detached sections. If really separate, the least jar of 
earthquake or the slightest settlement would be made apparent. For 
security against either, the sections are bound by embedded railroad bars 
through the entire width of the building. Considering that earthquakes 
have shattered a city as near to Washington as Charleston, this contin- 
gency, not anticipated at the commencement of the Capitol, is worth 
consideration. The writer hopes to set up in Washington within a few 
months specimen columns, cast in concrete, z that will be their own evi- 
dence of the qualities asserted, viz, that such construction is monolithic, 
homogeneous ; that it increases its tensile and crushing strength continu- 
ously with time, and that it can take readily, cheaply, and permanently 
any precise tint demanded for beauty, except white. 

It will be said that such material is an imitation of stone. It is, in 
fact, a stone, although of artificial creation. 

Unquestionably, as Ferguson has stated, value enters into our concep- 
tion of greatness and richness. The semblance of the Kohinoor, be it 
absolutely indistinguishable in its precision, can not satiate our curiosity 
to look upon the great original diamond. But in wise use of our capital 
we shall not rival monarchical ambition. 

Fortunately the essential elements desired — sublimity and duration as 
its complement — are both supplied by the modern perfection of cement 
in its chemical affinity, producing rock. 

In all great imitative creations we satisfy ourselves with slight sem- 
blances compulsively. A painting is but a thin and perishable phantom 
of the everlasting hill or of the ocean that rollest now ' ' such as creation's 
dawn beheld. ' ' 

The dome of the Invalides is only a film of gold in thickness ; but Dr. 
Holmes overheard Sirius mistaking the gilded dome of the capitol of 
Massachusetts, in Boston, as a stranded satellite that had lost its way. 

The Athenians were content with a plating of real substance for the 
colossal ivory and gold statue of Athena in the front chamber of the 
Parthenon ; yet that and the Olympian Jupiter have ranked as the 
grandest human conceptions realized in art. 

The Warrior Goddess was made of plates of ivory iipon a core of wood 



1 Examples supplied 1S9S-99 in the Halls of tin- Anrinils 

S. Doc. 209 — Pt. 2 5 



66 CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION. 

or stone for the flesh parts, on which was laid the drapery, etc., of gold. 
Previous to Phidias, colossal statues, when not of bronze, had head, 
hands, and feet of marble, while the body was of wood. Yet to the 
great masters of Greece ' ' doth mankind owe its knowledge of the 
beautiful. ' ' 

Terra cotta is a molded material, but is now an established artistic 
resource, and has gained general acceptance since its first prominent use 
of late years in the exterior bas-reliefs of the Boston Art Museum. To 
the aesthetic sense a molded bas-relief is a greater contrariety in sculpture 
than a molded brick or molded plinth in architecture. 

The magnificence of Rome, enduring through the ages, even in its 
ruins, was original in brick and concrete to a great extent. Augustus, 
it is written, found Rome of stone and left it in marble. Its stone was 
principally artificial ; its marble was a plating upon walls of brick or 
concrete. 

" Even marble buildings were usually coated with a thin layer of fine, 
white stucco, nearly as hard and durable as the marble itself — a practice 
also employed in the finest buildings of the Greeks — probably because it 
formed a more absorbent ground for decoration. 

"Stone columns coated in this way were called columnae dealbatse." 

The exterior of the Taj, at Agra, and the interior of the Alhambra, at 
Granada, are generally admitted to be the most fascinatingly beautiful in 
the world. The latter has exhausted superlatives of admiration from 
Irving to Amicis. Its exquisite traceries have stood in full relief for 
more than five centuries (the Court of the Lions in the open air), yet it 
is of stucco. Exact counterparts of the ' ' glories ' ' of art can be had only 
for the world in substitutes of plaster. Assuming that the above evi- 
dence demonstrates that concrete supplies, better than stone, the essen- 
tials for constructions required, the economical result is extraordinary. 

Brickwork in Washington has advanced in cost to $9.72, say $10, per 
cubic yard, owing to the exhaustion of good clay in the vicinity. Mr. 
Renwick's estimate of the cost of concrete (22 cents per cubic foot) is 
$5.94, say $6, per cubic yard. 

A comparison of the cost of cut .stone or marble, especially in large 
blocks, will show an enormous saving. The marble columns of the Cap- 
itol, including base and capital, are 30 feet 4^ inches in height. The 
shafts are 24 feet 10 inches by 3 feet in diameter, in one block. 

Mr. Edward Clark, Architect of the Capitol, writes: "According to 
my recollection, the cost of each column, including cap and base, was, 
approximately , $3 , 000. ' ' 

The Roman Doric order would be, consistently, cast in concrete by 
sections. After the expense of the mold, $100 each would be a liberal 
estimate for the cost of columns of the dimensions above stated. 

Granite columns, one-half the size of those required for the Columbian 
Parthenon, would cost at Westerly, R. I., $996.50, say, $1,000. These 



ANCIENT IMITATION OF MATERIALS. 



6 7 



would be about 3 feet in diameter and should not cost, as above stated, 
over $100 in concrete. 

An approximate estimate, without calculation of details, from experi- 
ence and the above data, for the group of buildings of the Historical 
Galleries would be — ■ 

In concrete $10, 000, 000. 

In marble or granite 40, 000, 000. 




No. 44.— Greek Mausoleum of Halicaruassus. .Restoration in model. 




No. 46. — Cloister Naranco. Spanish court, for itstoration. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NATIONAL GALLERIES AND THEIR 

COURTS. 



Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself. — Sir James Mackintosh. 

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we 
can find information upon it. —Samuel Johnson. 

History hath triumphed over time, which, besides it, nothing but eternity hath 
triumphed over. —Sir Walter Raleigh. 

We have, in imagination, provided commemorative Temples of His- 
tory and Galleries for illustration of the highest attainments of art. No 
institution upon a system as comprehensive at the outset has hitherto 
been attempted. It is claimed to be a new departure in accord with the 
progressive and utilitarian spirit of the age. 

Such advance is demanded in these days in all intellectual as well as 
material interests. 

Old university systems have yielded to the eclectic demands of a prac- 
tical era. 1 Technological institutions supplant, for special vocations, the 
old classic routine, that the student may go directly to the goal. We 

1 Thoroughly in sympathy with these ideas is the present university extension 
movement; a new, broad, and promising educational instrumentality by which the 
latest results in the fields of art, science, and philosophy are to be carried to the 
general public. 

Lately, lectures have been given by professors of Princeton, Columbia, Vale, and 
Harvard, on various subjects, in New York and Brooklyn, Professor Marquand, of 
Princeton, lecturing on archaeology. These valuable services are stimulating a 
demand for the grand Institute of Illustration herein proposed. 

In the same direction of zeal for diffusion of knowledge is the plan of the new 

69 



7o 



CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



seek to arrange collateral information along his path. The advantage 
for America is, that in her youth and wealth she is not encumbered by 
custom and routine. The Kensington Museum, as we have shown, is 
proof of the possibility of modern improvements in aid of archaeology 
and art. 

The proposed National Galleries of History and Art, 1 it is believed, 
would excel both in materials and methods any existing institution. 

They would draw from analogous organizations of the Old World all 
details applicable to their purposes, and add others of special value to 
Americans, as a new nation in a new world, isolated from all original 
remains. 




No. 47. — Staircase, Toledo. Spanish court, for restoration. 

The system of illustration advised is claimed also to be comparatively, 
with its attractions, its promised influences, and results, more economical 
than previous historical and artistic collections. 

For apprehension of the scheme, the reader is invited to enter the struc- 
tures, in imagination completed, and forecast their occupation and use. 

The Parthenon on an Acropolis, as at Athens, and like the Temple of 
Jove on the Capitoline Hill, dominates a height before the American 
Capitol, its counterpart in prominent magnificence. 

This grand temple we devote to commemoration of Presidents of the 
United States. Adjacent are temples memorial of other statesmen and 

University of Chicago, for work throughout the year, by lectures in and about the 
city. 

The extraordinary Chautauqua educational organizations and assemblies have pre- 
ceded these movements in facilitating popular education, not only of youth but 
the people. 

'The idea of congregating the two objects of history and art is a good one, for 
many of our people who are crude in art matters are earnest and appreciative on 
matters of history. — "GaTh," in the Philadelphia Inquirer. 



ART ILLUSTRATIONS OF HISTORY. 



71 



patriots. Terraced below are the Galleries of History, an institute of 
illustration by paintings in chronological series, accurately revealing 
historical events, and by collateral objects and devices, such as casts of 
sculpture, architectural models and fragments, inscriptions, etc. 

There is no such distinct and realistic presentation of a great historical 
cycle in all the galleries of Europe. If the compartments of ceilings in 
the Vatican or the Louvre be cited to the contrary, it will be remembered 
that the details are in such distant positions and in such subjection to 
adjacent ornamentation that the observer abandons the effort even to 
identify the subject from his guidebook. There are none but frag- 
mentary efforts at continuity except at Versailles. Generally, facts are 
overlaid with allegory for ornament, in indifference to their importance, 
from which it is difficult to extricate them. 




No. 48. — Triumph of Romulus, B. C 740. For copy, 10 feet by 7 feet with series from Piuelli. 

Thus an institute would have a clear field for the consecration of art, 
in a revival of the past more vivid, intelligible, and impressive to the 
people than has yet been developed. Let the stories of history be tan- 
gibly set forth in truthfulness, not in poetic ideality ; in actual conti- 
nuity, not in fragmentary fancies ; in satisfaction of curiosity (the only 
true stimulus to intelligence), not in isolation that is discouraging to 
the ignorant, revealing to him no end from a beginning. 

For this consummation the subject must be grasped as a whole. 
Given an area for representation, and a subject, the historian must mark 
the salient, critical, objective, and final data; must recreate the charac- 
ters and their surroundings by all written and antiquarian material ; then 
the artist must give them life and power in semblance of form and color. 



7- 



CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



Since the above was written I have received from London Pinelli's 
" Istoria Romana," giving 102 engravings of Roman history, in illustra- 
tion of Rollin, 1 from the time of Romulus and Remus to the Emperors. 
These could be enlarged by the camera, and would need only the colorist 
to complete an attractive and vivid series for popular study. Six of the 
series are here given in illustration of the whole. 

Imagine this suggestion realized in a grand hall walled with truthful 
and lifelike portrayals of the great eras and decisive incidents of Roman 
history, 2 the connection of the facts revealed being fully explained by 
accompanying text ; these representations being again multiplied by 
photo-reductions for inexpensive handbooks of history, such as are now 




No. 49. — Lucius Junius Brutus condemns his 
throne, B. C. 500. 



sons to death for conspiracy to restore Tarquiu to the 
For copy, 10 feet by 7 feet. 



published by the Kensington Museum upon its treasures of art. Imagine 
the Greek, Byzantine, Renaissance, and other galleries also thus illu- 
mined by recreations of the critical and crucial experiences of their nation- 

1 The edition of Rollin illustrated by these powerful drawings is in the Library 
of Congress. Histoire Romaine, Depuis la Fondation de Rome, Jasqu'a ia Bataille 
d'Actium. Paris, 174S. 16 vols. 

" Extensive ranges of paintings may recall to many the exhaustive prostration of 
the round through Versailles, where fatigue dissipates all pleasure before half the 
course is made, and from which there is no retreat. 

When Americans have their own galleries, far excelling in interest and instruction 
those of Europe, as they may, they will not be limited to a day's visit in a contin- 
uous drive ; and they will utilize elevators, automatic tramways, and perambulators ; 
and study as they travel in luxury and ease. 



ART IN EDUCATIONAL USE. 



73 



alities, that marked their transitions to conquest and defeat, greatness 
and decay. Thus more effective object lessons than have ever before 
been devised would be scattered broadcast from the Capital of the nation 
to the homes of its people. The Gallery would issue textbooks to the 
adults of the nation. 

This practical, unpoetic employment of art, rather than for the play of 
imagination, may invite criticism from connoisseurs whose ideal demands 
perfection, and who are hypercritical of all but recognized masters. 

Such sestheticism is incompatible with the aim of the proposed insti- 
tute. It is apparent that the world can never paint its history at the cost 




No. 50. 



condemned to e 
country, 



le, pleads against the sentence by 
C. 470. For copy in series. 



of "The Angelus," nor would it be desirable in the microscopic detail of 
Meissonier's Napoleon in 1814 — 30 inches by 20 inches — sold for$i7o,ooo, 
or $283 per square inch. 

It is vain to expect that our Government will in this generation pur- 
chase such treasures; that the agent of the American National Galleries 
will appear in competition with Emperors of Russia and France for a 
Murillo Madonna, sold for 315,000 francs. The great majority of the 
people can not appreciate such values. Fortunately, the small minority 
who can indulge a limitless enthusiasm are increasing the private owner- 
ship of masterpieces from their surplus of wealth. 

Thence they will gravitate to public possession by gifts such as those 
from the late Mr. Corcoran, Messrs. Marquand and Walters, and bequests 



74 



CONTENTS OP NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



like that of Miss Catherine Wolfe. Thus the Corcoran Gallery " and 
other metropolitan collections will hold the costly gems of art. They will 
be to the great practical institution herein advised what the gems of the 
Green Vaults of Dresden 2 are. to casts in the Trocadero or the Kensing- 
ton, or to the instructive potteries of Egypt and Etruria, which are far 
more important as models of design or for interpretation of history. 

The genius of art as adapted to this age can not be more clearly set 
forth than in the comments of M. Phillipe Gille on the exhibit of the 
late French Exposition. 3 




lie writes thus: 

The nineteenth century is insatiable in the matter of knowledge, comparison, and 
generalization in all things. The taste for art is, in these days, merely one special 
branch of universal curiosity. In the eyes of the thoughtful public a figure or a 
picture, a statue or a group, has gradually lost its subjective interest, which has 
become secondary to its value as an ethnological or historical record. Landscape, 
for instance, English, French, German, African, or Asiatic, takes the place of 
descriptive geography. 

Genre, finding its subjects in the most dissimilar countries, represents with the 
charm of relief and color the manners and customs of the human race. 

1 The, Corcoran Gallery, in Washington, is a most attractive popular selection of 
works of meritorious art, in the variety and interest of its subjects, as well as for 
beauties brought from nature and life to fascinate the eye. 

- The Green Vaults of Dresden contain an immense collection of precious stones, 
pearls, works of art in gold, silver, amber, ivory, and rock crystal. It has the larg- 
est known onyx, valued at $30,000. 

3 See Addenda 2. 



REALISM IN ART ILLUSTRATION. 



75 



This realism, in accord with the practical spirit of the age, must be 
the standard for historical art work of a popular — that is, a people's — 
institution. 

Accuracy and beauty in execution are not less to be demanded than 
in the creations of idealists. The frescos lavished in German galleries 
should be exemplars for the manipulation in distemper, and for oil work 
the panoramic force and literalness of Horace Vernet. 

The sensible conclusions of Monsieur Gille may be extended to all the 
technical subdivisions of knowledge. 1 The artist has no need to resort 
to the creations of his fancy for his highest inspirations. Realism in 



F ' 




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- 






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BI^^^K 


M3S 


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JF\ > £MeN* ( - UU "' ^???vv§S 


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No. 52.- 



Regulus by to 
where he urs 



with Carthage, B. C. 256. 



r from his eiubasu; 
Copy. 



subject, through fidelity to nature in accessories, is not less the charm 
of Claude, Corot, or Millet than their success with atmosphere and 
color. Iu fact, it is the pathos in realism — the worship of the peasant — 
the unison of the soul with the imaginary bell strokes of the Angelus, 
that has won for the latter preeminent admiration. 

The learned professors of the institute who shall prescribe the inci- 
dents of history to be delineated seriatim must inevitably utilize every 
department of art. 

The human figure in perfection of form and action takes early position 
in subjects of the Greek and Roman periods. 

1 For further discussion of the literal utilization of art for educational use, see 
Addenda. 



7* 



CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



Nor will the Muse of History dwell only on the spiritual or the stern 
and powerful elements that have wrought or warred through the mythol- 
ogy or conquests of the ancients. Coming downward from the iron- 




^iiilWppi^giiii^ B 




No. 54.— Egyptian Temple at Philte. For restoration in court. 

disciplined Spartans, we shall meet the religious inspiration of saints; 
the romance and chivalry of minnesingers and troubadours. 

The theory for the institute would not be a rigid and dry exhibit of 



ART ILLUMINATION FOR OBJECT LESSONS. 



77 



facts by schoolmen, but to command all resources of art, to clothe them 
with beauty and enchant attention in study. 

It is an age of illumination and object teaching, that may be 
applied with unequaled facility in a national agency for dissemination of 
knowledge. 

These frescoes and canvases should be the works of American artists 
under guidance of the highest existing talent. Europe should supply its 
ability for preceptors, as Switzerland gave Agassiz to Harvard University. 




No. 55. — Corinthian det 



In our imaginary assignment of the Parthenonic temple to its com- 
memorative use, we behold it receiving statues and portraits of Presidents 
of the United States. 

Adjacent are panels illustrative of their rise to eminence and other 
memorials that would forever freshen to succeeding generations. This 
would be the Hall of Presidents. ' 



'In the year of the Victorian Jubilee, after witnessing the pageant in London, the 
author was, with fellow-passengers from the coach, walking up hills in the Lake 



78 



CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



The surrounding ranges of temples we appropriate, in like manner, to 
the history and archaeology of the American Republic; to the portraiture 
of its founders, patriots, defenders, and all who should be emblazoned 
on its tablets of fame. 

Upon the terraces that cover the hillsides are ranged picture galleries, 
with corridors on either side, proportioned in extent to the importance 
of historic periods and races. The galleries will receive chronological 
series of paintings, like that of Roman history described, and the cor- 
ridors all collateral illustration possible from the plastic art. These 
inclose courts for reproduction of monuments and structures to complete 
the delineation of human life and development by all available material. 
Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Assyrian, Mediaeval, Moorish, and 
East Indian courts should contain monuments or relics of the highest 
attainment of their civilizations. 




restoration. 



This picture may appear too grand for realization. Its entire practi- 
cability will be demonstrated by the list of architectural reproductions 
proposed, to be the most effective and progressive feature for our National 
Galleries. 



region. In the company were two persons of East Indian complexion- an Indian 
prince and his servant. The former had been one of the gorgeous oriental escort of 
the Queen. In conversation that followed he said: "I am greatly dieappointed that 
my associate will not return with me across the United States to India. I want, 
above all, to visit the people who have chosen good rulers by popular vote for one 
hundred years." 



ENGRAVINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ETC. 



79 



We have assigned our central ranges of galleries to historical and 
commemorative paintings. 

These should be supplemented by collections to utmost extent of all 
illustration by engraving, photography, etc.; 1 that would perfect the 
scheme of pictorial, historic, and art illustration, if thoroughly indexed 

This suggestion I would strongly emphasize as the conviction of con- 
siderable observation and experience. The material abounds in all 
European collections; yet in practical uselessness, because nowhere cata- 
logued by subjects. The National Library of Paris holds 1,320,000 
engravings, arranged under the names of the designers. In like manner 
the Ivouvre Museum has 36,000 specimens of engravings, and the Vatican 
as many, that can only be approached with difficulty. 




No. 57. — Caza Zaporta. Spanish court, for restoration. 

The British Museum has commenced publication of catalogues of its 
engravings by three royal octavo volumes on caricature. The details 
are fully described of each picture; for instance, by Hogarth, of the per- 
sons, motives, etc., of the scene; but there is no index to subjects, as 
political, domestic, etc., or as of jurisprudence, religion, etc. Thus these 

x Mr. Spofford, Librarian of Congress, states that "by the silent operation of the 
copyright law for twenty years past, the Library of Congress has accumulated, with- 
out a dollar of expense to the Government, over 50c), 000 works of graphic art, 
embracing line engravings, mezzotints, lithographs, etc. It is proposed to have in 
the new Library Building an art gallery, 250 feet by 35 feet, for exhibition of the 
progress of art in this direction since 1870." 

This is most interesting and desirable, but has no relation to the above plan of 
reproduction of foreign and antiquarian art. 



PLASTIC MATERIAL. 



81 



The history of the migration, increase, and improvement of earth's 
population, the rise and decline of empires, might be graphically deline- 
ated, giving life to dry statistics and elucidating to the eye historical events. 
These themes present a field for prize competitions in ingenuity and 
scholarship. 

Collateral with painting, the plastic art is an indispensable appliance 
for illustrative objects and examples. Its facility, perfection, and cheap- 




No. 59. — Pavilion, Hullabeed. Indian court. Model. 

ness are unsurpassed by any process of human skill that relates to the 
refinements of life. It will produce with absolute truthfulness the 
features of a colossal sphinx or the microscopic lineaments of a coin. 
No expenditure for the objects sought in these papers will yield more 
tangible and remunerative results than purchases of casts. 

The great museums of Europe allow no vacancies in their collections 
of all desirable specimens. Within a few years the School of Fine Arts 
of Paris has added a grand hall for models, some of enormous propor- 
S. Doc. 209— Pt. 2 6 



82 



CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



tions. Its catalogue has 2 , 943 numbers for sale. The collection includes 
statues, busts, masks, anatomical fragments, bas-reliefs, animals, arms 
and armor, altars, cameos, candelabra, inscriptions, lamps, ornaments, 
plaques, saddlery, vases, ecclesiastical stalls, etc., in the Greek, Roman, 
Byzantine, Gothic, Reniassance, and Modern styles. 

Beside these are architectural models in full proportion as seen in fig. 
28, page 26. The values appended show the cheapness with which art 
casts may be lavishly supplied. 

Prices are as follows: For 10 statues, 4 feet 2 inches and upward, 26 
francs, average; 236 busts and heads, assorted sizes, 9 francs. Bas-reliefs 
are of great importance, not only as models for design, but for their his- 




Jaina Temple of Vinala Sale, 12th Century. Restoration. 



torical records and illustration. The collection numbers 578 specimens 
at a cost of 40 francs each on the average. To this is added 60 per cent 
for packing and shipping expenses. For all educational uses casts are 
absolutely as good as originals. An eminent professor of architecture in 
one of our chief universities remarked, in accordance with these recom- 
mendations, that he would restrict a national institution to casts of 
antiquarian remains, considering the fictitious value of originals in 
comparison. 

The Royal Museum of Berlin, in the impossibility of purchase of 
originals, decided to obtain casts of all the masterpieces of sculpture in 
the world. It has 2,271 specimens, 



CASTS FROM BRITISH MUSEUM AND THE EOUVRE. 



83 



In nine years the Museum of the Trocadero, in Paris, has gathered its 
splendid exhibit in casts of architectural styles. 

The Louvre and the British Museum, in aid of art universally, offer 
extensive lists of objects for sale in replication. The English people, 
having supplied money without stint for the acquisition of ancient 
remains, now offer counterparts to the world at a tithe of their cost. 

The Parthenon sculptures cost, in 181 6, $175,000. The Phigalian 
marbles cost, in 18 15-16, 
$95,000. In sculpture of 
archaic interest the museum 
is unrivaled. The wonderful 
gain to human knowledge re- 
vealed by its acquisitions is 
impressively stated in the in- 
troduction to its calalogue, 
thus: 

The colossal bulls and long ex- 
tent of sculptured slabs covered 
with inscriptions, which orna- 
mented the palace of Sennacherib, 
the records of Assyrian history in- 
scribed in cuneiform character on 
sun-dried bricks, unearthed by Mr. 
Layard, with ivories, bronze vases, 
and numerous other objects, 
brought together within the mu- 
seum walls, have been the means, 
in a great measure, of restoring 
the history and realizing the gran- 
deur and advanced civilization of 
an ancient empire, the memory of 
which had been almsot lost. 

Again it says: 

Here are stored rather than ex- 
hibited very interesting monu- 
ments of antiquity, Indian sculp- 
tures, Mexican antiquities, many 
Roman sepulchers, Greek and 
other inscriptions in large num- 
bers, and other precious remains. 

No. 61.— Balcony, Benares. Restoration. 

It is in view of such abun- 
dance of instructive and impressive records of the past that the design 
provides a large area for its reception and that this appeal is made for its 
early transfer to our shores. 

Over against the pictured events of history which we have imagined, 
brought out in train, should be all existing busts of the rulers, scholars, 
philosophers, poets, navigators, inventors, artists, and others who im- 
pressed themselves upon the passing eras. 




'^laj^J- 



84 



CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



Adjacent should be replica of inscriptions, sculptures, tombs, altars, 
etc. , which throw light upon the dim traces of time. 

To facilitate modern art and architecture, all the masterpieces of 
ancient sculpture and all examples of ancient orders should be placed in 
sight of the American student at home. A hall would be grandly beau- 
tiful and inspiring if the orders were ranged in accurac)*- of detail from 
base to apex of pediment, with good extent of entablature. An avenue 
of such recreations of full proportions would indicate the transitions 
from race to race — the Egyptian to the Greek, the Greek to the Roman. 




No. 62.— Pillar, Tschultrie. Model. 

(See fig. 64. ) Models to scale, of course, must suffice for the gener- 
ality of notable constructions, such as are now being gained, of exquisite 
workmanship, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, but for 
full inspiration some great monuments should be revived in the dignity 
of proportions. 

In comparison with Europe the poverty of such material in our country 
is deplorable. The recent addition to the Boston Art Museum of casts, 
to a total of 777, valued at $50,000, is a welcome gain, and it is cheering 
to learn of a subscription of $100,000 to raise the New York list from 



COINS, CERAMICS, ARMOR, FURNITURE, FTC. 



85 



1 68 specimens ; but the nation should at once command for its Capital all 
of such available object lessons from the past, to be redistributed thence 
to local centers of learning throughout the land. 

There is no need to enumerate in detail other archaeological material 




No. 63. — Tope of Sanchi, Buddhist shrine, 6th century". Model. 

of museums essential to the National Galleries — coins, ceramics, armor, 
furniture, bronzes, metal work, etc. 

Our country will reap the advantages of late inventive skill in all 
mechanical orocesses for their reproduction. 




No. 64.— Hall, Palace of Allahabad. Indian court. Restoration. 

The electrotype process in its high development will supply not only 
the coinage of all periods and nations extant in the vast collection of 
the British Museum a service to knowledge greatly enjoyed by its vener- 
able numismatist, Mr. Reach- — but by the same application of chemistry 
and galvanism Messrs. Klkington & Co., of I,ondon, will supply large 



86 



CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 





No. 65.— Ceramics. Allegorical Titles of the Nations by Solon. Exposition, Paris, 1878. 



CERAMICS. 



§7 




mmf-"t^v» 






Wh'ii'f^iBgl 






mp\M 


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The 

United States 

had 


This Exhibit 

WAS 
WHOLLY DISPROPORTIONED 


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interests in the u. s. 

At 


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HI 

ill 


CERAMIC ARTS. 
The Report of 


Philadelphia, in 1876, 

there were 

Sixty Exhibitors. 




the 


American Ceramic 


rVJ 


Exposition, 1878, 


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THREE CONTRIBUTIONS 


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FROM THE U. S. 


RAPIDITY AND SKILL. 



:al Titles of the Nations by Solon. Exposition, Paris, 1878. 



88 CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GAEEERIES. 

reproductions, such as The Regalia from the Tower of London; of gold 
and silver services from Windsor Castle; of old English plate from Knole. 
The Corcoran catalogue now has 139 specimens of electrotype repro- 
ductions by Christofle & Co., of Paris, and Elkington & Co., of London, 
including the Treasures of Hildesheim, the Pompeian Toilet, and Monu- 
ment to Frederick the Great. 

The South Kensington Museum and the Arundel Society of London 




No. 66.— Interior of an Egyptian 



have contracted with Elkington & Co. for reproductions, in fictile ivory, 
of all their carved ivory objects, in aggregate of immense value. These 
replica are for all uses as good as the originals. The catalogue contains 
hundreds of articles dating through the past eighteen centuries — caskets, 
panels, book covers, tablets, shrines, diptichs, etc. 

The recital made of abundant material that is at once available vindi- 
cates the scale herein advocated in immediate constructions for National 
Galleries. 



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90 



CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



The following design could be admirably utilized as a pavilion. 

The third of the novel and important provisions for this scheme of the 
National Galleries is described in the introduction, as follows: 

Reproductions in full size in the courts of the respective galleries of his- 
toric nationalities of their remaining monuments ; and reproductions of 
temples, dwellings, tombs , etc., typical of their religion, life, manners, and 
art. 

I believe this recommendation, if realized, will prove the most popu- 
lar and impressive feature of the institution. 




No. 68. — Bird's-eye view of an Egyptian palace. Restoration. 

The reconstructions in the first Crystal Palace at Sydenham of small 
courts of various styles, Egyptian, Pompeian, Moorish, Mediaeval, and 
Italian, by William Owen Jones, architect, were unquestionably the 
most attractive and effective impressions from the past upon observers, 
of all the material exhibited. 

The houses of all nations, by Monsieur Gamier, in the late French 
Exposition, are reported in all accounts therefrom as of the same super- 
lative interest. 

The success of the Pompeia as an object lesson of Roman art, archi- 
tecture, mythology, life, and manners is a precedent for an extensive 



ARCHITECTURAL RESTORATIONS. 



91 



elaboration of the idea through the fields of archseology. Hitherto 
museums and galleries have attempted only the elucidation of fragments 
exhumed from antiquity, exhibiting the bones, rarely even a skeleton, 
of ancient life. With the light of modern investigation thrown upon 
monuments of past ages; by the interpretation of their records, unlocked 
from mystery on the clay cylinders of Nimrod and the Rose'tta Stone, 
the environment of former races has been revealed to the scholar and 
detailed in books. 

By these data fractured ruins may be readjusted; the voids supplied; 
the walls raised; the roof or dome, towers, spire or pinnacle restored; 
the altars placed; pictured worship or conflict, domestic pursuit or 




69.— Atrium of a Greek House. Restoration. 



luxury, the joys of life, the ceremonies of death, may be recreated, and 
we move among the forerunners of civilization. 

It has been the general opinion of traveled visitors to the Pompeia 
that they received a more vivid conception of Roman life and its sur- 
roundings from this reconstruction than had ever been gained from the 
ruins of Pompeii or the multiplied objects therefrom in the show cases 
of the Naples Museum. Antiquaries and scholars also have said that 
their imaginations of the reality, vividly described in the romance of 
Bulwer and the critical text-book of Becker, had never given a compre- 
hension such as was obtained from a circuit through the halls, apart- 
ments, and gardens of the house of Pansa, in which Jove and Mel- 
pomene, Victory and Ariadne, Bacchantes and Genii, the household gods 



92 



CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



and family scrinia, the pool of the atrium and the foliage of the peri- 
stylium; the altar for the L,ares, and the reclining couch of the triclin- 
ium are all in juxtaposition, amid their imposing surroundings of stately 
columns and gorgeous decorations. 

This last allusion recalls an incident apposite to this argument. Among 
the 378 visitors of the Presbyterian convention was an eminent presi- 
dent of a seminary and professor in theology. He greatly enjoyed the 
practical experiment with the writer of reclining at a feast, like a 
Roman, on the couch of the triclinium. The description of the posture 
from classical dictionaries was more clearly indicated by a painting of a 
Feast of Genii, from Herculaueum, reproduced on the walls by Pascal, 




No. 70. — Triclinium of a Greek House. Restoration. 



of Paris, who went to Pompeii for study of the subject, and by a copy 
of Boulanger's Feast of Lucullus. 

Others of the company personated the servitors. The final impression 
was to this effect: "For twenty years I have taught what has been 
dimly apprehended by me — the luxury of the Roman feast in recum- 
bent positions of the guests. I have hardly conceived them as comforta- 
ble, but now I realize all the ease, luxury, and revelry of a symposium. ' ' " 

'The illustration from Viollet le Due of a Greek symposium (fig. 70) is awk- 
wardly defective in the absence of the round pillows on which the guests rested 
upon the elbow. Monsieur le Due was as rapid in execution as Dore, and in this 
instance he overlooked an essential appliance. In the Pompeia they are simulated 
from the picture above mentioned from Herculaneum. 



CASTS AND MODELS IN KENSINGTON MUSEUM. 



93 



LIST FROM KENSINGTON MUSEUM. 

Annexed is a partial list of the casts and models of the Kensington 
Museum. They are extremely interesting and valuable. They should 
all be provided, ani very many in addition, to stimulate the genius of 
our people. 

PARTIAL LIST OF CASTS AND MODELS IN THE ARCHITECTURAL COURT OF THE 
KENSINGTON MUSEUM. 



The Rood Loft from the Cathedral of 
Bois-le-Duc. 

Doorways of Rochester and Norwich 
Cathedrals. 

The Prentice Pillar — Rosslyn Chapel. 

Recumbent Figures of Henry VII and 
Queen Eleanor. 

Cloister at Toledo. 

The Tabernacle of St. Leonard at Leau. 

Baptismal Font, from Hal, Belgium 
(A. D. 1444). 

Borgnival Monument. 

Font at Liege. 

Spanish-Moorish Arch from Toledo. 

Arabesque Cupboard from Toledo. 

Monument of Frederick the Great, Ber- 
lin. 

The Puerta Delia Gloria of the Cathedral 
of Santiago. 

Choir Stalls at Ulm. 

Minstrels' Gallery — Exeter Cathedral. 

Chimney-pieces from Tattershall Castle. 

Chimney-piece from France, by Ger- 
main Plion. 

The Schreyer Monument at Nuremberg. 

Lion of Brunswick. 

The Trajan Column at Rome (in two por- 
tions). 



Chimney-piece from the Palace de Jus- 
tice, Bruges. 

Doors of Augsberg and Hildesheim Cathe- 
drals. 

Corona, or Chandelier, from the Cathe- 
dral of Hildesheim. 

Fountain, with Perseus and Medusa, from 
Munich. 

Candlestick at Milan Cathedral. 

Shrine of St. Sebald, by Peter Vischer. 

Tomb of Count Hennenberg, by Peter 
Vischer. 

Font at Hildesheim. 

Wrought-iron Screens from Hampton 
Court. 

Florentine and Venetian Fountains. 

Chapel, Reredos, and Arched Recess, 
from Church of Santa Chiara (Flor- 
ence). 

Doorways from a Church at Genoa. 

Terra-Cotta Bust of Fifteenth Century. 

Doorway of a Palace at Genoa. 

The Gherardini Models. 

Stone Chimney-pieces. 

Altar-piece and Tabernacle from San 
Girolamo at Fiesole. 

The Ghiberti Gates. 

Panels from the Campo Santo. 



Following this list I give a selection of structures and objects recom- 
mended for full reproduction, like the Pompeia, in confidence that it 
can all be accomplished with equal facility and thoroughness, and com- 
paratively, with the advantageous results, at very moderate expense. 

For architectural grandeur, as an inspiring ideal, as preeminently 
commemmorative of the most powerful impulsive action of man since 
the Christian era, let the Parthenon, as a Columbian temple, rise on an 
acropolis in the perfection of its dignity, unity, and beauty. 1 Let it be 
surrounded by like constructions. The Greek Federation of States 
centered their reverence and admiration about their common temple. 

1 The Pantheon at Athens brings before our eyes the age of Pericles more clearly 
in all its perfection than any written page. — Fergusson. 



94 



CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



The American Union should raise a grander votive shrine to those who 
conceived its origin and guided its growth, and greater temples for the 
perpetuation of its history, as the Republic of the United States is vaster 
than the Achaian League. 

One of the principal functions of Greek art was to adorn the earthly habitation 
of the immortal gods — the Greek temple, whose grandeur and harmonious beauty 

make it one of the great- 
<S est achievements of the 
■g human intellect, the glory 

£• of all succeeding ages. 1 

& It is, therefore, be- 

cause it is an expres- 
| «5 sion of the highest 
S 1 aspiration of the hu- 
g « man soul toward ' ' the 
« | Unknown God," that 
Z °, I can not enjoy a mini - 
~ s ature of the Parthe- 

,3 ° 

| * non. Models are in- 

* -5 valuable for realism of 

5 S examples in architec- 

1 n tural study. 
"" o But however exact 
^ '§ the imitation of de- 
■g 5 tails, I can not with 
i J pleasure look down- 
-j s ward, beneath my stat- 
| 8 ure, upon a dwarfed 
3^ Parthenon; rather 
| | heavenward along its 
o £ massive but uplifting 
g o lines, for the attri- 
a o, butes of power and 

2 | beauty that it was 
^ created to express. 
S We should range its 
m colonnade against the 
o western horizon of the 

National Capitol as a 
counterpart to the stately dome upon the east; the one expressive of the 
highest legislative wisdom, the other of the resultant intellectual devel- 
opment of a nation. 




1 The introduction to the Catalogue of Casts from the Antique in the South Ken- 
sington Museum, by Mr. Walter C. Perry, from which I quote, offers great tempta- 
tion to extended extracts from its clear exposition of the inspiration, beauty, and 
perfection of Greek art. 



ROMAN REPRODUCTIONS. 



95 



REPRODUCTIONS PROPOSED. 

In the Roman Court, as seen in the illustration 1 (fig. 71): 

1. The Cabin of the Aboriginal L,atians, modeled from the examples 
on cinerary urns found near Alba. 

2. Specimens of the Cloacae Maxima and other Roman masonry. 

3. A replication of a section in the catacombs, with burial niches and 
altar, with inscriptions. This suggestion in 1891 materialized on a small 
scale in 1899 in the new monastery in Washington. 

4. The Porta Maggiore, full size. (See fig. 5.) 




No. 72.— The Catacombs, Rome. Restoration. 



5. A specimen of the ruins of Pompeii, with a portion of lava road- 
bed, a fountain, etc. 

6. The Roman Palace of Scaurus, after Mazois. 

7. Trajan's Column, full size. 

The cast in the Kensington Museum is in plaster, in halves. The 
Roman Court in our plan can receive it in full size and grandeur in the 
open air. It can be readily constructed of concrete, a core being cast 
for the shaft and the sections of relief work cemented thereto. 

1 The two illustrations of the Roman and Arabic courts, it will be observed, are 
not in exact perspective. They are photographed from free-hand sketches by 
Pascal, hurriedly made for this publication. They are merely for illustration, like 
a blackboard figure in chalk of a geometrical diagram. 



9 6 



CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



8. Restoration of the Temple of Jupiter in Pompeii, after Fischetti and 
Weichardt. 

9, Two or more tombs from the Appian Way, with its pavements 
precisely imitated. 




No. 73.— A R01 



ill. Restoration. 



10. A Columbarium; the receptacle for the cinerary urns containing 
the ashes of the dead. Casts from many of the ornate originals in the 
British Museum, to fill the niches in the walls, will be beautiful art 
models, and interesting for their memorial inscriptions. 




No. 74.— Inscriptions from the Alhaiiibra: "There is no Conqueror but God." Restoration. 



Among these suggestive recreations there should be — 

11. A Rostra; its columns adorned with beaks of galleys and Roman 

standards; their proud initials S. P. O. R.; their eagles and triumphal 

wreaths. 



ROMAN REPRODUCTIONS. 



97 



Bunseu considered that the Rostra of the forum was a "circular build- 
ing, raised on arches, with a platform on top bordered by a parapet, the 
access to it being by two flights of steps, one on each side. ' ' 

I can imagine the inspiration to the professor, speaking to the thousand 
excursionists — educators from the East or the West, in sight of these 
realistic images — in memoriam of the rise, greatness, and ruin of Rome. 

The 6 acres inclosed by the galleries would contain these and others 
that might be desirable. 




No. 75.— Puerto del Sol (Gate of the Sun). Toledo, Spain. Restoration. 

From the experience with the Pompeia, I estimate that the above 
could be reproduced entirely for $500,000. The Roman house will be 
the most costly object of the list. 

I would add to these in a park "Istoria," outside the walls of the 
Historical Galleries, two other important reproductions, viz: 

1. A portion of the remains of the Praetorian Camp of the Romans, 
now on the heights of the Saalburg, in Germany, being restored by the 
Emperor of Germany under the scholarly superintendence of Professor 
S. Doc. 209— Pt. 2 7 



98 CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 

Jacobi. The Praetorian Camp could be laid out on half scale. It would 
be built of brick of Roman pattern, about 10 by 10 by i}{ inches. It 
would give insight of the strength of Roman fortifications on the line 
of the Taunus range, against northern barbarians; of the discipline of 
their armies, and the mathematical prevision of movement which then, 
as in modern times, made legions invincible. 

2. A full reconstruction of the Roman Baths, at Baden weiler, in the 
Black Forest. The Baths at Badenweiler, discovered in 1784, are the 
most complete that remain from the Roman domain, although smaller 
than the ruins of those of Diocletian, Caracalla, and Titus, at Rome. In 
a rich edition of Vitruvius, the authoritative Roman architect, whose 




No. 76. — Mosque of Cordova. Specimen in restoration. 



works are extant, there is a full plan of these baths. Their length is 
345 feet; breadth, 106. Partitions, floors, steps, etc., are well preserved. 
Canina also (Architecturra Romana, V. 3) gives the ground plan. In 
concrete they could be reproduced cheaply and with facility. By photo- 
graphs of the walls and apartments with a scale, and by specimens of 
brick, stone, and mortar from the ruins to match the colors, all details 
could be accurately depicted. 

These constructions, with the symbols, objects, weapons, utensils, and 
ornaments which would appropriately find place therein, would impress- 
ively reveal the actualities of Roman worship, war, domestic life, art, 
and manufacture. 

Thus would history be verified and art resuscitated with the meaning 



RECONSTRUCTIONS IN COURTS. 



99 



and beauty of their origin. The utilization of the Roman Court, as 
described, is an example for others indicated upon the ground plan. 

The Greek Court should inclose an Agora, according to Vitruvius, 
with its double colonnades, its Curia (Senate House), Basilica, altars, and 
statues. Its Doric style would be in harmonious effect with the sur- 
mounting Parthenon and its Roman modification in the opposite court. 

Such surroundings 



would be an inspira- 
tion to archaeological ^ 
and classic research, jr 
and stimulate zeal for §■ 
American participation % 
in present Greek explo- | 
rations , which are yield- *> 
ing splendid results. 1 8 

The wonderful Mau- g 
soleum of Halicarnas- | 3. 
sus (No. 45) may yet | § 
reappear as a monument 2, "; 
to an American Mau- ° g 
solus — Croesus. The ° §.' 
Caryatides of the Erech- g o 
theum ; indeed, the J ?■ 
triple temples that com- ™ g; 
posed that structure, o 3 
illustrating the free- 3 3 
dom and picturesque- % | 
ness with which the § 
Greeks applied their o 
exact and stately archi- I 
tecture, should be £ 
added entire. ™ 

The Moorish Court g 
(fig. 78) should con- "^ 
tain, as represented, a % 
fraction of the Mosque o- 
of Cordova; the Court 
of the Lions, from the Alhambra, with the Puerto del Sol (Gale of the 
Sun), at Toledo, for its entrance. 

It is proposed that the angle towers (fig. 29) at the boundaries of the 
courts, which by the scale will be about 75 feet square, shall contain 
casts or reconstructions of famous monuments or fragments of the richest 
constructions of the adjacent styles. Thus the wonderfully rich piers of 
Burgos Cathedral (fig. 80), the Gothic Portal of Beauvais (fig. 58), 

"See first volume of "Antike Deukmaler." Berlin: 63 plates. 




IOO CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 

and the Norman Gate, at Bristol (fig. 90), would make superb termi- 
nals for vistas of the galleries. 

The Mediaeval and Renaissance Courts will inherit an embarrassment 
of riches from the monuments, dwellings, and relics remaining unharmed 
by time or human despoilers. 

The abundance of superb material is a perplexity of choice. That the 
illustrations of these eras may be apart and continuous, they are placed 
throughout the next division of the subject. 

In the Castle from the Rhine "(fig- 79), which we have placed upon 
the banks of the Potomac, there must be the Baronial Hall (see illustra- 




No. 78.— Mediaeval castle of Rheinstein, for the southern angle of line of Galleries on the Potomac. 

tions of the time of Francis I), which should contain the interiors por- 
trayed in figs. 83, 84, and 85. The Gate of St. Bernard, with its conical 
tourelles, should be entered across its moat under a portcullis. 

Fragmentary illustrations of ancient art are of the highest importance 
in suggestion of forms to students and in aid of architectural design, 
but they tell no story, suggest no idea, give substance to no imagination, 
or reality to any description of the history or purpose of the structures 
from which they are detached. 

It is entirely practicable to effect thorough representation of the 
environment of historic personages and incidents, so that the force of 



MEDIEVAL RECONSTRUCTIONS. IOI 

those characters and the consequences of those occurrences shall be 
vividly imprinted upon the observer. 

In such precise faithfulness and for such intellectual results, there 
should be recreated from time to time actualities, exterior and interior 
of monuments, houses, rooms, etc., associated with events that were 
greatly consequential to the human race. The field is the wide range 
of historic association; but those of preeminent importance, of which 
the original relics remain as patterns, are not very numerous. 

There might be reconstructed after the originals — 

i. L,uther's home in the castle on the heights of the Wartburg, his 
Patmos, where he was concealed for years as the Knight George. 




No. 79. — Piers in Burgos Cathedral. Such re\ reductions should fill the angle towers. 75 
75 feet, making superb termination of the vistas through the galleries. Restoration. 

2. The Hall of the Girondins, and the cell of Marie Antoinette in the 
round towers of the Conciergerie. 

3. The cell of Savonarola. 

4. The chamber of Mary, Queen of Scots, as left in Holyrood Castle. 

5. The house of Peter the Great, at Saardam, in Holland, where he 
wrought at shipbuilding. 

6. The house of Shakespeare. 

7. The house of Mozart. 

8. The house of Michael Angelo. 

9. The house of Melancthon. 

10. Rooms in London Tower. 

11. The room of Philip II, in the Kscurial. 

12. The Mamertine Prison at Rome, etc. 



102 CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 

The buildings identified with the personages would receive the special 
illustrations of their history and deeds. Herein would be a splendid 
and exhaustless field for future individual liberality, wherein the wealthy 
and cultured could rear their monuments of personal interest and bequests 
of materalized knowledge to posterity. 

Let it be remembered that the outlay and construction herein described 
have been repeatedly equaled at late world's expositions. 

The plan assigns celebrated buildings, St. Sophia, Byzantine, San 
Salute, Renaissance, etc., to their respective courts. The buildings that 
will be demanded for the lecture halls, competitive exhibitions, etc. , may 
as well be in typical as imaginary forms. 




No. 80.— A 



A throne room. Restoration. 



The list proposed is simply suggestive — illustrative of the wide scope 
of illustration — not the fixed details of objects. These would be con- 
trolled by various considerations, the grade and contour of ground, etc. 
But the system described, of cotirts, for the great divisions of history, to 
contain their respective architectural styles or remains, is advocated stro?igly 
as far in advance for instruction and entertainment of all exhibits yet 
devised. 

For the Indian Court: The elaborateness of East India temples 
(figs. 60, 61 , 62, 63, 64, 65) would forbid, probably, their reproduc- 



RECONSTRUCTIONS IN COURTS. 



I03 



tion in full detail. Upon a reduced scale, sections of such structures 
could be repeated that would convey all information revealed by the 
entire structures. Oriental architecture had not the expression of the 
classic, nor the perfection of form, which is the consummation of beauty. 
Its marvelous handiwork is the result mainly of continuous labor, still 
miserably paid, so that with the present facilities of intercourse rich and 
expensive fragmentary specimens could be commanded. 

The Mediaeval Court should reproduce cloisters in variety. The Campo 
Santo, of Pisa, the win- 
dow of Melose Abbey, 
etc., could enhance the 
verdure inclosed with ex- 
quisite effect. 

In a review of the frag- 
mentary remains of the 
ancient world for these 
imaginary reconstruc- 
tions, I have found none 
that might be undertaken 
with greater zest and con- 
fidence of success than 
the Assyrian. 

The exterior (fig. 101) 
and the interior of an As- 
syrian throne Room (fig. 
100) would be imposing 
subjects. ' ' The Assyr- 
ian architecture," says 
Fergusson, "was pala- 
tial, while that of the 
Greeks was templar. It 
was gay with color, and 
of such dazzling magnifi- 
cence that the inhabit- 
ants of Athens were led 
into hyperbole in records 

of its Splendor Re- No. 81.— Exterior of an Assyrian palace. Restoration. 

mains have now been recovered to such an extent as enables us to restore 
their buildings almost as certainly as we can those of the temples of 
Greece and Rome or any of the great nations of antiquity. ' ' 

The huge sculptures exhumed by Layard and Botta and brought at 
enormous cost to the British Museum are cheaply available by its liber- 
ality. Sixty slabs, reproductions, measuring 7 feet in length on an 
average, that would cover an area 300 feet long by 6 feet high, are 




104 CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 

offered in the catalogue of Brucciaua for ,£308, costing, probably, in 
Washington, $3,000. Their interest would be vastly enhanced if sur- 
rounding the grand hall depicted, crested with the giraffa or an architec- 
tural symbol of flame (descended through the ages of fire-worship) and 
covered with its roof of cedar. 

In our imaginary reproductions thus far, examples of Egyptian archi- 
tecture, the earliest and most sublime works of man, are unapproached. 
Their vastness of scale would conflict with the moderate classic elevations 
of the Historical Galleries, and therefore no area can be assigned to them 
within the courts. 

Fortunately, on the reclaimed marshes, joining the desired site for the 
Galleries, there is an appropriate site and a superb opportunity for colossal 
specimens. 

