CHARLES FOLLEN McKIM
MEMORIAL MEETING
T H E A M E R H C A N I N S T L T UT E.
O F A F C H IT E CTS
WASHINGTON, D. C.
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CHARLES FOLLEN McKIM
ME MORIAL MEETING
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS
“Perfection in whatever he undertook.”
—WILLIAM RUTHERFORD MEAD.
THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART
WASHINGTON, D. C.
DECEMBER 15, 1909
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THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS
THE OCTAGON
WASHINGTON, D. C.
GLENN BROWN, Editor
WASHINGTON, D. C.
GIBSON BROS., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS
1910
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LIST OF ADDRESSES.
WILLIAM HowARD TAF'r,
President of the United States.
ELIHU Root,
Senator of the United States.
Joseph Hodges CHOATE,
Ambassador to Great Britain, 1899–1905.
CASS, GILBERT,
President, American Institute of Architects.
WILLIAM RUTHERFORD MEAD,
President, American Academy in Rome.
TRIBUTES OF RESPECT.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ART.
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS.
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND LETTERs.
JoſNT Action of FourTEEN NEw York ART SocIETIES.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN.
THE NATIONAL SCULPTURE SOCIETY.
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MURAL PAINTERs.
THE ARCHITECTURAL LEAGUE OF NEW YORK.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME.
EXHIBITION IN THE OCTAGON.
THE WoRK of McKIM, MEAD & WHITE.
WEDNESDAY EVENING SESSION.
THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS.
DECEMBER 15, 1909, At Io O'CLOCK P. M.
ADDRESSES IN HONOR OF MR. CHARLES FOLLEN McKIM.
PRESIDENT CASS GILBERT: I have the honor to introduce the Presi-
dent of the United States.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
HONORABLE WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT.
American leader in one of the great arts. I do not feel justified in saying
much with respect to Mr. McKim, for the reason that the period of my
acquaintance with him and friendship for him was very short. My acquaintance
with him arose from the fact that I was Secretary of War, and had to do with that
plan in an official way which he held most dear, I think, of all the subjects to
which he devoted his great artistic genius—the plan for carrying onward the
design with respect to Washington. He was sensitive, as I presume most
geniuses and men of talent are, and he suffered much as he ran against that
abruptness and cocksureness that we are apt to find in the neighborhood of
Washington both in the Executive and the Legislative branches. Hew as the last
person to give you the impression that he had either abruptness or cocksureness,
but I don't know any one who, when he had set his mind at a thing and had deter-
mined to reach a result, had more steadfastness and manifested more willingness
to use every possible means to achieve his purpose than Mr. McKim.
I don't know whether I dare tell a story with reference to him, which, as a
member of the Cabinet, I am able to certify is true; but it illustrates his qualities
to such a degree that perhaps I may be pardoned for going into the confidences of a
Cabinet of an administration.
The Mall was Mr. McKim’s chief anxiety lest Congress should forget that impor-
tant part of the plan of the improvement of Washington. The cellar and the foun-
dation for the Agricultural Department Building had been begun, and some $8,000
5
I ADIEs AND GENTLEMEN: We are here to do honor to the memory of an

or $10,000 expended when it came to Mr. McKim’s knowledge that the building, if
erected according to that plan, would be a few feet too high and a few feet too near
the center, and he came to prevent it. The Secretary of Agriculture was not dis-
posed to regard that variation from the plan as substantial, and was very much
opposed to the change.
Mr. McKim came to me, after Mr. Root left the Cabinet, as his only true sym-
pathizer and friend, and asked me to speak to the President, whom he also regarded
as a friend and sympathizer, but one who at times needed convincing. So I went
to see the President and explained to him the situation, and he at once agreed that
we ought to change it. “But,” said he, “the trouble is with Uncle Jimmy, who
has a real cause of complaint. He says that these architects have delayed too long,
and the public money cannot be wasted and expended in this way.”
“Well,” said I, “can't we call a council, or something of that sort, and solemnly
sit on the subject, and then finally reach the right conclusion?”