Substituting the Potomac for the Nile, we would rear upon its banks an 
Egyptian propylaeum approached by an avenue of sphinxes from the 
base of the Washington Monument. Its exit through the gateway upon 
the river would be a magnificent entrance to the proposed ornamental 
bridge to the Arlington shore. This conception can be powerfully 
and cheaply realized in concrete. The piers would be hollow. 

The sphinxes can also be readily reproduced. 

The Egyptians built, not for exquisite detail but for duration. 

They understood better than any other nation how to make their colossi and 
avenues of sphinxes group themselves into parts of one grand design. With the 
most brilliant coloring they thus harmonized sculpture, painting, and architecture 
into one great whole, unsurpassed by anything the world has seen during the thirty 
centuries of struggle and aspiration that have elapsed since the brilliant days of the 
great kingdom of the Pharaohs.— FERGUSSON. 

We have borrowed their commemorative form, the obelisk, "simple, 
erect, sublime," for a memorial to the Father of his Country. At its 
base may be effectively and appropriately added their material expression 
or duration — the sphinx — placidly immobile as the Oljmipian god; 
dreamingly observant of its own existence, passing onward through 
thirty centuries, but as a mote upon the current of an eternity " without 
beginning of days or end of years. ' ' 

Imagination may picture glowingly to the eye of the mind this vast 
pile, darkening by its stately mass the setting sun, whose rays gleam 
upon the rippling river through the majestic portals while eastward 
they ' ' linger and play upon the summit ' ' that inspires faith in a long 
future for the work of Washington. 

There could not be devised, I believe, a more impressive and ornamental 
use of the uninteresting flats recovered from the Potomac than the ele- 
vatiout hereupon of the simple but exquisite upward lines of the pyra- 
mids — those " mighty royal tombs;" " eternal dwellings of the dead;" 
"the oldest, largest, and most mysterious of all the monuments of man's 
art now existing." 



large; models of vast constructions. 



105 



The models would be hollow, to save needless material. By electric 
light this interior space could be thoroughly utilized. In one, the King's 
Chamber (34 feet 3 inches by 17 feet 1 inch) and passage thereto .should 
be accurately illustrated, with their walls and roofs of splendid slabs of 
polished granite, but this would not at all necessitate a solid construction 
of the remaining mass. 

One pyramid should show the exterior surface in its pristine beauty, 
reveted with polished stones; the others in their present spoliated con- 




No. &2. — Town Hall, Antwerp. Restoration. 

dition, with courses of steps. In concrete the exact proportion of the 
enormous blocks in the pyramids, and the vast blocks which formed the 
avenue of approach exciting the wonder of Herodotus, could be precisely 
duplicated. Near by the model of the Pyramid of Cheops 1 should be 
cast a full model (hollow) in concrete of the largest quarried stone in the 
world, at Baalbec, 71 feet long by 14 feet high by 13 feet wide. Among 
these objects, and fringing the banks of the Potomac, should wave 



'The largest was 760 feet square, 4S4 feet high, covering more than 13 acres, twice 
the area of St. Peter's. 



106 CONTENTS OF NATIONAL GALLERIES. 

masses of the reedy lotus with its superb lilies. The plantation of Mr. 
Sturtevant, at Bordentown, N. J., should be repeated with appropriate 
surroundings. 

Precisely this method of illustration in more complex forms has been 
applied to geological illustrations in the grounds of Sydenham Palace, 
reproducing the scenery of ante-Silurian ages, with mammoth forms of 
animal life. 

In Rome we visit the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, the tomb of a tribune 
of the people, built, according to its record, in three hundred and thirty 
days. It is 1 16 feet high, 98 feet square at base, faced with marble. The 
cost of this tomb of an individual to-day would be more than that of the 
three effective models of the Pyramids of Gizeh above described, of larger 
dimensions iu concrete. 




No. S3.— Gate of St. Bernard, 



from "Paris in the Time of Francis I. 
the Potomac. Restoration. 



For northern angle on 



EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE GALLERIES: THEIR 

METHODS AND FACILITIES FOR THE DIFFUSION 

OF KNOWLEDGE. 



The only freedom worth possessing is that which gives enlargement to a people's 
energy, intellect, and virtues. The savage boasts of his freedom; but what is it 
worth ? — Channing. 

As ultimately to constitute one of the most extensive and useful 
departments under government control, the direction of the National 
Galleries should be secured forever to a regency corresponding to that 
of the Smithsonian Institution. Its "establishment" consists of the 
President and Vice-President of the United States, the members of the 
Cabinet, the Chief Justice of the United States, an official of Washington, 
and "honorary members, as they may elect." The third section of the 
law names the officials and designates the sections of the country from 
which the regents shall be chosen. For the National Galleries the latter 
class should include presidents of universities in the District of Columbia, 
the Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution, and other prominent educa- 
tors from the States. 

In supposition that the Galleries have been provided, and that they 



108 EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE GALLERIES. 

have received sufficient material for the commencement of its activities, 
we will anticipate their beneficent and expansive results. 

First. Lectures: There would be employment for a staff of able 
professors in history, art, and archeology. 

Intelligent students of the silent relics and restorations from the past, to 
interpret the lessons they reveal, to unite facts in the chain of evidence, to 
explain the wide scope of their revelations, would be demanded. Therefore 
the plan provides lecture halls for each section of historical material. 

Our country may find some compensation for its long and utter depriva- 
tion of such facilities in its opportunity to begin with all the appliances 
which experience has proved to be expedient. No foreign institution 
covering the whole field of exhibits has any such provision for their public 
and scholarly elucidation. When the institute is organized lectures upon 




No. 84. — Salon, Fontainebleau. Restoration. 

the various historical courts should be delivered constantly throughout 
the year, so that excursionists from the entire country could always find 
instructors at their' posts. 

In 1882 Mr. Edward A. Bond, principal librarian of the British 
Museum, reported as follows: 

Educational uses of the Museum. — In concluding this general review of the 
gradual formation of the different collections, it may be held excusable to point out 
that they are exhibited not as mere objects of curiosity or of passing interest, but 
as means of direct instruction in art, archseology, and natural science. It would 
seem, however, that this truth is far from being recognized. As yet, but few are 
the occasions when a lecture or a demonstration is offered to a school or class 
brought to a particular gallery for instruction. 

If lessons could be given to students from the visible objects and specimens 
exhibited in the Museum, it can not be doubted that a more living interest in the 



LECTURES AND PUBLICATIONS. 



109 



sciences that they illustrate would be awakened than can be excited by the more 
usual modes of teaching from the book. 

• Until this method is generally followed it can not be said that the British Museum 
or other kindred institutions are properly appreciated or made to assist as they 
ought the progress of education. 

In 18SS the librarian enforced the importance of lectures thus: ;; ' * ;: " "The 
trustees have not the power to institute a system of teaching from the collections 
further than by means of printed catalogues and guides. A few very valuable lec- 
tures have of late been given on antiquities, " x " * * and it may be hoped that 
increased attention to the study will lead to an extension of this method of utilizing 
the collections." 

It would be difficult to write more appositely in commendation of the 
scheme herein set forth. 

Unhappily for the librarian's recommendation at home, the cold, 
crowded halls of the British Museum are insufficient for the material 




No. 85.— Chamber at Aizrey. Restoration. 

they have to exhibit. The sentence previous to the above extracts 
deplores the crowded state of ' ' the basement " " from want of exhibiting 
space," where are " stored, rather than exhibited, very interesting monu- 
ments of antiquity — Roman sepulchers, Greek inscriptions, etc. ' ' There 
can be no accomodation for lectures in connection with the present 
exhibition halls. 

The following is an announcement of lectures at South Kensington: 

A course of twelve lectures on anatorny as applicable to the arts is given in each 
term. A course of forty lectures on the Historical Development of Ornamental 
Art is given each year. Other lectures will be delivered occasionally and duly 
announced. 

Application for admission, prospectuses, or other information should be made at 
the schools. 

There is an annual examination for prizes in all schools of art, and a national 
competition. 



EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE GALLERIES. 



Second. Publications: Illustrated, instructive. 

The Galleries, as they practically develop into an institute of illustra- 
tion, will publish handbooks critical and explanatory of each depart- 
ment, like those of the Kensington Museum on Spanish art, Persian art, 
on Furniture, etc. 

The following is an entry in the Guide to the South Kensington 
Museum on the copious list of its publications: 

Handbooks. — Handbooks of Industrial Art, edited by William Masked, M. A. 
Textile fabrics, ivories, majolica, furniture, musical instruments, bronzes, glass, 
gold- and silversmiths' work. With numerous illustrations. Compiled from the 
introductions to the larger works on the same subjects named above, is. each; in 
cloth, is. 6d. 

This is a specimen announcement of a list of sixty publications ' ' for 
sale at the catalogue stall." Other titles are, "The Trajan Column as 




No. S6.— Gallery of Francis I, Fontainebleau. Restoration. 

reproduced in the Museum," "Fictile Ivories," " Monuments of Early 
Christian Art," " Manual of Design," etc. 

All the material thus made available to the people could be quickly 
supplied from our National Galleries; and, moreover, the novel expe- 
dients above provided will supply matter more attractive for such 
publications than any existing institution. 

Each restoration of an ancient or modern building would demand its 
illustrated catalogue like that of the Pompeia, of which 235,000 have 
been circulated, and which is now a text-book in colleges. 

What more effective historical lessons can be suggested than a book 
with photogravures of the 102 illustrations of Roman History, by Pi- 
nelli, each with sufficient text to explain its meaning ; and these repre- 
sentations imprinted on the memory from paintings, with the characters 
to life in size and with their original accessories ? 



REPRODUCTIONS FOR SALK. Ill 

These text-books, catalogues, and all essays, treatises, etc., emanating 
from the professors of the institute, would be sold at the lowest mini- 
mum of cost for widest possible circulation. 

Photographs in like manner would be for sale of all interesting objects, 
as in the museums of Europe. These would furnish to all minor collec- 
tions fac similes of the objects in the National Galleries to the extent of 
their financial resources. Incidentally, publications and photographs 
would supply exchanges with other institutions .upon the plan advocated 
by Monsieur Vattemare a generation ago. 

The King of the Belgians commanded an historical painting of great 
value, upon an incident of national history, and the engraving of it in 




No. 87.— Chamber of Marie de Medicis. Restoration. 

best execution ; then impressions were sold at a nominal price, that 
lowly homes of his subjects could be adorned with a work elevating in 
influence toward patriotism and culture. 

In like manner from the national Capital there ma}' issue to distant 
hamlets portrayals of the national history, impressing the youth of the 
nation with its crises and triumphs, from Washington at Trenton to 
lyincolu at Gettysburg. 

This suggestion of publications for other institutions indicates another 
result of the greatest importance to the entire country, viz : 

Third. Rcproditctiotis of all objects practicable by casts, electrotypes, etc. 

The facilities offered by foreign institutions for the distribution of 
counterparts of their objects have been already recited. Our country is 
to this date entirely dependent upon them. The art museums of our 



EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE GALLERIES. 



cities and colleges, trifling as are the largest of them in comparison with 
the material available, are all now dependent upon foreign importations 
at excessive extra expense. Why should this continue? Why should 
not our Government establish its central depository of models from which 
should be supplied to all applicants replica at minimum cost ? 

The plan of the National Galleries provides for basement shops beneath 
all the halls for such purposes. The plastic establishments for casts, 

potteries, and kilns for terra 
cottas, laboratories for electro- 
types, etc. , mentioned as to be 
provided, should cheapen to 
the utmost art products for the 
nation. At this writing I read 
of a visit of directors of the New 
York Museum to the Slater 
Museum, for examination of 
an importation by the latter, 
in view of an expenditure of 
$50,000 for casts. 

Considering their cheapness 
the nation should at once sup- 
ply all that are desirable to 
itself at its Capital, and then 
establish facilities by which 
communities throughout the 
land may have the choice of 
all for their use at the least 
expense. 

An illustration of the zeal 
with which the British Gov- 
ernment seeks its antiquarian 
materials is a published ' ' min- 
ute ' ' of correspondence of Earl 
Granville, 1864, of the com- 
mittee of council on education, 
with the secretary of state for 
foreign affairs, soliciting his 
official aid through Her Majesty's representatives at Dresden, Paris, 
Rome, etc., in procuring information as to objects of fine art or art work- 
manship, that copies may be obtained. The vigor of the search, which 
was "instructed" by Lord John Russell, is indicated by this schedule: 

A. The private collections of the Sovereign and in Royal Palaces. 

B. The state or public collections. 

C. The collections of the church, in the treasuries of cathedrals, 
churches, monasteries, etc. 




No. 88.— Court in the palace of the Infanta, Saragossa, 
Spain. Restoration. 



BUREAUS OF INFORMATION BY CORRESPONDENCE. 



113 



D. The collections of towns, guilds, municipalities, in their halls. - 

E. Well-known collections of private individuals which are heirlooms 
of permanent collections. 

In the report of the Kensington Museum of 1864 it is stated: "Arrange- 
ments now exist by which every object of the art collections may be 
copied by some one of the many processes." 

The United States can not claim equality in intellectual enterprise with 
the European powers until they enter the competition for its rewards. 




No. S9. — Norman Gate, College Green, Bristol, England. Restoration. 

Fourth. The institute would maintain an efficient bureau of informa- 
tion and correspondence. . 

This department would not only facilitate the examination of the col- 
lections, but it would answer inquiries and obtain models or drawings, as 
desired, of other relevant objects. It would investigate for parties at a 
distance, by its indexed catalogue of engravings above proposed, illus- 
trations in the lines of their designs or investigations, besides the cata- 
logues of specimens held by the Galleries, returning descriptions 
thereof, or photographs if desired. 

Those who have had the tedious and unsatisfactory experience of a 
S. Doc. 209— Pt. 2 8 



r 4 



EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE GALLERIES. 



search in the large libraries of our cities and colleges for art illustrations 
of a special theme will appreciate the superlative usefulness of such 
collateral aid. If the duplicates or photographs of foreign collections 
are largely obtained and thoroughly indexed, as is essential to their use, 
this bureau of information would be easily organized, and it would 
be a help to scholarly and artistic labors unequaled of its kind. 

The liberal system of the Boston Public Library in these regards is, in 
many details, a model for all literary institutions. It issues not only 
catalogues, but bulletins, upon various subjects as guides to readers and 




No. 90.— Germ; 



acade in restoration. 



investigators. It employs assistants to answer literary inquiries, either 
in person or by correspondence. It invites requests for the purchase of 
books — new, rare, or for special use. It maintains its agents in Europe 
to answer requsitions. The poor student may apply for foreign volumes 
upon his special topic, and upon their receipt a notification will be sent 
to him. It places its catalogues and an express service at branch offices 
for the few leisure hours of the mechanic. Above all, it trusts the people. 
From its beginning, despite predictions of robbery and damage, it has 
loaned its books to them in their homes. For thirty years they have 
demonstrated their integrity, the annual loss and injury having been 



PATRONAGE OF ART. 115 

trifling. Its staff numbers nearly one hundred and fifty persons; its 
annual expense is something over $100,000. No tax upon the citizens 
is more cheerfully accepted. 

These details are appropriate to the prospectus here discussed. By 
similar methods the institute should spread forth its facilities and mul- 
tiply its benefits. It should be the servant, diligent and painstaking, of 
the most distant American citizen. 

Fifth. Grandly beneficent and stimulating to the culture of the nation 
would be the patronage of art by the National Galleries. 

This would result first by its orders for the series of historical paintings 
described. The method for their acquisition has already been indicated. 
It involves the employment of preceptors, both of general scholarship 
and artistic manipulation; the one to supply the data, the other to direct 
their acceptable artistic representation. 

Naturally from this demand would follow competitions in design. 
These should be an annual incident of the institute of the greatest public 
interest. They would necessitate a salon of public exhibition of cartoons 
and an award of prizes. Art would be consecrated to patriotism ; its 
works would be diverted to heroic inspirations, rather than as at present, 
almost entirely to fanciful, romantic, airy, and intangible creations. 1 

This comment would in no wise disparage sentiment and imagination 
in art. Delicacy and spirituality everj^where environ us in nature. 

The zephyr that fans us, the sun-rays and clouds, make the glorj- and 
beauty of the heavens; the ethereal world of artist life, and of his imita- 
tive ambition. In the spiritual and poetic impulses of his nature he 
animates that airy creation with angels and fairies and would fain bring 
them down to earth and enliven haunts of nature for their paradise. 

J I cut from the issue of the New York Times, of the date of this writing (April 
26), a report of the exhibits at the next salon: 

"The list of pictures opens with Bougereau's ' Cupid in a Storm; ' ' Love as a child, 
shivering in the rain,' etc. We must pity him and hasten on! "We proceed to read: 
Pelouse, ' The Morning Dew; ' Fleury, ' A Billet-doux ; ' Marquan, 'A Siren's Sleeping- 
place; ' ' Birth of the Pearl; ' and ' Toilet of Ganswinthe.' " 

Of 58 pictures recited but 3 have any relation to history or knowledge, viz, 
"Lauren's Visit of Louis XVI to the Hotel de Ville," a painting 30 feet by 12 feet, and 
Roy's pictures of "The Reveille of Solferino" and "The Infantry of 1835." The 
latter reveal a successor in subjects to Meissonier. 

The exhibits of American artists number 54. The subjects are almost entirely 
fanciful and imaginary, save a few portraits and landscapes. Mr. Weeks exhibits 
his realistic and beautiful Oriental scenes; Mr. Humphrey Moore, of New York, a 
scene in the Alhambra, and Mr. Clinton Peters, "A twilight scene in the streets of 
Paris, fifteenth century." These clothe facts in beauty and truth, and arc contribu- 
tions to knowledge, for which they have this expression of indebtedness. 

In the same issue it is stated that the art dealer Gill, of Springfield, Mass., has 
sold, from his last collection of American pictures, 60 canvasses. The first named is 
Warren Shepard's " Kcarsarge and Alabama," for $1,200. The others named are 
all fanciful: "Snow-Flakes," "Coming," etc. 

Mr. Shepard's patriotic choice of subject merited this appreciative notice. 



n6 



AID TO MECHANICAL AND DECORATIVE ART. 



These are the fields and the only fields for some artistic souls, that may 
well be styled "impressionists," and when they can seize upon and fix 
their visions, art is in its most fascinating realm. 

But there is prose as well as poetry in life; there is conflict as well as 
romance; there is the clash of arms as well as the sigh of the lover; and 
for the strength of the race, mental and moral, art should be somewhat 

diverted from sentimental to 
actual relations. 

Our country needs its aid in 
reproducing actualities of its 
past history that shall imprint 
upon the national character 
integrity, patriotism, and the 
heroic virtues upon which its 
existence depends. 

Sixth. Aid to mechanical and 
decorative arts will be one of the 
most practical and valuable 
functions of the Gallei'ies. 

When as completely organ- 
ized and equipped as the South 
Kensington Museum, the 
American National Galleries 
will accomplish for the people 
of the United States the incal- 
culable benefits of the former 
to the Britjsh nation. 

The result of its forty years 
operations has been such an 
impetus to British decorative 
art and architecture that the 
nation is now the peer of Ger- 
many and France in many 
departments in which, pre- 
viously, it was an inferior. 
European nations, not con- 
tent with their accumulations of past centuries, have followed the exam- 
ple of the Kensington Museum. The Austrian Museum of Art, founded 
1863, and the Germanic Museum, at Nuremberg, for promotion of Ger- 
man historical research, greatly enlarged since 1865, are evidences of 
their zeal. 

Paris, in addition to its famous galleries, has its Musee des Arts Dec- 
oratifs, with corresponding and interchanging museums in the larger 
cities. Eight thousand students attend lectures in Paris. In the E)cole 
des Beaux Arts there are twenty-one professors of the highest rank. 




EMPLOYMENT OF EDUCATED STAFE. 



117 



It is unpleasant to contrast with these facts that, in these lines of 
investigation, our country has at its Capital attempted nothing. 

To the beneficence of an Knglishman we are indebted for an institution 
of which we may be proud — the Smithsonian. It has won position for 
ability and efficiency equal to all other scientific organizations of the world. 

But its labor, of a technical and philosophical nature, is in distinct 
demarcation from the field designated for the proposed institution. 1 

Seventh. Employment of a refined and educational nature for men and 
women would result tipon a large scale from the activities of the institute. 







mm . 



At the outset, the constructions would employ ordinary and mechanical 
labor. 



1 It covers the ethnolog}-, ornithology, geology, etc.; the entire natural history of 
our territory. It explores, analyzes, and reveals the mineral treasures of our land. 
It pursues with the keenest scientific observation the animalculse that ma)- infect 
the air, the water, or the products of our country. It is now crowded with material 
gathered in the exploration and development of our territories. 

It should have the National Museum enlarged to receive collections that have of 
late been refused; and large appropriations of money for its worthy uses. 

In enthusiasm for the purpose of its organization, its regency will eagerly indorse 
this proposed institution, as a complement to their own for the " dissemination of 
knowledge among men." 

The National Museum at Washington covers 2.35 acres, and is one of the best 
structures in the world for its purposes. The accumulations of material for its pur- 



Il8 EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE GALLERIES. 

The operation and expansion of its educational work would demand 
curators, artists, sculptors, photographers, eiectrotypers, molders, clerks, 
guides, gardeners, mechanics, watchmen, janitors, laborers, etc. 

If the Boston Public Library employs 150 persons, in stimulating 
knowledge, from its one resource — books — the Galleries would demand 
more, in the care, increase, and utilization of its material. Such a pay 
roll would be unsurpassed, for compensating beneficence, in the files of the 
National Treasury. What contrast to the oppressive and exhaustive 
burdens upon European nations for maintenance of armies in idleness! 
A percentage of this outlay would be added to the cost of casts and other 
reproductions sold throughout the United States, lessening by a credit 
account the draft upon the National Treasury. 

It is related that Louis XVI employed 30,000 soldiers upon the pleas- 
ure parks of his royal domain at Versailles. It is a direful necessity 
that the nation must now appropriate heavily to warlike defenses; although 
a satisfaction that the disbursement gives employment to artisans, and 
that war ships continue to others a support. What greater return would 
flow from an expenditure that maintained a proportionate establishment 
for mental elevation of the people! 

Further illustrations of temples and dwellings are inserted, specimens 
desirable for entire or partial reconstruction. 

poses in)\v awaiting space for exhibition demand a duplicate of the present building, 
for which plans arc prepared. But to show how completely distinct its useful fields 
of Study and illustration are from the proposed National Galleries, the following 
statement is quoted from President J. C. Welling, LL. D., of the Columbian 
University, Washington: 

"The National Museum lias twenty-two distinct scientific departments under its 
jurisdiction: The departments of comparative anatomy, of mammals, of birds, of 
reptiles, of fishes, of mollusks, of insects, of marine invertebrates, of plants, of fossil 
vertebrates, of Paleozoic fossil invertebrates, of Mesozoic fossil invertebrates, of 
Cenozoic fossil invertebrates, of fossil plants, of geology and petrology, of mineral- 
Ogy, of metallurgy and mining, of prehistoric archaeology, of ethnology, of oriental 
antiquities, of American aboriginal pottery, of arts and industries, comprising, under 
these last-named heads, numismatics, graphic arts, foods, textiles, fisheries, historical 
relics, materia medica, naval architecture, history of transportation, etc. 

" Bach of these departments is placed under a curator, and is provided with the 
necessary appliances for original research; and these appliances are yearly increasing 
in completeness and efficiency." 



ESTIMATED COST OF THE GALLERIES-A CENTRAL AND 

MOST ADVANTAGEOUS SITE IN WASHINGTON; NOW 

UNIMPROVED AND CHEAPLY AVAILABLE-THE 

FUTURE OF WASHINGTON. 



In America literature and the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the 
coarser plants of daily necessity. — Irving. 

Young America will soon be what Athens was. — Wendell Phillips. 

The true grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, sustained, enlightened, and 
decorated by the intellect of man. — Charles Sumner. 

The building of the Casa Monica involved all the data pertaining to 
the cost of concrete construction. That structure has now stood four 
years with increase of solidity and enhancement of beaut}- in color. 

The Pompeia has supplied an example, in a finer mixture of sand and 
concrete only, upon the lines of the Roman Doric order — precisel)' the 
material and forms proposed in the design herewith submitted. 

The cost at Washington will be considerably less than at St. Augus- 
tine, by the saving in shipment of cement the long distance to Florida. 

For sand there would be a water transportation directl}- to a site upon 
the Potomac. These are the cheapest possible conditions. 

As authoritative from an architect of fifty years' practice, and in the prac- 
tical use of beton (concrete) in the Cathedral of New York, the estimated 
cost of Mr. James Renwick from his above-quoted letter is appended : 

With regard to the cost of the galleries and corner towers, it will of course be 
dependent on the favorable or unfavorable position on which the building is located. 

I have made the following estimate for ioo feet of the Galleries, with a basement 
10 feet high and foundations carried 5 feet below the surface of the ground. The 
galleries are 32 feet high and 35 feet wide, and the colonnades 25 feet high and 13 
feet broad each, and the building is supposed to stand on level ground : 

The estimate is as follows : 

Excavation, 1,700 cubic yards $800 

Concrete in whole building, 48,650 cubic feet, at 25 

cents 12, 163 

Models of columns, etc 2, 000 

Iron beams, 34,250 pounds, at 5 cents 1, Soo 

7,600 feet of roof and skylight 7, 600 

Twenty windows in basement 500 

One-eighth of corner towers, estimated at 6, 000 

Heating by steam 500 

Total cost of 100 feet of Galleries 31. 363 

This is probably a safe estimate, within 7 per cent. 
Yours, truly, 

Jambs Renwick. 

119 



CHINESE CONSTRUCTION. 





RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE. 




ii^ ;:; ■■'■•!'* ■'■Js0< ft - 1 




122 COST OF THE NATIONAL GALLERIES. 

The item of models in the above estimate may be averaged over 1,000 
feet of galleries, but the above figures make the cost of 20,000 feet 
range of galleries ; that is, all upon the ground plan, angle towers 
included, complete, about $6,000,000. 

It is estimated that $4,000,000 additional would construct the Parthe- 
nonic temples and many other historical buildings and objects. 

One million dollars will construct the Roman and Greek galleries, and 
another will richly supply them with illustrative material of the greatest 
educational value. Could this specimen be accomplished, public interest 
would quickly demand the entirety. 

It seems almost needless to argue as to the ability of the country to 
command at once the entire work and hasten to the present generation 
its resultant benefits. 

It would be less than the cost of the United States Capitol, of the 
Brooklyn Bridge, of the State House of New York, or of the City Hall 
of Philadelphia.' 

When the first paper in behalf of the National Galleries was prepared, 
it was assumed, in ignorance of the contrary, that the institution must be 
placed in the suburbs of Washington. It was suggested that a land 
syndicate would give 250 acres from a tract of, say, 1,000 acres, for the 
enhancement in value of the remainder. Inquiry at Washington of 
owners of extensive tracts emphatically confirmed the opinion. 2 

This anticipated provision of land gratis was stated in the " brief " 
upon the National Galleries prepared for the press at its first presenta- 
tion in Washington in December, 1890. It brought a gratifying surprise 

'The Grand Opera House, Paris, cost $9,000,000. 

The Capitol has cost #17,000000. 

The new State, War and Navy Building, #10,000,000. 

The new building for the Congressional Library is to cost #6,000,000. 

Chicago spent last year #59,000,000 on buildings that on one side of a street would 
extend over 50 miles. New York spent #74,900.812. 

The combined expenditure of the United States and foreign countries for the 
Columbian Exposition is estimated at #40,000,000. 

The appropriations of the last Congress will amount to more than #1,000,000,000. 

The cost of the ship of war, the Ohio, for one year of service, was #220,000 ; of 
Harvard College, #47,935. In other words, the annual sum lavished on a single ship 
of the line equals that paid for four institutions like Harvard University. — The True 
Grandeur of Nations, Sumner's Oration, July 4, 1850. 

2 The author is advised by prominent residents of Washington to make the follow- 
ing statement, in consideration of the speculative interest frequently associated with 
enterprises affecting values of adjacent real estate, viz: That he does not own a foot 
of land in the city of Washington or its neighborhood, nor has he any intention of 
such ownership, and that he is not acquainted with the proprietor of any land west 
of the Treasury Department. Fortunately, the Observatory tract, if condemned at 
once by the Government, is beyond speculative monopoly, while its boundaries pre- 
vent any realization of increased value except on the north; all which line is now 
held by many individual owners in homestead. The tract is bounded on the west by 
the Potomac River; on the east and south by Government parks. 



COMPARATIVELY CHEAP CONSTRUCTIONS. 



123 



from Colonel Anderson, secretary of the Washington Board of Trade, 
viz, that the best possible site was available in the premises of the 
National Observatory, upon the Potomac, and the adjacent block, as 
indicated upon the plans of Washington. This site was described as 
follows, in his argument before the Senate Committee upon a World's 
Exposition, January 10, 1890: 

One of the most important features is an easily accessible site, and to illustrate 
the wonderful advantages Washington has in this respect over all other cities I 
invite your attention to the accompanying diagram illustrating the last-mentioned 
site. [This was the plan, fig. 7.] 

The existing park extending from the Capitol to the Monument and Executive 
Mansion contains 300 acres. Over 700 more acres will soon be added by the recla- 
mation of the Potomac Flats, and 220 more can be added by using the grounds of 
the Observatory, which is soon to be removed, and by condemning the adjoining 
and comparatively unimproved property between F and B streets and the State 
Department and Observatory. These 220 acres are above the flood line, well adapted 




No. 98. — The old Observatory building. 



to drainage and most desirable for permanent buildings. All street-car lines con- 
verge toward or run parallel with it. All s earn lines from the North, South, and 
West enter it, except the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and that adjoins it. The 
Potomac River faces it. 

Attention is invited to the important fact that vessels can land and unload their 
freights at wharves immediately adjoining the grounds. 

The tract occupies, about 25 acres of this tract, which are now being 
vacated. It rises to 60 feet above the Potomac, about the level of the 
Capitol. From this it slopes to the Potomac on the west and the Presi- 
dential grounds on the east. Topographically it is all that could be 
desired for a realization of the design for the Galleries. 



24 



THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY — EXPEDIENT SITE. 



It is of the highest importance that they should be centrally located 
in the national metropolis. Its attractions would invite the longest 
stay possible by the people who would come from afar to study and enjoy 
them, and who would suffer both in time and money by travel to a distance 
in the suburbs. 

The British Museum and the Kensington are in the heart of London ; 
and the Louvre, Luxembourg, IScole des Beaux Arts, andCluny Museums 
are likewise in the center of Paris. A university may well be located 
in retirement, but a museum should be directly in the public pathway. 
Nothing more could be desired in this regard for the Galleries than the 
Observator3 r site, adjoining the Executive and departmental buildings. 

The remainder of the tract eastward to Seventeenth street, described 




al Observatory. 



by the secretary of the Board of Trade in the note appended, is now in 
the unsightly condition pictured from photographs herewith. A portion 
of it is the common dumping ground of the city. The tract is held by 
very many owners, and can never be redeemed from its present shabbi- 
nesss except by a general condemnation. Since it adjoins the grounds 
of the Executive Mansion and the Washington Monument, such action 
stems inevitable, and the more speedily it is accomplished the less will 
be the draft upon the National Treasury. 

It is a remarkably encouraging fact toward this enterprise, that the 
site of the Observatory buildings is now graded and terraced, precisely 
as wanted for the Columbian and American temples. The area within 
the walls is about 19 acres, with 1,100 feet range north and south, ample 



TRACT ADJOINING OBSERVATORY. 



125 



to contain the dominant structures. In a twelvemonth their magnificent 
elevation might be added to the architectural grandeur of the National 
Capital. 1 

Such a result would stimulate the patriotic pride of the nation in the 
seat of its representative authority. 

The location of the Capital was originally in compromise of competition 
between States for its possession. Situated on the midway line of the 
North and the South, its improvement was retarded for three-quarters of 




Ijoining the Observatory, eastwar 



a century by the sectional conflicts which culminated in civil war. The 
final adjustment reestablished a faith in the permanency of the Union 
that was expressed in the immediate aggrandizement of Washington. 

1 Since the above was prepared for the press, the following gratifying announce- 
ment is made: 

"The Corcoran Art Gallery has bought a large piece of land in Washington on 
New York avenue and Seventeenth street, running through to E street. It is an 
irregular plot, having 340 feet on the avenue, 260 on Seventeenth street, and 292 on 
E street. The cost of this land was #154,022, and only the absolute need of the gal- 
lery for a larger building would have induced the trustees to spend so much on a 
new site. The constant rise of price in real estate at the Capital is another reason 
for immediate action." 

The property described is in the front easterly line of the block suggested for the 
National Galleries, opposite the extension of the grounds of the Executive Mansion 
(v. Plans, figs. 6 and 7). The Corcoran Gallery, to continue for generations, as we 
hope, to gather the gems of art, will thus be located at the entrance of our supposed 
Park Istoria. If the Government secures, as it ought, the block of 220 acres, then 
the Corcoran Gallery will be provided for future expansion without further expendi- 
ture for land. 

It is an opportune encouragement that the trustees have located precisely where 
the theory of the present scheme would have chosen. 



126 A CONVENIENT LOCATION. 

The original magnificent scale of the French engineer, 1/ Enfant, the 
friend of General Washington, after the general plan of Versailles, as 
proportionate to the future of the Republic, was found to be none too 
grand, but only commensurate with its promise. 

The Capitol was enlarged in grandeur, rivaling all governmental 
structures of the world. Secretary Seward pronounced it unequaled, 
after his tour around the world. Its classic style, appropriate for the 
dignity of legislative uses, accords with that of its counterpart advocated. 

The shaft of the monumental obelisk that had stayed incomplete for 
twenty -one years, as if uncertain of its story of success or failure to 
posterity, was carried to its apex, above all human constructions. 

Executive departments were established in stateliness of construction 
and extent of capacity, prophetic of the expansion of the nation whose 
will and power they administered. 

Liberal appropriations were applied to the transformation of Washington 
from its previous forlorn aspect of indifference and neglect. 

When the representatives of States that had been at war reassembled 
for restoration of their legislative halls to service of peace and good 
will, social reconciliation and amenities replaced personal animosities 
and assaults. A cordiality in private life ensued that has made Wash- 
ington exceptional for hospitality. 

Increased expenditure for scientific and literary interests attracted 
hither appreciative patrons to enjoy them. Washington became the 
center of American historical material, to which rich accessions were 
made by purchase of the Force and other private collections. These 
increasing intellectual resources have drawn to it a residential class of 
affluent and scholarly people, who find it more congenial than any other 
American city. 

It is now assured to be a continental focus of refined, intelligent 
society, secure from the turmoil and obstructions of commerce and the 
discords of manufacturing communities. 

These influences have combined to stimulate the growth and adorn- 
ment of the capital at an unprecedented rate. Washington is rapidly 
centralizing within itself both the federal and popular sentiment of the 
American people. Its forty-four allied sovereignties consolidate therein 
the great functions which they have delegated for common weal and 
defence. The constituents of these States recognize that the incidents 
of their local history and ancestral pride, the crises of Bunker Hill, York- 
town, and New Orleans, aggregate in an example of world -wide benefi- 
cence beneath the dome of their National Legislature. 

Nevo in the history of mankind has a city been favored with a fairer and 
more potential promise. 

Founded upon the popular devotion of 65,000,000 people, the material 
exponent of their union in liberty and fraternity, it will inevitably reflect 
their interest and liberality. They are proud of its elevation upon the 



TRANSFORMATION OF WASHINGTON. 1 27 

common foundation of their political system — a universal elementary 
education; as the sanctuary of their charter of freedom — a national 
constitution; of its multiplied charms of rural beauty; its facilities for 
rational enjoyment of social life. This legitimate pride will constitute 
an important element in the patriotism that must defend the national 
life. It will be wise to stimulate such national ambition; to foster 
rivalry with the old nations in all intellectual expedients that shall 
parallel a preeminent advance in the science of government. 

Washington must become a glory of the Republic, be3'ond its posses- 
sion of national force, in its resources for knowledge, its grandeur of art 
and architecture. As the Hellenes materialized their intellectual con- 
ceptions and aspirations on the Acropolis, Americans will henceforth 
centralize the illustration of their achievements and aims in the National 
Capital. They will rear its counterpart in a complete and harmonious 
temple of knowledge. 

The time has come for its commencement. The desire for knowledge 
by the people waits for the use of their abundant wealth to aid its 
acquisition. 1 

1 It is repellent to place in such connection the mercenary advantages that would 
result. We will leave to the financier and investor calculations as to the pecuniary 
result to real-estate owners in "Washington and holders of securities upon railroads 
diverging therefrom when Washington shall have become "both the Berlin and 
Paris of America," in its attraction thither of thousands of resident scholars and 
students by the unequaled advantages of its National Galleries; when mam* more 
thousands shall flow to it from all sections of the country as the richest center of 
the world for practical and diversified object illustration. 

Transportation companies, landholders, tradesmen may readily figure that they 
will receive in return more than the interest of the investment. 

The enormous advance in Washington real estate the last ten years is a basis for 
prophecy of the future. 

In i860 its population was 61,122; in 1890, 220,000. 



X^w^y <i£& tSJ!.^? 



ftUB 




? ii§^ i*^il.^F 



2 ^ 



* ■ ~ —o.— ~- 



ii i"" *: 



^ 



No. 101. — Nozze Aldsbrandini — The Marriage — From the Baths of Titus. 



WAYS AND MEANS FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERIES. 



If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer 
in monument than the bell rings and the widow weeps.— Shakespeare. 

• Who that surveys this span of earth we press, 

This speck of life in Time's great wdlderness, 
This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless seas, 
The past, the future, two eternities! 
Would sully the bright spot or leave it bare 
When he might build him a proud temple there, 
A name that long shall hallow all its space 
And be each purer soul's high resting place! 

— Moore. 

The first announcement of this enterprise to the public was by a brief 
of this paper prepared for a meeting of Congressional press correspond- 
ents at the Arlington Hotel, Washington, December 27, 1890. From 
that summary several of the largest journals of the country published 
copious details, with strong commendation of the object. 

These articles caused mention of the matter from Maine to Shasta, 
Cal., and Oshkosh, Wis., without unfavorable comment from seventy 
notices received, except in three or four instances. These few considered 
the extent of the constructions excessive, but with good reason in misap- 
prehension of the plan. They assumed that the whole area was to be 
covered with roofs, whereas the open courts of 3 to 6 acres each require 
30 to 40 acres of ground. This misconception suggested the evidence 
1 28 



FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS. 1 29 

given, that allthe floor area upon the plan, if ultimately provided, will 
be less than that of single constructions in Europe. 

Shall the richest nation of the world, claiming the highest average 
intelligence, supply themselves with less intellectual facilities than those 
of other nations — the legacies of monarchical institutions? The Peri- 
clean age of Greece and the Augustan age of Rome, the glory of one and 
the grandeur of the other, rose upon a basis of republican institutions. 

The splendor and extent of the French Exposition of 1889, surpassing 
all its predecessors despite the nonconcurrence of neighboring sovereigns, 
united the enthusiasm of the people. It wrought its richest result to the 
nation in the firm establishment and recognition of its republican 
government. 

This argument is relevant to the problem of ways and means for the 
establishment and maintenance upon the largest scale of the National Gal- 
leries. History has demonstrated that an intelligent people, aspiring to 
intellectual elevation, will command all possible aid from their unstinted 
resources. When the people are ' ' enflamed with the study of learning 
and the admiration of virtue, ' ' when they seize upon the promise and crave 
the pleasure of mental cultivation, their legislators will voice their eager- 
ness and supply the means. The aggregate voluntary expenditure of the 
nation — State, municipal, and private — for educational purposes has 
steadily increased. 

Six months' interest on the appropriations of the Fift3'-fifth Congress, 
at 2^/2, per cent, would supply $12,500,000, more than ample to build and 
equip the needed institution. 

Were the entire cost of the National Galleries voted at once, not an 
individual in the nation would be conscious of the fact as affecting his 
property or income. But the expenditure would necessarily be protracted 
through several years. 

New York subscribed $5,000,000 for a Columbian Exposition. The 
appropriation of $10,000,000 during five or ten years from the National 
Treasury is a trifle in comparison. The latter would be for an enduring 
result; the former was for the temporary show of a season. 

Information of the Observatory site and the coincidence of its early 
abandonment for the new premises awaiting occupation give great 
encouragement for its immediate appropriation to the National Gal 
leries. 

The Fiftieth Congress made one record of prompt and unanimous action 
for the people's prospective satisfaction, greatly to its honor. It is a 
precedent quite unusual of patriotic suppression of partisanship that may 
be an example, illustrious in future imitation. 

On the 23d of August, 1890, the Committee on Public Lands of the 

House of Representatives reported a bill ' ' to set apart a certain tract of 

land in California known as the Yosemite Valley forever as a public park. ' ' 

It was passed the same day without a division. On the 25th of August 

S. Doc. 209— Pt. 2 9 



130 CONGRESSIONAL APPROPRIATIONS. 

the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Public Lands. It was 
returned to the Senate on the 8th of September, and passed without 
debate in fourteen days from its report to the House. 

That bill preserved for the nation groves of the gigantic Sequoia trees 
from the ax of the woodman. 

The enterprise herein commended to legislative adoption and main- 
tenance will plant "all manner of trees" of knowledge, in more than 
restoration of the classic groves of Hellenic philosophy, that shall yield 
the richest fruitage of ancient art and wisdom, enhanced in the light of 
modern development. 

It will be a demonstration of the intelligence that underlies American 
institutions if such beneficent aims can be as quickly promoted with zeal 
and unanimity by their representatives. 

The wise and encouraging opinion of Senator Hawley (see frontis- 
piece) is here repeated; for, in the judgment of many who have 
indorsed it emphatically, it solves the problem of ways and means for 
the National Galleries: 

i beueve that if a section of the egyptian and roman courts and gal- 
leries can be built with the illustrations proposed, the rich men of the 
country will rapidly complete the series. 1 they will welcome a scheme 
of such material and permanent usefulness. the people generally will 
freely contribute buildings or objects required. 

They would be the most lasting monuments to their memory.— [Senator 
Hawley. 

If the above petition to Congress for the 17 acres of land required 
could be supplemented by the offer of one or more citizens to contribute 
$150,000 for construction, decoration, and supply of 100 feet range each 
of the Egyptian and Roman Courts and Galleries, located according to 
the general plan as a demonstration of the full design, there would be 
great assurance of its rapid, entire completion. 

The Government would need only to supply the land. 

An appeal would follow to the people of the United States to finish 
all, according to published detail drawings and descriptions of material 
required to fit and fill them for use. 

The preparation of said plans and lists is the work now in hand for 
the writer. 

Their accomplishment depends not solely upon ' ' the rich men of the 
country." All the people can contribute with individual gifts of objects 
from values of $5 to $50,000. 

In the Halls of the Ancients is placed a superb copy of Vasi's plan of 
Rome, 6 by 3^ feet, 1765. It was purchased for £2 at auction in London 
for the Galleries by a book-dealer — friend of the writer — with just the 
above amount ($10) sent by the widow of a Boston clergyman "to buy 
something for the Galleries." With other gifts it is held in trust for the 

1 $ee addenda No. 4. 



GALLERIES TO BE CONSTRUCTED AND FILLED BY GIFTS. 



131 



coming National Galleries of the United States, framed under glass at 
more than the cost of the plate. 

The descriptive Handbook of the supposed Galleries complete will give 
opportunities for memorials in perpetuum of patriotic liberality. 

One can give a cast for $5 to $50; engravings, photographs up to one of 
the Pinelli series, 10 by 7 feet, such as is sampled (V., p. — ), at $150. 
A donor can construct a temple, a cloister, or a house, or give models 
thereof, at all ranges of cost, or build 
100 feet of gallery complete at from 
$50,000 to $75,000. 

Artists can give paintings upon 
subjects prescribed, sculptors and 
formatori can give plastic reliefs, archi- 
tectural models, etc. , receiving legiti- 
mate publicity of their liberality and 
genius. 

All constructions and objects would 
bear conspicuously forever the name 
of the donor, who would also be per- 
petually commemorated in the annual 
catalogues. 

The Catalogue of the British Mu- 
seum constantly rehearses the "List 
of Benefactors," beginning with 1753: 
Sir John Cotton, Bart. , ' 'The collection 
of Manuscripts and Charters formed 
by his grandfather." It includes 
mention of single articles, as — 1885, 
Lord Hillingdon, marble figure of a 
Bull from Athens; 1885, T. A. E. 
Addington, esq., a large collection of 
rubbings from English monumental 
brasses; and, also, 1879, William 
White, esq. (by bequest), ,£65,411 
for building a Gallery for the Mauso- 
leum Sculptures. The Marquise Vis- 
count Arconati has lately willed to 
the Louvre and Cluny Museums 
$1,600,000, the interest to be expended for works of art. This is only 
one of many recent gifts made in republican France, the greatest being 
that of the park, palace, and art treasures of Chantilly, by the Count de 
Paris. 

I am eager to follow these suggestions by a first appropriation to the 
Galleries of a manuscript portion of the Bible in Latin of the fourteenth 
century, bound in wood with heavy chain attached; such Bibles, chained 




No. 102. — From Raphael's decorations of the 
Loggia of the Vatican. 



132 



GIFTS TO THE GALLERIES. 



to posts, were read in the dark ages; secondly, of the models above 
mentioned, and thirdly, of 1,000 interesting historic and architectural 
engravings. 

These shall include, first, the grand restorations of the Forum by 
Cockerill and Canina, which gave the conception of the terraced galleries; 
also a rare series from copper of Mercante's copies from the Baths of Titus, 
from which Raphael drew, to a great extent, his designs for the Loggia of 
the Vatican. Supplementing these shall be the superb plates from copper 
published by Popes Clement XIII and XIV, covering 200 square feet of 
engraving, showing all the details of the Loggia by Raphael and his pupils 




No. 103.— Ceiling from Mercante's decorations of the Baths of Titus, Rome, 1774. 



— a work of rarity and value. Also Roman engravings of Rossini and 
Piranesi, including the latter's Magnificentia Romanorum. 

Pinelli's Istoria Romana, above described, awaits opportunity of use, in 
transfer to the walls of the Roman gallery as the first historical series. 

In contrast to these will be the luxurious ' ' Coronation of George IV. ' ' 
It includes a series of portraits in gorgeous costumes of the nobility of 
England. 

Guizot has defined civilization as ' ' the grand emporium of the people, 
in which all the wealth, all the elements of its life are stored up; some- 
thing for nations to transmit from age to age. ' ' 

Such civilization demands that the people who will soon commemorate 
an era preeminent in human progress, and the natal fact of its existence, 



CONCLUSION. 133 

should mark the event by a national memorial — in magnificence unsur- 
passed, in practical usefulness unequaled. 1 

Consider its moral grandeur ! In the philosophy of history it is an 
epoch — at once the midway halt and the new, hopeful starting point of 
the human race ; the lifting of the gates of the West for exit of crowded 
and contentious nations to another hemisphere for their expansion and 
development. It opened a vista of infinitely greater intellectual than 
material progress. Freed from bondage, with a printing press for 
universal and immortal utterance, the mind of man was to germinate in 
thought and magnify in power for the continuous elevation of humanity. 

The institution will have thus a memorable and appropriate origin. It 
will mark the second century of the Republic as passing onward toward 
nobler aims than mere financial and material aggregation ; its entrance 
upon a purer, happier, reflective life, that will calm the unrest that 
now incites to anarchy. 

The writer believes that if the enterprise above set forth shall become 
a reality it will promote such progress ; and will perpetuate from gener- 
ation to generation the richest moral, mental, social, and political eleva- 
tion of the people. 

If its prosecution may not be as rapid as appears to him practicable, 
he may at least have incited a primary motion toward an ultimate evolu- 
tion. 

Seventy years ago, the minister of a quiet country parish in Massa- 
chusetts made a Fourth of July oration, with the following exordium : 

Doubtless each mote that floats in the atmosphere does its part toward the main- 
tenance of the balance of creation. It may be, therefore, that the effort of this 
occasion, despite the insignificance of the speaker, but considering the greatness of 
the theme, may not be wholly lost. 

I. conclusion, it is hoped that an intense interest for the realization of 
this conception will induce a kindly judgment of the personal prominence 
that was inevitable for its full presentation. 

Suggestions in improvement will be welcomed. 

Franklin Webster Smith. 

1 The Columbian Exposition — the centennial celebration of 1900, commemorat- 
ing the establishment of Washington as the Capital, is an occasion equally appropri- 
ate for these reflections. 



134 



CONCLUSION. 



NOTE. — "The study of the ancient architectural remains of Central America," 
says Fergusson, "is the only means we know of by which the ancient history of the 
country can be recovered from the darkness which now enshrouds it, and the con- 
nection of the Old World with the New — if any existed — can be traced." 




flMHMtimiKl 




No. 104.— Elevation of part of palace at Zayi, Yucatan. 



<% i i s J 




No. 105.— Elevation of Teocalli (mound for sacrifice) at Palenque, Yucatan. 

The Smithsonian Institution has prosecuted scientific investigation of this im- 
portant subject, especially in its relation to American ethnology, and the National 
Museum has extensive collections of American archaeological material waiting space 
for exhibition. 

Therefore, in the above r&ume, this field has had only brief consideration. 



ADDENDA. 



No. i. 

The National Galleries of the American Republic, it is proposed, shall sur- 
pass in architectural grandetir all similar co?istructions {p. 4.2}. 

The constructions represented in the design probably cover a larger 
area than any previous group of buildings for a special use, and although 
their cost will be less than that of several palaces, Oriental and European 
(if built of concrete), their architectural effect will never have been 
equalled. 

"The palace temple of Karnak," says Fergusson, "is probably the 
grandest effort for architectural magnificence ever produced by the hand 
of man." Its area was 1,200 feet by 360 feet, about 10 acres; but a 
large portion of this was uncovered by buildings. Its great hypostyle 
hall is internally 340 feet by 170 feet, or 88,000 square feet. 

The Moorish palace of Zahra, near Cordova, described, it is believed 
reliably, by Moorish writers, inclosed an area of 4,000 feet by 2,200 feet; 
but the greater part of this was in gardens. It had 4, 300 columns. 

The Escurial, usually considered the largest of such constructions since 
its date, covers 740 feet by 580 feet externally, or nearly 10 acres; but 
there are interior open courts. The main building is of six stories, so 
that its acreage of flooring is immense, far surpassing that of the pro- 
posed galleries. 

In architectural effect it expresses the repulsive and obdurate traits of 
its tyrant projector, who purposed it to be a religious symbol of the 
gridiron of St. I^awrence. 

No. 2. 

The genius of art adapted to this age can not be more clearly set forth than 
in the comments of M. Phillipe GUIS on the exhibit of the late French 
Exposition {p. 74). ''''The taste for art is, in these days, merely one 
branch of universal curiosity. In the eyes of the thoughtful public, a 
figure or a picture, a statue or a groiip, has gradually lost its subjective 
interest, which has become secondary to its value as an ethnological 0) 
historical rccoi'd." 

Upon reflection it may be seen that nature offers utmost range of senti- 
ment under commonplace names of her creatures or the scientific divisions 
of her realm. 

i35 



[tf 



ADDENDA. 



Michelet has invested "The Bird" with such poetry of life, both in 
description and delineation, that whoever has read his facinating pages, 
illumined by the art of Giacomelli, almost recognizes henceforth the bird 




No. 106. — Giacomelli' s illustrations. 




No. 107. — Giacomelli's illustrations. 



upon the wing as the messenger of the fairies. He finds all human 
characteristics and impulses — courage, tenderness, energy, patience, 
dignity, selfishness, intelligence, cunning, love, revenge — in full play 



UTILITY IN ART. 1 37 

from within the soul or instinct of the feathered tribe. Hence the varied 
power and beauty that he sees and portrays from their daily life — the 
eagle upon the mountain top challenging with fixed eye the blaze of the 
rising sun; the humming bird, flitting from flower to flower; the vulture 
of the desert, and the tender cooing of the dove. Thus, too, Chateau- 
briand, as he nestles the wild duck under the mossy bank, by the rippling 
stream, screened in her retreat by the drapery of the waving vines hung 
on "her distaffs of purple reeds." 

But if there should be assigned to decorative artists illustrations of 
ornithology, the scientific exhibit, in deathly stiffness, would appall 
artistic sensibilities. 

But let us imagine a- ceiling or a wall devoted to classification of the 
birds of the United States of America. It is divided for skies of different 
hues, in accord with regions of varied landscape beneath. In these 
sections are portrayed truthfully their varied haunts. These would 
present the widest contrasts in nature : The mountain top; the ocean 
shore; forests of oak and pine; jungles of the palmetto and magnolia; 
fruits and flowers of the North and South; the rustic covert of the 
partridge; the shallow lakelet of the heron. What could be more faci- 
nating to the eye than ' ' The Bird ' ' painted in life and airy motion in 
the verdant or wild surroundings that nature has fitted for its Paradise? 

In the villa of Diomed at Pompeii there remains on the walls of the 
bathroom a decoration of fish disporting in the depths of the sea. It 
attracts especial admiration in the reproduction at Saratoga and has 
been noted for many repetitions. 

It is a hint in the line of these suggestions. The birds and fish of 
America might thus be displayed systematically for study as well as 
ornament with greater beauty and at less cost than in aquaria. A con- 
tinuous series would be more superb decorations for galleries than the 
usual obscure allegories attempted by high art of flaunting undraped 
goddesses, with sportive tritons and centaurs, demanding printed expla- 
nations to reveal the mystical conceptions of their creation. 

I would that the grand surfaces of the Congressional Library had been 
thus utilized for portrayal of facts in the progress of knowledge than 
for airy imaginations. 

Again, I imagine an assignment to artists for prize competitions in 
Cartoons of the Latitudes of the United States for the National 
Galleries. 

What scope, what contrast, what grandeur, what beauty, what titanic 
strength, what utmost attenuity, what icy death pulses, what rampant 
verdue, would be covered under this dry geographical title given as a 
theme to sensitive artists. 

When they began their travels for the various 'regions for a congenial 
theme, they would realize that the commission offered them the range of 
the world for material in composition. 



138 ADDENDA. 

The glaciers of Alaska; the peaks and ranges of the Rocky Moun- 
tains; the cai^ous of the Nevadas; the geysers of the Yellowstone; the 
plains of Kansas; the cataract of Niagara; the hills of the Adirondacks; 
the valleys of the Mohawk; the forests of pine at the North, of oaks at 
the South; the farms of varied culture of New England; the cotton and 
rice plantations of Louisiana; from the apple tree to the palm tree; the 
home of the seal on the ice float to the haunt of the chameleon in thickets 
of perpetual summer — 

All this may be realistic and truthful in illustration of the wonders 
of our domain, and yet challenge all the fancy and poetry of an artist 
soul. 

It may be said that these are merely the past- and present universal 
subjects of art. This is true, with a difference; the difference is in their 
orderly and illustrative combination. The plea is for art to be applied 
in aid of the universal curiosity ' ' of the thoughtful public in these 
days ; " a spirit of inquiry, the true inspiration to learning. 

Our flight with the birds was an apparent diversion from the utilitari- 
anism set forth as the basis for the educational institution. 

On the contrary, it illustrates that national galleries of painting in 
progressive illustration of history, of American development or natural 
resources, for instruction primarily rather than beauty, may cover themes 
for highest inspiration in art. 

Galleries of paintings thus described plainly can not be of that high ex- 
ecution demanded (but rarely obtained) for dilettanti in art. The}' need 
not cost like the paintings within the Dome of the Capitol; an apotheosis of 
Washington, $39,500, which is 205 feet from the pavement, almost beyond 
visual interpretation; or the eight very interesting historical panels — en- 
joyed by all visitors — which cost from $10,000 to $15,000 apiece. These 
are very large— 18 feet by 12 feet— 216 square feet. For a series, 6 by 9 
feet, or 54 square feet, would suffice. While there is not this dispro- 
portion in the cost of smaller canvases, still there would be but one- 
fourth of the manipulation, and compositions would be less crowded with 
figures. There is at present a class of artists in Europe, German and 
French, most skillful in precisely the style of work demanded. They 
have won highest honors as exhibitors at salons. The powerful execution 
of the series above mentioned, of the " Triumph of Constantine, " proves 
their ability. They have illustrated Bavarian history on the walls of 
their national museum. They have redecorated with great spirit and 
beauty the restored halls of the Wartburg. The work of Pascal, of 
Paris, in the Pompeia, is an appropriate illustration of this style. Few 
would be so hypercritical as to say that such illustrations are not satis- 
factory and allowable for instructive representation. They are accepted 
for such use throughout Germany and France — centers of art criticism. 
The masses who in America are to enjoy them do not yet comprehend 
chiaro-scuro or identify pre-Raphaelitism; but given one decade of influ- 



UTILITY IN ART. 1 39 

ence from the National Galleries, with ample resources, and a more gen- 
eral familiarity with technicalities of art will be proof of its educational 
power. For high art the Corcoran and other select and costly col- 
lections will supply examples. 

There are in this country at present foreign artists of great ability and 
experience in the style of work demanded for national galleries of illus- 
tration, who could be admirable preceptors for American students. 

The Germans and French to-day revel in art, and at an average of 
excellence. When 20,000 pictures are offered to the French Salon, and 
6,000 found annually worthy of display, it proves that pictures average 
there less than the prices demanded in the United States. 

This argument may be disparaged as a cheapening of artistic talent. 
It should not be so considered, for in the true mercantile relation (and 
that is the practical question) it favors ultimately the talent involved. 
Prices for art work have risen to a factitious extent from the exagger- 
ated figures obtained for famous deceased masters; but excessive prices 
for works of a practical character and meritorious but not superlative 
worth check the demand. 

In failure to receive the costliest appreciation, artists are discouraged 
and discontented. 

It will be of invaluable service to them when a national demand shall 
develop employment, because of the interest and popularity of its subjects. 

When the galleries have received their series, illuminating the respec- 
tive historical cycles, very many artists will be employed upon copies for 
other institutions that will multiply throughout the country. 

Other topics than political history, art, and architecture may be cited, 
of great interest to the people, that should be thus connectedly, picto- 
rially, and objectively illustrated. 

A hall might contain The Story of the Book. 1 

The paintings in series would commence with the initial efforts of 
man to record his mental action to the eye. They would exhibit the 
various material devised to receive the divers symbols and letters of the 
human race. Far backward would appear the papyri of Egypt, now 
freely reproduced in facsimile by the L>ouvre in Paris. The parchments 
and tablets of the Romans, the palm-leaf books of the East Indians, would 
be intermediate to the appearance of the printed books. At this point 
will be recalled the Plantin Museum at Antwerp, in extent and interest 
unrivaled at present for the orderly revelation of the arts of printing 
and engraving, down to the present wonderful development of lithog- 
raphy in colors and photogravure. All this could be quickly com- 
manded if money, not to a great amount, was provided. 

The Story of the Plow; or, Progress in Productions for the Sub- 

x This conception has been since fancifully attempted in allegory in the new 
Library. The people would enjoy more pictures telling the stories so "that he that 
runneth might read." 



140 ADDENDA. 

sistence of Man, would furnish a varied, beautiful, and attractive series 
of pictorial instruction. Beginning with the crooked-root plow and the 
herds of the patriarchal age, it would end with transcripts of agricultural 
scenes with the magical appliances of American invention, which by 
commercial intercourse are multiplying and distributing food products 
throughout the world. 



No. 3. 

The annexed gratifying response from a scholarly friend, an ardent 
student of classic art and Egyptology in their ancient domains, suggests 
a brilliant and beautiful effect upon the Parthenonic temples: 

Milwaukee, June 16, 1891. 

The proof sheets were of the greatest interest. The style of architecture is, in my 
opinion, the only one for so grand an institution. A great dome in the center would 
not so readily convey the meaning of the institution. 

It is very beautiful that, in reverence, the true masterpiece of architecture should 
dominate your grand monument to culture, as from the Acropolis learning, like the 
rays of the sun, was spread over the earth. 

The grandeur of the contour of the Greek temple upon a height will contrast 
superbly against the blue sky. 

The latest researches have revealed that the tinting of marble walls and pillars, the 
gilding of capitals and groups in pediments of temples, were common practices of 
the Greeks. The French have discovered that some of their greatest treasures of 
antique sculpture were tinted. 

A friend of mine, Professor Otto, of Berlin, has made a beautiful marble piece — 
the Greek Slave —which is tinted, and has been accepted and now stands in the 
National Gallery of Berlin. 

A reproduction of color of your grand temples in light tints, and the gilding of 
the capitals, as lately successfully accomplished in the Sina Academy or National 
Pantheon at Athens, would greatly add to the grandeur of the whole. 
Yours, most truly, 

Ferdinand Meinecke. 



No. 4. 

"I believe that if a section of the Egyptian and Roman Courts and Gal- 
leries can be built with the illustrations proposed, the rich men of the 
country will rapidly complete the series'''' {p. ijo). — Senator Hawley. 

The fascination of such systematic and complete object lessons from his- 
tory, especially with the present stimulus to a higher general education, 1 
can be with difficulty imagined. Their efficiency would depend largely 
upon the tact as well as the talent of the professors who should have in 
charge their elucidation. They should have an enthusiasm for their work, 

1 There is something intensely pathetic in the hunger for culture of tens of thou- 
sands of Americans, in summer schools all over the land, sitting patiently absorbing 
wisdom in hot weather from lectures on ethics and literature and science, etc. — 
Boston Transcript, July, 1891. 



OBJECT LESSONS IN THE GAIXERIES. 141 

growing in sympathy with eager comers, and attracting the indifferent to 
the delights of knowledge . The realism should be made as vivid as possible. 

Intelligent visitors to the Pompeia have frequently advised that attend- 
ants should be in costume. 1 A lover of the classics, with whom Seneca 
is a daily companion, desires that it shall be occupied by Italians, who, 
in old Roman garb, shall move through its halls and recline at times 
on the couches of the triclinium. At first the idea savored of the 
theatrical, but reflection is in favor of its expediency. The stage is 
claimed as an educational instrumentality for its presentations of ancient 
life. The surroundings herein proposed would far exceed in force and 
truthfulness the passing trivial effects of the modern stage, that must be 
seasoned with incongruous ballet. 

Given a range of effective paintings of Roman development, grandeur, 
and decay; adjacent a temple and the grand house of a senator, peopled 
with accurate impersonations of ancient occupants; these surrounded b}' 
other reconstructions illustrative of the genius and power which wrought 



m • m 







No. 108. — Scenes in the Forum in the days of Marcus Aurelius. 

their prototj^pes; through and among these halls and structures will pass 
crowds 2 — excursions of teachers and students from Kast, West, North, 
and South. With illustrated text-books in hand, they follow a professor 
enlightening the incidents illustrated and drawing therefrom deductions 
of political and moral philosophy. I presuppose this professor to be a 
rare man, grand in physique, able in knowledge, energetic and benevolent 
in impulse, of utterance effective with unction, not monotonous in the 
castanet tones of a showman. Robed in the inimitably graceful folds of 
the toga, he leads the crowd of eager listeners at length to the rostra. 
From its platform he tells them that on such a standing place were debated 
the conquests and crises of the Roman Empire and Republic. 

1 During the ownership by Prince Napoleon of the chateau in Paris (misnamed 
Pompeian, as it was Pompeian only in its decorations) the troupe of the Theatre 
Francais reproduced Roman tableaux in the atrium before the Emperor Napoleon. 
The scene was perpetuated by an engraving, with an enthusiastic description by 
Gautier. He wrote in opening, ' ' Antiquity is the eternal source of youth of the 
human soul;" and in closing, "That nocturnal fete was the horizon opened upon 
the past, the eloquent history of departed worlds." 

2 Fair teachers at the White House.— The public reception of the President yester- 
day was attended by 2,000 people, principally school-teachers from New York, New 
Jersey, and the New England States, on an excursion to Washington. The scene in 
the great East Room was animated. The President shook each visitor by the hand. — 
Washington Post, January 1, 1891. 



142 ADDENDA. 

In sonorous Latin he quotes from Cicero against Catiline, and then 
translates to his hearers the magnificent patriotism and dignity of the 
oration : 

Long since, oh Catiline! ought the Consul to have doomed thy life a forfeit to thy 
country. * * * There was — there was a time, when such was the spirit of Rome 
that the resentment of her magnanimous sons more sternly crushed the Roman 
traitor than the most inveterate enemy. 

Again, I follow a Greek professor through the Grecian galleries and 
courts. He talks before paintings of Marathon, of Thermopylae, of the 
Acropolis. He courses with his hearers the colonnades of the agora to 
the Senate House. 

He is a native Greek, a splendid scholar, a naturalized American citi- 
zen. His garb exhibits the amictus, the chiton, the tunica, and the 
graceful chalmys. 1 Proud of the name of his race as that of Pericles, of 
Socrates, and Plato, he tells his hearers that in halls of such form the 
Greeks of old listened to their orators. In his native mellifluous tongue 
he recites — 

DEMOSTHENES AGAINST THE CROWN. 

Athens was never known to live in a slavish though secure obedience to unjust 
and arbitrary power. No! our whole history is one series of noble contests for pre- 
eminence. * * * 

No, my countrymen! it can not be yovi have acted wrong in encountering danger 
bravely for the liberty and safety of all Greece. * * * No! by all those illustri- 
ous sons of Athens whose remains lie deposited in the public monuments. 

Lord Bolingbroke quotes Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, that "History 
is philosophy teaching by examples. ' ' When philosophy is seated at the 
National Capital, drawing from history such stimulating examples from 
the past, the youth of the Republic will be advanced toward the noblest 
patriotism. 

The Convent of La Rabida was reconstructed at Chicago upon the 
suggestion of the author of this prospectus, and the Columbian paintings 
above mentioned were purchased by the United States, exhibited in the 
court and chapel of the convent. Afterward they were assigned to the 
Field Museum of Chicago. (See illustration of Convent, Part III.) 

In 1889 the writer selected in Spain photographs of thirteen paint- 
ings scattered in various galleries, illustrative of the history of the 
enterprise of Columbus. In Paris he commissioned two painters of 
recognized ability, who for several years had exhibited at the Salon — Pas- 
cal for scenery and accessories, and Bernard for figures and portraits — to 
copy these photographs on large canvases. Unfortunately, Bernard was 
summoned to the army and his work was incomplete. The drawing of 
the originals was precisely followed, although in two or three of the num- 

1 On the bronze Apollo of the British Museum the chalmys (scarf) hangs gracefully 
from the arm. 



OBJECT LESSONS IN THE GALLERIES. 



143 




No. 109. — Court of the Moorish Villa Zorayda, with Alhambresque tracery. 



144 



ADDENDA. 



ber it was crude. Yet the series as a whole was interesting and instruc- 
tive, because historical; in part contemporaneous and illustrative. 

The annexed plates indicate the facility with which sections of the 
Alhambra could be reconstructed in all the splendor of arabesques bla- 
zoned in red, blue, and gold, with their oriental accessories of fountains 





sll 








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pit* 1 1 $j • 




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No. no.— Court in Villa Zorayda, St. Augustine. 

and flowers, palms and pomegranates. Therein Americans might read 
iu thrilling reality Irving's sketch of Columbus, "taking his modest 
stand in a remote comer, the humble and neglected spectator of the 
pageant ' ' of the thanksgiving mass of Ferdinand and Isabella and their 
conquering host, flaunting in triumph their crosses and croziers, with 



OBJECT LESSONS IN THE GALTEKIES. 



H5 



proud armorial ensigns and banners, in the Moslem halls. Despite the 
repulse of his appeal to the sovereigns in camps before Granada, the 
enthusiast dreamed of a conquest before which the capture of the Moor- 
ish stronghold should shrink to insignificance. 

Again, in imagination, we enter the restored Saracenic court. Its 




No. in. Court of Villa Zorayda, St. Augustine. 



colonnades of light and graceful arches are enlaced in endless intricacy, 
yet without one hint of form from nature— obediently to the Koran — to 
make no imitation of the works of the Creator. It is midday, and the 
muezzin is called in Arabic from the minaret. 

Standing in the simulated pulpit of the Mosque of Cordova or in the 
S. Doc. 209 — Pt. 2 10 



146 ADDENDA. 

court of the Alhambra, a lecturer sketches the rise of Islamism upon the 
plains of Arabia, "a little cloud like a man's hand;" its outburst into a 
cyclonic deluge of turbaned Turks that swept across Africa into Spain 
and scaled the Pyrenees to the critical field of Poitiers. There the sword 
of Charles Martel saved the ancestry of modern Europe from extinction 




Court of Villa Zorayda, St. Augustine. 



in butchery or the imbecility of nothingness, day dreams of houris in the 
Mahommedan paradise, a crisis only comparable to that of victory by 
the Spanish Armada, which would have eclipsed in darkness the renais- 
sance of the human intellect. 

This realism of historical facts would incite inquiry. Curiosity, keenest 



OBJKC? WESSONS IN THE GAIJ^RIES. 



147 



stimulant of knowledge, would impatiently follow Islamism along the 
centuries. In the Mediaeval galleries students would join the crusaders 
before Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus. They would eagerly study before 
the pictured surrender of Granada and the last stand of the Moors at 
Malaga before their final merciless expulsion from Europe. 




No. 113.— Court in Villa Zorayda, St. Augustine. 



Such instruction, interest, and beauty the nation can speedily prepare 
in grand measure for itself and for poster^. 

Science, capital, energy, inventive skill, have for a century been 
lavished upon material development. 

Their creations are transcontinental railroads, factories, mines; moun- 



148 



THK ALHAMBRA. 




No. 114.— Court of Lions. Alhambra. 




No. 115, 116.— Traceries of the Alhaiubra. 



149 



150 



ADDENDA. 



tains have been scaled, rivers have been spanned. A tunnel of the 
Hudson, at an estimate of $50,000,000, excites no surprise as chimerical. 
It is one of others competing for the use of idle capital in scores of mil- 




No. 117.— Section of the Court of the Lions in the Alhambra. 

lions; a canal through the southern isthmus, another uniting the lakes 
and the Mississippi, etc. 

Surplus gains are now lavished upon Babel-like structures for bank- 




IfMflffr " rc^- i w w" 1 ^ '" ' ' f" 1 " * '* ' ,] >ff P""' i r ^ r- r J ffir J **f t *TTT^ j " 1 "'^ 



No. 118.— The Convent of La Rabida. At its gate Columbus begged for bread and made the friend- 
ship of the monk Marchena. 

ers, palaces for business, palaces for hotels, palaces for private luxury 
and display. 

Now, may not a small fraction of this wealth be devoted with like 
ability and ingenuity to national temples of knowledge? 



SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 15I 

The previous Saracenic illustrations have been added in hope that they 
may attract some possessor of abounding wealth to the delightful service 
for his countrymen that is in his power to enjoy, viz: 

To offer a reconstruction in the Saracenic court of the Court of the 
lions in the Alhambra (vide Fig. 31, p. 49, Part II), in full size, plated 
with casts from the original traceries — when a site shall have been pro- 
vided. This would by no means be as expensive as would appear at first 
thought. It is generally supposed that the traceries are in marble. 
They are in plaster, and are yet perfect after six hundred years. 

When commenced the two small halls of the Abencerrages and of The 
Two Sisters would surely follow. It is a pleasant daydream to the 
writer that he may be invited to the supervision of the delightful task. 
Then would be set up in the center of the restored Court of the lions a 
column bearing the name of the Mr. Goodman, the donor, " as a lover 
of hiscountrv." 



f 



No. 119.— Restoration of the Court of Bensaquin, Tangiers, in the Halls of the Ancients, Washington. 




-Byzantine Portal. Henry Ives Cobb, architect. 



No. 5. 

The (.durational value of models of architectural examples. 

All noble ornamentation is the expression of man's delight in God's work. — The 
I i lines of . I rch 1 lecture. 

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. 

All minds quote. Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. 

We quote not only books and proverbs, but arts, customs, and laws; nay, we quote 
temples and houses, tables and chairs, by imitation. 

If we learn how old are the patterns of our shawls, the capitals of our columns, 
the fret, the beads, and other ornaments on our walls, the alternate lotus-bud and 
leaf stem of our iron fences, we shall think very well of our first men or ill of the 
latest. 

It is inevitable that you are indebted to the past; }'OU are fed and formed by it. 
The old forest is decomposed for the composition of the new forest. So it is in 
thought. Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable 
minds. 

We can not overstate our debt to the past, but the moment has the supreme claim. 

As Goethe frankly said : 

' ' What would remain to me if the art of appropriation were derogatory to genius ? 

' ' Every one of my writings has been furnished to me by a thousand different 
persons, a thousand things; wise and foolish have brought me, without suspecting 
it, the offering of their thoughts, faculties, and experience. 

" My work is an aggregation of beings taken from the whole of nature, it bearing 
the name of Goethe." — Emerson. 
152 



ARCHITECTURAL MODELS. 



153 



For ' ' the diffusion of knowledge ' ' by the grand works hereinbefore 
proposed, models of architectural constructions complete, as also of 
fragmentary specimens, are of superlative importance. They are vivid 
object lessons of outlines, forms, proportions — details practical and orna- 
mental of the masterpieces of human accomplishment. 









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No. 121. — Model of Hall of Darius, I,ouvre. 



No picture of perspective equals for comprehension with preciseness 
the presentation of an object in solid substance. The child's house of 
blocks is far more to his satisfaction than the brightest picture of it. It 




No. 122. — Model of Pantheon, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Charles Chipiez, Paris. 

moves two senses — both sight and touch. The same satisfaction from 
material illustrations passes onward to youth and maturity. 

A while since the writer passed a delightful afternoon in the Boston 
Museum of Fine Arts in company with an inquiring boy and his parents. 




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154 




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155 



156 ADDENDA. 

He enticed them from object to object after his interest had been roused 
by satisfaction of his eagerness to have an explanation of a model of the 
Acropolis. 

The value of models in exactness of scale and finish is recognized in 
modern museums. Their service for rendering the visual effect of 
architectural drawings materialized is now a common requirement of 
architects for extensive constructions. 

The following details are added concerning models now in existence 
of ancient monuments, in earnest hope that they may incite gifts of 
duplicates to the National Galleries of Washington, which probably can 
be had at a fraction of the cost of originals. No objects can more 
permanently and beautifully perpetuate the name of a donor. Subjects 
can be selected for cost at pleasure. Those now in New York and 
Washington (annexed Figs. 121 and 126) surpass all that are in Europe. 
The Louvre exhibits but one, that of the Hall of Darius. (Fig. 120.) 

A model of the Hall of One Hundred Columns (Figs. 122-123) would 
far surpass that in the L,ouvre. 

It would be a noble and self-rewarding gift to the National Galleries. 

The Willard bequest to the Metropolitan Museum in New York for 
models of famous buildings has been of great public interest and benefit. 
Those already purchased rival for general attraction any other treasures 
of the museum. 

Fig. 121 is a photograph of the superb model of the Parthenon, executed 
under direction of Mr. Charles Chipiez at a cost of 48,000 francs. 
Delivered in New York, it cost more than $10,000. It was a w T ise 
expenditure. Sculptures of the pediment and all the bronze statuary 
that crowded the entablature of the horizontal facade are exquisitely 
restored. 

Certainly no previous attempt to realistically illustrate the original 
splendor of this monument, "spared and blest by time" beyond all oth- 
ers of man's handiwork, can compare with his models of the Parthenon 
and of the Pantheon. Mr. L,e Brun, agent of the Willard Architectural 
Commission, has kindly furnished the annexed list of models purchased 
to date: 1 

Fig. 124 is a topographical model, with reproduction of streets and 
buildings in detail. 

'Willard Architectural Commission, 

No. 1 Madison Avenue, 
New York City, N. Y., May 1, igoo. 
Mr. Franklin W. Smith, 

Washington, D. C. 
Dear Sir: Replying to your favor of the 26th of April, the following models now 
in the Willard collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art were made to order for 
the Willard Commission: 

1. Parthenon: Scale, one-twentieth full size; cost, 14,500 francs; Charles Chipiez, 



ARCHITECTURAI. MODEI^S. 



157 



Fig. 125 is a photograph of a section of the great model of the design for 
National Galleries in the Halls of the Ancients, covering an area of 20 
by 40 feet. (See page 66, Part I.) In the foreground is seen an admir- 



' V %! 





No. 125. — Cast of the door 



ray of the Cathedral of San Dieg 
Kensington Museum, L,ondon. 



) da Compostella in Spam, 
(V, Part I.) 



able model of the Temple of Denderah, by M. Garet. It is 8 feet 

architect, restorer; Adolphus Joly, Paris, modeler. Size cf model, 5 feet 
wide by 15 feet long by 3 feet 3 inches high. 

2. Pantheon: Scale, one-twentieth full size; cost, 48,000 francs; Charles Chipiez, 

architect, restorer; Abel Poulin, Paris, modeler. Size of model, 11 feet wide 
by 15 feet long by 7 feet 8 inches high. 

3. Hypostyle, Hall of Karnac (central portion): One-twentieth full size; Charles 

Chipiez, architect, restorer; Maspero hieroglyphs. Cost, 22,500 francs. 

4. Arch of Constantine: One-tenth full size; cost, 12,000 francs; Mercatali, Rome, 

modeler; Trabacchi and Cencetti, sculptors; Lanciani, director of work. 

5. Choragic Monument of Lysicrates: One-tenth full size; Herr Iesen, Munich, 

sculptor; cost of molds, 400 marks. 

6. St. Irophime, Aries, France; main entrance: Scale, one-twentieth full size; 

cost, 3,800 francs. 

7. Cathedral Notre Dame, Paris: One-twentieth full size; cost, 57,500 francs. 

8. Knockenhauer Amthaus, Hildesheim: One-tenth full size; cost, 1,350 marks; 

Professor Kusthardt, modeler. 
Hoping this fully answers your questions, I am, 
Very truly, yours, 

P. Iv. Le Brun, Purchasing Agent. 




i5» 



[6o 



ADDENDA. 



in length, one sixty-fourth scale of the size proposed for the courts 
(500 feet square). 

In the distance are models of the three Parthenonic temples, modeled 
by Sig. Giordani. 

These are the only sections in full model 3 7 et made of the Galleries and 
Courts. The other courts are shown by mounted drawings. The cost 
thus far has been $1,500. To complete the entire model would cost 
about $3,000. Coloring would add greatly to the effect, at an expense, 
say, of $500. 




No. 128. — Model of the Pagoda of Wat Chang (meaning " great monastery " ) in Bangkok, Siam. 

May this writing be so fortunate as to enlist the liberal^ of a friend 
of his countrymen, now and of the future, by a gift for completion of the 
model. It can be held in ownership of the donor until a hall shall be 
provided in National Galleries for its reception, being meanwhile on 
exhibition, as is the incomplete pattern at present. As a prototype of 
the reality which it prefigures, it would as far surpass all existing archi- 
tectural models as will that reality, when a fact, be without a semblance 
in the world for comparison. 

In 1 89 1 the writer stood with the late Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen before 
the full-size cast of the Doorway of the Cathedral of San Diego da Com- 



ARCHITECTURAL CASTS. 



161 



postella, in Spain, which covers the end wall of the largest exhibition 
hall of casts in the Kensington Museum, in London. (See Fig. 126.) 

Other objects crowded upon it so that it could be seen only at a dis- 
tance of 10 or 20 feet. The cast was about 30 by 40 feet. "What a 
pit}'," was remarked to Sir Philip, "that it can not be fairly seen! 
For our new National Galleries we propose to have halls of 500 feet 
range." "Yes," he replied, "you Americans, beginning anew, can 
have everything. You can take space. In the heart of European 




No. 129.— A restoration of Olympia, by Thierisch. An ideal plan for the court of the Greek Galleries 



capitals now it is an impossibility. Casts are cheap and with molds 
now in existence you can have everything. That cast cost us 
,£2,000 = $10,000. Had j^our institution been in existence, we could 
have shared- for two at about the same money." 

In the future models may be duplicated for New York and Washing- 
ton at half price or less. By and by, when their value shall be appre- 
ciated, they will be demanded in other large cities. 

Illustrations of subjects for models are here presented as temptations 
for the choice of liberal lovers of the grandly beautiful in gifts to the 
S. Doc. 209 — Pt. 2 11 



1 62 



ADDKNDA. 




itiiiM 



ASSYRIAN COURT. 



163 




1 64 ADDENDA. 

National Galleries. Notice the noble provision made for them in the 
corridors that range the galleries of paintings (Fig. 24 and Fig. 26, Part 
II) for models and all plastic illustrations. 

Who will seize the chance to offer first a model of the Mausoleum of 
Halicarnassus (p. 49, Part II), or of the Lantern of Burgos (p. 99, Part 
II), unmatched in the world for richness of decoration, its piers pre- 
senting full tableaux in marble? 

Fig. 129 presents three sections of Assyrian restoration by L,ayard, 
each of which would make a beautiful model, though varied in cost. 
Color would greatly enhance their beauty, as may be seen in the painting 
(10 by 7 feet) of the Palace of Sennacherib in the Halls of the Ancients. 

Fig. 128 would be impressive as both a topographical and architectural 
simulation. 

Fig. 127 is one of the two only models of Old World architecture in the 
National Museum ; one a model of a Temple Tower of Babylon. The 
second is small, 3 by 3 feet, largely of paper, too minute in detail to make 
them discernible. It is a model of Wat Chang, the most magnificent 
Temple in Bangkok. Its picture may remind readers of this mention 
of it, when traveling in the East, to buy for their country others on a 
larger scale. Such work is cheap in India. 

Who will seize the chance to present a model of the standard size 
suggested, 8' feet in length, of the Taj Mahal to their country? Such 
gifts in advance would be most opportune for the cause of the Galleries. 
They would require months of slow labor, as there are few competent 
for the work. The writer would gladly superintend it in the hands of 
competent artisans he has employed. Given in requirement of galleries 
to receive them, they would hasten their construction. 



No. 6. 

Paper in reference to facilities of reconstructions of ancient architecture and 
of reproduction of the appliances of ancient life supplied from attainments 
of moderm archceology. 

The discovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii supplied chapters almost 
exhaustive to cyclopedia of Roman life and manners, as had previously 
been richly revealed of its art, architecture, and mythology by excava- 
tions in the imperial city. 

In the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries treasures recovered filled 
the vast halls of the Vatican. They supplied material for the monu- 
mental work of Montfaucon (L'Antiquite Expliquee, 10 volumes royal 
folio, Paris, 1722). In the eighteenth century these revelations were 
supplemented by constant additions from beneath the ashes of Vesuvius. 
Of late they are even in greater surprises of beauty and luxury. For 
Roman restorations, therefore, there is an embarrassment of riches. 




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Nos, 132, 133, 134, 135.— Egyptian restorations from the trachten of Ilotteuroth. 



165 



i66 



ADDENDA. 



During the lasc half century, and especially during the last thirty 
years, a zeal for discover)- and investigation has been in rivalry by the 
scholarship of Germany, France, and England. It founded resident 
academies in Athens for exploration and study. Germany was rewarded 
by the richest prize — the Hermes of Praxiteles — from excavations of 
Olympia. France is following her example at Delphos and America at 
Corinth. Meanwhile Schliemaun had uncovered golden treasures at 
Mycenae and the site designated as that of Troy. 

Not less energetic and successful have been explorations in Assyria 
and Egypt. From the data thus supplied savants have analyzed and 
summarized conclusions. German 
scholars, with the patient thorough- 
ness which is their characteristic, 
have added vastly within twenty-five 
years tb knowledge of antiquity. 
Architects like Buhlmann and artists 
like Wagner, of Munich, have joined 
their abilities in panoramic recreation 
with wonderful effectiveness in their 
great work, "Rome in the time of 
Constantine. " Gloss, Thierrisch, 
and other German archaeologists, 
published " Hellas and Rome," a 
grand quarto, in reproduction of 
Roman and Greek art and life. 

While German scholars have 
wrought out details that give thou- 
sands of illustrations of the furni- 
ture, costumes, weapons, implements, 
etc., in color of ancient nations, as in 
the exhaustive work, the Trachten of 
Hotteuroth, the French Academy has given commissions, regardless of 
cost, for detailed reconstructions in color of monumental works of the 
Greeks and Romans. 

Fig. 130, one of the series of the restoration of the Baths of Diocle- 
tian, by Paulin, is a specimen of their splendor. This plate was a gift 
of Monsieur Firmin Didot, of Paris, the publisher. 

In Egypt, Belzoni, Lepsius, Champollion, have been followed by Mas- 
pero, Ebers, Mariette, Petrie, and others illuminating ruins of the dark 
tombs and temples. By modern pictorial facilities their outward forms 
and interior records are transferred to the universal page of modern times. 
The monumental works of this day in resuscitation of ancient art are 
those of Messieurs Perrot and Chipiez, of Paris. 

The rapidity with which their royal octavo volumes have appeared in 
Paris since 1883 — filled with critical histories of art in ancient Egypt, 



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36.— Transverse section of Chaldean 
temple. 



ARCHITECTURAL RECONSTRUCTIONS. 



I6 7 



SUBJECT FOR MODEL. 




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No. 137. — Chaldean temple. Square on plan with double ramp. Restored by Charles Chipiez. 



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i6 9 



17O ADDENDA. 

Chaldea, and Assyria; Phrygia, Eydia, Coria, and Hysen; Sardinia and 
Judea; Syria and Asia Minor; Phoenicia, and lately of Greece — is an 
amazement of intellectual energy. 

Many other late contributions to archaeology may be cited; but these 
are sufficient to exhibit the abundance of material at hand — ready 
examples for the reconstructions proposed for national galleries in 
Washington. Moreover, these indefatigable scholars have supplied such 
exact details that they have filled the parts of architects in advance. 
They have given ground plans and elevations to scale, which wait only 
the plummet, square, and triangle of the mechanic to commence the 
work. (Figs. 130, 131.) , 

The annexed illustrations have been borrowed from these works in 
evidence of facilities awaiting public spirit to supply the means. 

[Kxtracts from the Report of the Committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.] 

WHY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM NEW YORK SHOULD CONTAIN A FULL 
COLLECTION OF CASTS. 

[Statement published by the committee in March, 1891.] 

When the authorities of the Royal Museum at Berlin looked about for 
means to increase its sculptural and architectural collections, they found 
themselves unable to obtain any considerable number of original works 
of merit, because these were, for the most part, already in the possession 
of other museums. They therefore determined to obtain casts of all the 
masterpieces which were scattered in the different collections 'of the 
world, and to bring these together under such an arrangement as would 
best exemplify the progress of plastic art at all epochs. As a result of 
this policy, while there may be museums in Europe richer in original 
works of sculpture and architecture than the Museum of Berlin, there 
is certainly none of geater interest and utility to the student of art. 

The example set by Berlin has been followed by almost every great 
city of Europe. The South Kensington and Fitzwilliam museums, in 
England, and the museums of Strasburg, Dresden, Bonn, Vienna, 
Munich, and Nuremberg, in Germany, all illustrate the extent of this 
movement. 

Nowhere, however, has the fundamental plan of such a collection 
been better initiated than in the museum recently established by the 
French Government in the Palace of the Trocadero at Paris, under the 
inspiration of M. Viollet le Due. It is the purpose of this collection, as 
stated by him, to show the relations existing between styles of art 
belonging to different historic epochs, by casts selected from the best 
examples and carefully classified. The extent to which this purpose 
has been attained in French mediaeval and renaissance art during the 
brief period of nine years which has elapsed since the museum was 
opened furnishes an admirable illustration of what can be accomplished 



AN EGYPTIAN RESTORATION. 



171 



SUBJECT FOR MODEL. 







No. 140.— Bird's-eye view of an Egyptian villa. Restored by Charles Chipiez. 



r72 



ADDENDA. 



DESIGN FOR RECONSTRUCTION. 




No. 141. — Gateway and boundary wall of a temple. Restored by Charles Chipiez 



EGYPTIAN RESTORATION. 



173 



FOR RECONSTRUCTION OR MODEL. 



4 W 




No. 142.— Thebes. Portico in the Temple of Medinet-Abou, second court. Restored by Charles 

Chipiez. 



174 



ADDENDA. 



IF 




No. 143. — The Treasury of Atreus— Restored by Chipiez. 






(2^C 



T^ 



ADDENDA. 175 

in our own city with adequate means. Indeed, we need go no farther 
than New England for an example, where the Museum of Fine Arts at 
Boston is provided with a sculptural collection superior in arrangement 
and selection to any other similar collection in this country. 

The reasons which compelled the Berlin and other museums to look 
to casts for their scuptural and architectual collections apply with even 
greater force to our own museum. We can never expect to obtain any 
large collection of original works, but we can obtain casts, which, for 
students of art and archaeology, and indeed for the general public, are 
almost their equivalent; and these casts can be so arranged as to group 
together all works pertaining to the same epoch, however widely their 
originals may be separated, so that the whole history of plastic art can be 
traced through its masterpieces from the earliest to the latest time. 

A collection of casts thus furnishes the best means for stud} T ing the 
history of art. In it the archaeologist finds indispensable material for 
his studies; the artist, the most perfect productions of all styles and 
schools; and the general public, a sure means of forming taste and 
cultivating an enjoyment of the beautiful. 

If in connection with such a collection we follow the example of 
European museums and establish a molding atelier, in which repro- 
ductions can be made, the growing need of American museums and 
educational institutions in this particular can be supplied from New 
York instead of from Europe, as is now the case, with all the disadvan- 
tages of expense and delay. An ideal collection of casts would include 
all important works so arranged as to illustrate the historical develop- 
ment of art. 

An excellent beginning has already been made at the Metropolitan 
Museum in a collection of sculptural and in the Willard collection of 
architectural, casts. Only parts of these collections are now displayed. 

It is estimated that $100,000 will furnish the necessary means to give 
the museum, in connection with what it already possesses, a fairly com- 
plete historical collection of casts. 

Objects must be casts or copies. Originals remain forever in posses- 
sion of their first ownership. In Part II the figures of their cheapness 
are cited. (See pp. 82-83. ) 

To repeat a few items, the School of Fine Arts, Paris, has a catalogue 
for sale of 2,943 numbers. 

Statues, 4 feet 2 inches average 26 franes=$5.2o 

Bas-reliefs, 578, at average 40 francs= 8.00 

Busts, average 9 francs= 1.80 

Plus 60 per cent emballage. 

Parthenon sculptures cost the British Museum $175,000; Phrygian 
marble, in 1815, $95,000. Sixty bas-reliefs of Assyrian sculpture are 



i 7 6 



CHEAPNESS OF CASTS. 



offered for ^308 =$1,5 40, packed for shipment. Four specimens of 
them, 7 to 8 feet long, are in the Assyrian Throne Room, Halls of the 
Ancients. Brucciani, formatori of the museum, has a catalogue of 1,469 
numbers, and the Louvre more of corresponding cheapness with above 
quotations. One hundred thousand dollars sufficed for an extensive 
outfit of casts for the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Fig. 143 is from a photograph of 7 Greek vases in the Halls of the 
Ancients, arranged for ornamentation of schoolrooms, and also as models 
in art instruction. 

The central vase is the superb amphora from the British Museum, 
exquisite in form. Such beauty inspired Keats's Ode to a Grecian Urn. 
The six smaller vases are molded exactly to the size and lines of the 
originals in the splendid work of Genick (Griechische Keramik). 




No. 144. — Casts: Caryatides, C.reek masks, Antefixa, etc. Models from the Paris School of Fine Arts, 
the Louvre, and British Museum, imported for the Pompeian House, Saratoga. 

The relief of the bracket is one of the most beautiful of the Greek 
friezes that have descended for standard use in classic architecture. Its 
symbolism is impressive — festivity in the festoon of fruits caught by 
ribbons to the wine cup, but conjoined with burned skulls from the 
sacrificial altar. 

The group illustrates the facility and cheapness with which the ate- 
lier of the future National Galleries can place before the youth of the 
nation all examples of artistic beauty spared from ancient to modern 
times. 

America will then follow examples of European nations in developing 
an artistic perception common to their people, but slightly manifested 
by Americans. 




i 7 8 



ATTRACTIVENESS OF RESTORATIONS. 



179 






f WF® 




Restoration by F. W. Smith, 1872. 
No. 147. — The Damascus Gate in the walls of Jerusalem. 




!•'. W. Smith. Dcss. 



No. 148. — Chinese reconstructions. Boston, 1S59. 



i8o 



ADDENDA. 



The innate relish of "the most realistic imitations of external sights, 
as common to all mankind, untutored and civilized, ' ' remarked by Professor 
Perry, is repeated here as the one conclusive argument for the reproduc- 
tions herein proposed for the people of the United States. 

Of late years object lessons to the e}^e largely supplement the printed 
text. Reproductions of ancient architecture date from the first world's 




F. W. Smith, Dess., 1872. 

Nos. 149. — Dwellings of modern nations. Boston, 1872. 

fair, in Hyde Park in 1851, in the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Alham- 
bresque courts arranged by Owen Jones, since imperfectly transferred to 
Sydenham. From them the impulse for this enterprise was received. 
Confident of public attraction toward such material representations of the 
architecture of modern nations, representations of Chinese architecture 
were set up in the Boston Music Hall in 1859 (Fig. 136). In a week the 
net profits to the building fund of the Boston Y. M. C. A. were $17,000. 



BIRTHPLACE OF FRANKLIN. 181 

In 1872 the idea was more boldly executed (Figs. 139-140), and in 30 
days the net profit was over $30,000 after outlay of $59,612.71. In a 
hall apart an illustration was made of the birthplace of Benjamin Franklin 
(Figs. 138, 139). The profits were about $Soo — more than the estate 
sold for in 1812. 

Now the midway plaisance is an essential feature of all world's exposi- 
tions. Simulations of ancient life and manners will have the advantage 
of greater novelty, stimulating curiosity — the impulsive force to acquisi- 
tion of knowledge. 





Restorations 
Nos. 150, 151. — Birthplace 



by F. W. Smith, 1859. 

of Benjamin Franklin in Boston. 



No. 7. 



AS TO THE COST OF THE GALLERIES. 

In reference to the cost of the Galleries of History and Art, it should 
'be noticed — in remembrance of exact statements in Part II — that they 
are mainly of one story ; none of great height ; none of expensive 
design (the design counts but little in concrete), and the}' are large 
inclosures, long galleries, or large halls without interior partitions, 
furniture, plumbing, etc. Quotations of the Carnegie Steel Company 
give the cost of structural steel considerably less than the price figured 
by Mr. Renwick in 1891. Cement is about the same. 

There is no doubt but that the Galleries of section like Fig. 26, Part II; 
can be built for $25,000 to $30,000 per 100 feet range. 

As to contents, it is shown in the Halls of the Ancients that illus- 



182 



ADDENDA. 



trative historical paintings, such as the six specimens by Messieurs 
Pascal and Zurcher can be executed at $150 each in the style adopted 
constantly for such use in France and Germany. This is because they 
are copies. There is no expense or dela}' for design. A series of Pinelli's 
Storia Graeca in the same style as the Romana has waited nearly a cen- 
tury to be transferred to canvas for ' ' diffusion of knowledge among ' ' 
Americans. Revival of interest in classic history by late graphic fiction 
will stimulate their study. One hundred and two paintings, copies of 
the Pinelli Series on exhibition in the Roman Historical Gallery, Halls of 
the Ancients, 1,000 feet range would cost $15,300. 




1 


m 
iiuii 



No. 152.— Facade of the Halls of the Ancients, Nos. 1312-1318 New York avenue, Washing- 
ton, D. C 



Part III. 



"DESIGNS, 
"PLANS, 

AND 

SUGGESTIONS 

FOR THE 

AGGRANDISE- 
MENT 

OF 

WASHINGTON 



An Egyptian Column. 
The Lotus Bud. 
Restored in the 
Halls of the Ancients, 
Washington. 



C. Chipiez. Restorer. 



56th Congress, ) SENATE. ( Document 

1st Session. f J No. 209. 



PART III. 



DESIGNS, PLANS, AND SUGGESTIONS 



Aggrandizement of Washington, 



Franklin Webster Smith. 



February 12, 1900.— Presented by Mr. Hoar, referred to the Committee 
on District of Columbia, and ordered to be printed. 



WASHINGTON : 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
I 9OO. 



PART I. 

Petition of Franklin Webster Smith for a site for National Galleries 
of History and Art. 

Descriptive Handbook of the Halls of the Ancients, 

1312, 1314, 1316, 1318 New York Avenue, Washington, 

Constructed for promotion of said Galleries according to the design annexed.— 

74 pages, 53 illustrations. 



F»ART II. 

Design and Prospectus for National Galleries of History and Art in 
Washington, by Franklin Webster Smith. — 173 pages, 134 illustrations. 

For Part I the author furnished electrotypes of the text with illustrations. 

For Parts II and III he supplied electrotypes for 113 illustrations. 

The colored pages and printing in color were also contributed by the author. 



REMARKS OF MR. HOAR IN THE SENATE. 

[From the Congressional Record, Fifty-sixth Congress, first session. Washington, Monday, 
February 12, 1900.] 

National Gallery of History and Art. 

Mr. Hoar. I present the petition of Franklin W. Smith, of Boston, 
Mass. , pra} T ing for an appropriation of land for a site for National Galleries 
of history and art, and for aid in the establishment thereof. 

I ask unanimous consent to make a statement in regard to this petition. 
The petitioner is a business man of great distinction and success, who for 
many years has devoted his life to the promotion of National Galleries of 
art which shall represent and reproduce the architecture, both public or 
ornamental and domestic, of the ancient nations, especially Greece and 
Rome, but also the Oriental cities. He has devoted his whole time to a 
study of that subject and has become an eminent authority. He has 
made a large collection of books and prints, and has, with the financial 
cooperation of Mr. S. Walter Woodward, of Washington, on New York 
avenue, in this city, built and adorned some halls showing great beauty 
and in full size Roman, Egyptian, Assyrian, and Saracenic architecture. 

What the petitioner desires is to have the site of the old observatory 
appropriated by the United States, and some land in the neigborhood, 
where he will place his own collection and devote himself entirely, if he 
may be permitted, to advancing that work. It will become, at a very 
moderate cost, a great ornament to the capital of the nation, and it will 
have an educational power, he thinks, more potent than many lecture- 
ships or professorships. He hopes very much that the members of the 
two Houses will, before acting upon his petition, visit, as some gentlemen 
I am told have already visited, the beautiful collection and buildings here. 

I ask unanimous consent that this petition, which is very brief, com- 
prising a page or two, and the Design and Prospectus which accompany 
it, may be printed as a document, for the use of the Senate. I under- 
stand that there are some plates, but he has all the plates prepared, so 
that that will be no cost to the Government. 

The President pro tempore. The petition will be referred to the 
Committee on the Library. 