He said, “We can, and we will,” and we did. Mr. McKim was of counsel and
Mr. Green and two or three others. The President took Mr. McKim to task at once
at the audacity of architects who wait 30 and 6o days, until plans have been com-
pleted, and then come in and attempt to make a change. Well, that was not a very
good beginning, and I am afraid that our brother McKim thought the jig was up.
But it so suited the Secretary of Agriculture that when there appeared a suggestion
from an engineer that possibly not $10,000 or $5,000 would be sacrificed, but an
economy might be introduced in another way, the Secretary, at the suggestion or the
invitation of the President, said that he thought possibly it might be worked out
that way, but the President insisted that if we did, we did not intend to waive the
criticism that we had to make against the profession of architects by reason of their
delay. And so we separated.
The agricultural building was moved. McKim and I walked up the steps of
the War Department. I said, “Mr. McKim, I congratulate you on your victory.”
He turned and looked at me a moment, and said, “Was it a victory? Another
such and I am dead.” But it was a victory, and it illustrates his character in quietly
pushing and pushing and pushing for the highest ideals of his art, and insisting on
everything that was best, and in yielding in nothing that seemed to him a detriment
and a retrograde step.
No one could come in contact with him and not feel that generous, disinterested
spirit of his in favor of the promotion of all art, and his willingness to devote time
and effort to promote it everywhere.
I had the honor to appoint him as a member of the Board to assist the Secretary
6
of War in preserving what we could of the scenery of Niagara, and he devoted a
great deal of time, with very little compensation, to planning out what could be done
on the American side of the river so that the people on the other side should not
think it was the back yard of the United States. And so it was with respect to
everything that came out of his character to one who had to deal with him in public
matters.
I did not come here to make a speech. I hoped that I should not be thrown
on to the audience without some leader like Mr. Root or Mr. Choate, who have
known Mr. McKim for long, and who have shown by their works and their speeches
how artistic they are; that I, who have had no experience in art, until I came here
to be made responsible for a great department, should begin this encomium; but
I feel in my heart so strongly the debt of gratitude that the nation owes to Mr.
McKim for leading an art and making the ideals of that art even higher, and trying
to make them national, that I am glad to lend any emphasis that I may to a memorial
to him.
I am living in a house to-day that has been made beautiful by Mr. McKim.
It is a house to which you can invite any foreigner from any country, however
artistic, and feel that it is a worthy Executive Mansion for a great nation like this,
combining dignity and simplicity, and reflecting in all its lines (it does to me) the
dignity and simplicity of the art of Mr. McKim.
PRESIDENT CAss GILBERT: I thank you, Mr. President, on behalf
of the Institute.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honor to introduce
Senator Elihu Root.
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HONORABLE ELIHU ROOT.
MR. CHAIRMAN, MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: There was a great
meeting two weeks ago in the new theatre in New York, called by the united action
of a great number of societies devoted to different branches of art, for the purpose of
voicing their universal sentiment of honor to the memory and mourning for the
loss of Charles McKim. At that meeting I said what I had to say in tribute to his
memory, but I cannot resist the feeling that it is appropriate that it should be supple-
mented by this meeting here, held under the auspices of the American Institute of
Architects, representing his own profession and the brethren among whom he had
worked with such loyal friendship and cooperation for many years, and held here in
the city of Washington, where, notwithstanding all things that he has done else-
where, it seems to me, the brightest and loftiest development and expression of his
character and his genius occurred.
Charles McKim was a conspicuous member of the little group of men who in
the planning and building of the White City by the Lake at Chicago, sixteen years ago,
turned the current of American feeling and opinion upon all matters of art. No
greater epoch in the life of art ever was than that which is marked by the influence
and the new impulse in the minds of the millions of men and women of this great and
rich and powerful and progressive country, who received a new impression of beauty
and dignity in art by their visit to that wonderful exhibition. It has seemed to me
that there was as great an influence upon the minds and characters of the men
who did the work as there was upon the people who saw it and learned its lesson.