Mr. Hoar. I rather think it would be better on the whole that the 
petition should go to the Committee on the District of Columbia, as it 
asks for the occupation of certain lands within the District. 

The President pro tempore. It will be so referred. The Senator 
from Massachusetts asks that the paper which he presents may be printed 
as a document. 

Mr. Hoar. The petition and papers. 

The President pro tempore. Is there objection? The Chair hears 
none, and it is so ordered. 



CONTENTS. 



Part III. 



AGGRANDIZEMENTS. 
First aggrandizement: Page. 

Several remedial and ornamental suggestions for Pennsylvania avenue. . . 19 

Second: 

Condemnation of 220 acres adjacent to the old Naval Observatory and an 

addition thereto of 100 acres of Potomac Park, for Park Istoria 32 

Third: 

A new Executive Mansion 37 

Fourth: 

A pavilion memorial bridge 46 

Fifth: 

A Centennial avenue as a boulevard 54 

Sixth: 

Porticoes for shelter and luxurious promenade 66 

Seventh : 

Clearance of Sixteenth street from rookeries — Its adornment as a bisect- 
ing boulevard — Its name to be Executive avenue 73 

Eighth: 

The Park Istoria — Removal of the museums- — A street of dwellings of 

mankind through the ages 86 

Ninth: 

A National avenue — Homes of the States 92 

Tenth: 

Protection and beauty for the banks of the Potomac — Terraces and river 

boulevards 105 

Eleventh : 

Transformation of Analostan Island to an Isola Bella 109 

Twelfth: 

Condemnation of land in south Washington for enlargement of park .... 116 
Thirteenth: 

Final completion of filling of all flats bordering on the city 118 

Fourteenth : 

Erection of future great charitable institutions on the hilltops of Ana- 

costia 119 

Fifteenth: 

Free municipal baths for Washington, upon a scale proportional to 

population, equal to those of anv city 125 

Sixteenth: 

A National Hall of Fame in the colonnade of American Galleries on the 

Potomac 132 

Seventeenth: 

Memorial statues to the civil heroes on the roll of benefactors of the 
Republic and the world 133 

CONCLUSIONS. 

Measures recommended: 

A permanent commission for device and execution of comprehensive plans 
for the aggrandizement of Washington, with tenure of office and powers 
for not less than ten years, after the precedent of the Massachusetts 

Metropolitan Park Commission of 1892 13S 

A National Society for the Aggrandizement of Washington 143 

* A personal statement 148 

ADDENDA 155 

A few brief repetitions of text and of illustrations occur to make each part 
self-explanatory. 

5 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Frontispiece. Page. 

1-2. Present condition of Pennsylvania avenue 10 

3. Present condition of Pennsylvania avenue 11 

4. Rue de Feves, Paris, 1852 12 

5. The Rue Rivoli, Paris, 1862 13 

6. Restoration of the Villa of Maecenas 14 

7. Restoration of the Circus Maximus 15 

8. Restoration of the Circus Maximus at grade 16 

9. Porticoes for Pennsylvania avenue 16 

10. National avenue proposed in 1891 17 

11. A restoration of Roman grandeur 21 

12. The Brandenburg Gate as a Lincoln Gate for portal to the Capitol 22 

13. Porticoes in the Forum of Pompeii 23 

14. Porticoes in Berlin 25 

15. Porticoes in Carlsbad 25 

16. Forum of Trajan restored 26 

17. Plan of proposed new location of Pennsylvania Station 28 

18. Municipal buildings, Bath, England 31 

18. Roman bath, Bath, England 32 

19. Old Naval Observatory 33 

20. Land eastward of Observatory 33 

21. Premises adjoining the Observatory 34 

22. Hancock House and old State House, Boston 38 

23. Design of Mr. Paul J. Pelz for new White House 41 

24. Ground plan of new White House 43 

25. Mr. Pelz's design expanded across Sixteenth street 45 

26. An ideal from Roman grandeur for bridge 48 

27. A triple pavilion bridge 49 

28. Section of the triple bridge 50 

29. Concrete construction with iron 51 

30. Capital from the Erectheum in concrete 52 

31. First line proposed for Centennial avenue 55 

32. Plan for Executive avenue and new White House 56 

33. Plan showing proposed condemnations 57 

. 34. An ornamental portico for a park 65 

35. Ground plan of porticoes, roadway, and bridle paths 66 

36. Peristyle in a park 67 

37. The ruined porticoes of Palmyra 68 

38. Colonnaded court 69 

39. Pompeii restored 70 

40. Restorations of the palaces of the Caesars 70 

41. Design for a portico with solarium 71 

42. Arcades and colonnades in Bologna 72 

43-44. Views at L and M streets, on Sixteenth street, April, 1900 74 

45. A design for screen front with ampelopsis vine 76 

46. Tower of Villa Zorayda with ampelopsis 76 

47. Hotel Granada, of both solid and thin concrete 76 

48. Playstead in Boston Park 78 

7 



8 ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page. 

49. Girls' gymnasium, Charlesbank, Boston 79 

50. Boys' gymnasium, Charlesbank, Boston 80 

51. Playstead and turf bank, Charlesbank, Boston 81 

52. House of cement concrete 83 

53. Design for National Museum 87 

54. Plan for one hall to eight halls 88 

55. A Roman house 90 

56. A Byzantine house 90 

57. A Saracenic design 91 

58. A Chinese house 91 

59-98. Thirty-eight homes of the States, as constructed at the Chicago 

Exposition, proposed for a National avenue, Washington 93-100 

97. Class from Washington High School in Assyrian throne room, Halls of 

the Ancients 101 

98. National avenue and plan for use of 200 acres 103 

99. A National Pavilion 104 

100. Condemnation of the river banks in Massachusetts 106 

101. Isola Bella 109 

102. Labyrinth from Pompeii no 

103. The gate at Mycenae in 

104. The gallery at Tiryns in 

105. A pergola 112 

106. Peristylium in the House of Pansa, Saratoga 113 

107. Palace designed by Raphael 114 

108. Tursi Doria Palace, Genoa, aggrandized 114 

109. Restoration of Pretorian Camp on the Saalburg 115 

1 10. Italian Gardens of Mr. Hunnewell, Wellesley, Mass 115 

111. Royal Crescent Bath, England 116 

112. Map of area of land gained by proposed condemnations 117 

1 13. Greenwich Hospital, London 120 

114. St. Thomas Hospitals, London 120 

115. Rossini's restoration of the Villa of Cassius 121 

116. Design for building for Government Hospital for Insane 123 

117. Map of municipal baths in Boston 126 

1 18. New Dover Street Bath, Boston 128 

119. Boys' gymnasium, Dover Street Bath, Boston 130 

120. Boys at anteroom of Dover Street Bath, Boston 130 

121. Portrait of Dr. S. F. Smith, author of "America " 134 

122. Facsimile of "America" 136 

123. Audience at lecture on National Galleries 139 

124. Roman annex of Halls of the Ancients as offices of National Society for 

the Aggrandizement of Washington 144 

125. Facsimile of G. Washington's final accounts with the United States, 1783 . 150 

126. Arched portal in St. Petersburg, through colonnades 175 

127. Proposed design for memorial bridge 176 

128. The arch of Septimius Severus, Rome, A. D. 205 176 

1 29. Design for a bridge with porticoes 177 

130. A concrete bridge in Eden Park, Cleveland 178 

131. A concrete bridge with balustrade 178 

132-133. Embowered houses in Washington 179-180 

134-135. Views on the Potomac before Analostan Island 181 

136. Concrete building in construction on Fifth street, Washington 182 

137. Photograph of the work in progress, June 7, 1900 183 



THE a CITY BEAUTIFUL." 



THE AGGRANDIZEMENT OF WASHINGTON. 1 

FIRST. A PLAN FOR A NATIONAL AVENUE FROM THE NATIONAL 
GALLERIES TO THE CAPITOL. 



By Franklin Webster Smith. 

First published, 1891. Revised, 1900. 



The grandeur of the proposed Galleries would have miserable contrast in 
the meanness and shabbiness of their approach by Pennsylvania avenue, 
the width of which now aggravates the unsightly vista to the Capitol. 
The movement of trade northward has lessened its commercial value, 
and its tenantry has declined to uncomely pursuits. 

The stranger views the towering dome against the sky with admira- 
tion, but his impression of its sublimity is marred by side shows advertis- 
ing "Wines, Liquors, and Cigars;" "Rooms at 50 cents;" "Hot soup, 
5 cents a plate" "Crabs and clams in every style;" "French drip coffee, 
5 cents;" "Lager, 5 cents." 

These economical caterers fill a useful place in the social system, sup- 
plying the wayfarer who must hoard his pennies, and meeting the needs 
of philosophers who, like Dr. Franklin, in penury, perambulate with "a 
roll under each arm ; ' ' but their premises do not accord with the mag- 
nificent colonnade that ranges beyond them against the eastern sky. 

'The word aggrandizement has been well considered. Improvement does not 
cover the high aim of aggrandizement. Its synonyms are augmentation, exaltation, 
enlargement, advancement, promotion, preferment (Webster). They include also 
enrichment, adornment. An alley or a ditch can be improved but not aggrandized. 

9 



PRESENT CONDITION OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. 




PRESENT CONDITION OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. II 

The annexed illustrations, taken in 1891 for the present use, display 
the motley announcements that line the grand (!) avenue: "Lard and 
Hams" " Sample Room ," "Shooting Gallery" "Plumbing,'" etc. 

For years past public sentiment has voiced public expectation that the 
southern side of the avenue must at some time be vacated and the Mall 
be carried through to the Potomac. 1 

Pennsylvania avenue will ultimately be Haussmannized; the more 
speedily the more economically and the more profitably to the National 




No. 3. — The rear of premises at the northeast corner of Pennsylvania avenue and First street NW. 
The front of the estate is before the Naval Monument and the principal entrance to the grounds 
of the Capitol on the west. 

Treasury. A prompt and effective stroke of Napoleonic legislation is 
demanded. 

Fig. 4 is from a sketch made by Gustave Dore for Messrs. Hachette 



1 Since, block 323 has been obtrusively improved (?) by the post-office. Waiving 
criticism of its architecture, its worst aspect is that it stands askew with Pennsylvania 
avenue. From the balcony of the Capitol it is a towering irregularity. It has brought 
one blessing, a " solemn warning " henceforth against constructions not on symmet- 
rical lines. There is already demand for its enlargement. If the land south of 
Pennsylvania avenue should be condemned, it could be brought out to the avenue. 
Then by reduction of its tower the structure might be recased in combination with 
the addition to cover its incongruities with future classic constructions. Its material 
would be opportune for a mediaeval castle on the Potomac, adjacent to the Galleries. 
(Fig. 78, Part II.) 



12 thk transformation of paris. 

a few days before the destruction of the premises in 1862. On the site 
of the Rue des Feves now stands the vast caserne, fronting the Palace of 
Justice, on the magnificent Boulevard Sebastopol, walled with superb 
structures for three miles. In 1852 precisely such wretched houses, in 
chaotic mass, filled the narrow streets on the site of the modern exten- 
sion of the Louvre and the Rue Rivoli. Fifty thousand population there 
lived in a dark labyrinth of disease and crime. The wand of Haussmann 



Paris 




No. 4. — The Ku 



swept it away as rubbish, and in six years replaced it by the scene of 
Fig. 5. The new Rue Rivoli swallowed up more than five hundred old 
houses in thirty pestilential streets and alleys. Its reconstruction cost 
over $16,000,000. 

This was only one of many magical transformations that in one decade 
made Paris the most splendid city of the world. The Faubourg St. 
Antoine received 1,300 new houses. The Boulevards Haussmann, Males- 
herbes, de l'lmperatrice, de l'Opera, and other superb streets were 



A CENTENNIAL AVENUE. 



13 



built in rapid succession. As a result, the people were better housed, 
and sanitary advantages equaled the architectural adornment. 

Whatever may have been the demerits of the Second Empire, historians 
will place the constructional regeneration of Paris to its honor. 

Such reconstruction, to small extent in comparison, is immediately 
demanded for Washington on economical considerations. 

A plan is clearly defined in the mind of the writer by which — 

First. Pennsylvania avenue, between the Treasury and the Capitol, 
would be redeemed from unsightliness and be made worthy of its termini. 

Second. A Centennial avenue 1 would pass upon aline central under 

Paris, 1862. 




No. 5.— The Rue Rivoli. 1862. 

the dome of the Capitol to the proposed Parthenon on Observatory Hill. 
With stately constructions throughout the avenues, the architectural 
vistas (especially that of the Centennial avenue) would be of unsur- 
passed magnificence. 

This scheme would involve the condemnation of Pennsylvania avenue 
to the southward line of the Mall. The Baltimore and Potomac Rail- 
road station would be transferred southward and the market northward, 
more conveniently to the residential center. The blocks fronting the 
present City Hall should all be cleared (as shown by shading on the map) 
for the proper surrounding of a new and suitable structure. It will be 
observed that south of Pennsylvania avenue the property condemned is 



Now Centennial Avenue. Named National Avenue 1S91, V, Part I. 



'4 



A CENTENNIAL AVENUE. 



comparatively of small extent and value. The Centennial avenue would 
be almost entirely within present Government ownership. 

'The opinion is confidently expressed that these improvements can be 
effected at a large profit to the Naiional Treasury that could be appropi i- 
ated to the National Galleries. 

The land thus cleared would be newly 
plotted for grand constructions with superb 
facades in columnar style, affording great 
accommodations in attractive apartments col- 
onnaded around interior courts and gardens, 
or, better, assigned entirely to future Govern- 
ment buildings. 

Such properties would find immediate and 
remunerative occupation. In a competitive 
sale they would command great values from 
the capitalists of the country and the world. 
One such block would furnish more and bet- 
ter accommodation than all the assorted and 
inferior buildings that now deface the avenue. 
When Washington shall have its National 
Galleries, these structures will find occupants 
in thousands of resident students and of visit- 
ors from the entire Union. From the sites 
thus provided, Government would take those 
preferable for public buildings. 

When a new Executive residential mansion 
is built, the present building will probably be 
assigned to business purposes, save the East 
Room and the President's office, to be pre- 
served forever for their historical interest. 
The offices in which the martyr Presidents, 
Lincoln and Garfield, wrought for their coun- 
try should be perpetually ' ' hushed in solemn 
black." 

Figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, are hints of the effective 
results imagined; motifs for study and com- 
bination in design. 

In this brief announcement, of course only 
hints are attempted; the most desirable is the 
construction of colonnades, about 20 feet wide, at some distance from 
the facades of the buildings. These would afford delightful promenades, 
always sheltered from rain and sun. such as are enjoyed in European 
capitals, Paris, Turin, etc. The esplanade above, with the porticoes, 
balconies, and colonnades, to be combined in the structures adjacent, 
would afford vast accommodations for the increasing thousands who in 




A CENTENNIAL AVENUE. 



15 



the future will throng the Capital on inaugural and other ceremonial 
occasions. 

I imagine these avenues in circuitous connection, grander than that of 
ancient Palmyra, through which rode Zenobia to the Temple of Helios, 
the Sun God — the handsomest, "bravest, most learned, most prudent of 
women — in the combined pomp of Roman and Oriental ceremony and 
display. 

As in Palmyra, they would be flanked by colonnades and projecting por- 
ticoes, the friezes and pediments bearing in letters of golden bronze the 
farewell injunctions of Washington to future generations of the Republic, 
the benign utterances of Lincoln , and other like inspirations to wisdom and 







i* 






Circus Maximus 



)tifs by F. W. Smith. 



patriotism from departed statesmen and heroes of the nation. Votive 
columns would rise to their honor, like that to Oranes in the Palmyrene 
capital: " By the Senate and the people: as a lover of his country, and 
in every regard deserving well of his country and of the immortal gods. ' ' 

But towering above the colonnades of Palmyra, on the national avenues 
of the modern Republic would appear practical constructions to be profit- 
ably utilized, beyond Grecian and Roman proportions, in all their dignity, 
symmetry, and beauty. 

Such designs will have the same facility and economy of concrete con- 
struction, with the same accuracy of architectural requirements, as here- 
inbefore described for the National Galleries. 



1 6 



A CENTENNIAL AVENUE. 



The Circus Maximus of Rome received 150,000 people, who thronged 
from the utmost limits of the Empire to witness games in honor of the 
gods. 




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.No. 8. — A section ot the Circus Maximus Rome reduced to a street grade. 







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No. 9.— Porticoes on Pennsylvania avenue. A Hall of Records. Its pediment should bear, in 
letters of golden bronze, 'Reverence the Union;' 1 '' the friezes of the colonnades, Lincoln's 
beatific utterance, " With malice toward none, with charily for all, with fairness in the right as God 
gives us to see the right, let us strive on," etc. 

; i 
By intelligent and enterprising legislation a national avenue is an easy 
possibility, that shall place in grand array a far greater throng of American 
citizens to hail the inauguration henceforth of Presidents of the United 

States. 



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S. Doc. 209— Pt. 3 



1 8 DEVELOPMENT OF PLANS. 

[From the Congressional Record, April 7, 1900.] 

IN THE SENA TE. 

NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART. 

On motion of Mr. Gallinger it was ordered that leave be granted to insert certain 
cuts and accompanying text in the publication of Franklin Webster Smith, praying 
for an appropriation of land for National Galleries of History and Art, and for aid 
in the establishment thereof in the city of Washington, D. C, the petition for which 
was referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia and ordered to be printed 
on the 12th of February, 1900. 

The above legislation was obtained for this publication as germane to 
the original prospectus of 1890, after further study and information, and 
to illustrate more clearly its recommendations. 

Pessimistic readers of the following outlined suggestions may think 
them so impracticable as to whisk them off to Brobdingnag as a day 
dream. 

The author contends that they are not at all disproportionate to their 
field, the opportunity, and the necessity. ' 

Allowing twenty years for the accomplishment of the main results, 
the pace would be moderate compared with Haussmann's renovations of 
Paris, the Chicago or the present French exposition. 

They are exaggerated in effect when viewed as a whole, although in 
the aggregate the outlay does not surpass the amount spent in Washing- 
ton in two or three decades since the war. 

The special aim is to argue the wisdom of viewing the demands of 
the future in a preconsidered combination. 

A man buys 5,000 acres for a splendid estate. If wise he will plan at 
the outset its roads, its clearances, its park, its gardens, and its build- 
ings. He will move simultaneously upon all his conceptions for joint 
progress, that at the time which he may dictate with means and energy 
he may enter upon the fruition of his ideals. He would not spend five 
years upon his palace and leave a ditch before his porte cochere. 

'jThey are moderate compared with the plan of L' Enfant laid upon the site of 
Washington in 1800. 

This comparison recalled the following letter of the late Mr. Henry C. Bowen, 
proprietor of the New York Independent. It is one of very many in similar vein 
received during the last ten years. 

The Independent, 
251 Broadway , New York, September 5 , iSgi. 
Mr. Franklin W. Smith. 

My Dear Sir: I think you will like the notice I ordered written about your 
project for National Galleries, and hope it will do you good. 

If you make this a "life work" you will succeed. But don't lower your standard. 
Work for the largest and best Galleries in the world, and stick to it to the end (for 
it is worthy of a life), and you will succeed. 

I can only spare time to say that you have my best wishes. 
Very truly, yours, 

Henry C. Bowen. 



FIRST AGGRANDIZEMENT. 1 9 

Pictures herewith show that the comparison is not amiss for contrasts 
of the United States Capitol, the most splendid building in the world, 
and the slum at its portal now as for forty years. There are many like 
contrarieties at the capital of grandeur and meanness. 

The people have invested say $50,000,000 or $100,000,000 in their 
national city. It is still unequally improved. Wild spots are frequent. 

Broad calculations to cover a full remedy and to create new attrac- 
tions are not visionary, but sensible. Wisdom dictates such forethought 
for Washington if it is to become what it should be and may be — 

A CITY BEAUTIFUE. 

The writer offers an impulsive effort for a preliminary sketch toward 
a grand consummation which is only possible by national legislation 
stimulated by national approbation. 1 

He presumes to give no more force to his ideas than to call them sug- 
gestions. Their style indicates that they are set forth more as a stimu- 
lus to criticism and improvement; to the presentation of other plans and 
expedients for the great purpose of an aggrandizement of Washington, 
than with expectation of their adoption as finalities. 

They have been hurriedly prepared, since the Senate resolution, to 
illustrate the scope of the work, which is advocated for a commission 
with prolonged tenure of office, that it may well mature and then execute 
its plans. 

It is also a pleasant anticipation that it may initiate an association for 
' ' missionary work ' ' to enlist the interest not only of Congress and Wash- 
ington but of the nation, for a high standard of municipal architecture, 
and for best facilities for the health, comfort, and pleasure of communi- 
ties. A scheme for such an organization is appended. 2 

First Aggrandizement 3 

Of Pennsylvania Avenue Expedient and Attainable at Relatively Incon- 
siderable Outlay. 

Item A. — The condemnation entirely of the south side of Pennsylvania 
avenue, as above proposed in 18 pi, to B street, bordering the Mall. 

The Commissioners of the District reported (February, 1900) to the 
Senate that the blocks fronting on Pennsylvania avenue measure 649,848 

1 It should be observed that the design for the Galleries and other buildings omits 
all exterior sculpture and ornament. The first work is to obtain ample grounds and 
buildings. Then surplus wealth of another generation can overlay pediments, cor- 
nices, etc., with high art. 

2 A National Society for the aggrandizement of Washington. 

3 Pure water instead of the muddy water of late from the Potomac is not named 
as an aggrandizement. With bread it is a perennial necessity of being in life at all. 
The remedy has now the attention of Congress. 



20 CONDEMNATIONS ON PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. 

square feet (about 12^ acres); that they would cost with improvements 
$5,929,997, or $9.11 per square foot. 

These blocks cover less than one-half the area of private property 
between Pennsylvania avenue and the Mall. The remainder measures 
about 850,000 Square feet. Its value can not be over one-third of that with 
frontage on the avenue, or about $2,000,000, making about $8,000,000 
for all land between Pennsylvania avenue and the Mall. 

The blocks on the avenue to Sixth street are not shaped for public 
buildings, being angular in shape and only half the depth of the post- 
office block. Squares B and A and the market space only are of suffi- 
cient size. 

To improve merely the front line of Pennsylvania avenue and leave 
the slum between it and the Mall would emphasize its present offensive- 
ness. Condemnation should certainly strike all the tract. With the 
streets, the land obtained would measure about 2,850,000 square feet, 
or 65 acres, at a cost, say, of $3 per square foot. 

The stated income of the property is about 4^ per cent on the 
appraisal, larger than Government interest on bonds. Until required 
for buildings the purchase would be a good investment if the premises 
were purified and slightly improved, i. e. , in case the United States 
should be impoverished and not able to afford an addition of the vacant 
territory to the park. 

Item B. — Condemnation of two blocks on the north side, next to entrance 
to the Capitol Grounds. 

To condemn on the north side of the avenue, next to the Capitol 
grounds, reservations 10, 11, and 12, blocks 572 and 574. These are in 
a degraded condition, disgraceful at the portal of the most splendid 
building in the world. They are unsalable and must take a low 
appraisal. Opposite are the national gardens. 

The reduction of business area on the avenue would largely enhance 
the value of the remainder on the north side, and consequently its tax- 
able value. Elegant properties like the Star and Post buildings, the 
Raleigh, new Willard's, and other hotels would rapidly replace its 
motley aspect. 

When that condemnation is made there will be two large areas in 
commanding position cleared for buildings worthy of their value. The 
gardens are contracted, wholly unworthy of their purposes and of these 
days. Propositions to take 500 acres on the Virginia side of the Potomac 
are proportionate to the advance in horticulture, floriculture, and arbori- 
culture in 1900. Compared with the Kew Gardens of England and the 
relative scale of fruit and food farming in the United States, 500 acres 
are insignificant. The slum opposite the palm house and before the 
Capitol has held its hold for a half century in downward progress. 
Nineteen hundred should commemorate its annihilation. 



A RESTORATION OF ROMAN GRANDEUR. 




22 A PORTAL PROPORTIONATE TO THE CAPITOL. 

Annexed is a view of Roman magnificence appropriate as a motif for 
this conspicuous site. 

Figure 1 2 gives but a slight impression of the grandeur of such a por- 
tal before the Capitol. To realize it one must gradually approach it 




No. 12.— The Brandenburg Gate as a Lincoln Gate before the Capitol. 

from the center of the avenue at Sixth street. The elevation of the hill 
lifts the facade of the Capital high above what would be the cornice of 
the gateway. 

Its width, at two-thirds that of the avenue, proportional to the front 



A LINCOLN GATE) COLONNADES. 23 

of the Capitol, would be only that of a noble lodge to a vast palace. 
Both are heightened in dignity by their relation and contrast. 

Again, the approach from Sixth street reveals the disfigurement of 
the Senate wing by the thrust against it of the old buildings at the cor- 
ner by the angle at First street. When that block is condemned it can 
be remedied by a V opening, as will be suggested at a like angle at Fif- 
teenth street S. and the avenue, which butts into the Treasury. 

Item C- — A Lincohi Gate. 

Span the avenue at Four-and-a-half street by the Brandenburg Gate of 
Berlin as the Lincoln Gate at Washington. That owes nothing to mod- 
ern genius. Its original was the Propylseum of the Athenian Acropolis. 
The majestic dome of the Capitol would display its restful base upon the 
massive entablature and columns on lines of classic perfection of beauty 
in strength. 

Item D. — Colonnaded porticoes from the Lincoln Gate to the Capitol. 




No. 13. — Forum of Pompeii, restored, with the porticoes. 

From the Lincoln Gate should extend porticoes on either side to 
entrances of the Capitol park. Noble classical facades should range with 
the porticoes worthy ot the unsurpassed location. Their solidity should 
be relieved by surrounding parterres of flowers and verdure. 

Porticoes should range Pennsylvania avenue at intervals on both sides. 
Their desirability for comfort and ornament will be argued more at 
length in relation to their general introduction on main avenues of the 
future "City Beautiful." 



24 



PORTICOES CARRYING ESPLANADES. 



Item E. — Construction of open porticoes with balconied espla?iades above, at 
frequent i?itervals along Pennsylvania avenue. 

Their desirability for protection and ornament can only be appreciated 
by experience. If the four triangular plots were covered by them their 
popularity would be in evidence. In tropical deluges of rain, frequently 
the cause of illness, they would be welcome retreats. Scenically they 
would align the avenue from its abrupt breaks and screen motley store 
fronts behind them. One in concrete would be of insignificant cost 
and would supply molds for others that would be quickly demanded by 
public sentiment. Here annexed are modern availments of ancient 
porticoes. 

Item F. — A magnificent Pennsylvania Railroad Station with Facade on a 
Plaza open to the Avenue. 

Negotiate with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for the construc- 
tion of the most magnificent station in the world, with a facade upon a 
plaza directly upon Pennsylvania avenue. The annexed design may be 
an inspiration for the ultimate conception. It is a reconstruction of the 
Forum of Trajan. 1 

The market estate is in the most central and desirable location. As 
the lease of it soon expires, it would seem that an exchange for the 
present railroad property might be accomplished. The country could 
well afford to give part or all of it to secure such a splendid result for 
the coming centuries. 

For the shaft of Trajan sculptured with victories over ancestors of the 
German race erect a column of the American Union bearing escutcheons 
of the States in order of accession. Surmount it by the Angel of Peace 
with an olive branch instead of a Victory waving a sword of ghastly 
history. The present open areas in front of the market would give the 
forum as a plaza to the station. 

The facades of temples seen at the right and left are entrances to 
colonnades on the avenue. The Roman fasces, the bundle of rods bound 
to typify strength in union, would be significant symbols in ornament — 
E pluribus tinum. 

Since the above was written the annexed report appeared in the 
Washington Star. It is a discouragement to reasonable expectation; 
but considering the stake at issue efforts should not be stayed for wiser 
action. 

'Fischer's Civil and Historical Architecture. Leipzig, 1721 



porticoes. 
Modern Return to Ancient Porticoes. 



2.5 




No. 14.— Porticoes surrounding the National Gallery of Berlin. 




No. 15. — Muhlbrunncu Portico at Carlsbad. 




^SESi 



4 



A GRAND RAILROAD STATION ON THE AVENUE. 27 

THE COSr TOO GREAT— PENNSYLVANIA ROAD'S OBJECTION TO LOCATING STATION 
ON THE AVENUE. 

Senator McMillan has received a reply to his letter to the officials of the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad Company, in which he suggested the desirability of that company 
purchasing the square in front of their B street station, and bounded by Pennsylvania 
avenue, Sixth, Seventh, and B streets, 1 in order that the station might front on the 
avenue. 

The railway company officials replied that they could not favor such a project 
unless Congress should assume the cost of at least a part of the extra expense that 
would be so placed upon them in the purchase of this square of ground. 

Senator McMillan does not consider this suggestion as a practicable one, so that 
his proposition is likely to be dropped. 

It was hardly to have been anticipated that the railroad company 
would assume all the expense of land for public adornment. 

A precedent for broad and liberal cooperation has been furnished in 
the negotiations of the city of Boston with the railroad companies for 
the new vast union station. Witness the following summary of a noble 
result: 

Mayor's Office, 
Boston, Mass., April 12, 1900. 
My Dear Sir: The city has expended for its own parks about $16, 000,000. The 
metropolitan parks cost about $10,000,000, the city of Boston being liable for about 
half. The metropolitan parks are the property of the State. 

The State has not contributed toward the South Station, I think. The city has 
issued $ 2,000,000 in bonds to pay for work incidental to the station, and may issue 
another million. The station itself is built and paid for by the railroads. 

The North Station, as you may know, did not cost the city a dollar, directly or 
indirectly. 

Specific answers to your questions will be made on demand. 
Very truly, yours, 

Thomas N. Hart, Mayor. 
Franklin W. Smith, Esq., 

1312 New York avenue, Washington, D. C. 

A CONTRAST. 



Boston is a city of about 500,000 popu- 
lation. 

It has issued bonds to pay ' 'for work 
incidental to the station to the amount of 
$2,000,000, and may issue another mil- 
lion." This was to provide suitable ap- 
proaches to the station and ample area 
in front of and around it. The station is 
not upon a principal thoroughfare. 



Washington is "the seat of the nation" 
of 75,000,000 population, now in receipt of 
surplus revenue at the rate of $75,000,000 
per annum. 

The block in front of the present sta- 
tion on the avenue is appraised at less 
than $1,000,000 with improvements. If 
the voice of the people of the United 
States could be heard the}- would buy the 
block and not have the new $1,500,000 
station in a narrow third-class street 
"round the corner." 

It is to be ardently desired that Congress will immediately forecast the 
public judgment and by prompt resolution decree an every wise beneficial 
aggrandizement of Pennsylvania avenue. 

'Block 461— appraised at $672,484; improvements, $294,055; rental, $64,624; 
76,587 square feet. 



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GRAND PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD STATION. 29 

On the 10th of the current month, April, was published a report of 
negotiations with the Pennsylvania Railroad concerning the Baltimore 
and Potomac line in the city, new station, etc. 

It is evidently a very exhaustive treatment of the subject. What the 
present writer suggests in reference to a station for the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road is simply in relation to architectural effect. He knows nothing of 
the engineering, legal, and other complications involved. Probably these 
bar the removal of the station from its present site ; but the report, so far 
from conflicting with the main idea here advocated, prepares the way for 
its more urgent advocacy. 

In ignorance of the territory owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company or of what is proposed by new legislation to be conveyed to 
them, it is not presumed to attempt definite suggestions. 

A writer in the Star (May 2) states that in all probability Armory 
Square ' ' will be almost exclusively devoted to railroad purposes within 
a few years — a blemish to be made more conspicuous by a Centennial 
avenue. ' ' 

The annexed plan shows the proposed new lines of entry of the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad to its new depot. It will occupy the whole block on 
which now it covers but a corner. Its tracks will cut off the Botanic 
Garden from the park. 

It exhibits plainly the damage to the picturesqueness of the park. 
Yet it may be a monumental enrichment instead, when its bridge is 
cast upon the arches and covered in a pavilion cast from the molds of 
the Memorial Bridge (vide pp. 48-50). 

If a portion of these lands are to be under control of the railroad 
companies, they should not cut off ample communication between the 
two sections. The convenience of the railroad should yield largely 
to public pleasure and advantage — by arches, not, like those under 
Broad street station in Philadelphia, low and forbidding, but wide, 
high, and grand, like that under Charing Cross station over the Thames 
embankment in Tondon, to be buried in verdure. That could be an orna- 
mental connection, and there would be then but one park of goodly size. 

When the Pennsylvania Railroad expends a million and a half on a 
new station, it will be lamentable to have it placed in the rear of a block 
on Pennsylvania avenue. That block should be cleared for a plaza in 
counterpart of the Roman Forum reproduced. The colonnades in the lat- 
ter should range along the facade of the new station and should entirely 
surround the plaza. 

It is sincerely to be hoped that when it shall rise it will be a classic 
exemplar for other constructions to follow. 

Washington is synonymous with the seat of national legislation ; its 
characteristic architecture, therefore, should be accordant in dignity. 
No style equals that of Greece for this expression. For modern utility 
it is in combination with the Roman arch, but without the meretricious 



30 ENLARGEMENT OF THE MAIX. 

ornamentation with which in lavishness of luxury and love of display the 
Romans corrupted the purity of Grecian art. 

The angularities of the mediaeval and feudal styles, conglomerate in 
the new post-office, or the florid ornament of the renaissance should 
find no place henceforth in Government constructions. 

The former is for effects, romantic or picturesque : the latter is appro- 
priate in the domain of art and of luxury ; but the atmosphere of Wash- 
ington in entirety should be that of the calm majesty of the Capitol and 
the portico of the Treasury. 

The human mind has sought and found expression in architecture. 
Without voice to be heard it has a power of impression to be felt. It is 
a voice in the air, subtle but powerful. 1 

Item G. — Clearance of the market estate and its addition to the park. 

Upon the presumption that the tract between the avenue and the 
Mall will be condemned, then the market space should be cleared and 
added to the park. A magnificent addition will then be at hand for 
an aggrandizement that will be a joy forever. L,et the proposed Union 
column of the States be transferred to this central point of the avenue, 
and at the center of a park treated with the highest possible art and 
skill of architects, artists, florists. Let fountains flow around its base 
as symbolical of the blessings of Webster's panegyric — which should 
adorn in letters of golden bronze the frieze of a colonnade inclosing the 
square — "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" 
Here occurs the possibility of a proper celebration in December, 1900, 
as recommended by the President, with the laying of a foundation stone 
for a Union Column. 

Apparently engineering details involved and the large appropriation 
demanded will delay commencement of the Bridge and the Centennial 
avenue will be much debated. 

If Congress should approve a column of the Union, as the lease of the 
market site is soon to expire, a central point of the square could be 
designated for a magnificent bronze column of the Union, to be belted 
with the record of the States' accession in their order, and their shields. 

Foundation for this can be placed and a corner stone placed exactly 
upon its resting place so long as the Union shall endure. 

1 1 recall vividly from personal experience voices from the past. I hear practical 
facts and arithmetic in the British Parliament; chain-lightning flashes of French 
passion in Paris; sonorous periods of Castelar in the Cortes at Madrid, in "the lan- 
guage of the gods;" glittering generalities of Rufus Choate in Boston and New York ; 
but in Washington the Jove-like depth and reverberation of Webster (see p. — ) — an 
invocation for the stateliness of Demosthenes in exposition of the Greek court of 
the National Galleries on the future American Acropolis. — F. W. S. 



A REMEDY OF THE VISTA AT FIFTEENTH STREET. 



31 



This occasion will awaken the national enthusiasm, will inspire 
oratory, will write its memory on the hearts of the youth of the land to 
pass onward to children's children by the venerated tones of tradition. 

Item H. — Remedy to the utmost possible the awkward and disappointing 
butt of Pen?isylva7iia avenue into the Treasury. 

It can be greatly relieved thus : 

Block 266 (the Hotel Regent) being condemned, at a point opposite the 
westerly line of the new Willard's Hotel reverse the angle of the block 
between Willard's and Fifteenth street with the avenue. 




No. 18. — Municipal buildings and technical schools, Bath, Kngland. 



This \/ opening would give a visual range southwesterly, striking 
below the Sherman statue, over the Executive Grounds to B street, on 
Potomac Park. Now it ends northerly against the State, War, and Navy 
building. If the land and buildings between Willard's and Fifteenth 
street were condemned and resold at auction, subject to a prescribed 
and suitable design for building, the betterment would pay all cost of 
the exchange. They are old and ordinary buildings. 

It would open an imposing view of the beautiful Ionic colonnade of 
the Treasury if the corners north and south of the avenue at this point 
could be rounded as in the example (Fig. 18) from the municipal build- 



32 



SECOND AGGRANDIZEMENT. 



iugs of Bath, England. 1 A great advantage of that condemnation would 
be the control of the height of the buildings at this focal point of scenic 
effect. If a sky scraper should at this corner crush into downward insig- 
nificance the Treasury elevation, it would be a monumental aggravation. 
If the new Willard's is to rise to discordant height the skyline from the 
corner might be raised to relieve it in part. Here again, as in all such 
instances, betterments would defray all cost. But what ! what ! ! if it 
did not? 

Fortunes were made in Paris by such creation of values, with still 
greater gains to the State, from Haussmanu's vast renovations. Here 
could be effectively introduced colonnades on curved lines in harmoni- 
ous contrast with the Brandenburg Gate at the east. 

Second Aggrandizement. 

The condemnation of 200 acres of land adjacent to the old Naval Observa- 
tory, now waste land — the dump. 
This condemnation will naturally follow — indeed, upon public con- 
sideration of the conditions involved and the great results to accrue, it is 

'The author is glad to acknowledge the courteous liberality of the aldermen of the 
city of Bath, England, toward the National Galleries. 




t B. C— Bath, England. 



The renowned Roman baths which were discovered beneath the city have been 
restored and are now an attractive feature of the ancient town. Upon a request for 
a specimen of the original lead pipe, the terra cotta hot air pipes, etc. , the aldermen 
departed from their established rule and by vote presented remarkably interesting 
relics that are now on exhibition in the Roman House of the Halls. 

American travellers will enjoy a visit to the picturesque old city and may well 
avail themselves of its complete establishment as a Spa. 



THE OU> OBSERVATORY HILL. 33 

likely to precede — the condemnation of the south side of Pennsylvania 
avenue. 

The tract covers the entire area between Seventeenth 
street and the potomac and between k and b streets (about 
200 acres); adding the Observatory tract, 220 acres. 

This historic and important tract, the only natural elevation remaining 
within the limits of the city, designated above Washington's signature 
(see facsimile, Part I) for an institution of learning, comprising 23 acres, 
the key to a grand development of 300 acres, as will be seen by plans 
herewith, is now utilized only for the purpose set forth in the annexed 
slip, occupying merely the old Observatory buildings. The balance of 
the estate is in disorder — kitchen gardens, with shanties, or utterly wild. 
Certainly a specialty, most scientific and important, but in detail abso- 
lutely without interest to most people, and, from its nature, repulsive to 
many, can not be afforded merely for exhibits below described. 

A MUSEUM OF HYGIENE — NEW USE EOR THE OI,I> NAVAI, OBSERVATORY— SEEK 
MICROBES INSTEAD OE STARS. 

"There is a Naval Museum of Hygiene in Washington, established on the most 
historic spot in the city, containing objects of new and unique interest which have 
never yet come under the tourist's eye, and which are seldom inspected by the 
"Washington public." It is a white building, fashioned after the colonial style, 
with white wings on both sides, cut by arched windows and columned doors — that 
simple, majestic order of house framed long ago by the aristocracy of the South, but 
few examples of which remain around Washington to-day. It stands high on a 
northwest hill skirting the river near Georgetown, and a dome arising from its center 
above the silver poplars and maples marks it for miles in the distance as the old 
Naval Observatory. 

For several years after the removal of the Observatory to its present quarters on 
the Tennallytown road it remained under the eye of a solitary watchman, and the 
rains beat the ceilings in and weeds ran riot all over the 19 acres of the Observatory 
grounds. 

It is a bit remote from car lines, ' ' but that makes it all the more delight- 
ful," said Dr. C. H. White, the surgeon in charge of the Museum, who has the 
left wing of the Museum transformed into far more comfortable quarters than he 
ever had aboard a man-of-war. "It is really an ideal spot for work. If we want 
the city, why, there it is." He pointed to the roofs massed thick and gray off to 
the south, the Monument, the Capitol, the Library. The city makes a superb sweep 
just there, can be seen well, and the river gleams off to the rear, so that artists like 
to sketch on Observatory Hill. 

Its purposes are the preparation of models and drawings to be used in the illustra- 
tion of sanitary science and its progress, the preservation of the objects already col- 
lected, and the transportation of contributions intended for exhibition. Twenty- 
three cases of Museum exhibits were forwarded to the Nashville Exposition recently. 
The total number of exhibits in the Museum is now 2,000. 

Each room in the new Museum has not yet been particularly classified, except the 
library and plumbing and filter rooms, consequently are filled with a rather mis- 
cellaneous assortment, from Belgian and Chinese shoes, Korean hats, Mexican san- 
dals, down to all sorts and kinds of food, shells, cots, hospital ships, hospital camps, 
crematories, and water pipes. 

S. Doc. 209 — Pt. 3 3 



34 



PRESENT USE OF OBSERVATORY HIU,. 



Under the head of architecture there are numbers of interesting exhibits, the 
models of barracks, wards, and a United States Army general hospital being of 
especial value. There are innumerable plans and models for the construction of 



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No. 20. — View of land eastward from Naval Observatory. 



schools, colleges, asylums, almshouses, reformatories, factories, laboratories, hos- 
pitals, and ships, and for their proper ventilation, drainage, and illumination. 

The exhibit of vaults, morgues, mortuaries, cremation, and all methods and cus- 
toms for the burial of the dead are also unique and interesting, among them being 



CONDEMNATION OF LAND ADJACENT TO THE OBSERVATORY. 



35 



an exact reproduction in miniature of [the far-famed "Tower of Silence," just 
outside the city of Bombay, where the vultures flock by the thousand for their feast 
on death. A model of the picturesque crematory at Mount Olivet Cemetery, 
Williamsburg, N. Y., is also on exhibition, and that hideous engine, "Sieman's 
furnace," as well as burglar-proof vaults, metallic burial caskets, Alaskan Indian 
caskets, and old Roman cinerary urns. 

For two hundred years or more Observatory Hill, under various and different 
names, has been one of the landmarks about Maryland. It colors up that entire 
dilapidated section of the city with a dash of the picturesque, and glows with 
interest and ' ' story. ' ' 

E street, it is seen, ranges westwardly from the southwest corner of 
Pennsylvania avenue and Fifteenth street (the Regent Hotel). The 
Corcoran Gallery is on the northeast corner of the tract. It is now the 
dump of the cit}'. Its condition is shown in cuts annexed (Figs. 




No. 21. — Premises adjoining the Observatory, eastward. 

19-21). It is stated by real-estate experts that a fair valuation is 50 
cents per square foot. There are no improvements worthy of mention. 

If the northerly line of condemnation be carried halfway to F street 
the entire frontage in the Galleries and park would be under Government 
control. Rawlins Park is within the lines. 

This condemnation will be inevitable sooner or later. The approach 
to a memorial bridge by New York avenue, as hitherto proposed, would 
otherwise be bordered with slovenliness. Its entrance at present would 
be adjacent to an overtopping brewery. It is confidently predicted that 
those diagonal avenues, cutting this large rectangular block into trian- 
gles, will be abandoned for parallel lines. They leave more pointed 
spaces, awkward for treatment and spoiling sites for large buildings, as 
on Pennsylvania avenue. The mischief will later be made apparent by 
contrast of another plan for this important block. 



36 CONDEMNATION OF OBSERVATORY TRACT. 

The terraced range of National Galleries for a half mile would now 
be bounded by shanties of the meanest description on E street. The 
frontispiece shows in their place blocks of apartments and extensive 
open-air restaurants, gardens, etc. These will be demanded for econom- 
ical accommodation of thousands, who from their completion will crowd 
excursion trains for exhaustless facilities created for instruction. 

Now, in the supposed possession by Government of the line between 
E and F streets the most admirable opportunity is provided for realizing 
a happy thought. The tract would measure 5.000 feet in length by, 
say, 250 feet in depth. 

The houses of the States at Chicago are pictured, pps. 93-99. The 
range of 5,000 feet would be ample for all. L,et it be apportioned in 
frontage according to their population, the assignment from the easterly 
terminal being made in the order of the accession of the States to the 
Union, and the lots sold to the different States for welcome resorts of 
their citizens in Washington. Thus the expense of splendid construc- 
tions along the whole line of the Gallery tract would return to the 
United States Treasury. 

Now it is, and without comprehensive control it will continue to be, 
an unsightly adjunct to Potomac Park and Centennial avenue. 

Plainly the frontage of E street or F street along the National 
Galleries would so enhance values of the tract adjacent north to Penn- 
sylvania avenue that the present taxable value of land condemned would 
return in surplus. Delay will bring greater cost and probably at a time 
more burdensome to the National Treasury than in 1900, when patriot- 
ism is responsive to greater grandeur for Washington. 

What are $10,000,000 for such incalculable gains for all time placed 
against the vast total of national profits and the present scale of national 
expenditure? 1 

But if Congress withholds the accomplishment of both the south side 
of Pennsylvania avenue and of E street, the alternative should be pre- 
ferred of condemning the 220 acres for one-fourth the money of the 
cost of 65 acres on the avenue. 

The 65 acres on Pennsylvania avenue would cost, say, $8,000,000. 

The 220 acres on the same line northerly and westerly to the Potomac, 
fronting on the park, with its entire boundaries in Government owner- 
ship, land well above the flood line, from 10 to 60 feet, with the Observ- 
atory lot included, draining to the river, adjacent to the Executive, State, 
War, Navy, and Treasury Departments — all in one solid block of rectan- 
gular form — can be had for less than $2,000,000. 

For the Government ownership of 220 acres it is necessary to buy 
only 105 acres, valued for taxation in 1890, with improvements, at 
$1,421,345, 115 acres being covered by streets, reservations, and the 
Observatory site. 

1 Abundant prosperity. — See Addenda No. 2. 



THIRD AGGRANDIZEMENT. 37 

For the acquisition of the block to E street (192 acres) there must be 
bought only 77^ acres, valued at $604,300. This tract is appraised at 
an average of 18 cents per square foot. The entire tract is appraised at 
an average of 31 cents per square foot. 

Would it not be an advantage to have all Departments thus placed 
compactly together, rather than along a mile to the east? The Legisla- 
tive Department is only in Washington a part of the time. The others 
must be in constant communication throughout the year. 

The filled lands of Potomac Park are not up to intended grade. They 
are now a useless waste. The Mall would be greatly improved by ele- 
vation for draining and undulating surfaces in landscape. Gravel hills 
in Virginia should be moved across the river. Massachusetts filled a 
square mile of tidal basin from hills in Quincy, adding millions of profit 
to the State treasury and many more millions to the taxable real estate 
of Boston, in what is now one of the most beautiful and opulent resi- 
dential districts in the world. The filling cost but 35 cents per square 
foot. The delay of the completion of the parks for use has not only 
deprived a generation of their use, but has been a stop to financial gain 
to the city that would have followed. 1 

At the time an appeal was made to save a tidal basin like the Alster, 
in Hamburg. Its failure will forever be regretted. Washington has 
been more wisely guarded, securing four lakes that will be refreshing 
features of Potomac Park. 



Third Aggrandizement. 
A new Executive Mansion. 

The prospectus of 1891 anticipated, as a certainty of the future, a new 
Executive Mansion. A proposition to patch up the exquisite proportions 
of the old White House, to close up familiar openings that for a century 
have been the outlooks of Presidents, and which have met the eager and 
grateful gaze of the American people, by incongruous additions were not 
imagined possibilities. 

Lamentable will be the day when blows of demolition or additions 
shall mar its symmetry. It should be enshrined entire for patriotic in- 
spiration from gathered memorials of those who have wrought therein. 
For a century the will of the people through law has dispensed its 
authority in beneficent results of unparalleled happiness and prosperity. 

Massachusetts mourns the day when a narrow-minded legislature re- 
fused to buy and save the home of John Hancock for a gubernatorial 
mansion. 



"See addenda for statements of profits to the State of Massachusetts of over 
$6,000,000 in cash and other millions in prospect, besides very many times that 
amount to the valuation of the city of Boston, resulting from its liberal, energetic, and 
thorough enterprises of filling tidal basins and flats. 



3» 



A NEW WHITE HOUSE. 



The debate on the purchase of the Hancock house occurred in the 
legislature of 1859, Nathaniel P. Banks, governor. 

The purchase was strongly recommended by him in his message. He 
said: "I know of no other subject that could better occupy the attention 
of the legislature on the birthday of Washington, hallowed by associa- 
tions connected with the memory and frequent presence of Washing- 
ton, Franklin, L,afayette, and other patriots." 

The speech of C. W. Upham closed as follows: " My prayer is that 
when we come to the final vote we may give one loud, unanimous aye 
in favor of discharging this debt of patriotism to that name which is 
the exponent of the Union of the American States — the name that heads 



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No. 22. — Hancock House and old State House, Boston. 



the glorious and immortal signers of the Declaration of Independence; 
of expressing this honorable sentiment of public gratitude ; of exhibiting 
an example that will shine before our countrymen and be recorded in 
letters of light in the annals of the State. ' ' 

The vote was: Yeas, 97; nays, 102. This vote was five years before 
the war for the Union had aroused patriotism, shown the powers and 
forecast the future greatness of the country. Five years later (1864) 
the purchase would have been overwhelmingly voted. In 1900 it would 
have unanimous aye. 

The people have since sought consolation in repentance by restoration 



REQUIREMENTS FOR A WHITE HOUSE. 39 

of the old State House to its exact original aspect and its dedication to 
the history made by appeals of patriots within and fatal valor without its 
walls at the Boston massacre. 

Let the White House remain in exact renewal as a national sanctuary . 
Let a new structure be built adjacent without encroachment on the vista 
enjoyed by successive Presidents from its southern portico. 

Let a Centennial monument of their executive administration be the 
terminal of that vista (at M on plan), as an incentive to faithfulness 
before a new structure (at N on plan) for executive offices. It should 
contain a reception hall for ambassadors and other formalities adjacent to 
the business departments. 

For nine years since publication of the above suggestions considera- 
tions of expediency as well as sentiment have confirmed the conviction 
of their wisdom. 

The debatable question is the site. 

i . It should be the most healthful and available site, central to Wash- 
ington. Letter of Dr. Sowers, Addenda. 

2. It should be somewhat away from offices of Presidential care and 
labors, demanding at eventide a change of scene. 

3. It should be magnificent in its elevation. As the flag of Britain 
floats above the round tower of Windsor, the ensign of America should 
wave responsively from heights, stronghold of its executive forces. 

4. The President of the United States, representing a dignity un- 
equaled on earth, should have a luxurious and artistic home, ample for 
his hospitalities. 

5. Adjacent but apart should be a grand Executive Mansion for a 
triple use: 

First. Official entertainment by the President of representatives 
accredited from foreign governments, that they may not bargain for 
quarters at hotels. 

Second. For state, diplomatic, and other formal dinners there should 
be suitable dining and drawing rooms. 

Third. For state and public receptions there should be a new East 
Room, more commodious and grand than the present, proportionate to 
the increase of the nation. Stateliness of a Presidential mansion is for 
the national pride of the people of the United States that they shall see 
him installed worthily of the dignity they have conferred upon him. 
These apartments should be open to the public when not in special 
occupancy. 

6. Instead of the mews of a Czar or an Emperor, wherein 400 horses 
are stabled in palaces, the President of the United States and his 
family should dwell amid the richest products and loveliest beauties of 
Pomona and Flora. Presidential gardens should be like the Congressional 
Library — unsurpassed; to be visited with delight by the people. They 
should be the highest realization through human intelligence of " the 



40 A NEW WHITE HOUSE. 

promise of every herb yielding seed after its kind and every tree yielding 
fruit after its kind." 

Such results from liberal expenditure would be ratified by the people, 
the honor and happiness of their President being shared by themselves. 

The country is indebted to the patriotic intelligence and artistic per- 
ception of Mrs. J. B. Henderson for a noble conception of a site and 
design for a new White House. 1 

The architectural ability of Mr. Paul J. Pelz, architect of the Library 
(an advisory architect for the National Galleries), has been applied to 
illustration of Mrs. Henderson's ideals. (See plate annexed.) 

Mrs. Henderson's pen has clearly set forth in the press arguments for 
her plan and for a broad scheme for improvements of Washington there- 
with, as annexed. 

AVENUE AND WHITE HOUSE. 
[March 19, 1900.] 

To the Editor of The Evening Star: 

In planning future improvements at the national capital one ironclad 
rule should be kept in mind, namely, never to infringe on public parking 
for building sites. 

If our population continues to increase as it has done in the last 
hundred years, beginning with 5,000,000 and more than doubling every 
twenty-five years, another century must bring results scarcely conceived 
by him who lives to-day. 

A shortsighted Congress once gave away a third of the District — 
a mistake now deeply regretted. Another Congress failed to appre- 
ciate the scheme of Major L,' Enfant for the laying out of the capital 
city and declined to pay him more than a pittance for what they con- 
sidered an extravagant and foolish plan. Major E'Enfant declined to 
receive both the pittance and the advice, and died in disappointment 
and poverty. 

(Record from history most lamentable! A future monument to his 
fame will be conspicuous in effort for atonement. — F. W. S.) 

We are now enthusiastically grateful for what he did accomplish, 
regretting always that his plan for parks and avenues stopped short 
of the District line, and that so little provision was made for open spaces 
about all our public buildings. 

It has been said that the capital represents the face of the nation, 
while the States are the body. If the body is shabby and small, the face 
will be correspondingly contemptible. 

Our national fault has been that of narrow view and mistaken economy 
in all that regards the capital city. We have only been able to plan for 
the immediate needs of the time at which public improvements were 

'See letter of Hon. J. B. Henderson, ex-Senator from Missouri, Part I, page 4. 




41 



42 A NEW WHITE HOUSE. 

made. The first Capitol, built a hundred years ago, was absurdly small. 
The second one was finished but twenty-five years ago, and is already 
inadequate. The White House, built a hundred years ago, was of a size 
to suit a country of 5,000,000 people. In fact, it has never taken long 
not only to prove the inadequacy of every public improvement, but to 
demonstrate equally how parsimony has not been economy. 

The United States buildings representing the various Departments of 
the National Government are, after all, very few. Why should they 
be surpassed in size and splendor? Are the American people mean 
and sordid and without taste? Let us not believe it. Let us rather 
believe that Congress has always been far behind the people in patriotic 
pride for the national capital. The people of our country have never 
complained of the cost or beauty of the Library building. If it had 
been twice as large and twice as beautiful it would have been doubly 
appreciated. 

No park or avenue or public building in Washington which may suit 
future national necessity is too fine or too splendid to please every 
American citizen. It belongs to them all. To visit the national capital 
is the worthy ambition of every one of them. They recognize that invest- 
ments based upon intelligent perceptions are not extravagant. 1 

Broadness of view in relation to the glories of the national capital was 
refreshingly exhibited by the governors of various States lately assembled 
at Washington. They indorsed a report for centennial commemoration 
of the anniversary of the city by some great public improvements, and 
included a new Centennial avenue and something for a White House. 

An open boulevard leading from the Capitol building to the proposed 
memorial bridge may be useful and attractive, but let the committee of 
governors take a second sober thought before they suggest placing build- 
ings where they would cover a single inch of present parking, already 
far too limited. Let them change their scheme for a broad avenue 
partly bordered with magnificent public buildings on the natural thorough- 
fare and entrance street of Washington — Pennsylvania avenue. 

If Louis Napoleon, regardless of cost, could wipe out miles of solidly 
built squares in the center of Paris for the glory of France and the most 
beautiful capital city of the world, and to the delight of every French- 
man, the United States Government may not hesitate to remove a few 
indifferent business buildings on the south side of Pennsylvania avenue. 
Whatever may be the reasonable cost, it will never be less than at present. 

If what the governors want in the way of a White House suggests 
the filling up of the small open space between the Treasury and the 
State, War, and Nav) r Departments by the addition of appendages put up 
in the rear of the old Executive building and composed of the same cheap 
material to correspond with it, they do not rise to the dignity of a new 
White House nor the needs of the twentieth century in relation to it. 

1 Voices of the Press, Addenda No. 1. 



A NEW WHITE HOUSE. 



43 



They do not appreciate that the White House is not intended to accom- 
modate any President, his family, and his clerical staff alone, but that it 
must properly serve to entertain thousands and tens of thousands of 
people from all parts of the world. 

We respect and love the old White House for its traditions and its 
modest beauty. Let it remain unchanged and unsurrounded by append- 
ages forever. 

With a hill at the head of Sixteenth street (the future Executive 
avenue) and Florida avenue finer than the hill on which the- Capitol is 
built, and double its height; finer than any of the seven hills of Rome; 
located in the center of the city, in the midst of its residence section; 
accessible to all the town; situated on the great driving boulevard, 160 




No. 24. — Ground plan of Mr. Pelz's design for new White House. 



feet wide and 7 miles long, which leads most directly to the National 
Park and borders its entire length; containing from 50 to 75 acres of 
land covered at present with but a few cheap buildings; providing (on 
account of height and drainage and southern exposure) the most com- 
fortable residence site for both winter and summer that the District of 
Columbia affords — with this superb site at our command, may we not 
except to the selection of the back yard of a respected but small old 
building for the future Executive Mansion ? 

The building is in form of letter H ; flanked at rear by hothouses; at the extreme 
the largest winter garden in the world; the court a Japanese garden. 

View from State dining room includes the vista of the conservatory and interior 
Japanese garden. 

Two entrances on the level, one from Sixteenth street and the other from Four- 



44 NEW WHITE HOUSE ON THE HILL. 

teenth street; places to bank hundreds of carriages, reached without noise by 
electric figures on a screen. 

It would seem wise at the beginning of the new century to perfect 
some general plan for the future best interests of the national capital. 
Future generations would probably be very glad to help pay for these 
improvements made on a grand scale. Several squares now containing 
full-grown trees, situated in various parts of the city, should be promptly 
secured for public parks. The charming wooded hillside lying between 
Twelfth and Fourteenth streets on Florida avenue should be secured for 
parking. These are but a few suggestions for what should be an ex- 
tended and comprehensive plan for our national capital of the twentieth 
century. 

Mary F. Henderson. 

The conception and development are noble inspirations. When mate- 
rialized they will, like the Capitol and the Library, be a perpetual joy to 
the nation and further stimulus to its progress in refinement. 

The writer presumes, however, to magnify the design of Mr. Pelz by 
increased grandeur of its site. Mrs. Henderson locates the mansions 
on the hilltop at the easterty side of Sixteenth street. Sixteenth 
street bisects Washington east and west. It is a noble avenue, direct 
from the old White House across Jackson Square. It should be 
the central connecting boulevard of the system above proposed, dividing 
the length of its circuit. Its rise to ioo feet gives a commanding emi- 
nence. The portal of the new White House should face in a direct line 
the grand porch of the old one. 

But Sixteenth street must continue a highwajr. It is cut through the 
hill into a chasm. Obstacles often reveal compensating advantages. 
Span the roadway by a grandiose Roman arch. Superimpose thereon a 
central entrance hall to the new White House. From it extend open 
colonnades of noble proportions right and left to the mansions. Then 
the entire structure will center from Sixteenth street and the old White 
House. 

Then the colonnades and facades will reveal grandly against the sky ; 
rising in dignity at the north, like the Capitol on the east, and as should 
appear the Parthenonic Temples and National Galleries on the hillcrest 
at the west. 

This effect may be enhanced, if the land will admit, by increasing the 
range of the colonnade, and also the distance of the two buildings from the 
roadway. 

The longer colonnade would throw the mansions farther from the 
roadway. Noise from the travel may be suggested, but the illustration 
places the buildings as far from the roadway as the old White House is 
from Pennsylvania avenue. 

It should be recognized that the noise of travel has greatly subsided in 
late years. Rails confine in rigid lines the preponderance of travel and 




45 



46 FOURTH AGGRANDIZEMENT. 

carry it quietly. Bicycles and automobiles with rubber tires are replac- 
ing the click of horses' feet. Soon in cities freight automobiles will 
dispense with express wagons. 

Another requirement of the centering of the White House at Sixteenth 
street is that sufficient land may be obtained for a suitable estate. 

The present Executive grounds, with the White Lot, measure 1,750 
by 2,400 feet, or 95 acres. With the appurtenances proposed, additional 
to two great mansions, the area of land should be not less than 125 
to 150 acres. 

Standing at the head of Sixteenth street, it is apparent that the crest 
of the ridge runs both east and west from Sixteenth street. Fifty to 75 
acres on each side only will supply the area required and demanded. 

The colonnade should be 500 feet in length between the mansions. 
Then the facade on the hilltop will be imposing. The old White House 
measures 170 by 86 feet, adding 50 per cent — say 125 feet front by 250 feet 
deep. With the colonnade the range would be 750 feet. The Capitol is 
75 1 D y 35° feet deep (262,500 square feet), which gives 153,112 square 
feet of floor. 

The above dimensions, at the same calculations, would give floor area 
for both the State Mansion and the President's Mansion of 62,500 square 
feet, or 40 per cent of the Capitol. 

Again, standing on the edge of the bluff at Sixteenth street, if the 
sight is thrown forward to the center of the street and then turned 
northward and southward, imagination reveals the splendid vista, from 
the great entrance hall at the center of the colonnade, of the future 
Executive avenue, teeming with elegant life, between luxurious resi- 
dences, for \Yi miles to the old White House. 

While the height will not equal that of the Parthenon (200 feet), the 
effect of the long colonnade and the vastly greater constructions will be 
as powerful in domination as the Parthenon and the Temple of Jove on 
the Capitoline of Rome. 



Fourth Aggrandizement. 
A memorial bridge. 

A suggestion also from the prospectus of 1891 of "a magnificent 
entrance to the proposed ornamental bridge across to Arlington." The 
via sacra of the National Galleries should connect therewith by the plaza 
proposed. (See plan, p. 117.) The bridge is to be ornamental and 
memorial ; i. e., to combine, probably, architectural grandeur and sculp- 
tural commemoration, by one or more triumphal arches spanning the 
roadway and bases for sculpture on pierheads at the sides. 

Those who have crossed the Tiber to the Castle of St. Angelo, and the 



A TRIPLE BRIDGE. 47 

Seine from the Tuileries, will remember most vividly the din and rush 
of travel with more vehemence than the waters beneath. They will 
recall slight impression from the marble gods and heroes on the parapets 
who were to claim reverence or admiration. The bridges utilized for 
transport offer no chance for sentimental appreciation of the marred and 
grimed monuments on either hand. Hence the query, Is not a bridge 
of general traffic, with its inevitable clatter and untidiness, its pell mell 
of beings and things moving and movable, impossible for an atmosphere 
congruous with commemorative art? 

A public bridge per se may nobly commemorate historical incidents bj^ 
dedicatory inscriptions thereon, but it can not be an inviting trysting 
place for the muses. 

Yet the memorial bridge must be on the line of the imagined pictur- 
esque boulevard. What contrariety ! Leaving the groves and porticoes, 
fountains and flowers of the park to plunge upon the rattling and 
rumbling of moving iron and stone, lime and lumber, bricks, hay, ferti- 
lizers, farm products, draymen, cattle, poultry, etc., intermingled with 
the gayety of a wedding parade or the solemnity of a funeral cortege! 

What can save this jar and break in the delectable boulevard drive 
around the capital? 

Another inspiration from Roman grandeur in utility solves the 
problem. (See Fig. 26). Its palatial stateliness, its classic symmetry 
and dignity, suggest an imperial palace on the Palatine. Colonnades 
of the Campus Martius bordering the Tiber are flung across the river 
in disdain of its "angry floods." 

Observe the proportion of the arch that rises above the equestrian 
statue of an emperor. There are compartments that may be open 
canopies or closed alcoves, with seats for comfortable outlook over, 
above, and below the flowing river. Rising slightly from its grade, the 
road passes into a vista of enchanting fascination. Sun rays barred from 
a zenith force steal aslant through columns of exact proportions, ranged 
as peristyles and again in groups supporting pediments. 

It is an ornamental, commemorative, picturesque pavilion offering pan- 
els and friezes for honorary inscriptions; a ceiling for rich effects of color; 
a delicious promenade, with outlooks at an elevation north and south, 
open to breezes in heat, defensible against the north winds in cold; the 
air of a grotto in summer, and the sunny warmth of a solarium in winter. 

It is a bridge, yet exempt from all noise, all unwelcome sights, all 
incongruities with its artistic and aesthetic charms. How are such elimi- 
nation and exclusiveness obtained? Answer : By a triple bridge dividing- 
its width into three sections. The central, a covered pavilion, is carried 
at an elevation, say, 15 feet above two open roadways on either side 
below. The rise to and descent from grade are within the bridge. 

It forcibly excludes all rude, heavy traffic and hurried travel from the 
pavilion, leaving unalloyed enjoyment continuous and heightened in 
surprise from charms of the boulevard. 




S. Doc. 209 — Pt. 3 4 



40 



5o 



THE TRIPLE BRIDGE. 



With application of discoveries of the marvelous tensile strength of con- 
crete reinforced with iron, there can be no doubt of the cheapness, dura- 
bility,, and safety of the structure beyond any use of natural stones merely 
placed in contact with joints of mortar. Concrete bridges, earliest in 
France, are now frequent in the American Western States; even more 
graceful in lines, because less massive, than arched bridges of hewn stone. 1 

The annexed cut illustrates the practice. It is from ' ' Transactions of 
the Technical Society of the Pacific Coast," read January, 1888. The 
plate shows a lintel from a building in San Francisco over store fronts, 




ABC 

No. 28. — Section of the triple bridge. 
B. The pavilion. A and C. Side bridges for common travel. 

15 feet clear span and carrying three stories of brick walls and wood 
floors, 22 inches wide, 2 feet 10 inches high (with belt course molded 
on), and ten i-inch rods placed near the bottom. 

The lintels extend along both fronts of the building. Over the sup- 
porting piers (corresponding to bridge piers) are placed three 1 -inch rods 
near the top, thus giving the effect of a continuous girder, supplying an 
essential element of security against strain in bridge construction. 

A thorough demonstration of the marvelous crushing and tensile 
strength of concrete reinforced by iron was first made by Mr. W. E. 
Ward, 2 of Port Chester, N. Y., 1871-72, and reported in the Transac- 
tions of the American Society of Engineers. See also Part II, page 122. 



Addenda— Bridges of concrete. 



■ Lately deceased. 



concrete; construction. 51 

It is a gratirymg coincidence to the writer that his advocacy of this 
material for constructions herein proposed is indorsed by publication in 




No. 29. — Concrete construction reenforced with 



the Washington Star, simultaneously with this writing (April 20, 1900), 
of a permit in Washington by the Commissioners, headed as follows : 

Novel building material. 

Concrete to form walls of seven-story structure. 

Combination which is growing in favor. 

Twisted iron rods will be utilized in connection witb the concrete walls. 



52 CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION. 

Captain Gaillard, one of the assistants to the Engineer Commissioner, 
reported that he had personally inspected two large buildings of this 
type of construction, one being a factor in Bayonne, N. J., and the 
other a church in Brooklyn. He was favorably impressed with both 
structures, and the combination of iron and concrete, he added, is grow- 
ing in favor. 

In Paris a new building, corner of Rue Mondoni and Rue Mont 
Thabor, of iron and Roman cement, is pronounced fireproof. 

The walls of Villa Zorayda 1 are held by railroad bars embedded in con- 
crete the entire length of the facade (65 feet). 




apital from the Erectheum iu concrete. 



The superiority of the material above any natural stone being estab- 
lished, the most important economical consideration is yet to be named. 
A principal element in the first cost of concrete construction is that of 
the molds. When they are supplied concrete can be placed at less cost 
per cubic foot than ordinary brickwork; but the molds can be used 
over and over again. 

That for the Roman Doric shafts in the Halls of the Ancients and the 
Pompeia (see Part I) at Saratoga was previously used in a Pompeian 
hall in the Hotel Granada in St. Augustine. As stated in Part II on 
concrete construction, those imperishable shafts cost not over $20 each, 
while cut stone would have cost $300 each. 

'See "Concrete construction," Part II. 



THK PAVILION BRIDGE). 53 

The columnar work of . the Pavilion Bridge would be in exact classical 
proportions. The molds can then be used repeatedly for columns else- 
where, for porticoes, for screen work of the railroad crossing the Mall, 
duplicating lightly the Pavilion, as will be hereinafter proposed. 

Fig. 30 illustrates the sharpness of a concrete capital in one of the 
purest Greek models left for modern imitation. 

This use of concrete, multiplying for public enjoyment forms of beauty, 
has for twenty years abounded in European capitals, especially in France 
and Germany. Its soft gray color is also a luxury, combining the 
solidity of stone with its delicate tone and shadows. 

In imagination we have constructed an architectural aggrandizement. 
Opportunely the design supplies two of the noblest possible motifs for a 
commemorative purpose — Roman arches of most stately proportions. 
Ornament will be in natural combination with utility, an inspiration to 
the worthiest efforts of genius: The Lincoln Arch, on the river bank, 
facing the capitol to which the martyr President came for its rescue. 
The Grant Arch, on the Virginia side, facing the region in which he 
fought to return stars of the American Union to the peaceful orbit from 
which they had thrust themselves in violence. L,et these exhibit the 
utmost possible majesty and beauty from examples of ancient art and 
the attainments of modern skill. 

Since the above was written the architectural criticism of the accepted 
bridge design by Mr. George Keller, of Hartford, has been published. 
That he is an authority is evident from a reply in defense in which 
mention is made of an arch by Mr. Keller in Hartford. 

The writer knows nothing of engineering as a science, but he is 
impressed with the good sense of the following extracts: 

The memorial arches can only be seen from the front as you approach the center 
of the bridge, after you have walked nearly a third of a mile across the bridge in 
order to get a good view. If you stop in front of the arches to study the memorial, 
it is at the risk of being jostled by the passing crowd on the narrow sidewalk or run 
over by vehicles, trolley cars, automobiles, etc. , if you step into the roadway, so 
that you are not in just the proper frame of mind to appreciate the beauties of 
architecture while looking out for your own safety. 

If Washington is bent on having a memorial arch embodied in the design of the 
bridge, why not do as the Romans did, and roll the two insignificant arches into 
one noble one, and place it at the approach to the bridge on the Washington side, in 
the center of a wide plaza or esplanade, so that there would be verge and scope 
enough to fairly view its towering dignity? But why should a great thoroughfare, 
as this is destined in time to become, be encumbered with a memorial arch ? Two 
great piers decorated with sculpture mark the entrance to the Alexander III Bridge 
across the Seine at Paris, which is intended to commemorate the Russian alliance. 

Now, the pavilion design proposed nobly meets the examples of the 
ancient Romans and the modern French. Two arches can be upon any 
scale of grandeur without expense of foundations in a river, being on 
terra firm a. 

Again, if the writer were an engineer he would seize upon the open 



54 FIFTH AGGRANDIZEMENT. 

columnar form of the pavilion as a screen for the apparatus of the draw. 
Any amount of bearing strength can be put upon a concrete column, 
perhaps containing a tube within filled with concrete, as are the columns 
in the arcade of Villa Zorayda. This tower section, raised in elevation 
if needed, would add to the grandiose effect in enrichment of the con- 
tinuous horizontal cornice. Again comes to mind the cheapness of the 
columns if cast in drums, and the use of the molds for columns, 
arcades, and porticoes all through Washington and ranging its sur- 
rounding hilltops with colonnades. 

The above was written in ignora?ice of decision upon the competition for 
designs. That accepted is a good base for aggrandizement . See further 
consideration of the subject with illustrations in Addenda. 



Fifth Aggrandizement. 
A Centennial avenue as a boulevard. 

The prospectus of 1891 concluded with the plan (see Fig. 10) for a 
National avenue from the Capitol Dome to the Parthenon (proposed) 
on Observatory Hill. 

Lately Mr. Cobb suggested that the avenue that has on that plan now 
taken the name of Centennial, as one of the enterprises recommended by 
the committeeon the 1900 commemoration, should run farther southward 
through the Mall to the Memorial Bridge, as land could be had cheaply by 
extra filling along B street on the Potomac flats. 

The bill reported to Congress for a new city hall provides for a site on 
the south of Pennsylvania avenue. It has been favorably regarded, and 
points to the condemnation of all land between it and the Mall, as above 
illustrated. Thus the course is clear for the Centennial avenue, strictly as 
an ornamental boulevard, not as a street to be walled with buildings. 

Its creation is herewith most earnestly advocated in fulfillment of the 
recommendation of the committee to the President upon new, attractive, 
and it is believed in all regards advantageous considerations. 

First. As part of a chain of continuous boulevards encircling Washing- 
ton with picturesque promenades, connecting a circuit of outlying parks, 
precisely after the system of the Metropolitan Park Commission of Massa- 
chusetts, which is now nearing completion, to the unanimous satisfaction 
of the people, having been accomplished during a continuous tenure of 
authority for eight j^ears by an expenditure of about $10,000,000. 

Details of this history will be quoted later in argument for the conclu- 
sions of these papers, that similar legislation and administration are indis- 
pensable for a systematic and complete aggrandizement of Washington. 

The Mall is in splendid preparation for its commencement before 




56 



58 CENTENNIAL AVENUE. 

the Capitol at the Botanic Garden. It should not be confined to rigid 
parallel lines, but be broken at intervals by widenings, with sites for cen- 
tral gardens, statues, pavilions, or plots of foliage or trees, relieving it from 
rigidity, yet clearing an unbroken vista for the eye to its grand termini — 
the Dome of the Capitol and the pediment of the Memorial Parthenon. 

Thus all desired verdure would be preserved with enhanced effect in 
adornment of architectural elegance. 

Since the above outline sketch of the boulevard through the Mall was 
sent to press, the plan of Colonel Bingham has been made public. Serious 
objections to it are: 

First. Appropriation of a large portion of Potomac Park to a military 
parade ground. This would mean a large, hard, graveled surface, or, 
if grassed, much broken and injured, treeless, for only an occasional use. 

The parade ground should be much larger and be located across the 
memorial bridge in Virginia, where land could be had at less cost than 
on the city side. 

Later constructions may be added of sections of a circus maximus (see 
Fig. 7) that, with the increase of population, will be extended until the 
entirety of Fig. 7 will be an accomplished fact, to receive 100,000 or 
200,000 auditors for parades or military exercises en masse. In concrete 
reenforced by steel the structure could be imperishable, quickly dried from 
rains, never to need repair, and inexpensive proportionately to the occa- 
sional makeshift stagings of wood. 

Second. The block between E and B streets should never be cut diag- 
onally by New York and Virginia avenues. A large share of the land is 
wasted for advantageous use by the triangular lots left on both sides 
running to a point, useless for large building, as are those now on the 
south side of Pennsylvania avenue. (See plans, pages 103-1 17, for good 
use of the land.) 

The proposition for a Centennial avenue has been somewhat discounte- 
nanced for reasons as follows: 

Against it as " taking 23 acres out of our largest city park. That is 
what an avenue 200 feet wide by a mile means. ' ' 

There is a roadway 30 feet wide through the Mall from Third street to 
the river," claimed to be sufficient. 

The avenue is assumed ' ' to run straight from the Capitol to the bridge, 
dividing the beautiful reservation in twain. ' ' 

The advocacy of the avenue herein is most urgently in its connection 
with a picturesque, shaded, ornamented, meandering, environing bou- 
levard of the capital, such as now sweeps around Boston in unbroken 
beauty. It is to be exclusively a pleasure drive, unmarred by din of 
traffic, railroad travel, shop hunting, drayage, etc. 

Imagine an afternoon's turnout of the fine liveries of the city turned 
from such loveliness and quiet for a mile across Pennsylvania avenue. 

Pennsylvania avenue will remain a business thoroughfare. Condem- 



REPORT MASSACHUSETTS METROPOUTIAN PARK COMMISSION. 59 

nation of the entire south side and the easterly end to Four-and-a-half 
street will reduce its business frontage more than one-half, greatly 
increasing the value of the remainder. 

As an occasional route of a procession it would be used at discretion. 

Centennial avenue, if treated as it should be, would take nothing from 
the area of the park, nothing from its shade and beauty, but add greatly 
to both. It can follow present road lines in part. 

It should not be straight, but varied in its lines to curves to inclosed 
squares, relieved by fountains, Pompeian hemicycles as resting places, 
porticoes with elevated esplanades (see Fig. 34) , etc. . With these features 
it would be the most picturesque section of the Ringstrasse of Washing- 
ton, while its course above the hills on the north and the south would 
a stimulating contrast in panoramic splendor. 

The arguments annexed from the Report of the Massachusetts Metro- 
politan Park Commission for the condemnation of lands around Boston 
for boulevards, maybe applied almost exactly to Washington: 

Our national capital is one of the best instances of a great city planned 
with a view to its growth into what it has now become, and it is conse- 
quently easier to provide it with the equipment necessary for a modern 
municipality than almost any other center of population. 

Nothing appears to be better settled than the fact that a population 
living under urban conditions, amidst the incessant activity and the 
excitement incident to city life, must, for the maintenance of its health 
and the perpetuation of desirable types of humanity, be afforded frequent 
opportunities for the relaxation of the strain which these conditions of 
life impose ; and these opportunities are best found in the means of 
escape into more natural and agreeable surroundings. 

Thereto must be added the requirements of the growing generations 
in the shape of ample playground facilities, situated within convenient 
distances of their homes, where sport and exercise in the open air may 
be obtained, developing the body and quickening the senses, while 
removing children from other modes of amusement most detrimental 
physically and morally. Without resources of this kind the suburban 
movement of population, which has been hailed as presenting a com- 
plete solution to the tenement-house and other crying evils common to 
a dense population, would by no means prove the blessing anticipated. 
In fact, it would furnish only a very temporary benefit. 

Another aspect of the problem is one which is more strictly sanitative 
in character, and is furnished by the present conditions of the streams 
and other water spaces, to prevent the pollution of which prompt atten- 
tion and treatment are demanded. It would seem that the simplest, 
cheapest, and most effective method of dealing with this problem, and 
therefore the most practical, is furnished by combining therewith the 
recreative purposes which a stream and its shores can usually be made to 
serve in most abundant measure. 



60 REPORT MASSACHUSETTS METROPOLITAN PARK COMMISSION. 

One of the greatest obstacles, and the one perhaps the most difficult 
to be overcome, in the way of realizing, under the initiative of the respec- 
tive communities, the establishment of the desired open spaces throughout 
the district, is the fact that in most cases their resources are strained to 
the utmost extent to meet the demands imposed by their rapid increase 
in population. 

The average shortsightedness is too often such that people do not 
consider that the charms that make many of our suburbs the pleasant 
dwelling places that they now are — namely, the various rural attractions 
existing in their midst or in their near neighborhoods — must for the most 
part certainly disappear as with the growth of population the character 
of these localities becomes more and more urban. They are, however, 
liable some day to awake suddenly to the unpleasant consciousness that 
their charm has vanished. 

Local breathing spaces and the existence of pleasant features of natu- 
ral scenery in the neighborhood are really as essential to the moral and 
physical health of a community as the more absolutely utilitarian 
improvements that are usually given the^ precedence. 

Boston has until very lately grown in a most accidental and hap- 
hazard way. It has cost the city more to undo the mistakes perpetrated 
through the shortsightedness of former generations than it has to pro- 
vide for its legitimate growth. It is therefore time for it to grow 
intelligently and to proceed along carefully considered lines of develop- 
ment. These lmes have already been laid down or are now being laid 
down in several important directions, and their extension in others is 
thereby made all the more desirable. 

If these sites are not now secured, their destruction at no remote day 
is sure. Even though in some of these instances the land might remain 
comparatively unoccupied for years to come, their present attractive 
character would be certain to disappear. Observations made in all 
parts of the metropolitan district lead to these conclusions. The land 
would in many cases, perhaps, remain cheap. But it should be remem- 
bered that cheap lands, when of a picturesque character, are costly to 
develop in the proper manner for residence purposes. Yet their very 
cheapness makes them a continuous temptation for improper and unde- 
sirable occupation, so that when at last the time came imperatively requir- 
ing something to be done for meeting the needs of the great population, 
the sites would nearly, if not quite, have lost all of their present attract- 
iveness. While they might remain cheap, they would certainly have 
become nasty. That such a fate would be sure to overtake them is 
predicated by the experiences of Boston in the creation of some of the 
most essential features of its park system, the cost of which, through 
neglect to take up the problem in time, has been enormously increased. 

From estimates upon the averages of assessed valuations, it is reason- 



REPORT MASSACHUSETTS METROPOLITAN PARK COMMISSION. 6 1 

able to conclude that an expenditure of $1,000,000, together with what 
might be looked for from private beneficence, will secure the reservation 
of the most important of the sites that have been considered, amounting 
in the aggregate to several thousand acres. 

This expenditure is trivial in comparison with the cost of constructing 
a single fort or mortar battery on the shores of the bay, or a ship of war, 
or even a new court-house or city hall, while the benefits received are 
incomparable in comparison. 

Another class of reservations than those required more strictly for 
recreative purposes is comprised in those connected with questions of 
health and drainage. These are to be regarded as perhaps first in 
pressing importance, but they involve problems of a more extended and 
intricate nature. 

A third class of public open spaces are those that mainly serve to 
augment and protect a water supply. It is often essential that a consid- 
erable tract of land should be taken for the purpose of guarding a water 
supply against pollution. The conditions under which such a tract must 
be maintained to serve best its purpose — free from human occupancy 
and kept in as natural a condition as possible, for the most part covered 
with a varied forest growth, and including storage basins of a lake-like 
character — are such as often to adapt the territory also to purposes of 
recreation. Of such a type is a large proportion of the Lynn woods, 
the beautiful territory of more than 2,000 acres reserved for public 
purposes by the joint action of the park and water boards of that city. 

In considering the stake which Boston itself has in the establishment 
of such a metropolitan park system, notwithstanding so much has been 
done within its own limits, the same factor of a community of interests 
appears. The city of New York a few years ago acquired one of its 
largest and finest park sites outside of its own limits, on the shore of 
Long Island Sound, in the town of Pelham, in Westchester County. 
London has gone far beyond its bounds in establishing some of its recent 
parks, and the great reservation of Epping Forest was restored to public 
use through the exertions of the corporation of the city of London. 
Burnham Beeches, a favorite park of the people of the British metropolis, 
also established by the same corporation, lies much farther to the west- 
ward of Loudon's center of population than Framiugham does from 
Boston. 

The number of persons drawn to Boston by its general advantages in 
the way of a beautiful and well cared for modern capital — its educational 
facilities, its music, its museums, its artistic character, and its beautiful 
suburban and rural surroundings — is enormous. The numbers increase 
extensively year by year, and this forms one of the chief elements in a 
city's growth in desirable population and in its marvelously augment- 
ing prosperity. 



62 REPORT MASSACHUSETTS METROPOLITAN PARK COMMISSION. 

It is therefore essential that these elements of attractiveness should be 
maintained and enhanced, and their permanence assured. Many of 
these picturesque and beautiful sites in the surrounding country form 
features by no means slight among these elements of attractiveness. Hence 
it seems important that these various tracts should be immediately 
acquired, for the reason that all of them can now be secured at com- 
paratively small cost, and all would be for the common benefit of the 
metropolitan district. 

The interests of a city or town in this respect can therefore not be 
centered upon any particular locality within its own limits, except from 
the one sordid point of view of improving the assessable value of real 
estate. And even here this limitation can not be strictly made, for the 
desirability of a community as a place of residence, and therefore the 
value of real property there, is often determined, to a considerable extent, 
by the landscape features lying outside of its own limits. 

For instance, the town of Brookline, which is one of the most pros- 
perous and best-equipped communities in the Commonwealth, owes much 
of its attractiveness to the fact that the public pleasure grounds of Boston 
lie in its near neighborhood, including such features as Franklin Park, 
the Arnold Arboretum, the beautiful driveway around the Chestnut 
Hill Reservoir, and Jamaica Pond and its shores — a system of improve- 
ments upon which Boston has expended millions of dollars, but which, 
enjoyed by the inhabitants of neighboring cities and towns without cost 
to themselves, form for the people of Brookline in particular favorite 
resorts in their drives and rides. 

The city of Lynn, in its noble public forest, the "L,ynn Woods," 
shows a remarkable instance of what public spirit and a wise policy of 
municipal foresight can accomplish. This great woodland reservation of 
more than 2,000 acres serves the purpose of a grand public pleasure 
ground, incidentally to the protection of the zuater supply of the city. This 
consists of three beautiful basins occupying the sites of former swamps, 
and having shores largely of rock and covered with a forest growth. 
Throughout the woods are many scenes of rare sylvan beauty, and the 
territory is made conveniently and comfortably accessible to the public 
from nearly all parts by a system of drives and walks. The drives were 
constructed partly by the water board and partly by the park depart- 
ment, and the foot paths by the latter at a very slight expense. The 
Lynn woods furnish a telling example of what can be easily and 
economically accomplished in other parts of the metropolitan district, 
supplying most valuable recreation grounds of a character that can be 
maintained at the minimum of expense. 

Striking a colonnaded plaza at the entrance of Memorial Bridge, cross- 
ing the Potomac thereon through the Pavilion Bridge above described, 
the Boulevard would course through the Virginia uplands, recrossing by 



REPORT MASSACHUSETTS METROPOLITAN PARK COMMISSION. 63 

the present bridge to the overlooking heights at the north, with a view 
over the city to the river at the south, returning by the Soldiers' Home 
or through other picturesque routes (with which the writer is unac- 
quainted) to the Capitol. 

The betterments that would follow upon the announcement of such 
projected delights would more than defray all cost, as has been the result 
from park improvements in other cities. They would bring to the 
Treasury a profit of income, as has been the fact in New York and Boston. 

The landscape architects, in their preliminary report, 1893, to the legis- 
lature of Massachusetts, wrote: 

For those who can not travel should be provided access to the best scenery —fields, 
woods, ponds, riverside banks, valleys, and hills. 

Within ten years the development of trolley electric roads has brought 
suburban into urban districts. Outlying lands of cities have suddenly 
been practically added to them and the population is flowing to them for 
homes. Chevy Chase and other projected building properties will quickly 
be within the boundaries of Washington. The picturesque features on 
healthful elevations which were the basis of speculative enterprise will 
be lost in divisions and subdivisions of lots for sale, and present oppor- 
tunities to secure fractions of them for the delight of all the people will 
be barred. 

The wise, far-seeing policy that organized the Massachusetts Metro- 
politan Park Commission struck for existing chances to secure all lands 
to be wanted in the future. They have purchased thousands of acres 
in or adjacent to thirty-six cities and towns, leaving their elaborate im- 
provement for following generations. It is a model for imitation to 
Washington and all other cities of rapid growth. 

In Massachusetts these conditions had existed through years in rela- 
tion to a desired system of parks for many cities and towns. Finally 
legislation thoroughly and satisfactorily accomplished the task. It is a 
model in its most important provisions for Washington. 

The annexed slip is a brief statement of its history from commence- 
ment to finish: 



BEST PARK SYSTEM ON THE CONTINENT. 

[From the Rochester Post- Express.] 

The present year marks an important turning point in the history of the great 
park system in and around Boston. The year has long been looked forward to, and 
the report which the commissioners would make in it has been anticipated with the 
keenest interest. It was rendered on Saturday. The parks which are accessible 
from Boston are now generally recognized as, taken all in all, the most complete and 
varied in scope, the most systematically arranged and fully praiseworthy of any that 
are to be found about a municipality in the United States. They are unfinished ; 



64 REPORT MASSACHUSETTS METROPOLITAN PARK COMMISSION. 

but with their promise in view, considering what has been done in a short time, and 
their popular origin, they are perhaps without rival anywhere as city parks. Strictly 
speaking, the Boston park system is a small matter ; while the metropolitan park 
system, in which are included the parkways and nearly all the great recreation and 
beauty spaces that one usually identifies in thought with the Boston parks, is a large 
matter. 

In 1892 three commissioners were appointed for one year to consider 
the advisability of laying out ample open spaces for the public in thirty- 
six towns and cities that surround Boston, and to report to the next 
legislature a comprehensive plan. Their reports, in 1893 and 1900, con- 
tain passages of such direct bearing upon the welfare of Washington 
that they are appended. 

The report of 1893 was accepted and a metropolitan park commission 
appointed with power to condemn lands to 1900, with annual appropri- 
ations upon their recommendations. These have always been granted. 
Their report for 1900 states: 

The commissioners report that substantially all the lands for the system outlined 
by the general plan of 1893 have not only been authorized, but have also been 
acquired, or are now in process of acquirement. From this time forward the 
problem will be, then, principally that of maintenance. The system is created. 

In detail, the acquisitions which complete the great task assigned them eight 
years ago, viz, 9,279 acres of forest, seashore, and river bank; also land for 17 miles 
of parkways, of which 12 have been constructed and opened for use. The board has 
now the duty as managing trustees to care for $10,000,000 worth of property to be 
banded on for constant improvement in beauty and usefulness. 

Their administration has given universal satisfaction to the people, 
who revel in the facilities for health and pleasure provided, although 
with assumption of continued expenditure in the future. 

[Extracts from Report of the Metropolitan Park Commission for 1900.] 

Each appropriation for this work has been made by the legislature 
after an exhaustive hearing upon a petition presented by citizens or 
municipalities of the district, and has been based upon the reports of the 
commission. While these appropriations have been general in form, 
and have left the commission free from instructions, the purpose for 
which they were made has been well understood and has been followed 
as far as possible. The result has been that the district, the legisla- 
ture, and the commission have been in accord, and have adhered very 
closely to the general plan outlined at the beginning of the work in 
1893. In brief, that plan contemplated preserving and making available 
a series of reservations which should include the best scenery of wood- 
land, river bank, and seashore within the metropolitan parks district, 
comprising Boston and the thirty-six other cities and towns in a radius 
of about 12 miles from the Statehouse. 

Within estimates based upon these appropriations the commission has 
thus far acquired about 9,279 acres of forest, seashore, and river bank; 




S. Doc. 209— Pt. 3 5 



65 



66 SIXTH AGGRANDIZEMENT. 

and has cared for and to some extent developed these reservations for 
the purposes for which they are held. There has also been acquired the 
land for 17 miles of parkways or boulevards, of which about 12 miles 
have been constructed and opened for use. 

The forest or woods reservations aggregate 7,393.82 acres. They 
have been selected for their intrinsic worth, rather than for their 
position in the district. 

River reservations on Charles, Neponset, and Mystic rivers aggregate 
1,771.87 acres. 



Sixth Aggrandizement. 
Porticoes for shelter and for luxurious bromenade. 

. ^jy jlM w / ^v-. 

. . « — . — . — * — »— * — « — . — . — . — 9--^ 

' rr»T* »«♦ ♦ • ♦ ** ♦ • : • ♦ •• ** ♦♦"•in 
-1,4 _♦ »•>♦•-« •-♦ V* +JHk± ♦ ♦♦♦♦♦.r -' 




n-« • -- ♦ » . 

No. 35. — Ground plan of porticoes 30 feet wide in center of boulevard 200 feet wide, having on each 
side bridle paths 25 feet wide; roadway with walk 60 feet wide, shaded with four rows of trees. 

Centennial avenue is strongly advocated, with colonnaded porticoes at 
intervals for the comfort and pleasure of the people. 

First. For the main thoroughfares of pedestrians — at first in sections 
on Pennsylvania avenue and Sixteenth street. Ultimately they would 
force the change of the north side to an arcaded Rue Rivoli a la Hauss- 
mann. Their popularity will demand them on the grand Massachu- 
setts and Rhode Island avenues, giving ranges for luxurious promenade 
through the center to the limits of the city. 

Second. As accessories of boulevards and parks for exercise and 
pleasure. 

Third. In connection of and with grandiose structures which receive 
great numbers of people. 

These count but few of the many streets, but streets which frequently 
receive all of the population. 

Elsewhere trees will be the first natural, as the Capitol is the first 
artificial, glory of Washington. 

Not long since one of a visiting committee of German ironmasters 
said: "Washington is the most beautiful city in the world. I looked 
down from the Washington Monument and saw a city in a park." 



68 



PORTICOES OF ANCIENT NATIONS. 



Yet on Pennsylvania avenue trees are not a success, and to its 
increasing throngs will never be a shelter. 

Colonnades herein proposed will in parks be combined with trees for 
beauty. They will be a mutual enhancement in the landscape. They 
are a marked feature in the style of park treatment in Italy, the country 
that has inherited a classic taste. 

See Fig. 36, the introduction of a peristyle, that its exquisite proportions 
may be adorned with nature's drapery. 

Pausanias, in his description of the architectural glories of Athens, 
elaborates upon the number and beauties of the porticoes, not only within 
the city, but outside thereof, and at its port, Piraeus. He says: " From 
the gate to the Ceramicus there are several porticoes, the fronts of which 




No. 37.— The ruined porticoes of Palmyra. 

are adorned with brass figures of the most celebrated personages of both 
sexes." He describes the decorations of the King's Portico and others 
in detail. 

Adrian built a portico of Phrygian marble, with ceilings of alabaster. 

Pausanias mentions several porticoes besides those which lead to the 
Acropolis, "which have their fronts and ceilings of marble, and which, 
for ornament and magnitude of the stones, are superior to an)^thing in 
existence. ' ' Beneath these ample porticoes more than in the contracted 
grove of Plato were evolved the attainments of Greek civilization in art 
and literature — exemplars to their Roman conquerors and to all succeed- 
ing races. 

A study of the architectural grandeur and luxury which environed the 
ancient civilizations shows that porticoes were most extensive and 
important structures for the health and pleasure of the people in lati- 
tudes approximating that of Washington. 

Palmyra, Antioch, Athens, Rome, Carthage stimulated the vigor and 



PORTICOES OF ANCIENT CITIES. 



69 



cheer of their populations by the charms of sheltered colonnades for 
public resort. "The ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tedmoor in the 
Desart" (Wood, L,ondon, 1753) has a frontispiece 4 feet in length, 
showing sections of a portico 4,000 feet in continuous range. 

Bulwer wrote, " However modern civilization may in some things sur- 
pass the ancients, it is certainly not in luxury or splendor. " " Amidst 
the delights of Susa, the very porticoes of whose palaces might enclose 
the limits of a city." "Men stood awed and dazzled in the courts of 
that wonder of the world, that crown of the East, the marble magnifi- 
cence of Palmyra." 




No. 38. — A colonnaded court. Palazzi di Roma. Pietro Ferrerio, 1635. 

A rich design for a colonnade around the Washington Monument; an esplanade to be reached 
by staircases for promenade. Around its frieze, in letters of gold bronze, should be: Let it rise till 
it meet the sun in his coming ; let the earliest light of morning gild it, and let parting day linger 
and play upon its summit. — Webster. For the tablets other appropriate quotations. 



In covetous imitation of Grecian luxury, Augustus "made porticoes 
popular." He covered the "whole campus with colonnades, under the 
shelter of which it was possible to cross the plain from one end to the 
other. ' ' The example of Augustus was followed down to the very fall of 
the Empire, and even afterwards, as shown by the porticoes of Constan- 
tine, Gratian, Valeutinian, Theodosius, and, lastly, by those which led 
from the yElian Bridge to St. Peter's and from the Porta Ostiensis to St. 
Paul's. 

' ' If these structures are considered as a system their importance in- 
creases tenfold. Beneath them citizens could walk in every season and at 
any hour under shelter from wind, rain, cold, and the heat of the sun." 



TO 



ROMAN PORTICOES. 



The- poets, Martial especially, allude to the delight of enjoying the 
warmth of "sunshine in winter, while outsiders shivered in the blasts 
of the tramontana. The spaces between the columns were walled in 




No. 39. — Pompeii restored. Porticoes of the forum and temples. 

graceful designs with boxwood. At the end of the Empire it was possible 
to walk under shelter a distance of nearly 2 miles. The development 
of the twelve larger colonnades of the Campus Martius only amounts to 




No. 40. — Restoration of the Palaces of the Caesars on the Palatine Hill, by Spadoni, archaeologist at Rome, 1895. 

over 15,000 feet range (nearly 3 miles); the sheltered surface to 7 acres; 
total area, with central gardens, 25 acres; number of columns, about 
2,000. " J 



Lanciani. Ruins and excavations of ancient Rome. 



ADVANTAGES OF PORTICOES. 



71 



Nor were porticoes the exclusive luxury of great capitals, but a com- 
mon provision for comfort of citizens in small provincial cities. Pompeii 
(of about 20,000 population) abounded with them. The great Forum 
and the courts of all the temples were surrounded by them. 

Considering their practical utility, they supplied shelter within inclo- 
sures of exquisite beauties at all times from rain, wind, heat, and sun 
glare impossible from trees above. A broad and even shade to the eyes 
from overhead from dazzling rays, a solid shelter from scorching sun 
blasts, are blessings only to be appreciated from experience. The wel- 
come arcades of southern France, Spain, Italy, Algiers, of Turin, Barce- 
lona, etc., are a delicious recollection to those who have retreated to 
them, with the writer, in Genoa, Rome, and Naples from a July sun at 
zenith. If notice be taken of parties in conversation in full sun force, it 
will be seen that unconsciously both have eyes nearly closed for relief. 




u 



***** *MM 



No. 41. Design for a portico on the Boulevard, with solarium. 

None of the above-named cities have more occasion for such construc- 
tion than Washington. All compelled to frequent Pennsylvania avenue 
in the heated term know of its scorching atmosphere, with no protection, 
even of trees, from the heat absorbed by and radiating from its bricks and 
melting asphalt. 

Let an experimental 500 feet be built on the avenue, 25 feet wide on 
either side, and the popularity of the conception will be demonstrated 
in use. 

The advantages of porticoes are argued thus far solely as an expedient 
for the warm seasons. They are almost as fully to be adduced for all 
seasons of the year. The passage from Martial above quoted tells of 
their "delight of enjoying therein in Rome the warmth of sunshine 
while outsiders shivered." 

By defense against winds from the cold quarters they became 



V- 



MODERN ARCADES AND COLONNADES. 



"solaria" — -sun parlors. 1 These were an almost universal charm of 
Roman life — provided with defense from the alpine and coast winds in the 
porticoes, with openings toward the sun, but with the same appliances 
upon the house tops for domestic control of cold or heat. 

The design annexed (p. 71) supplies above a portico a "solarium." 
The exposures to cold winds are to be defended by iron and glass, while 
open to the warmth of the southern sun. What beneficence to supply to 
invalids such retreats in the seasons of harsh winds, where they may 
bask in sunlight in open air above the barren tree tops! 