There has been with all of them, and notably and pre-eminently, I should say,
with McKim, from that day forth a breadth of public spirit and devotion of their
art to the public service such as wenever had before. Charles McKim was peculiarly
fitted by the habit of his mind, by his character and by the tendencies of his art
to correct some of the chief thoughts of the American temperament. He despised
and shrank from the merely ingenious and fantastical, through which amateurs
in the beginning of a desire for ornament are apt to express themselves. The
tendency was to hold fast to all that was good in the past, to anchor in the great
-achievements past, and to aim to adapt the established principles of art to the new
conditions to which his problems related; and so when he came—when he was
called to apply his art to the solving of the problems that lay before us in Wash-
9
ington, it was natural for him not to attempt some great and brilliant achievement,
but to study the history of our country, and to study the history of the arts that could
be brought to illustrate and express the history of our country here. The Com-
mission for the Development of the Park System of Washington did not attempt
to evolve something from their inner consciousness, or to present some plan which
should be marked by their names and lead all the world to praise their ingenuity or
their inventive genius. They went back to the plans of L'Enfant and Washington,
and with them in mind they went all over the world and studied all the great speci-
mens of the past through which similar problems had been worked out, and they
brought here upon their return the wealth of all the ages and a keen appreciation
of our own history and produced a plan and development of L'Enfant’s plan for
the beautification of Washington, for the development of its park system, which
I believe is as certain to be followed as the sun is to rise to-morrow. Unfortunately,
the immediate acceptance of the plan is hindered by a wretched little controversy
about the authority under which it was created; but that is a temporary matter.
We cannot go on forever rejecting the best work of our best men along the lines
that our nation is following in all of our great and progressive cities—we cannot
go on forever rejecting that because of a little quarrel over the authority out of
which it arose.
Mr. McKim was consulted by the War Department when it came to the building
of the War College and the Engineer's School in the Old Washington Barracks
Reservation. He made the plans and he put up the buildings. There was a charm-
ing illustration of his character in the course of that work. The construction was
put in charge of a very able officer of the Engineer Corps, who brought to it the rules
and the traditions of a strict utilitarianism. For months it seemed as if there was
an irrepressible conflict between the engineer and the artist; it seemed as if nothing
but the brute power of the War Department could settle it. But as time went
on the old story of the sun and the north wind with the traveler repeated itself.
The gentle insistence and unswerving constancy of McKim carried the day, and it
was but a short time before the engineer officer was the most ardent admirer and
loyal follower of the artist, and all controversy disappeared, and the War College
to-day seems to me to be a very wonderful and charming example of architecture,
perfectly adapted to its purpose and expressive of the character of the institution.
When hecame to repair or restore the White House, hefound there were plans, plans
which looked to the building of great pavilions at either end of the old White House.
It would have been splendid, would have been much admired, would have redowned
to the glory of any architect; but it would have dwarfed and pushed back into insig-
IO
nificance the plain, simple, old White House, and McKim with his reverent spirit, his
self-restraint, sought in the history of the White House and the history of the time
from which it came the spirit in which he was to work. Time and time again he has
come to me and talked about what he had found at Monticello, what he had found
here and there all over the country in the way of remaining buildings that express
the spirit of the time of Washington and of Jefferson. He sought for the founda-
tions of the old east wing which was destroyed, I suppose, and never rebuilt after
the fire of 1814—at all events it had long disappeared—and he put back the White
House as nearly as possible as it was originally, except that he took out all the
poor material and put in the best material; he took out all of the gingerbread
eonfectioner's work that had been put in in the course of years and replaced it by
simple and dignified work, and he left us the White House a perfect expression,
an enduring expression of the day of Washington and of Jefferson, a perfect example
of an American gentleman's home on the banks of the Potomac.