No. 42.— Arcades and colonnades in Bologna. 

No city in the world is planned for such superb utilization of public 
porticoes as Washington by its avenues of extraordinary width, consid- 
ering the light demands upon them for the movement of traffic. 

If commenced, they will have such development as to make Washington 
sui generis a modern Rome, Athens, or Palmyra — monumental in public 
porticoes, foci of popular comfort and pleasure. 

'The sun parlor is now an essential provision in large high-class modern hotels. 
The writer has satisfaction in his impression that its first appearance was in the 
Casa Monica, St. Augustine, 18S9 ( vide Part II, fig. 40), in a "Sala del Sol"— Hall 
of the Sun. 



AN EXECUTIVE AVENUE. 73 

Seventh Aggrandizement. 

Clearance of Sixteenth street from shanties, htmble-down stables, etc. — 

Its adornment as a bisecting boulevard — Its name to be 

Executive Avemie. 

The spacious streets of Washington, lovely in verdure at seasons, are 
wretchedly marred by rookeries, etc., intermingled with splendid dwell- 
ings. There is no prospect of relief from this hideousness except by legis- 
lative compulsion. On Sixteenth street, one of the most important and 
elegant avenues, they have been undisturbed for thirty or forty years. 

The annexed views (p. 74) were taken on the 28th of March, 1900, on 
the east and west sides of Sixteenth street, five blocks from the White 
House. They are on the central road to the hills and parks at the 
north. They are specimens of what exist throughout the cit}' commin- 
gled with the finest residences. Many of them were primitive hovels on 
the land, and have been unchanged, except by dilapidation. There is 
no certainty of change with any of them, but probability of permanence 
with many. Instances are known where such deformities have been 
actually built in malice against neighbors or for compulsion to force an 
exorbitant price in sale. 

Nothing can be done to suppress such offensiveness, discouraging to 
elegant improvements and adverse to the values of adjacent estates, 
except through power of condemnation. Such shantyism is an aggra- 
vated nuisance, for it adds to conspicuous deformities objectionable 
occupation. 1 The same public right that condemns real estate incon- 
gruous with a park entrance plainly exists with reference to such 
properties on grand avenues. ' ' The superiority of the rights of the 
public over the ownership of individuals is a right recognized by the 
courts as existent and is constantly enforced by judicial decree." 

It is the impossibility of reaching avaricious, obstinate single owners, 
waiting for a sharp opportunity, that holds back improvement. In con- 
demnation owners would receive only their present value, and justly, 
for they would then realize a great advance through the investments of 
others. 

There are various expedients for adornment of vacant lots at .small 
expense. 

Frequently neighborhood syndicates would agree in advance to take 
the land at the price of condemnation and make prescribed improvements. 

'The writer would by no means imply that all such humble dwellings are objec- 
tionable in their occupation. Coming from the North, he has observed with 
pleasure the neatness and thrift of many of the colored population and their unob- 
trusive bearing on the streets and in the street cars. 

There are many colored people to be preferred as neighbors in cities to many white 
folks of their population. Sensible people among the poor would assist public 
improvements the enjoyment of which they could share in common with all. 



PLAYSTKADS AND PLAYGROUNDS. 75 

Associations of adjacent owners might improve vacant lots for play- 
steads for small children, for tennis courts, ornamental grounds with 
bowers, etc. , for their members. 

There is not sufficient provision in cities for infants and 3'oung chil- 
dren. One often exclaims, "Poor little things! " when they are seen in 
their ornate carriages in a wealth of finery, but perchance with their 
faces in the sun — intense heat reflected around them from a hard gravel 
walk — while the maids hold a conversazione in the shade. 

Listen to an official report to the Metropolitan Park Commission of 
Massachusetts. F. L,. Olmsted and Charles Eliot, landscape architects, 
wrote: "Agreeable and numerous open-air nurseries and playgrounds 
for small children are perhaps more necessary than the broad gravel 
ways for adults. Every crowded neighborhood ought to be provided 
with a place removed from the paved streets, in which mothers, babies, 
and small children may find apartments to rest, sleep, and play in the 
open air." 

They did not add in description what they provided, viz, covered 
seats in playgrounds and seats under roof in pkaysteads, as in the parks 
of Boston. (See Fig. 48.) 

Note the sand beds, boxed and fenced. If the little ones could be 
delivered occasionally from their lace adornment — (not always, by any 
means! for their loveliness could not be spared entirely from amid the 
flowers of the parks) — that they could disport in loose frocks in the sand 
as on the seashore, it would be a gain to their health and happiness, as 
likewise in consequence for their mothers. 

Vacant lots could be thus utilized. The front line could be screened 
in verdure, adding beauty to the vicinity; 

Construct temporary frames as screen facades in architectural forms, 
in sections 1 — to be easily transferred elsewhere — cover them with metal 
lathing and that with cement concrete. Plant the Ampelopsis veitchii 2 

1 This expedient solves the difficulty lately debated in the Star of one-story stores 
on Pennsylvania avenue, rendering excessive height of new constructions still 
more prominent. Screen facades of concrete of rich design can be built at trifling 
expense. They would require no repair; could be sold for use repeatedly if made in 
sections. It is a trifling matter to add reveals of cornices and window frames, or 
still more cheaply, they can be simulated with shadows and perspective by the brush, 
as is frequently done in Germany for temporary enrichment. V. Figs. 45, 46, 47. 

2 Washington has not enough appreciated this beautiful and wonderful climber. 
There are some proud effects with it on churches and dwellings to be remarked — 
instance in the Grecian facade on the south of Farragut square. Its nature is the 
reverse of the dangling Virginia creeper or woodbine. That grows rapidly; is not 
closely self-clinging; opens to the wind with rain and then covers the dampness 
from the sun; nurtures an especially offensive worm. The ampelopsis, by its mar- 
velous microscopic pad feet as suckers, draws dampness from the walls into the vine. 
It overlaps closely with its leaves like the scales of armor, protecting from storms. 
It takes the most graceful pendency of all foliage. It is superb in color, especially 
gorgeous in autumn. It is hardy, needing no care; long lived, covering great areas. 
For city rusticity it is sui generis. See page 85 and Addenda. 



76 



VERDANT SCREEN FACADES. 






EKI 
/■■ 

Mfflfflfip 



If pmrnni 
ft! ill 




fo. 45isa design which can he endlessly varied 
for a screen front. It is in movable sections 
braced from the rear by a scaffold ascending 
to the balcony, for life in the open air, which 
Americans have not learned to enjoy like 
Europeans. The ampelopsis is planted at 
the base. 



MM 



■3 l . r 



No. 46 is the tower of Villa Zorayda, to which 
the ivy climbed in three years. Professor 
Northrop used a slide of it in his lectures 
on Village Improvement as a gem of nature's 
adornment. 




No. 47 is of the Hotel Granada, St. Augustine. The first story is of solid concrete. The second and 
third stories are of concrete in metal lathing % inch in thickness. 



PLAYSTEADS AND PLAYGROUNDS. 77 

(Japanese or Boston ivy), and in two or three years its graceful pendency 
would feast the eye more than the adjoining dull, hard, brick front of the 
elaborate dwelling. 

The annexed illustrations demonstrate the practicability of these sug- 
gestions. 

Behind such screens on the avenues of Washington let the babies 
rollic. Parents and friends will seek them to admire more than on the 
bare walks or even the grass of the parks (if permitted there). 

There was an unlettered country maiden who had a soul with Nature. 
Her heart in joyousness frisked with the lambs. Explanation of her 
happiness re'quested, she said : ' ' It is delightsome to go into the fields 
when they are green, and see the young lambs bound, rebound, and 
tettary- bound, coz if s Natur capurin\" 

An appeal to parents to help their little ones join in " Natur' s 
capurin' ' ' is not amiss in the lofty theme of these papers. They aim at 
the good and happiness of the people — all who count as the population of 
Washington, and the present count of the census will begin with the 
babies. 

EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF MASSACHUSETTS METROPOLITAN PARK 
COMMISSION. 

' ' The subject of smaller open spaces for local playgrounds or ' ' breath- 
ing spots," as they are appropriately called, is one so different in its 
nature as to require a separate consideration and a different method of 
treatment. Being more of local concern, it is hardly to be expected that 
they should be provided for by the same means proposed for a general 
system of metropolitan parks, the various features of which are of 
moment to the entire community. 

" It is desirable that every well-inhabited section of the metropolitan 
district should have one of these local pleasure grounds within easy 
reach, so that without difficulty women and children can resort thither 
from their homes without the least danger of fatigue. 

"Excellent examples, however, of what such local pleasure grounds 
should be — and, indeed, perhaps the best of their kind in the world, in 
many respects — are some of the new grounds that have been created by 
the park department of the city; for instance, the Charlesbank, the 
Play stead of Franklin Park, and the new playgrounds now under con- 
struction at Chariest own, East Boston, and in connection with the 
Marine Park at South Boston. 

' ' The Charlesbank may be cited as an ideal pleasure ground of its sort, 
providing for the wants of a densely populated neighborhood in a 
remarkably varied way, giving opportunities for the restful enjoyment 
of the fresh air in the summer cooled by the waters of the river, for 
beholding the very interesting spectacle of varied aquatic life, for the 



7S 



PLAYSTEAD AND PLAYGROUND IN BOSTON. 




DIAGRAM 
showing WOMEN'S GYMNASIUM 



No. 48.— Plan of women's gymnasium and children's playstead in Boston— covered seats before the 
turf playground for little girls; sand courts, swings, etc. 



GYMNASIUM — CHARXESBANK, BOSTON. 



79 




8o 



GYMNASIUM— CHARLESBANK, BOSTON. 




PLAYSTEAD CHAREKSBANK, BOSTON. 



8 1 




S. Doc. 209— Pt. 3 6 



82 OUTDOOR PLEASURES. 

athletic recreation of both sexes in first-class outdoor gymnasiums, boat- 
ing on the river, provision for the enjoyment of little children and 
infants and for taking care of them while their mothers are at work. 
An institution of this kind is one great remedy for the ills of city life 
which some of our reformers have seen in it. Indeed, it would be well 
to consider, in the antitenement-house agitation, that the suburban 
movement has already converted the outlying sections very extensively 
into tenement-house regions. 

"The suitable establishment of local pleasure grounds is a subject that 
is occupying much attention in other parts of the world. In England, 
for instance, the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association, of London, 
under the chairmanship of the Earl of Meath, has performed invaluable 
service in promoting the establishment of open spaces, and information 
concerning this work is constantly being sought from various parts of 
the world. These achievements include the establishment of new play- 
grounds, the improvement of old ones, the planting of trees, the erec- 
tion of fountains, contributions toward gymnasiums, etc. 

Casually has occurred mention of open-air life facilities. We return to 
add some words in urgency of it in a paper at Saratoga, 1894. They are 
as applicable in the gentle climate of Washington for a much longer 
period. 

The European hotel system is advocated for the large hotels in Saratoga, not only 
from the economies accruing to themselves and their patrons, but because it would 
supply the charming feature of life abroad — meals in open air. There breakfast 
and lunch in a garden, on a boulevard, a terrace, or a balcony are the rule, not only 
in inns and restaurants, but in domestic life. 

In continental countries, (.specially in Germany, the pavilion, with its table 
planted upon the angle of the little home garden overlooking the street, appears 
whenever possible. 

Phillips Brooks wrote as follows; 

"Bad-Gastf.ix, September 2, 1883. 
"To Gkrtih: 

" Everybody here eats his breakfast, luncheon, and dinner out of doors. 

" I like it and think I shall do so myself when I get home. 

"So when you come to breakfast we will have our table out on the grass plot in 
Newbury street, and Katie shall bring us our beefsteak there. "Will it not make the 
children stare as they go by to school? We'll toss the crumbs to the robins." 

The restaurant of the Art Museum in New York is to have a section in open air. 
Saratoga will not be a Spa in the full significance of the term until as in Spa of 
Belgium, which gave its name to others, the open-air restaurant in a pavilion or a 
garden, the economical renting of a room with opportunity to order coffee and a roll 
only at their fair worth, will be enticements of city denizens from their close-walled 
quarters. 

vStill more and for longer terms should out door life be stimulated in 
Washington. Proper park treatment will develop it. 

Again, when by condemnation the rubbishy lots shall be within 
control, another method of ornamentation with earning of income would 
be to construct partial buildings; for instance, two-story apartment 
flats with large rooms, popular for having but one staircase. Par- 



FOLIAGE ON CONCRETE. 



83 



tition walls could be built of materials and dimensions required by law 
for additions to three or four stories at pleasure. 

The front could be made of concrete plaster on metal lathing with iron 
studs, carrying an inner wall of the same. The air space would give 
even temperature and the whole would be fireproof. The third story 
could be carried up with a false front of handsome design, braced from 
the inside walls. The effect would be precisely that of a stone front. 
When covered with the Ampelopsis veitchii the inexpensive construc- 
tion would vie with many of great cost in desirableness for use and exter- 
nal beauty. 

All foundations and wall work would be on the building regulations, 
so that superstructures could utilize them without loss. 




No. 49. — A house of 



t concrete. Progress Publishing Company, New York. 



The introduction of concrete for temporary use would surely lead to 
its general adoption. There is too much brickwork in Washington — 
too much of its insignificance as a material and of its dull monotony of 
color. It is a welcome progress — the introduction of light brick; but 
their glazed surface is too smooth for the clinging toes of the .ampelopsis. 
Verdure — incomparable in the world — "A wide expanse of living verdure 
flowing round it like a sea" (Motley)— enwrapping the arbored streets 
of Washington, should be the fame of its natural adornment. Concrete has 
precisely the grained surface of stone that the vine loves as a support. 

Most opportunely is received at this writing an illustration of its appli- 
cation on the largest scale and perhaps the most conspicuous structure in 



84 FLORAL DECORATION IN EUROPE. 

the United States for the hiding of old brick walls and the substitution 
of desirable tone in color. 

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, 

Grand Central Station, 

New York, April iS, igoo. 
Dear Sir: In answer to your questions regarding the concrete facing on the ex- 
terior of the Grand Central Station, which has been referred to me by Mr. George 
H. Daniels, general passenger agent, I would say: 

( i ) The concrete facing of the lower stories was cast in blocks, on the premises, 
from models made originally from a cut-stone model, and averaging i8by 30 inches 
in size. The upper stories were covered with cement stucco applied directly to the 
rough brick. 

(2) One color only has been used, and that the natural color of light -colored 
Portland cement and white sand. 

I 3 1 The blocks are 1% inches in thickness. 
( 4 ) The whole building has been refaced on the street fronts. 

(5) It was done to give the whole building a surface uniform in color and mate- 
rial, inasmuch as three new stories had been built above the three old. 
(6)1 regret that I have no photographs of the v/ork. 
I am yours, verv truly, 

W. J. WlLGUS. 

Mr. Franklin W. Smith, 

Halls of the Ancients, Washington, D. C. 

It will not be long before this example will strike a contagion in 
Washington, and dull old brick fronts will be enlivened. In future it 
will be better to build them cheerfully at the outset at less expense, after 
Roman examples and modern European following — cheap brick walls 
with coarse joints faced with Portland cement concrete. Poor mortar 
used at times formerly, going to ruin, has given such practice a bad 
name. It has no relation to cement concrete. 

It is within the resources of all residents of comely houses in Wash- 
ington to add greatly to their exterior attractions by window displays of 
flowers. Observers of European life agree that with those nations there 
is a greater love of flowers than with Americans. It is more the fact 
with English, Germans, and Russians. Despite London's murk)^ atmos- 
phere in autumn, not only the windows of Belgravia, but through the 
encouragement of prizes for the best window boxes in the poorer dis- 
tricts, they are also brightened with geraniums, stocks, and nasturtiums. 

The short winters of Washington are an encouragement to this refin- 
ing home industry. In icy Russia houses have triple windows. The 
space between the inner two sashes is made a Wardian case, and Lyco- 
podia, the Maranta Zebrina, etc., fill the casement with verdure, wanting 
very little care. In dull Edinburg rich displays of foliage are made gay 
with the life and song of aviaries. Public spirit once awakened, the 
loss of foliage in the winter on the avenues may be largely and delight- 
fully compensated by household enterprise. Cyclamen alone will make 
a lovely exhibit of bloom throughout the winter. This topic will be 
profitable agitation at the Ladies' Club for promotion of contributory 
charms in aggrandizement of Washington. 



RUSTIC AND FLCRAI, DECORATION. 



8 5 



The above suggestions for the adornment of Sixteenth street as 
Executive avenue are plaiiuy applicable to all streets of Washington. 
One successful example would be contagious and lead to general im- 
provement. 1 

The following plate of the house of Mrs. S. S. Cox was taken by Mr. 
Handy, May 12, 1900. For other views of houses adjacent, see Addenda. 




House owned by Mrs. S. S. Cox— Dupoiit Circle. 



See Addenda No. 2, Municipal .-Esthetics, for able disquisition on the above topics. 



86 



A PARK ISTORIA 



Eighth Aggrandizement. 

The Park Istoria — sites ample for the Smithsonian Institution, National 
Museum, and many public buildings. 




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Presuming upon a condemnation of the 220 acres which, it has been 
shown, would be a most desirable acquisition at a low price, a study of 
its use in connection with the National Galleries reveals other important 
advantages that would result. 

The prospectus of 1891 proposed that it should be taken for a Park 
Istoria. Allowing 60 acres (including the Observatory lot) for the 
National Galleries, there would remain 160 acres for other purposes. 
By filling on the line of B street southward to Centennial avenue pro- 
posed, there would be acquired 120 acres additional, nearly 350 acres in 
a solid block. The plan annexed is an attractive appropriation of a 
portion of it, leaving a great area for future public buildings. 

"The capital has always deplored " the invasion of the park, accord- 
ing to the Star, for the structures that followed the first Norman group 
for the Smithsonian. "The Department of Agriculture, the forbidding 
Medical Museum, the Fish Commission, doomed to early removal, were 
mistakes. ' ' 

It would be a great and much-needed advance for the usefulness of 
the National Museum if the land could be obtained and enough assigned 
for its removal thereto with the enlargement demanded. Its brick 
factory-like construction is unartistic — unsightly in a park. Expendi- 
ture is now being made for additions that can be only temporary. It 
has vast material stored for lack of room. It covers now 2}i acres. It 
will demand 10 acres for present increase and prospective growth. 
Suggestion: Move the institution to the Park (to be) Istoria; nearly all 



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88 



DESIGN FOR COMBINATION HALLS. 



its materials can be utilized — brick, glass, etc. ; add its area to the Mall. 
It would offset the space for the boulevard, although that does not 
detract from its rural aspect. 

Copy for the new structure the Spanish style of Stanford University — 
plain surfaces with ornamentation about gateways only — rich, arresting 
admiration because, like a mosaic or a painting, it is single, not repeated. 
Let it be principally on one floor, with height ample for galleries. Build 
of concrete with hollow walls, with heavy walls to carry additions. 




No. 54. — One to S halls of 250 seats by movable partitions. 



Let the Ampelopsis drape its stone surfaces and hang from its roofs 
and towers. This can all be accomplished inexpensively compared with 
usual Government structures, using present material, for $400,000 to 
$500,000, the amount spent on the present insufficient building. 

The large area on a level above proposed for cheapness of construc- 
tion and facility of display revives the suggestion hereinbefore made of 
the automatic, slowly moving seats for visitors, avoiding all fatigue. 
Visits to museums have always been exhaustive to such a degree as to 



"a thicket of ologies." 89 

prevent study in comfort. By seats moving gently from point to point, 
prolonged visits would be delightful for old or young, rather than a dread. 

If the Museum were adjacent to the Galleries one power house could 
provide this great luxury for all their extent. 

A most important argument for the removal of the Museum, as above 
proposed, is that the institution would naturally supplement and coincide 
with the educational purposes of the Galleries of History and Art. The 
National Museum, under administration of the Smithsonian Institution, 
has its own important and distinctive field. To show how completely dis- 
tinct its useful fields of study and illustration are from the proposed 
National Galleries, the following statement is quoted from the late Presi- 
dent J. C. Welling, L,L.D., of the Columbian University, Washington: 

' ' The National Museum has twenty-two distinct scientific departments 
under its jurisdiction: The departments of comparative anatomy, of 
mammals, of birds, of reptiles, of fishes, of mollusks, of insects, of marine 
invertebrates, of plants, of fossil vertebrates, of Paleozoic fossil inverte- 
brates, of Mesozoic fossil invertebrates, of Cenozoic fossil invertebrates, of 
fossil plants, of geology and petrology, of mineralog}^ of metallurgy and 
mining, of prehistoric archaeology, of ethnology, of oriental antiquities, 
of American aboriginal pottery, of arts and industries, comprising under 
these last-named heads numismatics, graphic arts, foods, textiles, fisheries, 
historical relics, materia medica, naval architecture, history of transporta- 
tion, etc. President Gilman summarizes them as " a thicket of ologies. ' ' 

' ' Each of these departments is placed under a curator, and is provided 
with the necessary appliances for original research; and these appliances 
are yearly increasing in completeness and efficiency. ' ' 

It will be noticed that these make not the least approach to the field 
of knowledge proposed for cultivation by the Galleries of Ancient History 
and Art. They relate to explanations of modern science, and they draw 
exclusively from the natural sciences as exploited on the American 
continent; mechanical and scientific attainments of modern times. To 
pursue them indefatigably is the nobty important technical work of the 
Smithsonian Institution. American arch8Solog3 T is its specialt}\ 

For objective instruction in these departments it has drawn multitudes 
of objects, single specimens from nature and the practical arts. The 
National Museum perfectly illustrates the definition of its late Professor 
Goode, "a collection of instructive labels, each illustrated by a well- 
selected specimen. ' ' 

Were the able professor living to judge of the scheme of the National 
Galleries, he would gladly give it welcome as fulfilling his description 
of the want (vide Part I, p. 4) "for the people's museum of the future, 
much more than a house full of specimens in glass cases; a house full 
of ideas; the territory between science and art; the natural history of 
cult or civilization of man, his ideas and achievements, which museums 
have not yet learned to partition." 



90 



DWELLINGS OF MANKIND — GARNIER. 



Collateral with the above specialties of great popular interest would 
be a reproduction of examples of the habitations of men in all 

AGES. 

The idea was original with Viollet le Due for the exposition of 1889, 




No. 55. — Gamier. A Roman house. Paris, 



and was executed by Monsieur Gamier, architect of the National Opera, 
Paris. They were among the very most prominent attractions of the 
fair. Those were of temporary construction. 

For a permanent institution they would be upon a larger scale and 



^M; ; 




No. 56. — Gamier. A Byzantine house. Paris 



substantially built. They should have a central avenue directly to the 
via sacra of the Galleries. They could serve both to exhibit the 
domestic environment of the different nations, and also serve as resi- 
dences for the staff of administration. 



DWELLINGS OF MANKIND — GARNIER. 




No. 57.— F. W. Smith, architect. Saracenic design. Fvans, pinxt. 




No. 5S. — An original Chinese house. Paris, 1S79. 



92 A NATIONAL AVENUE — HOMES OF THE STATES. 

Speaker Reed, after an explanation of the National Galleries enterprise 
in the House of Pansa, Saratoga Springs, in 1896, with an addition of 
the Park Istoria for modern illustrations, gave to both superlative com- 
mendation (since written, Part I) and said that "the entire tract should 
be taken at once by the Government." 

Annexed are two of Gander's designs, Roman, Byzantine, a Saracenic 
by the author, and an original Chinese, presenting the striking contrasts 
of oriental and occidental styles. 

The plan shows sites on Seventeenth street, adjacent to the State 
Department, for public buildings, and other large areas for future 
demand. Y. page 103. 

Ninth Aggrandizement. 

A National Avenue the northern boundary of the Park Istoria— five thou- 
sand feet in length, ranged with forty-five Homes of the States. 

For this admirable suggestion credit is due to a published letter x pro- 
posing that the buildings of the States in Chicago be rebuilt substantially 
in Washington as their respective ownership. The frontage would be 
assigned proportionately to their population, and in the order of their 
accession to the Union. For the United States to give the lots would be 
simply an exact division of the people's property to themselves. 

Now, in the supposed possession by Government of the line between 
E and F streets the most admirable opportunity is provided for realizing 
the happy thought. The tract would measure 5,000 feet in length by, 
say, 250 feet in depth. 

All the houses built by the States at Chicago are here pictured. Of 
course sites would be assigned proportionally to all States and Territories. 
The range of 5,000 feet would be ample for all. Let it be apportioned in 
frontage according to the different States for welcome resorts of their 
citizens in Washington. If sold the cost of the northern tract, 5,000 by 
250 feet, along the whole line of the Gallery tract would return to the 
United States Treasury. 

Here the natural questions would rise, " For what use? What would 
they do with them?" Imagine the Galleries in the frontispiece built 
along the avenue. 

Notice crowds that come now, frequently, of excursionists from Brook- 
lyn, Ohio, and elsewhere to Washington. Note particularly that they 
are teachers, students at normal schools who are to become teachers, or 
advanced pupils. They come less for diversion than for the acquisition 
of knowledge. Instances are cited: During the past season senior 
classes of the three great normal schools of Pennsylvania came to Wash- 
ington with their principals. The first one had about made a round 
of public sights before they had heard of the Halls of the Ancients. 
They did hear of them just in time to rush in the last evening of their 

1 The writer's name was sought in vain by the author. 




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A NATIONAL AVENUE — HOMES OE THE STATES. 



99 




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Sites assigned in order (from Seventeenth street westward 1 of their accession to the Union. 
Areas in width of frontage according to ratio of population. 



IOO SCHOOLS IN THE HALLS OF THE ANCIENTS. 

stay. Their visit was of superlative satisfaction. Witness the follow- 
ing letters: 

State Normal School, 
Bloomsburg , Pa., January 6, 1900. 
Sir: The visit a large number of our students made to the Halls of the Ancients, 
on the occasion of our recent excursion to your city, has left a pleasant and valuable 
memory with them. It is much talked of as one of the best incidents of our excur- 
sion. You will see us again next year. 

Very truly, J. P. Welsh, Principal. 

Mr. Franklin W. Smith, 

Washington, D. C. 



First Pennsylvania State Normal School, 

December 15, 1899. 
Dear Mr. Smith: Your favor of the 9th instant is received. Those of us who 
visited the Halls of the Ancients were delighted with the evening we spent there. 
Our school will not have another excursion to Washington before next fall, but I 
feel sure that when we visit Washington again the Halls of the Ancients will be in 
our itinerary. We will all want to spend a full evening with 3-011. 
Very truly, yours, 

J. W. Lansinger. 
Mr. Franklin W. Smith, 

Washington, D. C. 



Washington College (Young Ladies), 

Washington , D. C, January 31, 1900. 
My Dear Sir: Permit me to give my unreserved indorsement to the Halls of the 
Ancients. Educationally this is one of the most interesting and attractive places 
in <>r about the national capital. 

Our teachers find frequent occasion to visit the Halls, and from these visits declare 
inspiration and profit derived. More than once have our young ladies been 
delighted with an evening in these Halls. 

Object lessons, lessons in history, art, architecture, etc., received here can not be 
overestimated. We seem to see and feel and breathe with the ancients as the scenes 
of these magnificent Halls are looked upon and the accompanying superb lectures 
are heard. 

Wry sincerely, yours, F. MENEFEE. 

Mr. Franklin W. Smith. 

Again, last week, a private school returned, after many previous 
visits. Three of the young ladies returned for information. They 
wanted to know the size of the openings for entrance into the central 
vault of the great Pyramid, for their school journal. 

These are incidents illustrative and prophetic. The}- are recalled as 
a direct answer to the question, " What will the States want of homes 
in Washington?" 

Fig., p. 29, Part I, was taken while the curator of the Halls was in 
Russia, in 1898, by the agent of the Government, expressly for the 
Paris Exposition. A class from the Washington school is at study 
in the Roman House. Another was taken of a class in the Assyrian 



A SCHOOL AT STUDY IN THK ASSYRIAN THRONE ROOM. IOI 

Hall (Fig. 94). Two thousand can circulate for study at a time in the 
Halls of the Ancients. They have been built as " a shadow of good things 
to come." Imagine the eight courts, each covering with the Galleries 
about 6 acres of ground. Imagine each with a circuit of about 3,000 
feet range of historical paintings. One in the Halls of Roman History 
is 50 feet in length and three are 10 feet, making in all 80 feet. 

Imagine the courts filled with the constructions of each nationality as 
hereinbefore pictured and described. When this picture is materialized 
the hundreds cf excursionists will be thousands. 

How can they receive the instruction they seek? 

This plan for homes of the States relieves the scheme of the Galleries 




No. 9'/. — Class from Washington High School at study in the Assyrian Throne Room of the Halls of 
the Ancients. Photo, for the United States educational exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1900. 



of possibly the chief prospective objection at debate in Congress, viz, 
How is the institution to be maintained in equipment of instructors? 

To be fully effective in its aim, the text-book must be unfolded and 
illumined b} r speaking interpreters. It may be argued that personal 
instruction is not the task of the General Government. It has supplied 
great material in Washington for analysis and elucidation by eminent 
scholarship. It does not undertake to expound it to the people. Pre- 
cisely this will be the status of the National Galleries of History and 
Art — a vast Institute of Illustration. Upon their scale no repetition 
elsewhere can be anticipated. There is but one place for them — the 
capital. 



102 HOMES OF THE STATES. 

Let them be erected under the auspices of the General Government, 
aided it may be by contributions from the States and doubtless more 
largely b)^ private liberality. Let them be guarded and kept in condi- 
tion by the authorities of the metropolis which is enriched by their pos- 
session, who will open their doors to the world, for Europe will then 
come to America for lessons, as the School of Fine Arts in Paris sends 
its pupils to the Prix de Rome, and as classic students of England, 
France, Germany, and the United States go for two years to their 
respective schools in Athens. The United States will have no further 
expense or care in provision for the people than with the present National 
Museum — simply to open its doors to them. Let the States send their 
instructors to meet their people at the gates. Then the principle of 
education of the people by the people will be perfectly applied, for they 
have sent in advance their chosen instructors. Teachers, scholars, all, 
will gather fruits raised by their own gardeners and enjoy them in the 
comfort of their own delightful pavilions. 

The National Avenue op State Homes over against the Galleries 
will be the consummation of their value and beneficence. There will be 
45 reading rooms — more with more States. At an average of 200 
seats in each home, 10,000 visitors will have at a time luxurious rest 
and accommodation. Within ten years 10,000 at a time will demand it. 
They come by hundreds now to see the Library as a new wonder. 
When educational trains are organized by law (as parliamentary trains 
for the workpeople were in England ) more than ever all roads will lead 
to Washington, as anciently to Rome. 

The 40 acres of galleries and courts under cover or inclosed will give 
25 square feet each to the 10,000 who will throng them at inaugurations. 

Again, the students, when curiosity has wakened inquiry for knowl- 
edge eager to be satisfied at once, will need reference books. The 
Congressional Library will be a mile away. Its one or two hundred 
readers might have them in use. At hand, in the Homes, there would 
be 45 sets complete, to be used of right by those who are fractionally 
their owners. 

There will be 45 reading and writing rooms; 45 sets of home news- 
papers; 45 bureaus of information, and halls of social converse and 
business appointment. 

Visitors now come to see the new Library. They will come to stay in 
the Galleries. 

The necessity is apparent for extensive, comfortable, and economical 
accommodations for comers to the Galleries for prolonged stay in vaca- 
tion. Open amphitheaters are provided for them in the courts. Adjacent 
open-air and covered restaurants and apartments would be demanded. 

The design, Fig. 99, is well adapted for such use. 



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io4 



HOMES OF THE STATES. 




TENTH AGGRANDIZEMENT. 105 

What does this promise for Washington? What — to house and feed 
them? 1 

A far more elevating inquiry is, What does this picture mean for an 
increase of knowledge throughout our country and .of benefit in result? 
What for fireside reports on the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific, and the 
Kennebec of the wonders not only of modern Washington, but of Rome, 
Athens, and Palmyra? 

These considerations make reasonable the expectation that States 
will contribute to the Galleries. The writer has confidence that his 
own, Massachusetts, will set the example, as she has so effectively for 
the universal establishment of town libraries. 2 

Tenth Aggrandizement. 

Protection and beauty for the banks of the Potomac — terraces and river 
boulevards. 

Extracts to follow, from reports of the Massachusetts Metropolitan 
Board of Park Commissioners, with map appended, will demonstrate the 
crucial importance of protection of the banks of the Potomac River as 
affecting the health and lives of the population of Washington. 

Their action for this imperative necessity has been combined with 
delightful effects of rural beauty. 

Compulsion following the late repulsive experience of muddy drinking 
water has already forced consideration of the problems involved. 

But there is a field for enterprise with abundant compensation beyond 
the sanitary measures demanded. The flowing river must have its 
banks adorned. It must be made a charm beyond a mere geographical 
fact. It must be terraced with vines and shrubbery. On hillsides like 
those of the Rhine ownership of its banks must pass to Government 
control, and they must be bordered with shaded boulevards. (See chart 
from Park Commission of Massachusetts, showing their control by con- 
demnation of the banks of the M3 T stic River that flows into Boston har- 
bor. They likewise condemned the banks of Charles River. 

1 It is repellent to place in such connection the mercenary advantages that •would 
result. We will leave to the financier and investor calculations as to the pecuniarv 
result to real -estate owners in Washington, and holders of securities upon railroads 
diverging therefrom, when Washington shall have become "both the Berlin and 
Paris of America," in its attraction thither of thousands of resident scholars and 
students by the unequaled advantages of its National Galleries— when many more 
thousands shall flow to it from all sections of the country, as the richest center of 
the world for practical and diversified object illustration. 

Transportation companies, land holders, tradesmen may readily figure that they 
will receive in return more than the interest of the investment. 

The enormous advance in Washington real estate the last ten years is a basis for 
prophecy of the future. 

In 1S60 its population was 61.122. In 1S90, 220,000; 1900, probablv 300,000. 

2 Reply from Bureau of Education, April 27, 1900. " In reply to yours of April 26, 
the following information is from 'The Public Libraries of Massachusetts, 1S99,' 
Towns without libraries are in all 7, with population of 10,970 from 2,250,000." 



io6 



NATIONAL CONTROL OF THE RIVER BANKS. 




CONTROL OF RIVER BANKS AS BOULEVARDS. 107 

EXTRACTS FROM REPORTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS METROPOLITAN 
PARK COMMISSION, 1 893. 

The question of the proper treatment of the Charles River so as best 
to serve the interests of the entire community is a problem of the greatest 
importance, involving matters both of recreation and of grave sanitary 
import. The river, for a large part of its course, flows through the cen- 
ter of the population of the metropolitan district. The question of how 
to protect it from pollution has lately come to the front. In its lower 
reaches, particularly , the unsanitary condition of its flats and its shores 
has made it a serious nuisance to the inhabitants of the neighboring cities 
and towns. 

The sewage of the cities of Cambridge and a portion of Somerville and 
of a greater part of the Chariest own district of Boston, together with a 
portion of the Back Bay and Brighton districts, now flows into the river, 
and the sedimentary deposit thus left upon the flats causes most offensive 
nuisances all the way from Watertown along the tidal portion of the 
stream down to deep water. 

It should be remembered, however, that the getting rid of this the 
most serious element in the river's contamination is a question of but a 
very short time, for on the completion of the metropolitan sewerage 
system, now well under way, all this sewage will be carried out to deep 
water, far out in the bay, leaving the tidal flow in the river free from 
further danger of pollution. Along here, therefore, there would only 
be the deposits already existing upon the flats and banks to be looked 
after, together with the pollution that comes from farther up the stream. 
There remains, however, the pollution from factories and other sources 
from the various communities bordering the river from Milford down. 

But with all these sources of contamination eliminated there yet 
remains one of the greatest menaces to public health, and that is the 
malarial troubles which have arisen in the valley of the river within the 
past decade. 

Malaria was previously unknown in this portion of New England, but 
the trouble has been gradually creeping this way from the westward and 
southward until its germs now appear to be well established in various 
sections of the country around Boston, particularly in the valley of the 
Charles River, where it is recognized as one of the most serious of evils. 
It hardly need be said that too decisive and radical measures can not be 
taken to remove this danger, which, if allowed to establish itself perma- 
nently, will prove a fearful detriment to the various cities and towns 
which it afflicts, the possible damage from which is beyond estimate. 

It is evident, therefore, that the earliest precautious are needed to 
guard against this danger. While the causes of malarial disease do not 
yet appear to be definitely known, it seems to be pretty generally agreed 
that a main source of the trouble lies in improperly drained soils, and 



108 CONTROL OF RIVER BANKS. 

that the germs of the malady originate in the low and damp lands of 
river borders and swamps, whence they are carried by prevailing winds 
to neighboring uplands, where, although the immediate conditions of 
the soil may be sanitary, the residents appear to suffer to the greatest 
extent. The changes of a season in the level of bodies of fresh water, 
the exposure of flats and swamps covered at higher stages to the sun 
and warm winds of summer, and the consequent decay of vegetable 
matter are believed to aggravate, if not cause, the malady. 

Merely keeping the pollution out of a stream, therefore, does not 
reach the seat of this most serious trouble. The banks of the stream 
must be brought completely under public control, for only in this way 
can their sanitary character be properly assured. For instance, growing 
vegetation, and particularly a tree covering, is believed, to do much 
toward diminishing malarial infection through the offices which vegetable 
growth performs in eliminating noxious elements from the soil and 
water. Such a growth can best be assured only by the comprehensive 
and well-considered methods of treatment which are possible only under 
a public ownership, and to this end the entire banks of a stream ought 
to be in charge of one central authority. 

The recreative value of a river like the Charles is also a matter of 
great importance to a large community like that inhabiting the metro- 
politan district. The stretch of the river, for instance, between River- 
side station in Newton and the city of Waltham is one of the great 
metropolitan pleasure grounds of Boston. Something over eight hun- 
dred pleasure craft of various kinds are kept on this section of the Charles 
alone. It is frequented by thousands throughout the summer for row- 
ing, canoeing, and other forms of aquatic recreation, and it presents one 
of the most beautiful and attractive sights in the country, with its irregu- 
lar shores covered for the most part with trees and shrubbery, varied at 
intervals by lawns and handsome houses and long, calm reaches of water, 
now spread out into lake-like expanses and now contracted into narrow 
channels, covered with hundreds of canoes and other craft gliding swiftly 
up and down the stream. 

The extent to which water recreation of this character serves a great 
metropolitan population is exemplified by the use made of the Thames 
above London, where there are thousands of licensed pleasure craft of 
various kinds. 

The Charles River is capable of similar utilization throughout its 
metropolitan course, and it thus would not only greatly promote the 
welfare of the people by affording one of the most healthful means of 
recreation, but the attractiveness of the stream would also add enor- 
mously to the value of the surrounding land. For the proper conserva- 
tion of a stream having the character of the Charles, the amount of land 
necessary to be taken would be governed by local circumstances, more 
being required in one place and less in another. Anyone familiar with 



CONTROL OF RIVER BANKS. 109 

what has been done by German communities along the banks of their 
rivers in the beautifnl Anlagen, almost universally existing in such 
localities in that country, will see that at many places all that is needed 
to meet the purpose is to secure a strip of but a few rods in width along 
the banks, providing perhaps no more than a footway, and creating a 
feature of remarkable beauty at slight expense. The interference with 
present occupancy of the banks, where such occupanc3 r is of an inof- 
fensive nature, need for the most part be but ver3 r slight. But the main 
thing is to assure the permanent good character of such occupancy; and , 
the passing of a strip of the shore into the hands of the public will 
prove a benefit not only to the community in general, but also to the 
abutters in particular, saving them from the danger of the intrusion of 
undesirable features into their neighborhood and the destruction of 
present elements of marked attractiveness. 

Eleventh Aggrandizement. 
A transformation of Analostan Island to an Isola Bella. 




01.— Isola Bella, the beautiful island gem of the Italian Lakes, contains eight terraced gardens, 
one above the other, with fountains, forest trees, and a noble palace of the 17th century. In 
subterranean apartments are grottoes with statuary, fountains, etc. 

Directly in the foreground of the view across the river to Arlington 
is the low, marshy island of Analostan. 

Some millionaire holds in his hand the wand for its fairy-like trans- 
formation that would be a joy in prosecution to a man of culture and 
to the rest of mankind for all time. 



HO CONTROL OF RIVER BANKS. 

L,et him pile upon it one or two Virginia hills. Terrace its banks 
with walls. Adorn them with gardens in Italian style, with classic 
peristyles, balustrades, etc. Cast up a model of a Chaldean tower with 
ramps to its summit. At different levels plant upon the walls vines 
that shall hang pendent from them, resurrecting the hanging gardens of 
Babylon. Enrich the gardens with a pergola (Fig. 105), and with its 
indoor counterpart a peristylium (Fig. 106) as a salle defete. 

Plant a maze precisely after the plan of that left in the Grafhtti on 
the walls of Pompeii. ' Reconstruct a Roman bath, counterpart of that of 
the time of Christ uncovered from beneath the houses in Bath, England, 
or from those at Baden-weiler, in the Black Forest. A section of a Roman 



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No. 102.— From Graffiti on the walls of Pompeii. 

columbarium with its niches filled with casts of the most beautiful cinerary 
urns of the Vatican; set up specimens of the Roman masonry in original 
pozzulana, etc., imported for the purpose; pave a lovely inclosed court 
with a replica of the mosaic pavement in the Villa of Diomed, etc. 

Build in reconstruction an Italian palace around a court of galleries 
with columns, the design of Raphael (Fig. — ) or of Fig. 106, mold 
it in concrete. It would be inexpensive, with an interior of eight large 
halls in connection. Decorate one floor with The Birds of America; The 
Trees of America; The Fruits of America; The Bread Plants of America. 
The second floor series, The Story of the Plow; The Story of the Book; 
The Story of the Mine; The Story of the Ship. 

Illustrate the realistic style for practical educational effect described in 

1 Facsimile is to be seen from which Fig. 102 is taken in the Halls of the Ancients. 
"There is nothing new under the sun." 



CONTROL OF RIVER BANKS. Ill 

Addenda No. 2, Part II, omitting all' effort at symbolism, allegory, and 
romance; painting things as they are, without substitution of the seminude 
human form to be interpreted as agriculture, as literature, as geology, 
as commerce, etc. 

L,et this palace be festooned with the Ampelopsis, not covered, but 
revealing its architectural beauty, sufficiently to combine with the love- 
liness of foliage which environs it, and as though nature would add its 
embrace to its beautiful form. 

Illustrate in its grounds the handicraft of the ages in full sized concrete 
models of Stonehenge, Etrurian tombs, Tiryns and Mycenae, the prim- 
itive architecture of Greece, the Catacombs. Then above the box and 
the myrtle, the classic cypress and cedar, which will top the highest 




No. 103. — Primitive Greek architecture 
Mycense. 



-the gate at No. 104 



Primitive Greek architect! 
of Tiryns, the early arch. 



ascent he has created, must later appear a counterpart of Pompey's Pillar, 
bearing the statue of Mr. Wiseman, who knew how to use his money for 
the delight of his race and himself. 

The pervading impulse of this ideal will be recognized. It is to environ 
impressive object lessons from antiquity — in annex to the National Gal- 
leries — with the combined charms of Nature and Art. 

This vision of an Isola Bella presupposes a previous renovation of the 
banks of the Potomac opposite the island. On the north side of Aque- 
duct Bridge there is exquisite river scenery. On the east side south, 
utmost shabbiness, sheds, shops, rubbishy yards, beach, etc. 

In Europe river banks are made ornamental with trees and kept tidy, 
although they may be landing places for merchandise, etc. 

The picture has not been sketched for a Government undertaking. 
The island is a very conspicuous, unkempt tract directly in the river 
scenery before Arlington. 

Its improvement after one of the most exquisite and famous examples 
may be the good fortune of a liberal man of culture. 





S. Doc. 209— Pt. 3 8 



ii4 



ITALIAN PALACES. 



He would gratify a high aesthetic taste and combine beauty with 
instruction for the benefit of the millions after him who should stand on 
the banks of the Potomac. 




No. 107. — Palace designed by Raffaele Sanzio, in Rome. 




rziHCTi 



No. 10S.— The Tursi Doria Palace, Genoa, raised upon a substructure of the Palace of Capravola. 
Designed by Vignola. A grand elevation for an Isola Bella 

Fig. 106 would grandly center the picturesque dream we have con- 
jured. If built around a square court displaying four equal facades it 
would be a marvel of stateliness and grace lifted above the cypresses and 
cedars that embower its classic lines. 



RESTORATION OF A PRETORIAN CAMP. 



115 



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No. 109.— Restoration of the Roman camp on the Saalberg, near Hamburg, Germany, by the 
Emperor William. 

77/<? transformation of Analostan Island to an Isola Bella. 




Xo. 110. —Italian gardens (if Mr. Mollis Hunnewell, Lake Waban, Wellesley, Mas 



V 



il6 buildings in terraces. 

Twelfth Aggrandizement. 

Condemnation -of land in South Washington for enlargement of the park. 

The Draconian law against diminution of park areas for building 
should enforce the Swiss or Japanese edict reported, that he who fells a 
tree must plant two in its place. 

We have proposed to take a strip of Potomac Park, now veritably 
Potomac flats, for Government buildings. 

The loss of park area should be more than made good by condemna- 
tion now, while they arc cheap, of lands in South Washington. Proba- 
bly this would be an early stroke of the Park Commission. 

It would be of great gain if blocks or reservations C and D, on 
Maine avenue, now in occupation of mechanical yards, and stables, 
could be condemned and, being added to the park, carry its easterly line 
to the southwest corner of the Capitol grounds. The Botanic Garde:: ; 



ISo. III.— Royal Crescent, Bath, England. 

and the other park area between Third and Sixth streets measure east 
and west one-half of the entire length of the Mall between Sixth street 
and the Potomac. 

This operation would be surely profitable, for the lands would be 
resold with plans prescribed. The lines should not be rigidly straight, 
as are all the streets. They could be on crescents. Whether for high 
or medium class tenantry, the facades of the houses could be combined 
in terraces, adding to their beauty and consequent salability. With 
park frontage, the land at resale would pay a profit. The gain of area 
of lands now of small value, southward to the railroad tracks, to be 
screened by ornamental buildings as above suggested, is shown by plan 
annexed (Fig. in). 



FINAL PLAN SHOWING CONDEMNATIONS. 



117 



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il8 thirteenth aggrandizement. 

Thirteenth Aggrandizement. 

Final completion offllli?ig of all flats bordering on the city. 

This is written in entire ignorance of the region involved. It occurs 
to memory from the reported recommendation in the press of the Busi- 
ness Men's Association for the covering of Anacostia flats. 

If lands are so low as to breed malaria, it is first in order of importance 
that the extinction of such danger to the health of the people should be 
the immediate care of Government. There would be a gain of land to 
be sold. 

Here again the example of Massachusetts is in order. 

[From the Boston Transcript, April, 1900.] 

It is well known that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has secured 
about 100 acres of flats in East Boston for the development of which the 
legislature has under consideration an appropriation of $500,000, to be 
followed by other and larger sums if the enterprise is undertaken in 
earnest. 

Few people are aware of the magnitude of the Commonwealth's deals 
in real estate in Boston — transactions that have so far resulted in great 
profits, not only directly from a money point of view, but from the great 
values that have been added to the property of the State; also in the shape 
of taxes, past, present and future. 

One of these transactions has been completed, and the extent of the 
direct benefit can be arrived at. This refers to the filling of the Back 
Bay district. 

In 1856, the Commonwealth's holdings having been reduced to about 
108 acres, was inaugurated the project of improving the Back Bay, but 
if it included the flats in Brookline the improvement as a whole has 
not yet been completed, although the Commonwealth's share and the 
large area in its vicinity were finished years ago. The financial result 
of the Commonwealth's operation is as follows: 

Total area ( square feet ) 4, 723, 856 

Diverted to streets ( square feet ) 2, 027, 0S3 

Donated to Boston, etc 379, 976 

Sold for cash, 49 per cent 2, 316, 769 

4, 723- 856 

Cash proceeds of sales $5, 0S4, 129 

Expense of filling and sales 1, 641, 924 

Net cash proceeds 3, 442, 205 

Cash value of donations 833, 439 

Total net proceeds ; 4, 275, 644 



FOURTEENTH AGGRANDIZEMENT. 119 

The filling cost 35 cents per square foot. 

The first sale by the State was made in 1857, and the land in question 
is now worth more than ten times the price then obtained. The average 
for all land sold was $2. 19 a square foot, the prices ranging from $1. 16 2 3 
to S6.65 a square foot. The Institute of Technology received as a gift 
100,898 square feet, the Natural History Society 43,840 square feet — 
land which is now valued at about $2,000,000. Commonwealth avenue 
and other wide streets in its vicinity are witnesses to the liberality of the 
State, even though the policy adopted proved very remunerative to the 
Commonwealth. 

[Then follow details of the second State enterprise on the same plan in 
South Boston, with a profit of $2,000,000. The third is just commenced, 
as first above mentioned.] 

If the flats, now Potomac Park, and others still unfilled had been 
finished on their intended ornamental plans, there can be no doubt of like 
profit to the city of Washington. The gain waits only upon progress. 
Commonwealth avenue in Boston, over 200 feet wide, ranged with 
costhy residences, forever to be unapproached by stores, etc., now covers 
what was tide-flowed marsh less than fifty years ago. Beacon street, 
Marlboro street, Newbury and Boylston streets are parallel, and other 
equally fine residential streets are at right angles therewith, making 
a solid square mile of restricted residential territory owned, occupied, 
and under taxation. 

Why should the wild, undeveloped tract, misnamed Potomac Park, 
remain into another century, incomplete — a drawback to rise of property 
in its vicinity rather than a promotion of it? 

Fourteenth Aggrandizement. 

"above ale nations is humanity." 

The erection of charitable institutions prominently upon the hilltops of 
Anacostia. 

This suggestion is the result of visits to the U. S. Hospital, on 
Congress Heights. Recalling the scenic grandeur at the east, of the 
Capitol dome, and of those proposed — a colonnade on the north and an 
acropolis of memorial temples at the west — an impulse was stirred that 
the hill crests at the south, twice the elevation of the Capitol, should be 
crowned against the horizon with like dignity of constructions consecrated 
to humanity. Then Washington would be encircled by monuments of 
the civilization of the nation. At the east Law, at the north Govern- 
ment, at the west Learning, at the south Humanity, would rear 
their temples as for presiding genii at the high seats of the people, not 
before the throne of an empire. 



GRANDEUR OF LONDON HOSPITALS. 




No. 113.— Greenwich Hospital, London, on the Thames. 




No. 114.— St. Thomas Hospitals, opposite the Houses of Parliament, London. 



GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. 121 

When power and prosperity demonstrate pride in their possession, 
regard for poverty and misery should be made not less visible. England 
displays the stately wards of St. Thomas's Hospital along the Thames, 
directly before the Houses of Parliament. The classic structures of 
Greenwich Hospital, with domes above a chapel and a hall, stand as 




conspicuously upon its banks. The dome of the Invalides, in Paris, 
rivals that of the Pantheon. 

The distressful condition of the U. S. Hospital, crowded with misery, 
demands immediate enlargement. The expenditure should not be with 
a grudging meanness to be recognized by unfortunates, who with 
dimmed or disordered faculties can yet discern and enjoy beauty aud 



122 CHEERFUL CONSTRUCTIONS. 

comeliness. Wards of a nation, in pitiful deprivation, the glimmerings 
that remain of their faculties should be greeted by cheering and pleasing 
aspects within their restricted range of vision. 

A few evenings since the writer stood upon the plateau of the heights — 
Prospect Point — enjoying the view of the capital encircled by hills east, 
west, and north beyond the river. Upon a seat at the brow of the hill 
were two men apparently in the prime of body and mind. It was a sad 
falsity of appearance. They were silent as they gazed upon the city 
listlessly and upward to the skies. The thought was of the painful 
repulsion to their remaining consciousness when at sunset they should 
turn to their barrack-like quarters doubly and trebly packed in unhealth- 
f ulness. 

Then it was resolved to seize this opportunity for appeal, that when 
new constructions are added to the asylum they shall be of inviting, 
brilliant exterior for future occupants, and that they should display 
plainly an intended liberality: 

First, to furnish attraction and diversion beyond mere essentials of 
being alive to the beneficiaries. 

Second, to exhibit an architectural elegance and a monumental promi- 
nence, in proof of the nation's liberality both toward the fortunate and 
unfortunate; the strong and the weak; the voting makers of dignities 
and those incapacitated for any service. 

The following design is an effort to express such a purpose. It is an 
aggrandizement of Fig. 115. 

The circular open portico at an elevation is novel and attractive. It 
would be a conspicuous vis-a-vis to a Presidential colonnade on the hill- 
tops at the north. The preceding architectural suggestions have not 
approached sculptural decoration. It has been left for a luxury of the 
future. In this instance sympathy craves expression. At the portals 
of the structure are two groups. The one may well be of the good 
Samaritan, the other a like expression of compassion or of the benignant 
attainments of modern science for alleviation of human woe. 

Through the circular colonnade rises a shaft. The grand subject, 
indicated for inspiration of American sculptors, is an angel of mercy 
with wings folded firmly, resting upon a base. Draperies are gently 
stirred by the breeze. One arm is heavenward in hopefulness and 
invocation. A downcast glance follows the hand spread in pit3'ing 
beneficence. 

Such employment of art is its supreme vocation. When in the future 
other grand adornments shall be added to the capital, may the gentle 
virtues and graces have their due share of prominence among the 
trophies of war and conquest. 

The writer is aware of the late preference in hospital . constructions to 





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124 AN APPEAL FOR THE) INSANE. 

detached structures and for mental disorders even to cottage domiciles. 
But an institution that counts thousands of patients must include many 
who are proper occupants for any premises. Moreover, a large adminis- 
tration building would be demanded. It should dominate the entire 
group in dignity, without severity. 

The above was written after personal visits to the asylum, without 
any information, beyond the statement of the physician in charge, of the 
pitifully overcrowded condition of the buildings. The following from 
the Washington Star of Ma}' 28, 1900, shows the writer's impressions 
were warranted : 

DECENT CARE OF THE INSANE. 

Congress will commit an almost irreparable mistake if it fails to secure, 
before the close of the present session, the required addition to the present 
real estate holdings of the Government Hospital for the Insane. The want 
of proper accommodations for the inmates now there makes the existing 
condition of things absolutely disgraceful, and as the number to be pro- 
vided for is constantly and rapidly increasing, the situation, unless 
relieved at once, must soon reach the proportions of a national scandal. 
It might be partially improved, temporarily, it is true, by erecting some 
new buildings on the opposite side of the road from the general estab- 
lishment, on grounds badly needed for other purposes; but in a little 
while the problem which at present confronts the management will have 
to be met again, and the danger is that then it will be too late to acquire 
that which can be secured now on better terms than can be had later on, 
if, indeed, it can then be obtained at all. 

Government should do in the premises what any intelligent business firm 
or a properly managed corporation would do under like circumstances — 
provide for the future by securing in advance the facilities for properly 
doing that which it has undertaken to do. 1 Inasmuch as it has assumed 
the duty of caring for its insane soldiers and sailors, it owes it to itself 
and to them that they shall have not only the best medical skill and 
care attainable, but also some of the decent comforts and accommoda- 
tions of at least a humble home. These things they do not now enjoy 
and can not have without an immediate and material enlargement of the 
present housing facilities of the establishment, and this can only be had 
by the acquisition of an adjoining and well-adapted tract of land. 

1 A proposition applicable to all plans herein set forth that are desirable and 
practicable. 



FREE MUNICIPAL BATHS FOR WASHINGTON. 1 25 



Fifteenth Aggrandizement. 

Free municipal baths for Washington upon a scale, proportional to popu- 
lation, equal to those of any city. 

The argument for bathing facilities for people in cities is brief — axio- 
matic: More cleanliness, less disease! More baths, less hospitals! 

That consideration of such provision for Washington is an immediate 
necessity will need no argument after an inspection of the bathing sheds 
on the Potomac, near the Monument. A reply from the commissioners 
on this subject states as follows: 

Executive Office, 
Commissioners of the District of Columbia, 

Washington , March 19, igoo. 
Mr. Frankein W. Smith. 

Dear Sir: With reference to your inquiry as to the free public baths, I have to 
state that the only plant of that character in the District is located on the tidal 
reservoir to the west of the Washington Monument. About 60,000 bathers were 
accommodated there from June 1 to September 9 last, about 6,000 of whom paid for 
the hire of the suits in which they bathed, which was practically the only charge 
for the privileges of the beach. No charge is made to bathers who bring their own 
suits. The charges for suits were 15 cents for adults' suits and 10 cents for suits for 
'youths under 16 years old. The bath houses would accommodate perhaps 3,000 
bathers each day. It has been proposed to establish a bathing plant in the inner 
basin, which is an arm of the tidal reservoir on which the present beach is located. 
A bill carrying an appropriation of $15,000 has been introduced to effect that object. 
The essential design of this new basin is to provide a bathing place which will not 
be subject to different elevations of water incident to the fluctuations of the tides. 

W. Tindaix, Secretary. 

In this connection extracts from the history of the system of free 
baths in Boston from ' ' the first public document in this country on the 
subject of municipal baths" will be interesting. It will also make con- 
vincingly evident that the one new bathing establishment proposed for 
Washington should be only one of several, and that $15,000 is only a 
small fraction of reasonable expenditure for the purpose. 

For the entire city, with the Potomac and its Eastern Branch giving 
miles of river banks, there is but one place assigned for bathing with 
shelter — none for South Washington or Anacostia. 

The contrast of this condition with the abounding facilities provided 
in Boston, which from its more northern and colder location has less 
demand for them, is strongly exhibited by the map annexed, Fig. 117. 



. MALOtN BKlC 

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No. 117— MAP OF MUNICIPAL BATHS IN BOSTON. 

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/tew Baths are those es tad //shed since hie creation 
oftM Department offbht/b Bat/is. 

The sma// f&ures represent the ruimSer of bathers 
<fur/ng tfie Season of/8&8. 



FREE MUNICIPAL BATHS IN BOSTON. 1 27 

FREE MUNICIPAL BATHS IN BOSTON. 
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OS 1 THE SYSTEM. 

As long ago as i860 the board of aldermen and the common council 
of Boston appointed a joint special committee "to consider and report 
what measures, if any, can be adopted to provide such facilities for 
cheap bathing as will induce all persons to avail themselves of the 
means so provided." The report of this committee, submitted early 
the following year, accepted, and ordered to be printed, was undoubtedly 
the first public document in this country on the subject of municipal 
baths. Two questions only are considered in this report: "First, is 
the city of Boston deficient in bathing facilities; and second, if so, how 
shall the want be met?" That it should not go at length into the gen- 
eral questions of the usefulness of bathing as a sanitary agency, or of 
its necessity to personal health and comfort, is not surprising; the inves- 
tigations of science having settled the former, while every-day experi- 
ence and observation proved the latter. But that it should not even 
raise the question whether it was in accordance with public policy to 
establish and maintain baths at the city's expense gives some cause for 
w r onder, inasmuch as no undertaking of the kind had been attempted 
or, so far as is known, proposed by any city in the United States. 
Examples of municipal action in this direction had to be sought in other 
countries, and the report cites the public bathing establishments of 
England, France, and Belgium. 

In the spring of 1866 another joint special committee was appointed 
to consider the feasibility of such an undertaking. This committee at 
once set to work with a view to securing two kinds of baths — warm and 
cold fresh- water baths for the fall, winter, and spring months, and salt- 
water baths for the summer months ; but it soon found that its immediate 
attention must be given to the latter, because of the great expense 
involved in providing the necessary apparatus and conveniences for per- 
manent baths. On its recommendation, $10,000 was appropriated for 
the establishment, under its direction, of "suitable places in South and 
East Boston and the city proper for salt-water bathing during the ensu- 
ing summer months." This appropriation was doubled later in the 
season. Six localities were selected — five for floating baths and one for 
a beach bath — and each was placed in the special charge of some one 
member of the committee. 

The entrance of Mr. Josiah Quincy into the office of mayor, three 
years ago, marked the beginning of a new chapter in the history of free 
municipal baths in Boston. Hitherto the providing of public bathing 
facilities by the city had been regarded as permissible in the absence of 
private effort in that direction ; Mayor Quincy looked upon it as but one 
phase of the general obligation of a city ' ' to secure, in some measure, 



128 



FREE MUNICIPAL BATHS IN BOSTON. 




No. iiS.— New municipal bath, Dover street, Boston. 



FREB MUNICIPAL BATHS IN BOSTON, 1 29 

the enjoyment by all of at least a certain minimum of elementary social 
advantages. ' ' Hitherto, also, the chief, if not the sole ground on which 
the work was justified had been the promotion of the public health 
through bodily cleanliness; Mayor Quincy put it at once on the threefold 
basis of health, physical development, and enjoyment, regarding the 
supplying of suitable means for wholesome recreation and pleasure as 
coming well within the lines of municipal policy. The effect of this 
change of attitude was at once apparent. Among the early official acts of 
the mayor was the appointment of a committee of citizens to select a site 
and secure plans for a bath house that should be open all the year round. 
This building was to be not only thoroughly equipped for hot and cold 
baths, but in its architecture and appointments it was to be of such a char- 
acter as would appeal to the imagination of the people, and give the whole 
subject of public baths a new dignity in their eyes. The baths already 
in existence, all of which were beach or floating baths along the water 
frontage of the city, were supplied with additional conveniences, such as 
fresh- water sprays, to increase their usefulness and make them more 
popular; and steps were at once taken to open additional water-side 
baths. 

Finally, in the spring of 1898, a new city department of public baths 
was created, and all the baths maintained by the city were placed under 
its direction. This new department is administered by seven unpaid 
commissioners, two of whom are women, appointed by the mayor for 
terms ranging from one to five years. A secretary is employed by the 
board to act as its executive. 

With the creation of the bath department began the real work of 
expansion. During the last summer the city had in operation six beach 
baths, thirteen floating baths, two river baths, and two swimming pools, 
as against fourteen baths of all kinds a } r ear ago. 1 

At the same time the commission was arranging for additional winter 
baths and swimming pools in different parts of the city. 

That so extensive a system of public bathing accommodations is not 
without its warrant in the needs of the people is seen from the large 
percentage of the population destitute of proper means of bathing at 
home. 

A proposition of the first importance in connection with the subject of 
free popular bathing; is that in a large city it should be furnished through 
a considerable number of establishments designed for local use, rather 
than by one or two on a laige scale at central points. In other words, 
the people of a given neighborhood should not have to go too far in 

x To this list should be added the two baths connected with open-air gymna- 
siums— one for men and one for women — at the " Charlesbank," and the two beach 
baths at City Point, which are under the control of the park commission. The 
beach baths, however, are let out by the commission and carried on for private 
profit. 

S. Doc. 209— Pt. 3 9 



[ 3 



FREE MUNICIPAL BATHS IN BOSTON. 




No. 119.— Boys' gymnasium at Dover street bath. 




No. 120.— Boys at Dover street bath, Boston. 



AN IDEAL BATHING ESTABLISHMENT. 131 

order to avail themselves of such facilities. If the bath is within half a 
mile to a mile of the home, it will be readily and extensively used; if it 
is 2. or 3 miles away, its use will be very greatly restricted. 

From the first the actual use of Boston's municipal baths has been 
absolutely free to the people. A fee of 5 cents is charged to adults for 
the use of bathing suits, except at the North End beach, where suits are 
furnished free. Children's suits may be had at all the baths without 
charge. One cent is the price for a towel everywhere. Bathers are 
permitted to bring their own suits, and towels, if they care to do so. 

The expenditure since 1866 by the city of Boston for public baths 
has been $815,000. The new Dover Street bath, built in 1898, cost 
$86,000. In 1897 ^e baths were used by 657,275 persons, and in 1898 
by 1,920,368. 

AN IDEAL BATHING ESTABLISHMENT. 

Aspirants for the Rotch traveling scholarship are working over a 
problem that calls for a design for a public bathing establishment. It 
assumes that, following the example of Mr. Sutro, of San Francisco, a 
wealthy citizen of Boston proposes to endow the Commonwealth with 
a public bathing establishment which shall be on a scale commensurate 
with the possible future developments of greater Boston. The site is 
assumed to be on the left bank of the Charles River, on the embankment 
formed by filling in the flats. The site has a frontage of 800 feet facing 
toward the water. Between the water front and the building lot there 
is constructed an esplanade consisting of a promenade on the immediate 
edge of the water, a roadway, and a sidewalk. By means of a dam at 
Craigie Bridge, the water in the Back Bay is kept at a constant level. 
The roadway, promenade, and sidewalk are to be carried on a bridge 
spanning an opening through which access can be had directly from the 
water, by boats and pleasure craft, to an interior basin and boat landings 
on the grounds of the establishment. 

Among the features of the imaginary establishment are two large 
swimming baths with promenade and dressing rooms and with galleries 
containing seats to be used on the occasion of aquatic sports, a music 
stand, a restaurant, kitchen, serving rooms, gymnasium, reading room, 
and power and engine rooms. 

As a part of the general scheme it is intended to provide an interior 
boat landing at which launches, boats, canoes, etc. , can be hired, and for 
this purpose the basin inside of the grounds is to be considered. It is as- 
sumed that the structure throughout is to be constructed in a thoroughly 
first-class manner, of masonry and iron, without regard to expense. 



132 SIXTEENTH AGGRANDIZEMENT. 



Sixteenth Aggrandizement. 

A National Hal! of Fame on the Potomac, in the colonnade of the 
proposed American galleries on the Acropolis. 

The following late announcement in the press is inspiring to the patri- 
otism of the nation and to worthy ambition of its individual citizenship: 

THE AMERICAN HAEE OE FAME. 

The New York University has formally accepted a gift of $100,000 made to build 
a colonnade along the Hudson 500 feet in length and facing University Heights, to 
be known as the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.' There will be 150 panels 10 
by 8 feet in size, to be eventually filled with names which the public themselves are 
to nominate— that is, the first 50 are to be selected by popular nomination made this 
year and sent to the University by May I. These nominations, so far as they are 
seconded by one member of the university senate, will be submitted to one hundred 
or more persons throughout the country. No name is to be inscribed unless approved 
by a majority of answers received from judges before October 1 of the year of elec- 
tion. Each name must be finally approved by a two-thirds vote of the thirteen regular 
members of the University Council and by a majority of the honorary members 
voting. No name may be inscribed except of a person born in what is now the 
territory of the United States, and of a person who has been dead at least ten years. 

In the first 50 names it has been decided to include one or more representatives 
of a majority of the following classes: Authors and editors, business men, educators. 
inventors, missionaries and explorers, philanthropists and reformers, preachers and 
theologians, scientists, engineers and architects, lawyers and judges, musicians, 
painters and sculptors, physicians and surgeons, rulers and statesmen, soldiers and 
sailors. Should any vacant panels remain after these requirements have been met, 
the senate may fill them during the ensuing year. 

Such in brief is the outline of what may prove a national Walhalla. 

We have already in imaginative prospect built the National Hall of 
Fame. There is now an added value for its greater commemorative use. 
The National Walhalla can only be in Washington. It must look 
toward Mount Vernon, along the national boulevard soon to be com- 
menced. 2 

Romans at eventide filled the porticoes of Augustus along the Tiber. 
In pride of conquests they said, " To be a Roman citizen is greater than 
to be a king." 

1 This appropriation ($100,000 for a colonnade 500 feet long) incidentally confirms 
the estimates (Part II) of the low cost of the long ranges of one-story "National 
Galleries of History and Art." - 

2 THE NATIONAL BOULEVARD. 

[From the Philadelphia Telegraph.] 

The so-called national boulevard, from Washington to Mount Vernon, will be, 
when completed, a great addition to the attractions of the capital. The work will be 
begun early next year, Congress having some time ago made an appropriation for 
surveys. This fine highway will be 17 miles long and 250 feet wide through its 
entire course. In time, no doubt, statues, monuments, and arches will be constructed 
along the route. 



SEVENTEENTH AGGRANDIZEMENT. 1 33 

Americans may in another generation pace the pavement of their Hall 
of Fame overlooking the flowing Potomac in review of illustrations of 
the rise, the power, and decay of successive nationalities through which 
they have ascended to the American Acropolis, with a nobler pride, that 
despite despondent outlooks of national or international conflicts, despite 
the dangers of corruption and the enticements of luxury, their institu- 
tions have been maintained in growth and prosperity, and that to be an 
American is far greater than to have been a Roman citizen. 

Seventeenth Aggrandizement. 

Memorial statues to the civil heroes on the roll of benefactors of the 
Republic and the . World. 

The provisions of the New York Hall of Fame mark a new departure 
that has been strongly demanded. The list of classes above proposed for 
commemoration is a refreshing recognition that it is time to call a halt to 
multiplication of war statues. Of fifty names to be selected not less 
than twenty-three must be from civil walks of life, and evidently the 
intention is to have a much larger proportion , because it is provided that 
one or more shall be chosen therefrom. 

Exaltation to fame has run with parade of deeds of war in admira- 
tion of heroism. But there has been heroism in no less degree, unseen, 
unyielding against great odds, enduring against utmost discouragement, 
bold, confronting ridicule, magnanimous, seeking no glittering reward or 
pecuniar}^ gain, but with unfaltering strife pressing toward its goal of 
gain to humanity — progress for mankind. 

Their roll is a long one. Its call would resuscitate names of men who 
died at their posts — martyrs to poverty and neglect. 

It is time that, with the professed spirit of the age to promote ' ' peace 
on earth, good will to men, ' ' these names should be brought to light and 
emblazoned for examples. 

A copious biographical record would be compiled of lives of men of 
genius, brains, industry, courage — countrymen of the United States 
worthy of memorial. 

Where in the capital are the statues of Fulton, 1 progenitor of steam 
navigation; of Morton, practical demonstrator of the beatitude of ether; 
of Morse, of the telegraph; of Whitney, of the cotton gin, etc.? 

In the model of the National Galleries in the Halls of the Ancients 
(vide p. 66, Part I) there are bases marked along the grand central 
avenue — the via sacra to the Acropolis — assigned for statues to such 
names from the roll of the great and good. 

'The writer has an autographic letter of Fulton to President Madison, proposing 
the construction of the first steam vessel of war. It was built and named the 
Demologos. 



134 



THE AUTHOR OF AMERICA. 




^<ZtJ&£r,7~f£. 






THE) AUTHOR OP AMERICA. 1 35 

More than sixty years ago, with other children the writer walked in 
procession of hundreds of Sunday school children to Park Street Church 
in Boston to be trained at his first hearing of it to sing 
My country! 'Tis of thee. 

Dr. Holmes's tribute to its author in his quaint rhyme is well 
known. Probably not so familiar is his comment on the hymn that its 
secret undying power was in his choice of " My," not " Our; " that it 
was the outburst of an individual soul in joy for its personal possession 
of such a country. To count the millions that have sung and will sing 
that inspiration is to realize the hold of its author * upon Fame. Yet no 
bust even of him has been set up in Washington or elsewhere — save one 
in Memorial Hall, Harvard College. Under this head of aggrandize- 
ment, it is proposed that an early appropriation should be made for a 
bronze sitting statue of Dr. Smith. 

Appended is a facsimile of America, from his hand, written for the occa- 
sion of his last public appearance, the Floral Fete at Saratoga, 1895. 
He died eight weeks afterwards. The writer will present the plate of it 
to the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, in hope that copies may be struck 
therefrom for use at every final adjournment of Congress for a grand 
chorus in unison of the House and Senate. 

Were the devout clergyman aware of this suggestion he would not 
fail to add a wish that it should be followed by the Doxology. 

1 He was of no kin to F. W. Smith — present writer. 

Rev. S. F. Smith, D. D., was born October 21, 1808, according to his mention, under 
the chimes of the old North Church in Boston, from which Paul Revere hung out 
the lantern signal before the battle of Bunker Hill, 

He married a daughter of Dr. Hezekiah Smith, of Haverhill, Mass., chaplain in 
the Revolutionary army, a friend of Washington, and a founder of Brown Uni- 
versity. They lived most happily for over sixty years. ' 'America ' ' was first sung in 
Park Street Church, Boston, July 4, 1832, led by Lowell Mason. 



1 3 6 



AMERICA. 



>c 



<^<zs^ 







d¥>* 







My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing; 
Land where my fathers died, 
Land of the pilgrims' pride, 
From every mountain side let 

Freedom ring. 








My native country,— thee, 
Land of the noble, free, 

Thy name I love; 
I love my rocks and rills, 
Thy woods and templed hills, 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 



i3: 





O^/ ?mrrt'dt>e far? S* 

? e* ^o-yrr'xS A-#£y /Z^frlf 

rv-l£c/'*<*f fry */Zy vrr7 6^/^ 



Let music swell the breeze, 
And ring from all the trees 

Sweet freedom's song; 
Let mortal tongues awake, 
Let all that breathe partake, 
Let rocks their silence break, 

The sound prolong. 



Our fathers' God, to Thee, 
Author of liberty, 

To thee we sing; 
Long may our land be bright. 
With freedom's holy light, 
Protect us by Thy might, 

Great God, our King. 



M 






Conclusions. 

Imagination would gladly revel in other re-creations from the past for 
instruction and in new devices of beauty to enhance enjoyment for the 
present, but numbered aggrandizements must cease, to have chance that 
any action may be had at this session of Congress. In parliamentary 
language, additional "bills" could only "be read by their titles," and 
they would have no significance. 

They might be food for thought — delectable menus for the mind, 
awakening imagination, association, anticipation, recollection — blessed 
faculties of the human intellect. 

Lord Brougham, in his Natural Theology, follows the argument of 
Paley from the material in Nature, that the marvelous powers of the 
mind of man in its varied capacities for delight prove the beneficence of 
the Creator as clearly and with higher inspiration to the intellect than 
the gifts of the eye to see and the ear to hear. 

It has been a pleasure to the author to exercise the.se subtle faculties 
in the vision of a " city beautiful " as a future reality for our country. 

If further favored by Providence he will, in the coming autumn, accept 
many kind invitations filed during the past ten years, to explain (with 
illustrations) his design for National Galleries, in Albany, S3'racuse, 
Buffalo, Detroit, Dayton, Columbus, Toledo, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. 
Paul, St. Louis, Louisville, Minneapolis, and Pittsburg, as he has with 
much encouragement already in Boston, New York, Brooklyn, Philadel- 
phia, Baltimore, Washington, Charleston, and San Francisco. 

If these reminiscences move remembrances of some of those auditors 
he bespeaks a revival of their interest in the cause, that they then so 
cordially and audibly expressed. 

It is a surprise to the writer that his first single proposition for 
National Galleries has amplified to the extent of these papers. 

At the outset it was prejudiced by the miserable environment of the 
most desirable site — Observatory Hill — now at the extremity of the city 
dump, because it would demand the transformation of a neighborhood, 
involving additional expenditure. 

When the prospectus was first issued, the editor of the Boston Tran- 
script wrote: "You have a missionary work before you, to educate the 
public to such an ideal." 

This necessity has been heavily realized. Meanwhile a powerful influ- 
ence, by example, in this direction has been developed — the Congressional 
138 



A BOARD OF AGGRANDIZEMENT. 



139 




I40 A BOARD OP AGGRANDIZEMENT. 

Library. That has stirred popular enthusiasm for more of like monu- 
mental work. It is a delight to all comers. They recognize it as on 
a scale with the national resources, only of late fully revealed. They 
would vote unanimously for its counterpart in a Temple of Justice on the 
opposite square, and for others of like splendor and utility. It has 
stimulated their anticipations of a magnificent Washington in the 
future. They would hasten its development to share its enjoyment with 
the next generation. 

In four years since its completion there has been a great advance in 
popular expectations of the capital. There is abroad a public impatience 
that it shall share largely in the present sweep of prosperity throughout 
the land. A study of these conditions led to the conviction that argu- 
ment for National Galleries would be strengthened if presented as a 
collateral feature of one grand scheme for the enrichment of Washington, 
well matured and authoritatively commended to Congress and the people. 
An admirable precedent has been furnished in the legislation and action 
of Massachusetts above cited. 

Such a broad scheme of aggrandizement can only be devised and 

ACCOMPLISHED BY A LEGALIZED CONTINUOUS COMMISSION OF RELIABLE 
AND COMPETENT MEN, MAKING THE TASK THEIR .SOLE OR CHIEF 
INTEREST AND EMPLOYMENT. IT CAN NEVER BE WELL CONCEIVED OR 
EXECUTED UNDER AUTHORITIES HITHERTO PROVIDED — OF COMMITTEES 

OF Congress and Commissioners of the District of Columbia. 

The greater their personal attainments and abilities the more their 
energies are driven to utmost endurance in other responsibilities. To 
centralize thought, to consecrate time as demanded on great ideals, and 
develop their collateral details are for them impossibilities. Were the 
most competent men in Congress assigned to .such service exclusively, 
it could never be by them carried to completion for lack of permanence 
in office. 

Concerning accomplishment of the works hereinbefore described, the 
following conclusion appears reasonable: 

Satisfactory and accordant results can not be expected through Congres- 
sional action of its committees with the Commissioners of the District, i?i 
view of the results of the last thirty or forty years. 

With due appreciation of the intelligent zeal of members of Congress, 
their absorption in other great interests, with added strain of political 
and business affairs, is too intense to spare the time and thought required 
for such complicated responsibilities. 

Frequently it occurs that when a member is initiated in his work 
he is retired from Congress or changed to other committees. Successors 
come to a new beginning, perhaps with new projects, disrupting the 
unity of those well in hand. 

Therefore, as the finality of these suggestions, the undersigned submits as 
a necessity the appointment by Congress of 



A BOARD OF AGGRANDIZEMENT. 141 



A BOARD OF AGGRANDIZEMENT FOR THE CITY OF 
WASHINGTON, 

to hold office continuously for ten years. It should consist of the chair- 
men of the committees on the District of Columbia and on Public Build- 
ings and Grounds of the House and Senate, one civil and one military 
Commissioner of the District, and five residents of Washington not 
members of Congress, with power to employ counsel and experts at 
their discretion. 

The scheme is analogous to that of a Board of Policy which has been 
suggested for the Navy Department, so that the doings of one adminis- 
tration may be in harmony with a general plan running through years. 

They should be directed by the act — 

1. To submit to Congress a general plan for the improvement of Wash- 
ington and vicinity by parks, buildings, roads, or other devices. 

2. They should submit to each Congress at its first session their recom- 
mendatio7is for works to be prosecuted during the ensuing two years, with 
an estimate of appropriations required. 

3. They should have full power to condemn lands for buildings, parks, 
street improvement, architectural renovation , or other purposes where prop- 
erties can not be obtained at a reasonable price. 

4.. They should have power to purchase or condemn lands on which are 
unsightly buildings or objects offensive to neighborhoods, reselling said lands 
with prescribed designs and plans for building thereon or other improve- 
ments, or until such sale improving in an inexpensive but ornamental 
mamier with buildings or other improvements for income or for pic b lie 
adormnent. 

As lands were condemned and then disposed of this fund would 
return for use over again. If a section, say, of the blocks on Sixteenth 
street (in the picture) or a number of other shabby lots scattered through 
other blocks were all to be cleared from their trash, they would imme- 
diately command buyers. 

If the commission holds the lands a while, the advance would be a legit- 
imate gain to the Government. The city of Paris profited immensely 
from betterments following condemnations of entire streets. 

No time should be lost by delay of this legislation, for plainly the 
present extraordinary prosperity must enhance values, and real estate in 
Washington, when advance begins, will be inflated in price. 

Now is the time for the Government, as for individuals, to invest. 

Coincident with the above legislation should be the financial provision 
demanded. 

The foresight that will plan grandly for the future will wisely arrange 
for the outlay in advance. , 



142 A BOARD OF AGGRANDIZEMENT. 

To have a broad scheme devised and accepted and then left to an 
uncertainty in annual appropriations will be to have great operations 
stranded while in progress. 

When the United States Treasury shall be in deficit, then the work 
will be crippled or stopped. At the recurrence of business depression 
labor will clamor for and most need employment. 

With a prospective surplus of $150,000,000, it would gratify the 
worthy pride of the nation 1 to have $30,000,000 — one-fifth — voted for 
the aggrandizement of Washington and funded so that it can not be 
diverted from its purpose. The expenditure, of course, would be by 
gradual appropriations, according to the acceptance of the recommenda- 
tions of the board. This has been the procedure with the metropolitan 
commission of Massachusetts. 

Another expedient is to vote a percentage of the total of all annual 
appropriations to this object. The modicum required will be an inter- 
esting surprise in comparison with the vast and enduring results. 

The aggregate appropriations of the present Congress are in excess 
of $700,000,000. One-fourth of one per cent would be $1,750,000, 
for twenty years $35,000,000 — more than all the expenditures above 
mentioned would cost, while betterments to real estate and increase of 
population and business much more than would return the amount. 

Recurring to the suggestion above for the commemorative service of 
1900, I imagine the following splendid sequence of events: 

Imitating the unanimous action of Congress without debate in the 
passage of the act for the Yellowstone Park, and again in that historic 
scene of the war appropriation of $50,000,000, a joint resolution to fund 
from the surplus at the close of the next fiscal )^ear $30,000,000 for the 
aggrandizement of Washington. 

It is not as large as is now under contract for rapid transit in New 
York. 

Massachusetts in seven years incurred the same indebtedness against 
thirty-six cities and towns, viz, $1,500,000 per annum. 

San Francisco recently voted $6,000,000 to purchase and improve 
twenty-nine blocks leading to the Golden Gate Park. 

For the United States to appropriate $30,000,000 from a surplus in 
the Treasury for outlay during twenty years, or $1,500,000 a year, is a 
trifle in comparison. 

This amount is not so large as the outlay of the city of Paris in ren- 
ovations under the Empire between 185 1 and 1870 — less than twenty 
years in renovations which have returned fourfold in its aggregate of 
wealth. 2 

1 Addenda: Voices of the Press. 

2 ,The first stroke was the clearance of a labyrinth of old houses and the connection 
of the Louvre with the Tuileries. While this was in progress there were built the 
Palace of Industry and the immense central markets; Rue Rivoli was extended for 



A BOARD OF AGGRANDIZEMENT. 1 43 

The outlay involved in the above recommendation, of $1,500,000 per 
year for twenty years, will in twenty years appear small in comparison 
with expenditures then in enterprises national and mercantile. Then it 
will seem strange that in 1900 it had appeared to some people as large in 
proportion to the national outlook and resources. 

If there might be joint unanimous action at the close of the next session 
to provide — 

First. The appointment of a commission for aggrandizement Of the 
city of Washington with the general provisions above stated. 

Second. The appropriation of $30,000,000, to be funded from the sur- 
plus, for use under advisement of said commission, approved by Congress. 

Third. An appropriation of money sufficient to lay at once the foun- 
dation for a Column of the Union — i. e., of the accession of States — at a 
central point in the market area on Pennsylvania avenue. 

Fourth. That commemorative services be held for the laying of a 
corner stone for the Column of the Union — if such action could mark the 
second session of the Fifty-sixth Congress, with a joint chorus of America, 
a Doxology would resound as the final strain. 

A NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE AGGRANDIZEMENT OF WASHINGTON. 

When an effective plan like that foreshadowed shall be adopted by 
Congress it will be of national benefit, if the patriotism of the country is 
awakened to popular support of the project, aiding it also by a watchful 
interest from which will follow criticisms and improvements. 

On the 14th instant, at a meeting of one hundred scientists of Wash- 
ington, stereopticon illustrations of the aggrandizements above proposed 
were exhibited. 

At the conclusion the suggestion was offered of a National Society 
for the Aggrandizement of Washington. It was received with 
emphatic commendation and has been subsequently approved by others 
of known practical judgment. The writer has a register of more than 
30,000, from all parts of the United States, who, within the past ten 

miles through a maze of old streets; much of the present sewer system was con- 
structed; a great number of new streets and parks were laid out. 

A large majority of those parks which contribute to the health, convenience, and 
beauty of the Paris of to-day were planned and executed. Of all the houses of Paris 
in 1870 less than one-third had been built prior to 1852. 

Meanwhile efforts of individual and associated private capital kept pace with 
imperial progress. 

The returning visitor might traverse broad thoroughfares for miles together with- 
out hardly a trace of the places he knew twenty-five years b afore. Old Paris, with its 
crooked, narrow streets (see fig. 4), so favorable to revolutionary barricades and 
epidemics, was swept away. Compare these enterprises with the above aggrandize- 
ments, above proposed, and their timidity, not their presumption, will be apparent. 






T 




i i i l i l i l i > i i i i l l i l < i I l l l 1 l l I 1 I l I II I I I I III I I I I I 1X1 I I I I I III I 



i « r 1 1 1 i.i i liLn n m inut 



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lift 



»i «^ ^«s ; .1 nans. ea»z> " j ' I >5j»i^ bubi \ j *a»n >u ss c ' 

■■111' 






NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE 
AGGRANDIZEMENT OF W A S H I N G T N. 




-J 




******** vw **** awr -******** 






No. 124.— The Roman Annex to the Halls of the Ancients, 1312, 1314, 1316, 1318 New York avenue, Washington 
The Taberna (store) displays exact replica of beautiful Greek vases and other art models for schools. 



144 



A BOARD OF AGGRANDIZKMKNT. I45 

years, have left record of their interest in his efforts for National Gal- 
leries. It includes an ex- President and many distinguished by their 
honorable functions, judges of the Supreme Court, Senators and Repre- 
sentatives in Congress, educators, etc. 

From this roll he proposes at once to solicit membership in a society 
for purposes set forth in the annexed memorandum for its constitution. 
It will be perfected upon further consultation with associates and then 
widespread membership of a national society will be solicited upon a 
basis substantially as given on the following page, 



S. Doc. 209 — Pt. 3- 



The National Society for the Aggrandizement of 
Washington. 

The object of this society is to stimulate national interest in the archi- 
tectural grandeur, the enrichment, and adornment of Washington on a 
scale worthy its promise of future importance as the capital of the United 
States of America, by efforts, viz: 

First. To promote by its influence the appointment by Congress of a 
Commission for the Aggrandizement of Washington, with tenure of 
office for ten years, but with rotation of some of its members every 
three years — to report to Congress a general plan of works and meas- 
ures, expedient, and from time to time others .said commission shall deem 
advisable; to cooperate with the said commission by suggestions or criti- 
cisms according to their judgment, and to sustain the commission in 
execution of their plans. 

Second. By the appointment of an executive board, the majority to 
be resident in Washington, but with representatives in other cities, who 
shall offer plans and suggestions, as above mentioned, making the sub- 
ject their special study and interest and stimulating advisory recommen- 
dations from the public. 

The selection from these contributions of such as shall be deemed 
worthy of commendation or improvement, such papers to be acknowl- 
edged in published reports; publication of interesting and desirable 
plans, designs, or suggestions to be made from time to time with illus- 
trations; also with publication of examples drawn from capitals ancient 
and modern, which may be valuable for imitation or in modification for 
the municipal comfort and adornment of Washington. 

Third. To enlist the cooperation of the press of the different States; 
especially of artistic, architectural, educational, and other literary jour- 
nals. 

Fourth. To establish in Washington an office for said board, where 
will be on exhibition plans, designs, and suggestions contributed; 
engravings of architectural examples, etc. 

Fifth. According to the means of the board, to employ lecturers 
throughout the country to promote public interest in Washington and 
cooperation for its aggrandizement. 

Sixth. To consider carefully various architectural or other improve- 
ments proposed to Congress, aiding their promotion or advocating their 
revision as may be expedient. 
146 



A NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR AGGRANDIZEMENT. 1 47 

Seventh. According to the means at the disposal of the society, to 
offer prizes for plans or designs in realization of constructions, streets, 
parks, or other improvements, which the board shall by a majority of 
three-fourths decide are desirable for accomplishment. 

Eighth. As a board, by formal vote, to commend specified objects or 
purposes with estimates of their costs to the liberality of the people of 
the United States for their gifts to National Galleries of History and 
Art or other attractions of the capital. 

The membership of the society shall be enrolled in permanent volumes, 
alphabetically by States. Membership to be subject to an annual assess- 
ment of $2. All members to receive the publications of the society. 

Contributions of larger amounts are to be accompanied by lists of indi- 
viduals, one for each $2 subscribed; said individuals to receive the 
publications of the society. National banks will be asked to act as 
depositories for subscriptions. Congress will be petitioned to grant the 
franking privilege for the circulation of the publications of the society. 
A constitution and by-laws to be adopted as soon as three hundred 
members are enrolled from different States, to warrant assumption of 
the name National Society. The meetings of the society to be held in 
Washington at the time established by the by-laws. 

Note. — Delay in obtaining data and illustrations for this publication 
prevents the issue of it before the adjournment of Congress, which occurs 
earlier than was anticipated. Therefore any action upon its suggestions 
or consideration of them must wait the session in December, 1900. 



A Personal Statement. 

From his great interest therein the undersigned is compelled to make 
the following statement and appeal: 

The preceding papers are the fruitage of observation and study of 
architectural effects during 50 years, at frequent intervals, in the capitals 
of Europe, and especially of attention to municipal constructions and 
adornments abroad during late visits as far as Stockholm, St. Peters- 
burg, Moscow, Constantinople, Athens, and Cairo, that has filled note- 
books with material for possible utilization in the splendid but unim- 
proved opportunities of Washington. 

For 10 years past these topics have been the absorbing and exclusive 
employment of his thoughts and energies. Since the publication of his 
first Prospectus (Part II) the outlay of effort on his part has been 
excessive. It is three years since, at the suggestion of Mr. B. H. 
Warner, he came to Washington to construct the Halls of the Ancients. 

He has had no financial assistance ' until the cooperation of Mr. S. 
Walter Woodward, of Washington, by whose aid (as hereinbefore at first 
stated) the Halls of the Ancients were established. For five 3'ears during 
the financial depression the enterprise of National Galleries was persist- 
ently followed through personal conference, by printed exhibits, lec- 
tures from Boston to San Francisco, but without publicity, which was 
inexpedient. 

Frequently during this decade has been recalled an imperishable 
record from the pen that decreed not only the locality of the capital that 
bears his name, as did the plow of Romulus mark the bounds of Rome 
around the Palatine, but also therein the square "No. / south of squares 
3 3 and 34. to Potomac River" (now Observatory Hill) for educational 
use. His injunction it has been the aim of these writings to fulfill. 

"The peculiar circumstances attending" the announcement of such a 
broad scheme; "the embarrassed situation of our public affairs, which 
obliged me every year" (for five) "to postpone" its revival to public atten- 
tion; "a?id as expense was incidental thereto a?id consequent of my self- 
denial ', I have, as of right I think I ought, upon due consideration 
adjudged" — that now, assistance from the Government toward my con- 
tinuance in the work — especially considering my advanced age and 
impaired health — "is Just with respect to the public as it is convenient with 
respect to myself; and I make it with less reluctance as I find that I am a 
considerable loser, my disbursements falling short of my receipts and the 

1 Except from one whose modesty forbids mention, but who in this connection 
deserves commendation. 
148 



A PERSONAL STATEMENT. . 149 

money I had of my own." Under these circumstances the author now 
appeals to Congress — 

First. For an assignment to him for his personal use at discretion of 
5,000 copies of this Senate Document No. 209, in parts or entire as 
desired, with 1,000 copies thereof bound in cloth. He has contributed 
a very large share of the expense of its issue, including the value of 
original drawings for the illustrations, the cost to the Government of that 
number of copies not being equal to that of the first edition of his 
Prospectus (5,000 copies quarto, 105 pages, 146 illustrations). 

Second. He solicits of all members of Congress the acceptance of 
this invitation to visit the Halls of the Ancients with their families, 
that they may judge of the feasibility in these days of effective, 
realistic reconstruction from antiquity, for impressive object lessons to 
old and young, and from those demonstrations judge of the benefit to 
the nation of the establishment of National Galleries of History and 
Art upon full scale of the design. 

Third. He solicits as a personal favor from members of Congress 
that after examination of the papers herewith, in leisure at their homes, 
they will kindly write to the undersigned their conclusions with reference 
to them, and, if favorably regarded, aid their purpose in all ways 
practicable. F. W. S. 

Washington, May 28, 1900. 

Note. — The extraordinary interest to the people of the United States 
for all time of the facsimiles annexed was the temptation to make the 
paraphrase above a motif for their publicity. Thus these papers com- 
mence and conclude with reproductions of the handwriting of Wash- 
ington. The first (Part I) are photographic reductions from the original 
documents; absolutely counterparts to the dot of an i or the place -of a 
period. These would have been impossibilities a century ago. 



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ADDENDA. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

1. Voices of the press 155 

2. Municipal aesthetics 163 

3. Abundant prosperity, 1900 168 

4. Legislation moved in Congress 170 

5. A professional opinion — Dr. Sowers — of the highlands as preferable for a 

new White House 172 

6. Criticism of the design reported to Congress for the Memorial Bridge .... 1 76 

7. Additional views of embowered homes in Washington 179 

8. Views on the Potomac 181 

9. Concrete construction being demonstrated in Washington, No. 9 182 

10. Estimated cost of the proposed aggrandizements 184 

11. Plans for the comprehensive development of Washington. (From the 

American Architect, June 2, 1900. ) 185 

12. A vision of splendor; oration of Hon. Marriott Brosius, at Arlington, on 

Memorial Day, May 30, 1900 1S7 

Note. — The material in these papers, drawings, illustrations, etc., was received 
too late to accompany the text to which it has relation. In later editions it will be 
added to the respective papers. 

153 



Addenda No. I. 



VOICES OF THE PRESS. 



[From the New York Tribune.] 
AS TO NATIONAL EXPENSES. 

Some men need to open their eyes and realize that this is not a pauper 
country. Economy is excellent when it is not a crime or a disgrace. 
But in these days the argument of economy is used, often with mistaken 
honesty, no doubt, but also at times with knavish intent, to prevent 
expenditures for which the Government and the people are amply pro- 
vided. Whether the object is wise or unwise, whether the motive is the 
best or not, the argument is nothing better than an unworthy appeal to 
ignorant prejudice. If there is anything which the Government may 
wisely do for the welfare of the people it is folly to claim that it is not 
able or that they can not bear the burden. 

This nation of 77,000,000 people, more or less, is to-day better able to 
spend $300,000,000 than it was thirty years ago with half the population 
to spend $100,000,000. Its wealth has increased more than threefold, 
from $30,000,000,000 to over $100,000,000,000. Its people are far more 
fully employed, earning much better wages, and are more secure and 
independent in their industries, with a national credit such as no other 
power possesses. The nation has a measure of control in the world's 
finances which nobody expected thirty years ago this county would 
attain. It was able in 1870 to pay over $3 for every inhabitant as 
interest on the public debt, but it would be a much lighter burden to-day 
to pay interest on a debt of $7,000,000,000, and not even the wildest 
scheme of national defense or development would call for aii} r such sum. 
The world's financiers would tumble over one another in their haste to 
get United States bonds at a rate paying less than 3 per cent, but the 
people themselves would take care that not many such bonds would go 
beyond their borders. 

Abundance of resources is not a reason for wastefulness. A nation 
which is adding to its wealth in a } r ear $2,000,000,000 or $3,000,000,000 
is not pinched in its expenditure by lack of money. The question is, 
and always ought to be, only one of the wisdom of an expense proposed. 

155 



156 VOICES OF THE PRESS. 

[From the Philadelphia Inquirer.] 
BEAUTIFY THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. 

Of the minor recommendations made by President McKinley in his 
message to Congress, none is at ohce more timely and more important 
than his suggestion that the centennial of the founding of the city of 
Washington shall be made a notable event. Washington is to-day a 
beautiful city, but it does not yet begin to do justice to the great people 
who own it as their seat of government. Had he argued for two or 
three such memorials he would not have gone too far. As he says, the 
people of the country are justly proud of their capital city, and they 
have a right to be. But the work of making that city beautiful has 
only begun. Those who would protest against such an outlay are of so 
small a proportion of the population that their voices would scarcely be 
heard, and even if heard would be of no consequence compared with the 
overwhelming sentiment in its favor. 

Let us face this subject in a patriotic spirit. Paris is to-day the most 
beautiful city in the world, because the people of France have spent 
millions of dollars year after year in adorning its streets with just such 
memorials as the President has in mind. With its enormous resources 
this nation should equal the results achieved in the French capital. A 
thousand reasons for such a policy come easily to mind. No foreigner 
visits this country without visiting the capital and without returning to 
his own country to tell what he saw. No native citizen goes thither 
without having his patriotism stirred and feeling more and more inclined 
to fight more determinedly for his country. These are the great reasons 
for carrying out the Presidential recommendation. It need not be feared 
that there will not be any adequate return for the amounts expended. 
The cost to so great a people would not be felt, and everywhere the effect 
would be to enhance the prestige of the whole people among the nations 
of the world. 

It is hazarding little to predict that the committee for which the Presi- 
dent has asked will be named and that an appropriation will be made, 
but there should be no halfway business in the premises. The com- 
memoration should be a notable one, and should carry the fame of the 
United States to the farthest corners of the earth. 



[From the Indianapolis Press.] 

BEAUTIFY THE CAPITAL — SOUTH SIDE OF THE AVENUE SHOULD BE 
PURCHASED BY THE GOVERNMENT. 

Some public-spirited citizens have been advocating a project to beau- 
tify the national capital. The scheme contemplates the purchase by 
the Government of the triangular tract of land between Pennsylvania 



VOICKS OF THK PRKSS. 1 57 

avenue and the Government reservation, from the Capitol to the White 
House grounds, the construction of a grand boulevard from the Capitol 
to the Washington Monument, thence connecting with Pennsylvania 
avenue, and the continuance of this boulevard over a memorial bridge 
across the Potomac. It is thought probable that if this were done the 
State of Virginia would cede to the District of Columbia land along the 
Potomac for a driveway to Mount Vernon. 

The report from Washington is that the project has almost been aban- 
doned because of the expense involved. The cost of the recent war and 
its ensuing conditions deter the Representatives from making the large 
appropriation necessary to carry out an improvement that their constitu- 
ents might regard as purely local. 

The Press believes that a plan the execution of which would make 
Washington the most beautiful capital in the world ought not to fail 
because the people lack information on the subject and Congress fears 
the charge of extravagance. The improvement of Washington is a 
matter of national interest and patriotic pride ; and if the advantages of 
the present plan were known to the people we believe that it would be 
emphatically indorsed. 