I told him once of something that some one had said about the office building—
the President's office building. There was general criticism, and the members of
our Congress generally failed to see where the money had gone, because the great
pavilion had not been kept; but the thing that I told him was that some one had
said that the President's office building looked like a stable. “Ah,” he said, “that
is the best thing that has been said about it yet. I wanted it to look like a simple
dependency of the main building, and this criticism shows that I have accomplished
what I sought.” It was not alone in the matters where he was directly intrusted
with the prosecution of work as an architect or as a member of the Commission that
he was of service. We got in the way of calling upon him for advice upon all sorts
of questions relating to memorials, to statues and to buildings in the city of Washington,
certain that his correct taste, his carefully studied views, would prevent any error being
made. He was called upon to pass upon the designs for the Grant Memorial, which
is now under construction, and he was called upon to pass upon the location, and a
battle royal occurred over the design and a still more serious conflict over the loca-
tion; but he was tenacious and unyielding in his contention for what he was sure
was right and best, and he prevailed. When we came to build the new building for
the International Union of American Republics, which is now nearing completion,
fronting on the White Lot on the east and on the Potomac Park to the south, there
was a great competition of more than a hundred architects who sent in competitive
designs and they elected Mr. McKim, with Mr. Lord and Mr. Hornbostel, to make
the selection from the designs. They all agreed upon the design, which is now being
followed, and when that had been done the characteristic occurred, for McKim said:
I I
“Now, I would like very much, as this design has been determined upon, to make
some suggestions. I think that all of our Committee would be glad to go over these
plans with the architects, and possibly we may make criticisms and suggestions which
would better be done now than after the building is put up;” and the architects,
of course, were delighted and they submitted their plans; many invaluable sug-
gestions were made, the plans were worked over and still again; and the correct taste
of McKim goes into that building also, as it has into the White House, as it did into
the War College, and as it will ultimately appear in the great park system of Wash-
ington.
Our President needed to add nothing to the many reasons that I have for respect
and affection for him, but he did add to both of those by the steadfastness and gen-
erous appreciation with which he stood by McKim in his strenuous efforts to prevent
the park system plan from being overslaughed and rendered impossible by subse-
quent inconsistent construction.
All of this work illustrated not only McKim's character as an artist, but his
unselfishness, his love of his country, his pride in the capital city, which we all believe
is to be so beautiful and so noble. He did love his country and he was willing to
spend himself without stint, in order that his art might do its part in a noble and
adequate expression of all that was best in his country's life. Many great and noble
lives have entered into the structure of American government and American free-
dom, but none in Executive Chair or in legislative hall deserves a higher meed of
appreciation and grateful recognition for noble service to our country than the life
of Charles McKim. It was the last thought in his mind, but it should be the first
in ours. By the side of L'Enfant, Thornton, Hoban, Latrobe and Bulfinch, the
name of Charles Follen McKim should always be perpetuated among the builders—
the great genius-gifted builders—of what is to be, I believe, the most noble and
beautiful city in the world.
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PRESIDENT CASS GILBERT: I thank you, Senator, on behalf of the
Institute.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honor to introduce
Mr. Choate.
I3
HONORABLE JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: This splendid audience of men, and especially of
women, is in itself a noble tribute to the character and memory of Mr. McKim. It
is not to be put to too severe a test, however, and I shall content myself almost with
saying ditto to what has already been said by the President and Mr. Root. I cannot
bear the idea of keeping so many ladies standing longer.
I come here as a life-long personal friend of Mr. McKim, who knew him from
his boyhood up, to bear testimony to his wonderful virtues and merits and the signal
beauty of his character. I have hardly ever known in human form a personality
more charming, more fascinating than his. Whether it was the Quaker discipline
under which his early days were passed, the strict hardships which he underwent,
the spur of necessity that drove him on, his innate love of perfect form and of beauty,
his innate hatred of all that was hideous and ugly; there was a sweet reasonableness
about him always and everywhere; there seemed to be always accompanying him,
flowing out from his person, a charming humanity which warmly attached to him
all who came in contact with him. I do not believe it was possible to know Charles
McKim without loving him, or to have come in personal contact with him without
admiring the wonderful features of his character. One signal trait that he had was
absolute loyalty in his friendships. And let me give you a single illustration of that,
because it was so conspicuous and so life-long and made such an impression in the
community in which the three lived, that I must refer to the personal ties that bound
together three such great artists, three such brilliant geniuses as Charles McKim,
Stanford White, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. They were always united, always
together, always in perfect sympathy, aiding each other, criticising each other, and
all three inspired with the same ambition to elevate the noble arts to which they were
devoted; and it was a terrible blow to the community and to the country when in
the short space of three years they were all three taken from us. Let me remind
you also of one other thing—his absolute devotion and loyalty to the members of
the great firm which he formed and which is likely to continue his work, to trans-
mit his great repute and the impress of his genius for many years to come. He
was such a guiding spirit among them, so prominent, so active, so recognized by the
community, and yet from first to last, during the whole period of their organization,
he never would permit anything to be known or recognized except as the work of
I4.
the firm; no personal claims of his own, no putting forward of one in preference
to the other; and from beginning to end, as I believe, there never was a contract
taken, there never was a piece of work commenced, except as the joint work of
all three, which he insisted it should be from the beginning to the end. And then
he was so modest withal! That was one of the most charming traits of his char-
acter—beautiful in person, lofty in ideas, commanding in influence, he was as
modest, sensitive, tender as any woman or child could possibly be. I might tell
again what I told, in New York, a personal experience of him, when he came to
London to receive—what, if he had been living he would again receive here, the
tribute of his whole profession—the gold medal of the British Institute of Architects,
which was given to him in 1903. Why, he absolutely shrank from what he regarded
as the terrible ordeal to which he was to be subjected in coming forward to receive
that medal and say the few words of recognition and thanks that were expected
from him. He was as modest as Washington was when he appeared before the
House of Burgesses, on his return from his first successful military excursion into
western Virginia, and the Speaker, when he took his place among the Burgesses, said
a few words of compliment to him. You remember that he rose to reply and was
wholly unable to command words, and the Speaker said to him, “Sit down, Mr.
Washington, your modesty is only equalled by your merit, and that is such that
no language can possibly do it justice.” So when Mr. McKim came, Mr. Henry
White, whom I am happy to see here to-night, and myself being lifelong friends of
his, he threw himself into our arms and said wenust help him and carry him through
this terrible ordeal. And we did stand by him. He appeared with most char-
acteristic modesty and dignity; he received the medal; he accepted it not as a
tribute to himself, but to the great profession in America that he was proud to
represent, and then, when congratulations began to come to him from this side of
the water, he replied by cable, “Many thanks, but I still wear the same hat.”
Now, that was the beauty of it and of him—no matter what happened, no matter
what avalanches of praise and congratulations were heaped upon him, he always
wore the same hat, his head never swelled in the face of tributes and honors and
praises that might well have turned the heads of far more public men than he.
I really do not feel at liberty longer to detain the audience. I merely came to
say how much I loved him—to bear witness, as one of countless friends that he made
wherever he went, to the dignity, the sweetness and the beauty of his character.
PRESIDENT CASS GILBERT: In the name of the Institute, I thank
you, Mr. Choate.
I5
MR. CASS GILBERT.
Mr. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTI.EMEN: This medal has been awarded to
Charles Follen McKim for his distinguished services to the Arts, by the unanimous
vote of the Convention of the American Institute of Architects.
It is customary that on such an occasion the works and services of the manshould
be recounted and the basis of the award stated, with the reasons governing his selec-
tion. But in this instance it is not necessary to add one word to what has already
been said, nor to recount the list of the works in which he had a distinguished part,
so well known and so imposing.
His monuments in bronze and marble will long enrich his native land; his bene-
factions, not measured alone in the standards of commerce, have laid the sure foun-
dation of even greater monuments in the hearts of his countrymen. But it is not
for these alone that we offer this token of our praise and love.
The award of this medal can add nothing to his honor. Titles, nor decorations,
nor medals, nor any worldly thing can add to worth. Character and merit are
intrinsic. They are not conferred. Nothing we can do or say can add to their sum.
Nobility is of the soul.
Patriotism, self-sacrifice, patience, courage, achievement, are the evidences of
greatness, and of these he gave full measure.
Such a man needs no acclaim, but that our estimate of his life and works shall
be known of men, and that thereby others be inspired in noble emulation; that we
may testify to the world that in this age and among this people the great ideals
common to the race are held in honor, and in reverence this medal is awarded.
Mr. Mead, it now becomes my duty, and my privilege, on behalf of the Institute,
to deliver to you, his associate, co-adjutor and friend, this token of the respect, love
and honor in which we all held him.
I6
MR. WILLIAM RUTHERFORD MEAD.
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: As the close friend and associate of
Mr. McKim for thirty-five years, it is with a mingled feeling of sadness and pride
that I stand here to-night to receive for him this medal.
Mr. Choate, who stood by Mr. McKim in London when the medal of the Royal
Institute of British Architects was conferred upon him, has told you of his feelings
of diffidence, amounting almost to panic, on that occasion.