The shabby and unsightly buildings that now mar the beauty of 
Pennsylvania avenue would be removed and the Government reservation, 
extending from the Capitol to the Potomac, would make a great park, 
and we may be sure that in this park, devoted to public use through an 
aesthetic ideal, no such architectural nightmares as the Pension Office 
would be placed. 

Governmental extravagance is one thing and a wise expenditure to 
increase the beauty of the national capital is another. This seems 
clearly to be the latter. Its advantages are obvious and no petty econ- 
omy should hinder such a project. The press generally should take the 
matter up, and the patriotic societies have here an opportunity to display 
a reason for their existence other than mutual felicitations on the dis- 
tinguished ancestry of their members. The Sons and Daughters of the 
Revolution and kindred societies can perform a real patriotic sendee by 
bringing this plan fully to the knowledge of the people. When that is 
done we believe that there will be an imperative popular demand for 
the proposed improvement. 



[From the Cincinnati Commercial-Tribune.] 

PRIDE) IN THE CAPITAL — WASHINGTON MUST BE MADE THE MOST 
BEAUTIFUL OF ALL CITIES. 

Every true American is proud of the national metropolis. Washington 
is dear to us because of the talismauic charm of its name, the beauty of 
its location, and the majesty of its public edifices, but more than all 



158 VOICES OF THE PRESS. 

because with that splendid city are inseparably bound up the lives and 
the achievements of the greatest men America, and indeed the world, 
has ever known. We believe, with the Washington Post, that there is 
no better way to gratify and stimulate patriotic pride than to enlist the 
interest of the masses in the capital of the nation. Washington is in 
truth, as the Post points out, the one city in the country whose interests 
are the interests of every citizen and whose honor and beauty belong to 
the entire nation. American patriotic pride will not rest satisfied with 
the adoption of any policy toward the national capital save one having 
for ultimate purpose the making of Washington the most beautiful 
capital in the world. The Indianapolis Press very properly declares that 
such a policy should not fail either because the people are not fully 
informed as to its details or because Congress might fear the charge of 
extravagance in providing for its execution. Our country has in 100 
years become the greatest in the world. The capital of the country 
should reflect that matchless growth and advancement. 

We stand on the very threshold of a new century. The nineteenth 
century has been for the world made glorious by American achievement. 
But, marvelous as have been our services to the race in the ninteenth, 
they will, we are convinced, be eclipsed by the still grander and nobler 
promotion of the interests of civilization through the instrumentality of 
the American nation in the twentieth century. Our leaders, guides, 
and rulers have their seat at Washington. The future of that city is in 
their hands, and the patriotism of America demands that the future 
shall not be unworthy the nation itself. As America is the greatest of 
nations, Washington must be the most beautiful of capitals. 



[From The Washington Post, Monday, April 9, 1900.] 
THE PEOPLE AND THEIR CAPITAL. 

The Post does not believe there is any member of either House of 
Congress who doubts that at some time or other, and at no very distant 
period, the Government will acquire the grounds south of Pennsylvania 
avenue and north of those which it now owns, and will carry out a com- 
prehensive plan of improvement which will make Washington indis- 
putably "the most beautiful capital in the world." The Post has no 
doubt that if the American people understood the situation, if they knew 
the relation which the acquisition of those grounds bears to the future 
of their capital, they would wonder at the delay of Congress. No 
Congressman has ever lost a vote for having manifested an interest in 
promoting improvements at the national headquarters. The few Con- 
gressmen whose narrow minds and stunted public spirit have prompted 
them to seek popular favor by adopting a niggardly policy toward the 
capital have signally failed to realize on their investment. Take the 



VOICES OF THE PRESS. 159 

roster of any Congress that has ever assembled in Washington, point out 
the names of its most illustrious members, and you will have the list of 
those who strove most earnestly to carry out the grand conception of the 
founder of this city, the peerless patriot whose name it bears. 

The people of the United States understand that their capital is in the 
hands of their agents in Congress. They know that Congress "exer- 
cises exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever ' ' over every inhabitant 
of this District. They read the story of the nation's growth — a story 
unmatched in the world's history for great achievements — and they look 
to Congress to see to it that the nation's capital keeps pace with the 
nation. 

This Republic is going out of the nineteenth into the twentieth century 
with more to its credit than any other power on the globe. We believe 
that in leaving behind a century of grand progress it enters upon a cen- 
tury of progress still more grand. That its people will not fail to make 
and to keep their capital what it should be we have no doubt. There will 
be an increasing realization, as the years go on, of the unique position 
in which the people are placed with regard to this city and District. In 
no other country do the people own and govern their capital. There- 
fore in no other are all the people interested in and responsible for the 
political metropolis. There is but one city in the United States whose 
citizens take no part in electing the officials who rule the capital; that 
solitary exception is the capital itself. 



THE NATION'S STREET. 
To the Editor of The Washington Evening Star: 

Your editorials on the improvement of the south side of the avenue 
have afforded me a great amount of pleasure and interest, and I sincerely 
trust that Congress will take a broad-gauge view of the matter and at 
least take one step forward at this session. Washington is, of course, 
the city for all great national celebrations, and Pennsylvania avenue is 
the place in Washington for the same. In this connection nry mind 
runs back through the inauguration festivities to the second inaugu- 
ration of President Grant. 

Take the afternoon of March 4, after the parade, and view the avenue, 
disfigured with rough stands and their cheap bunting, dilapidated 
one-story shanties alongside of substantial business houses — not for- 
getting the row of rum mills on the north side near the Capitol (so 
aptly described in The Star a few days since), and what a dreadful 
sight it presents ! How different would be the scene if Congress should 
build up the entire south side, with the buildings all harmonizing, and 
suppose the entire frontage of all these great buildings was arranged 
with covered balconies to accommodate the thousands of visitors. The 



l6o VOICES OF THE PRESS. 

roadway would be the arena of this vast amphitheater. The nation 
would be proud indeed of its capital city with such a magnificent avenue, 
and inauguration day would be looked forward to by hundreds of 
thousands with the greatest of pleasure and a trip to Washington as the 
event of their lives. 

Old Reader. 



[From the Charleston News and Courier, May 3, 1900.] 
GOOD WORK IN WASHINGTON. - 

Time was, and that not long since, when Washington City was distin- 
guished by little more than "its magnificent distances." It was largely 
a waste, dotted here and there with towering edifices, in which art and 
beauty were sacrificed to service and use. It consisted substantially of 
Pennsylvania avenue, dominated at one end by the old Capitol and 
squatted upon at the other end — as it is yet — by the White House, and 
no electric propulsion annihilated the interval of this aching void. 

Much, very much of this, has been changed, and Washington is rap- 
idly becoming, if it is not already, the most beautiful city of the land. 
Its new Capitol is worthy of the greatest country on the globe; its new 
Congressional Library is a dream of exquisite taste and elaborate skill, 
upon which no cost has been spared; its avenues have been laid out with 
special care and definite plan, with oases of parks and squares at their 
junction with each other; costly and impressive monuments adorn every 
public place; and splendid private residences have sprung up, as if by 
magic, in every part of the city. 

Holding an unique position among the States of the American Union, 
located in none of them, and yet belonging to them all, Washington has 
become the chosen residence of much of the culture and wealth of the 
United States. A literary and social life finds expression here, in 
strange contrast with the political atmosphere so often associated in 
thought with the nation's capital — a life refined, elevated, and beautiful. 

There is a spirit abroad, if we are to judge by the great journals of the 
country, or many of them — to rejoice in this growth of our country's 
metropolis into such proportions as will make it increasingly the type of 
our American civilization and the center of our patriotic pride; to 
encourage and even call for such action from Congress — which legislates 
for it — as will make our capital city worthy of a Republic of 80,000,000 
of people. Surely such a spirit is to be commended and its suggestions 
heeded by all who are sensitive to everything which concerns their 
country's honor. 



voices of the; press. 161 

[From The Washington Evening Star, Saturday, March 3, 1900.] 

The great Mall, with its succession of broad areas devoted artistically 
to combinations of lawn and wooded growths, forms one of the city's 
most distinctive features. 

Already the Mall has been invaded by buildings because of the par- 
simony of Congress. There was but feeble objection to the introduction 
of the Smithsonian Institution there, for its nature befitted it to the 
seclusion of the park and its architecture blended harmoniously with the 
dense foliage of the forest growth. The Department of Agriculture, how- 
ever, was a mistake, while the National Museum was only to be excused 
on the ground of its likeness in organizational character to the Smith- 
sonian, a biscuit-toss away. But for the sternly practical, forbidding 
Medical Museum there was never a valid excuse, and the capital has 
always deplored this invasion and violation of the park principle. It 
was hoped that these four buildings, constituting a group of scientific 
organizations, would remain the solitary occupants of the Mall, aside 
from the Fish Commission office, doomed to early removal, and the 
magnificent memorial shaft at the western end, destined for a significant 
permanence. 

Now comes the plan to despoil the park, to locate all future public 
buildings within its limits, to cut it in twain by an inartistic street, and 
to change its original character entirely. It is no wonder that the 
scheme is rejected by the most advanced public spirit of the citizens, as 
unworthy the great occasion with which it is associated, and a positive 
detriment to the artistic and the material progression of the capital. 
There is room in plenty for the buildings yet to be built without invad- 
ing the parks. There are grander opportunities for city adornment than 
this, which represents such a direct sacrifice of principle and public 
space. The only course of safety is to stand firmly in opposition to the 
plan. Once it is adopted, there is no guaranty for the future. Whereas 
now Congress is chary about buying sites for public buildings, always 
counting the cost and the difficulty of selection, with the park-site prin- 
ciple established there will be no barrier to prevent the frequent and 
lavish expenditure of this beauty and breathing space for public building 
uses. 

It is only by the maintenance of high ideals that great ends are 
achieved. The great end here is the evolution of a capital worthy the 
country and the times, a city of rare beauty and convenience, of dignity 
and good government. 

S. Doc. 209 — Pt. 3 11 



1 62 RESOLUTION OF THE ARCHITECTURAL CLUB. 

RESOLUTION PASSED BY THE WASHINGTON ARCHITECTURAL CLUB, 
SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1900. 

The Washington Architectural Club, an organization whose object it 
is to foster and further the study of architecture as a fine art, seeing in 
the movement promulgated by Mr. Franklin W. Smith, to erect a group 
of buildings illustrating the history and development of architecture, a 
means for furthering the object for which this society was established, 

Resolves, That we extend to Mr. Smith an expression of our good 
will by indorsing the movement initiated by him and declaring our 
belief in the immense amount of good such a scheme will ultimately 
accomplish, by popularizing the study of architecture and by object 
lessons creating a just appreciation of it; that we believe the expendi- 
ture of money required is proportionate to the benefits to be derived, 
and that we urge Congress to take some definite action on the subject. 

And be it further resolved, That these resolutions [be typewritten and 
copies forwarded to Mr. Franklin W. Smith, the proper committees of 
Congress, the architectural journals, and to such other persons as may 
be deemed proper by the secretary of this club. 

T. F. L,aist, ex officio, 
E. W. Donn, Jr.. 
W. B. Wood, 

Committee. 



Addenda No. 2. 



MUNICIPAL .'ESTHETICS. 

[From the New York Home Journal, April 12, 1900.] 

It is a significant and a hopeful sign that we are beginning to think, 
in the erection of our monuments and buildings, of other things in 
addition to utility. Utility is of course necessary, and so, we shall find, 
is beauty. Municipal aesthetics, if properly understood, is a liberal 
education to all citizens, and its importance is now beginning to be 
appreciated in America . 

Mr. Walter Crane writes: " If our cities are to be made pleasant abid- 
ing places, if their form and arrangement are to appeal to the eyes and 
the pleasure and comfort of their citizens as well as their pride, these 
things (the beautifying of streets) will have to be considered. Why, 
with all the resources of art and science, with knowledge of sanitation 
and all those things necessary to the maintenance of a high standard 
of human life, we should allow ugliness, meanness, and squalor to exist, 
and to depress and deaden the external aspects of our cities to the 
extent we do, is amazing. The awakening sense to the importance of 
beauty is an encouraging sign, and one is glad to hear of the way in 
which the subject is being taken up in America." 

Mr. E. H. Blashfield has recently asked: "What has municipal art 
done? It has beautified; it has stimulated; it has commemorated for 
more than three thousand years. It made Athens the most famous 
city of antiquity for her beauty's sake — the beauty of her statues, her 
pictures, the beauty of her music, plays, and poems, for which she insti- 
tuted civic and national trials of skill; for the commemoration of her 
patriotism, which again took the form of beauty and builded the mem- 
ories of Marathon and Salamis into the stones of the Parthenon. It 
made Rome the most splendid city of her splendid Empire, a museum 
of art for all time, a schoolroom for the students of four centuries. 
It gave to Ephesus and Halicarnassus and Thebes fame that has 
endured longer than the cities themselves. It has perpetuated the 
memor}- of the wise and strong, and thereby stimulated millions of men 
to the thought of great examples millions more to the reverence of beautv 

163 



164 MUNICIPAL ESTHETICS. 

and a higher appreciation of nature as reechoed in man's handiwork. It 
has helped men to think. In sum, public and municipal art is a public 
and municipal educator. Therefore, it is good; therefore, we should 
have it. 

" In all ages," he continues, "municipal decoration has gone on, great 
with the great epochs, decadent with the epochs of decadence, but 
always a stimulus, always a dower from past to future, and in the pres- 
ent not infrequently a revenue. The art of Italy draws thousands of 
tourists annually, with millions of money, and some of that money — that 
which is dropped at the turnstiles of the museums — pays for the housing 
and keeping up of that same treasure of art. 

" Paris is rich enough to forego this gate money, and one passes no 
turnstile at L,ouvre or Luxembourg. One is apt to think of Paris as 
purveyor of easel pictures to the world, but one must not forget that 
she has not been unmindful of that larger art which we call municipal. 
* * * America is a young country, but she has much to celebrate — 
her settlement, the exploration of her rivers and lakes and plains, the 
building of her railways, the wonderful romance of her mining life, the 
development of her fisheries, the telegraph, the submarine cable, the 
application of iron to naval warfare, last, but not least, the achievements 
of her Army and Navy. * * * The post-office of New York reaches 
its hand as far as that of Rome or Berlin, and has as much right to sum- 
mon to its walls the symbols, attributes, and personages that collect 
together the quarters of the earth and make up an epitomized pictured 
world's gazetteer. A post-office, a railway station, a bank, an exchange — 
any of these — may offer an endless field to the imagination of painter or 
sculptor. Still more suggestive are library and courts of law; and think 
of a town hall, where the whole expression of a people's aspirations may 
be pictured. 

" The effect of decorating a city, the effect upon the mind — that is, of 
the spectator — is cumulative. He soon gets to demand more and more 
of harmony, and is not satisfied unless the general appearance of the 
streets is handsome. Such wildernesses of the commonplace and even 
of the ugly, sometimes of the hideous, as are now seen throughout acre 
after acre on the east and west sides of New York would never have 
been tolerated by an old Florentine or Venetian . ' ' 

Mr. George Kriehn, in discussing the question of "The City Beau- 
tiful," feels that the conversion of the American city, built primarily for 
utility, into the city beautiful may seem, at the first glance, a Herculean 
task. But if each element of ugliness be taken up and rooted out one 
by one, the task though long, need not be difficult. One of the first 
things he objects to is the hideousness of street signs and advertise- 
ments. 1 Signs could be beautiful quite as well as ugly. In Belgium a 

1 See the hideous triangular displays thrust into vacant lots on Connecticut avenue 
and elsewhere in Washington. 



MUNICIPAL ESTHETICS. 1 65 

municipal art society has taken up the matter and initiated competitions 
for beautiful designs for which prizes are awarded. Sculptors and 
skilled iron workers compete because of the value of the prizes as well as 
their interest in their work, and merchants because of the advertisement 
it gives them. The result is that all over the city one finds graceful 
signs, and it is an interesting fact that these pay better than ugly ones. 

Another method by which we could gradually improve our streets is 
the introduction of color. The love of color is natural. Who is there 
that does not love the colors of autumn, the crimson of the sunset, and 
the blue of the ocean? Kvery child seeks things that are gay and bright 
and new. In olden times the people delighted in color. The Greek 
temple stood on high green promontories by the bright blue sea, gaily 
colored with red and blue and ivory. The mediaeval city was a feast of 
color with its bright tile roofing and painted facades, with the coats of 
arms emblazoned "on all the houses and walls of the cities, and with the 
glittering glass windows stained in all colors. It is only in modern times 
that we have banished it from our midst, except where we put up a 
hideous affair to advertise an auction sale. 

In coloring our modern cities the French have given us good examples. 
They use the trees as much as possible. Green is nature's coloring; it 
rests the eye, and in the broader streets of the city nothing is so charm- 
ing as to see a bright green tree. 

Municipal art has its practical side which will appeal especially to 
Americans. A beautiful city will attract a desirable class of residents. 
The Americans and the other foreigners who are in Paris are there 
primarily because Paris is such a beautiful place. They buy French 
goods, the3 T build houses or rent them, and so on. This applies also to 
a certain extent to New York and Washington, because they are, perhaps, 
the most beautiful of our cities. Municipal art will undoubtedly, if 
properly financiered, greatly improve real estate values. The Avenue 
de 1' Opera in Paris is a .striking example of this. There is a street in 
Glasgow that will soon have paid the cost of its construction. There is 
another in L,ondon — Shaftesbury avenue — which was built through Seven 
Dials, and there are any number of them in Paris ; and the Parisians 
keep on building them. 

As an educational factor, municipal art can not be overestimated. 
Monuments and arches teach glory more thoroughly than an}' book can. 
Why should not the American people be taught patriotism in a similar 
fashion to a far greater extent than at present? Our histor} r abounds 
in great subjects well adapted to artistic portrayal. Nothing would be 
a more effective agent in making good citizens of our foreign population 
than such monuments. Many of them can not read English books, but 
they can read monuments, which appeal to the eye. This matter is as 
important as any political issue before us, and it has one great advan- 
tage — it is nonpartisan. Two things are necessary before we can have 



1 66 MUNICIPAL ESTHETICS. 

a beautiful city. The first is patriotism and the second a desire to excel. 1 
Civic patriotism is an all-important factor. At the beginning of the 
fifteenth century the people of Florence wanted to build a tower. 
Florence was a little city, not nearly so large as many Italian cities, not 
nearly so powerful as Naples or Venice, but they said to the architect: 
' ' You must build a tower which will not only surpass what has been 
done by any Italian city, but anything in the whole world. " Giotto 
went to work and created the Campanile, "that serene height of 
mountain alabaster, colored like a morning cloud, chaste as a sea shell." 
The City Beautiful should become a term that can aptly be applied to 
New York and Washington and all other cities. It can not be done in 
five years or ten, but even if it takes half a century or more, surely the 
end is worth striving for. 



[From the House Journal.) 

Mrs. E. H. Blashfield made several practical suggestions as to "How 
New York may be made beautiful," in an address before the League 
for Political Education, in Berkeley Lyceum, yesterday morning. 

"To whom did the cities of the past owe their public decorations?" 
asked Mrs. Blashfield. "Was it only to the kings, emperors, and grand 
dukes, whom we have not in America? No. Bruges, Florence, Venice, 
and Nuremberg got their art from the very men whom we have — by 
magistrates, merchants, and artisans. " 

Mrs. Blashfield suggested that Longacre square might be made into a 
park. Wall fountains, consisting of a bas relief, with basin underneath, 
which she termed the simplest form of decoration, might, she said, be 
erected in a great many places, as they are fitted to adorn even the nar- 
rowest streets. 

' ' Tablets of brass or marble should mark all the historic spots of the 
city," she said. " Certain quarters of the town should be beautified, as 
we can not spread a thin coat over the whole city. Especially the river 
side should be made a thing of beauty. Some of the quays have been 
made beautiful as recreation piers, and I think every tenth quay at least 
could be beautified without loss to commerce. Natural beauties, such as 
the Palisades, should be, above all things, preserved. 

' ' An easy way of adding to the beauty of our city streets would be 
the general use of window boxes of flowers and vines, such as are com- 
mon all over London. 

' ' The greatest plea for municipal art is that it is municipal education. 
It is a tacit declaration of democracy, for it means equal division of the 
beautiful things of life. ' ' 

'A third should be added — "missionary work," to cultivate appreciation of the 
theme of this paper and habits of observation that will incite a craving to enjoy the 
results which are its aim. The National Society for Aggrandizement of Washington 
should enlist a vast constituency in the United States. 



THE BILLBOARD NUISANCE. 1 67 

[From The Cleveland Leader.] 
THE BII^BOARD NUISANCE. 

It is clear that the billboard nuisance will have to be abated in Cleve- 
land. Signs have been put up in places where they are nothing less 
than the disfigurement of valuable public pleasure grounds and an injury 
to public property. 

In the end there will have to be strict regulation of the whole sign- 
board business. It is an injury to private as well as public property, in 
many cases, and the streets are disfigured beyond all reason or excuse. 
In such matters Americans are too lax, and one of the certain improve- 
ments of the near future in American cities will be the more effective 
restriction of the use of private property in ways injurious to the public. 
In such control of individual license Europe is far ahead of the United 
States. 



[From The Philadelphia Press.] 
THE SAME HERE. 

Chicago and Cleveland have declared war against the billboard 
nuisance and propose to make a vigorous effort to have it abated. The 
practice of permitting bills and advertising signs to be put up in any and 
all sorts of places has been carried to extremes in those cities and the 
consequence is the disfigurement of pleasure grounds and parks and the 
flaunting in the face of the public of objectionable handbills. If public 
opinion can be awakened and crystallized the practice can probably be 
stopped. Those cities are not the only ones, however, which have 
suffered from this nuisance. A little stricter regulation concerning these 
would meet with public approval. 



Addenda No. 



ABUNDANT PROSPERITY— 1900. 

Never before since the beginning of the Government has this land 
been blessed with such substantial evidences of almost boundless pros- 
perity along so many different lines. The President shows that — 

American exports for 1899 alone exceeded by more than $1,000,000, 000 
imports and exports combined in 1870. 

The combined exports and imports are the largest of any year in 
American history. 

The imports per capita are 20 per cent less than in 1870. 

The exports per capita are 58 per cent more than in 1870. 

Exports of agricultural products were $784,776,142. 

Exports of manufactures were the largest in the history of the country, 
valued at $339,592,146. 

Government receipts from all sources amounted to $610,982,004.35. 

Based on the estimates of the Secretary of the Treasury, there will be 
a surplus June 30, 1901, of receipts over expenditures of $152,000,000. 

The customs receipts for the last fiscal year were $206,128,481.75. 

The internal-revenue receipts increased b3' about $100,000,000. 

December 1, 1899, the available cash balance in the Treasury was 
$278,004,837.72, of which $239,744,905.36 was in gold coin and bullion. 

So strong was the position of the Treasury that for the first time in 
eight years the Treasury resumed compliance with the sinking-fund law, 
and during November offered to purchase $25,000,000 of the 5 per cent 
bonds of 1904 or the 4 per cents of 1907 at the current price. The 
amount purchased during November was $18,408,600. 

This gave a net saving to the Government of about $2,885,000. 

Total appropriations for the Fifty-fifth Congress were $1,566,890,016. 

No feature of the commerce of the United States, whether domestic or 

foreign, shows a more wonderful development than that carried upon the 

Great Lakes, where navigation is about to resume for the season of 1900. 

While since 1872 the foreign commerce has doubled, lake tonnage has 

t68 



ABUNDANT PROSPERITY. 



169 



increased from 914,735 tons to 21,958,347 tons in 1899, the increase hav- 
ing been over 2,000 per cent. 







1872. 


1899. 


Exportation of wheat 

Transportation through the Soo canal : 

Flour 


bushels. . 

barrels. . 


39, 000, 000 

136,4" 

80, 815 

383, 105 

a 1, 376, 705 


222, 000, 000 

7, "4. 147 
3, 940, 887 
15, 328, 240 
58, 397, 335 




do... 


Wheat 

dumber, copper, etc., in like proportions. 


bushels. . 



: 1871. 



Addenda No. 4. 



LEGISLATION MOVED IN CONGRESS— FIFTY-SIXTH 
CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION. 

Several resolutions have been moved in Congress in the direction of 
this present suggestion of a permanent commission. 

Mr. Lodge introduced a bill for a permanent commission for con- 
demnation proceedings in the District of Columbia. According to this 
bill the Supreme Court of the United States is authorized to appoint five 
suitable persons, one of whom shall be a member of the bar, as a perma- 
nent commission for the opening and extension by condemnation pro- 
ceedings of streets, alleys, rights of way for sewers, for the acquisition 
of any real estate required for the use of the District of Columbia or for 
the United States. The bill provides necessary details relating to the 
manner in which an appeal may be taken from the decisions of the 
commission. 

Another suggestion is an art commission composed of the presidents 
of the American Institute of Archaeology, of the National Sculptors' 
Society, and of the Academy of Design, and two citizens to be appointed 
by the President, to pass upon the artistic merit of designs or models of 
every work of art. 

This apparently is intended to apply to public buildings, although it 
does not say so directly, as the only works exempt are public buildings 
costing less than $50,000. This scheme is well enough as far as it goes. 
It apparently insures artistic criticism upon various designs or buildings 
from time to time as they take shape. It by no means covers the 
necessity of a concentration of minds exempt from other cares continu- 
ously upon a broad scheme of development covering not only Washington, 
but the region round about, and not the merits of individual works 
alone, but the merit and appropriateness of all works in relation to the 
one grand scheme set forth in advance and with a forecast for a long 
future. 

Senator McMillan proposes a resolution for a joint select committee of 
Senate and House to investigate and report upon some comprehensive plan 
for sites for public buildings that may be needed for years to come; this 
joint committee to employ a number of distinguished architects from the 
country at large for the purpose of devising the plan. 
170 



LEGISLATION PROPOSED. 171 

This scheme meets the same difficulty before recognized — the absorp- 
tion of the members of Congress in legislative and political matters, 
their temporary residence in Washington, and uncertain tenure of office. 

To employ a number of distinguished architects would mean a very 
large expense for which they could afford but little time. The careful 
and prolonged study of intelligent resident citizens, in conjunction with 
the Commissioners of the District and a representative from the mem- 
bership of the Congressional committees, appointed for a decade, with a 
gradual rotation from office, and calling to their aid from time to time the 
judgment of experts, would result in much more thorough conclusions 
at less expense. 



Addenda No. 5. 



CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING NEW WHITE HOUSE. 

Halls op the Ancients, 
Washington, D. C, May 21, 1900. 

My Dear Dr. Sowers: I beg to avail myself of my relation to you 
as my physician, for an authoritative judgment upon the expediency of 
an enlargement of the present White House or the construction of 
another on a new location. 

I would ask your opinion as to the comparative healthfulness of the 
present location with that of a situation on the heights overlooking the 
city. The present tendency for desirable residences is entirely to the 
north. More and more the high land is chosen. Certainly the establish- 
ment of a residence for Presidents of the United States for a century or 
centuries to come is a very important responsibility. The sanitary or 
beneficial influences affected by locality should receive most serious con- 
sideration. 

Inasmuch as a President is liable to be held in the city at important 
crises during the summer months, would not an elevated situation relieve 
the necessity which has existed for years — that he should remove with 
inconvenience to some small estate in the suburbs on the approach of 
summer? 

Yours, very truly, 

P'ranklin W. Smith. 



Washington, D. C. , May 22, ipoo. 

My Dear Sir: I am in receipt of yours of the 21st instant, and, 
realizing the importance of the questions submitted to me professionally, 
they have my best attention. 

First, in my judgment there is no question that the location of a new 
Presidential Mansion on the heights at the north of the city should be 
chosen in preference to an enlargement of the old White House. It is 
an indisputable fact that for city life an elevated grade is to be preferred 
for residence. All malarial and humid influences settle in the lowest 
strata of the atmosphere. 

Washington is surrounded by hills. A river, much inclosed flows 



ADDENDA. I73 

along its border. In warm or rainy seasons and in quiet conditions of 
the atmosphere there is a very marked difference between the humidity 
of the atmosphere and the activity of its currents on the lower levels of 
the city and on the hilltops. The difference is plainly observable in 
passing quickly from one to the other. 

The selection of a home for the President of the United States should 
be decided after scrutiny of all considerations bearing even in slight 
degree upon the prospective health of the President or of members of 
his family. The same solicitude should be manifested in this choice 
that would be shown by a kingdom for the health of a queen. The 
interests of a nation are involved therewith. 

It is not only with reference to the constitutional endurance of the 
President himself, who may be of rugged constitution, but his efficiency 
and happiness are involved in the health and happiness of all his house- 
hold. He may be quite insensible to sanitary or atmospheric influences 
which might seriously affect a member of his family. Injurious conse- 
quences to one of his household would compel his attention, control his 
movements, or bring care to his mind as though visited upon himself. 

Beyond the question that you specially submit, of comparative advan- 
tages of purer atmosphere and more comfortable temperature to be found 
on an elevated site, there is another consideration that should have great 
weight. All people need a change of environment from their daily 
avocations. The greater the absorption in labor the more the necessity 
for a contrast of scene. It should always have been a matter of regret 
to the people that Presidents who have served them for a century have 
had their business and their home under the same roof; that their domes- 
tic life should be with exposure to impurities of atmosphere and the 
possibilities of contagion, inevitable when their home was constantly the 
resort of many for business and frequently also a gathering place of 
thousands. A President with his burdensome cares, more than other 
men, should have a complete transition not only from office walls but 
from his business premises. 

The merchant leaves his store at night to go to another quarter of the 
city or to delightful suburbs, and returns in the morning refreshed by 
the change. It would be a very serious consideration for the health and 
endurance of business men if their homes were either a part of or 
adjacent to their offices, stores, or factories. 

Why should not a President of the United States, like the merchants, 
manufacturers, or other officials, have a refreshing change from the scene 
of his toil to a delightful home, to pleasant gardens, to a varied outlook 
such as all others seek according to their means? 

The grounds at present around the White House consists of two 
liberal lawns and a closed conservatory. There is nothing of the pictur- 
esque, the varied aspects, floral and verdant, of thousands of estates in 
the country close at the border of cities. They are nothing comparable 



174 ADDENDA. 

to the estate of a nobleman in England. Now, by proposed large addi- 
tions the area would be greatly reduced. The vista east and west is 
directly on massive walls of the Departments. 

If the voice of the country could be heard, it would protest against 
such a contracted scale of facilities for comfort, of sources of pleasure, 
of suitable dignity, to be fixed for another hundred years as an expres- 
sion of the breadth of national hospitality toward the Chief Magistrate 
to be of one or two hundred millions of people. 

Custom has rendered the people quite oblivious to the fact that Presi- 
dents have been compelled to unite their business and their home life. 
If there were no White House to-day arid a new location were to be 
selected, there is no question but that the same choice would be made for 
him that is now being made by citizens rapidly for themselves, viz, upon 
the high, dry, and airy elevations at the north, with a magnificent 
panorama of the Capitol in prospect. 

Certainly the consideration of a few millions of dollars will be found 
to be an economy too paltry in the judgment of the people of the United 
States to be weighed against the choice of the most healthful, attractive, 
and stately location available for the home of Presidents during centuries 
to come. 

They should dwell in environment the best possible for their health 
and happiness ; for their happiness will be an important factor for their 
health, and their health and that of their families is of vital concern to 
the nation. 

Yours, very truly, 



Z. T. Sowers. 



Mr. Franklin W. Smith. 



[From the Chicago Record.] 
A NEW WHITE HOUSE. 

It is generally conceded by all persons who have examined the sub- 
ject that the Government must soon build a new house at the national 
capital for the President. The building that has been occupied by the 
Chief Magistrates of the nation for nearly one hundred years is inade- 
quate and unsatisfactory. It is neither convenient for the occupants 
nor attractive in appearance. 

Congress has taken the first practical step toward housing the Presi- 
dent in a manner suitable to his high office by authorizing the Chief 
Executive to appoint a commission to report upon plans for the 
improvement of the White House and for the treatment of that part of 
Washington lying between it and the Potomac River. 

It is hoped by many, however, that no attempt will be made to "work 
over" the present historical building. Enlargements and additions will 
only destroy the simplicity of the original plan without producing a 
result that will be either artistic or comfortable. An entirely new design 



ADDENDA. 



175 



should be made and the best architectural talent ought to be engaged 
upon it. It is regretted by some that the Senate Committee on Appro- 
priations, in providing for the appointment of a commission, should have 
included in the list of members the Chief of Engineers of the Army. For 
military engineering work no better appointee could have been chosen, 
but it is no reflection upon the incumbent of the office to say that his 
training has not fitted him to sit in judgment upon architectural and 
landscape gardening designs. The commission ought to consist of prac- 
tical men, and it should not be hampered by the somewhat routine 
methods of army work. 

In the hurried legislation at the close of the session, June 7, the sundry 
civil bill carried along, with maujr other items reported by conferees, an 
appropriation of $6,000 for "drawings, model, specifications, etc., for 
extending the Executive Mansion." 

It is to be hoped that the plans following this outla3 7 will be regarded 
merely as tentative and suggestive, as in the case of the design reported 
' ' approved ' ' for the Memorial Bridge. Expenditure that forecasts the 
needs and opinions of a century should be the result of serious criticism. 

It is strange that after the late positive refusal to encumber Rawlins 
Park with one building and the emphatic protests against reduction of 
park area, it should be proposed to pack between the walls of the Treasury 
and War Departments two large buildings, in greater obstruction of air 
about the White House and absorption of its present narrow outlook. 

An arched thoroughfare at Sixteenth street is no novelty. Several 
palaces in Europe are pierced by grandiose archways. Thus it was with 
the Tuilleries, and is with the Eouvre, the palace at Vienna, the Senate 
and winter palaces at St. Petersburg. 




No. 126. — Portal through the War Department buildings, St. Petersbui 



Addenda No. 6. 



CRITICISM OF THE DESIGN REPORTED TO CONGRESS 
FOR THE MEMORIAL BRIDGE. 







No. 127. — Memorial bridge across the Potomac at Washington — design No. I. 
(Showing the accepted design for towers.) 




No. 12S. — The Arch of Septimius Sevcrus, Rome, A. D. 205. Massive, monumental, 
impressive, expressive. 

The accepted design for a bridge is a good base for aggrandizement. 

As hereinbefore illustrated, the writer has a clear apprehension of a 
magnificent bridge, more splendid, imposing, and effective than the 
accepted design. As to that which has been accepted, the public com- 
placency with which it has been received is a surprise. It is too light 
in effect. It is a pretty river bridge, but an impression from it as a 
memorial or monumental structure seems an impossibility. 

The two thin, open arches midway of the stream are plainly the old- 
fashioned hoisters for a draw bridge modernized and beautified. They are 
176 



ADDENDA. 177 

very elegant shears to step a mast or swing a boiler. One must be told 
that the}* are memorial. Standing in the middle of a stream, there is a 
sense of instability associated with them. Inevitably against such large 
atmospheric space their size is belittled. Contrast them with the Arch of 
Septimius Severus, and the question of Mr. Keller (p. 53) will return. 

Why not roll the two insignificant arches into one noble one and place 
it at the approach to the bridge on the Washington side? To this we add, 
Why not roll them together again for another grand Roman arch on terra 
firma on the Virginia side? 

Why not build for the two four bascule towers, grand piers with 
recessed tablets for inscriptions? The writer is indebted to Mr. Keller 
for a design (Plate — ), which suggests porticoes, urgently advocated, 
that would range onward from the Mall Boulevard. That treatment 
might be combined with the columnar pavilion (p. — ■). 

The suspension of contract for this important work may prove most 
fortunate. The foundation can be secured for a superstructure later, 
and memorial arches worthy of their subject and site ma}* be a gratula- 
tory result from delay. 



%V#^ 






-- - , 



- 





~' >■*.■;.; 



Xo. 129. — Design from Croquis d'Architecture- 

S. Doc. 209— Pt. 3 12 



7< 



CONCRETE BRIDGES. 




No. 130. — Melan arch-bridge construction, Eden Park, Cincinnati. 
Note the solidity of the above compared with the latticed arches fig. 127. 




No. 131.— William Mueser, C. E. 
A bridge as an ornament, not a defacement of a park. 



Addenda No. 7. 



ADDITIONAL VIEWS OF EMBOWERED HOMES IN 
WASHINGTON. 

VERDURE RAMPANT ON CITY WALLS. 

These were not received in time for their place. 




No. 13^.— Residence of Dr. S. S. Adams, Dupont circle. Tower and wall covered with Japanese ivy. 

179 



Addenda No. 8. 



Views North and South on the Banks of the Potomac from 
Aqueduct Bridge. 

These views were obtained too late for insertion with the text they 
illustrate, either with "Aggrandizement No. 10. Protection and beauty 
for the banks of the Potomac," p. 105, or "Aggrandizement No. 11. 
Transformation of Analostan Island," p. 109. 




No. 135. — View of the east bank of the Potomac opposite Analostan island, from south side of 
Aqueduct l'.vi Ige 

1S1 



Addenda No. 9. 




182 



No. 136.— Concrete office building. 



CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION IN WASHINGTON. 



I8 3 



This publication renews a record of the author's advocacy of concrete 
construction for National Galleries in 1890, after practical experience 
with it for the hotels of St. Augustine. Meanwhile, for ten years he 
has lost no opportunity to argue for its adoption and to predict that it is 
the coming material. The opinion was indorsed by The American 
Architect and other journals. 

Successive examples of its use in the United States, following a general 
practice in Europe, have proved its cheapness, durability, and strength, 
and led to its rapid adoption. It was a gratifying coincidence that just 
at the close of this writing a fine building, entirely of concrete, should be 
commenced with the elevation annexed — following its use for the new 
census building, belts, sills, stairs, etc. The same contractors, The 
Ransome Concrete Co., of New York, have built a church of concrete in 
Brooklyn, N. Y. , structures in California and in other States. 




No. 137.— View of the work in progress for concrete building on Fifth street, Judiciary Square. 
June 7, 1900. 



Addenda No. 10. 



ESTIMATED COST OF THE AGGRANDIZEMENTS. 

There may be an impulsive judgment that outlay for the enterprises 
proposed will reach an impossible aggregate. 

Liberal estimates will demonstrate the contrary. Thus : 

Condemnation of Pennsylvania avenue $8, ooo, ooo 

Construction of Galleries ample to completion 1 10, ooo, ooo 

New White House 5, ooo, ooo 

Bridge 5, ooo, ooo 

Filling flats, Mall, etc I, ooo, ooo 

Construction of boulevards i, ooo, ooo 

Porticoes 500, 000 

Column of the Union 500, 000 

New Executive Departments on land owned 1, 000, 000 

New buildings for Smithsonian and other departments now in the Mall. 2, 000, 000 

Additions to park I, 000, 000 

Sundries 3, 000, 000 



38, 000, 000 



If spent in twenty years, $1,900,000 per year. Anticipating the first 
expenditures of the commission, they would be generally as follows: 

First. For condemnation of 300 acres of land above described, to save its 
advance in value $ 10, 000, 000 

Second. For specimen constructions of galleries of four nationalities 

and porticoes 500, 000 

Third. For preliminary surveys, plans, designs, grading, etc. , of all lands 

condemned 1, 500, 000 



12, 000, 000 



After these the outlay would be gradual through twenty years. 

When a decree is promulgated of Congress, as the will of the people, 
for such broad and splendid aggrandizement of Washington, the imme- 
diate advance of its valuation will greatly exceed the cost. 

The estimate of experts in real estate upon the resultant advance 
would be interesting. 

1 If Americans equal the English in public spirit and generosity toward the Ken- 
sington Museum, the Galleries and contents will be largely a gift of the people to 
the people. When the detailed exhibit of constructions and contents is published, 
there will be a competition in patriotic and intelligent generosity. 



Addenda No. n. 



[From the American Architect, June 2, 1900.] 

PLANS FOR THE COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF 
WASHINGTON. 

Senator McMillan's amendment to the sundry civil bill, providing for 
the appointment of an architect, a landscape architect, and a sculptor, to 
be associated with the Chief of Engineers in preparing a report to the 
next Congress embodying recommendations for an extension of the 
White House, for the redemption of the south side of Pennsjdvania 
avenue, and for new sites for public buildings and the development and 
beautification of the public grounds, seems at first glance an admirable 
measure. But it is doubtful if this legislation is going to reach the 
desired mark. The commission named is not large enough. The 
appropriation is sufficiently liberal to supply a larger one. Ten thousand 
dollars should cover a good deal of work. 

In a suggestion made on this point in a recent letter, the same writer 
advocated a commission composed of the best men we have in the three 
professions to study a treatment of the grounds in question, "a treat- 
ment on lines within which the national buildings might be increased 
as needed. " But one architect, one landscape architect, and one 
sculptor are not enough to constitute such commission. We want, and 
the Chief of Engineers will want, a consensus of the best opinion in 
those professions. We have not forgotten the splendid architectural 
success of the World's Fair, at Chicago, in 1893. 

The methods which proved so admirable on that occasion, and the 
result which gave us the best thought of the professions as to the whole 
treatment of the problem, while leaving ample scope for the develop- 
ment and utterance of individual talent, are the methods we should 
apply and the result we hope to attain now for the national capital's 
future growth. 

The art professions hope to see in this growth an expression of the 
nation's advance in intellectual as well as in material greatness. 

The McMillan bill has a serious weakness, in that it leaves room 
for the working of schemes of self-interest. It invites a job. 

An ambitious member of the architectural profession, with a landscape 



1 86 PROPOSED LEGISLATION. 

map in his pocket, may, with some knowledge of wire-pulling and a 
strong array of political backing, bag the plum which this bill so tempt- 
ingly displays, and lay the foundations of a possible greater and more 
golden career — at the nation's expense. And while it is not meant to 
suggest, even remotely, that the President is likely to appoint any but 
capable men to these places, it is meant to insist that the men who 
maneuver for them are not the right men for the work. In short, it is 
to be hoped that the bill will not pass in its present form. The question 
it deals with is too important to be exposed to the jeopardy of probable 
lobbying, and lobbying is inevitable as it now stands. 

The amendment should create a commission of not less than three 
architects, two landscape architects, and one sculptor, to act with the 
Chief of Engineers for the purposes defined. The members should be, 
as far as possible, men who have already served with distinction in the 
determination of similarly important matters, and whose professional 
attainments and standing will be universally recognized as preeminent. 
They should be clothed with the necessary powers to call for persons, 
papers, etc., and be provided with funds needed to follow out the inquiry 
submitted to them to the completest solution of the problem. 

Congress has before it in this matter a question of which the people 
will demand sooner or later a satisfactory solution. 

The idea of fixing upon a comprehensive plan within whose lines all 
future increase in the number of our public buildings and the constant 
beautification of the capital city may be carried on meets with approval 
wherever it receives due consideration. This idea has been in the minds 
and in the mouths of men for a long time. 

Much valuable thought has been given and a great deal of important 
work has been done on the matters involved in this scheme for the 
development of Washington by professional men as well as b}- culti- 
vated and experienced lay students. The commission should have the 
benefit of all this effort on the part of thinkers who have foreseen the 
ripening of this question. And the only commission fitted to handle 
the problem is one so constituted in qualifications and in numbers as to 
eliminate the possibility of personal greed or political or sectional 
interests playing any part in its findings. 



Addenda No. 12. 



EXTRACT FROM THE ORATION OF THE HON. MARRIOTT 
BROSIUS, M. C. FROM PENNSYLVANIA, ON MEMORIAE 
DAY, MAY 30, 1900, AT THE ARLINGTON NATIONAL 
CEMETERY. 

[From the Washington Star, May 30, 1900.] 
A VISION OF SPLENDOR. 

Particularly effective and impressive was the orator's peroration. 

" When I contemplate," he said, " the supremac}" of that lofty stand- 
ard of patriotism which will guide our footsteps in- the pathway to 
national duty and honor, a vision of ineffable. splendor bursts upon my 
imagination. I see this Republic in the vanguard of the world, standing 
distinctly for humanity, liberty, justice, and progress, the essential 
principles of western civilization; advancing in harmony with that 
providential order by which all races are at last to come under a 
higher social regime. I see the extension of our language, our litera- 
ture, our laws, our institutions, and our commerce over the vast spaces 
of the earth and the islands of the sea. I see the greater America wield- 
ing with a just and benevolent hand her supremacy, holding the scepter 
of commercial and financial empire. I see the realization of the dream 
of patriots and the aspiration of statesmen that our county, through its 
social, political, and commercial influence, should become the means of 
diffusing civilization among the backward peoples on the oceanic spaces 
to the west of us as well as those on the shores of Asia. I see a people 
meeting their measureless responsibilities, following the pointing of 
duty and destiny with a profound sense of obligation to those ethical 
principles which constitute that righteousness which exalts nations, 
never forgetting ' that man is more than nature ; that wisdom is more 
than glory ; that virtue is more than dominion of the sea, and that 
justice is the supreme good. ' 

. "I see American valor commemorated in a magnificent monumental 
memorial bridge connecting the capital with beautiful, consecrated 
Arlington, the nation's Walhalla. I see our capital city the intellectual 
and educational as well as the political center of the continent, embody- 
ing in her public edifices the noblest intellectual and patriotic conception 
of American art and architecture. I see her National Galleries of History 

187 



188 ORDERS FOR PRINTING. 

and Art, her institutions of law, medicine, and theology; her temples of 
science, surpassing in the amplitude of their resources for knowledge 
any the world holds elsewhere, rivaling in architectural splendor their 
ancient prototypes. I see rising against the western horizon temples with 
columns and entablature in perfection of beauty — bequests of Greece to 
our new world — in memoiiam of those who have wielded the executive 
power of the nation from its origin. I see her Executive Mansion 
commensurate with the rank and dignity of the Republic, crowning 
her Palatine hill, and surpassing in artistic and architectural excellence 
a palace of the Caesars, all conceived and executed by American intelli- 
gence and patriotism to be typical of American progress in the nine- 
teenth century." 



The author with pleasure acknowledges generous assistance toward the 
above illustrations of Messrs. Harry Dodge Jenkins and H. C. Wilkinson, 
renderers of architectural drawings; of Mr. L. C. Handy, photographer; 
the Progress Publishing Company, New York; the National Engraving 
Company, Washington, and the Towle Manufacturing Company, New- 
berryport, Mass. The historical brochures circulated by this company, 
from which the Hancock House and State House, Boston, were obtained 
are as beautiful as they are instructive, and are circulated gratis \>y the 
company. 

[From the Congressional Record, May 31, 1900.] 

NATIONAL GALLERIES OP ART. 

Mr. Gallinger submitted the following concurrent resolution; which 
was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to : 

Resolved by the Senate ( the House of Representatives concurring ) , That the Public 
Printer shall print and bind 5,000 copies of Senate Document 209, Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress, first session, one-half in cloth and one-half in paper covers, the same to be 
delivered to the Superintendent of Public Documents for sale, under the provisions 
of section 61, of an act approved January 12, 1895, providing for the public printing, 
binding, and distribution of public documents. The Public Printer is also authorized 
to print and bind extra editions of not less than 1,000 copies at a time of said docu- 
ment on requisition of the Superintendent of Documents, when required for sale. ' 

Mr. Hoar. I move also that a number of the volumes mentioned in 
the resolution just passed be printed for the use of the Senate, not to 
exceed in cost $500. 

The President pro tempore. The Senator from Massachusetts will 
please restate his motion. 



ADDENDA. 189 

Mr. Hoar. The copies of the document referred to in the resolution 
submitted by the Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. Gallinger] , which 
has been agreed to, are ready, I understand, to be stricken off, but they 
will not be printed probably until some time late in the vacation. I 
make a separate motion that a number not to exceed $500 in cost shall 
be printed for the use of the Senate. 

The President pro tempore. The question is on the motion of the 
Senator from Massachusetts. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Congress adjourned June 6. The pressure of bills at the close pre- 
vented an}^ introduction of the above concurrent resolution. It will be 
in order at the opening session in December. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



The accumulations per inhabitant in thirty years average ^"205 sterling (about 
$i,oooj. This is a prodigious growth of wealth in thirty years and without parallel 
in the history of the human race. If we take a survey of mankind in ancient and 
modern times, as regards the physical, mechanical, and intellectual force of nations, 
we find nothing to compare with the United States in this present year of 1S95. The 
physical and mechanical power which has enabled a community of woodcutters and 
farmers to become in less than one hundred years the greatest nation in the world 
is the aggregate of the strong arms of men and women, aided by horsepower, 
machinery, and steam power, applied to the useful arts and sciences of every-day 
life —Mulhalh 

"You are struggling with one of the two great problems of civilization. The first 
is a very old struggle; it is, 'How shall we get leisure?' This is the problem of 
every hammer stroke of labor since the foundation of the world. 'The second fight 
of civilization is, 'What shall we do with our leisure when we get it?' " —President 
Garfield at Chautauqua, iS/8. 

George Morrison, one of the greatest civil engineers who spanned the Mississippi 
with great bridges, said that within a century no one will do any physical labor. 
A man to-day represents one thousand times as much power as did his great grand- 
father one hundred years ago. This accession of power will go on and will be more 
and more used for spiritual rather than physical purposes. — Rev. E. E. Hale, D. D. 



WASHINGTON. 



In Washington 20,000 are employed by the Government at an average of over 
$100 each— $23, 000, 000. It has grown without industry or commerce. Is it not 
well to preserve it as the center of legislative action, of scientific development, of 
art, and education?— Carroll D, Wright, Commissioner, Department of Labor. 

The estimate in advance from census returns in progress June, 1900, is of 295,000 
population. 



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