Here at home, and among old friends, he would have felt the same diffidence
and modesty in accepting this great honor. He would have expressed himself in a
hesitating manner, somewhat as follows: “Whatever I have been able to accomplish
in the field of architecture has been from devotion to a great art and in the interest
of a noble profession. That my efforts have been recognized by this representative
body of American architects is a reward which I shall always cherish.”
I well remember when I told him a year ago, on one of his last visits to his office,
that this medal had been voted to him, the deprecating smile he gave, a smile express-
ing both modesty and pleasure.
Such was the man—modestly sinking his own personality, but always strong
for the best, not only in his own work, but for the profession of which he was such
an honored member.
Accepting the medal in his behalf, I shall place it in the hands of his daughter,
who will preserve it as a precious memento of the regard in which her father was held
by the American Institute of Architects which he served so faithfully.
17
Mr. Mead handed the medal to Miss Margaret McKim, the daughter
of Mr. Charles Follen McKim, amid prolonged applause.
PRESIDENT CASS GILBERT: Ladies and gentlemen, in closing this
meeting, I desire, on behalf of the American Institute of Architects,
under whose auspices these ceremonies have been held, to thank you for
your presence.
I3
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AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARchitects GoLD MEDAL.
Awarded to charles FolleN McKIM, December 15, 1909.


TRIBUTES OF RESPECT
TO
CHARLES FOLLEN McKIM
PRESENTED BY
NATIONAL FINE ARTS ASSOCIATIONS
AT THE
MEMORIAL MEETING
OF THE
American Institute of Architects
DECEMBER 15, 1909
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ART.
Incorporated by Act of Congress.
J. PIERPONT MORGAN, President.
This Society wishes to express its appreciation of and pay its tribute to the
memory of Charles Follen McKim:
For his patriotic service in the development of Washington city.
For his promotion of art education by conferring Architectural Fellowships in
Columbia and Harvard Universities and by the foundation of the American Academy
in Rome.
For his elevating and lasting influence on architecture, furnishing models in
grouping and landscape setting, showing proportion in mass, beauty in line, harmony
in color, feeling in texture and refinement in detail.
For his joining and harmonizing the related arts of landscape, painting, sculpture
and architecture.
For his effective guidance, influencing individuals, societies, corporate and
municipal authorities and government officials, in the direction of pure art.
GLENN BROWN,
Secretary.
I9
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS.
The American Academy of Arts and Letters desires to reiterate on this occasion
its appreciation of the service rendered to the fine arts by Charles Follen McKim, one
of its most highly honored members and founders. Full expression of its tribute was
given at the recent Memorial Meeting in New York. Once again it is glad to com-
memorate his thorough training; his genius in collaboration; his persuasion and
compulsion of clients, public and private, to generous enterprise; his mastery of
structure and ornament; the strength he gave to mural painting, the sculpture and
the engineering in their correlation to architecture, and above all to the grace and
power of a character that expresses itself in creations that were marked by restraint,
by proportion, and by repose.
His work marks a stage in the advance of taste, he was an interpreter of a people
to itself, and his name will be among the foremost in the history of his art and read
by future generations when written.
WILLIAM MILLIGAN SLOANE,
Chancellor.
NATIONAL, INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND LETTERS.
I have the honor to express to the American Institute of Architects the profound
and sincere grief of the National Institute of Arts and Letters upon the death of its
distinguished and lamented member, Charles Follen McKim. $
The fine arts in America have felt an onward impulse from his quiet but potent
taste; and the most fitting monument to his genius is embodied in the enduring work
with which he has adorned our cities. I have the honor to remain,
Yours truly,
HARRISON S. MORRIs,
Secretary.
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THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY.
McKIM, MEAD & WHITE, ARCHITECTs.








UNITED ACTION OF THE FOLLOWING ART SOCIETIES:
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM of ART,
THE NATIONAL AcADEMY OF DESIGN,
THE AMERICAN AcADEMY IN ROME,
THE NEw York CHAPTER OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS,
THE FAculty of FINE ARTs of CoI,UMBIA UNIVERSITY,
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS,
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND LETTERS,
THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE,
THE McDowell, Association,
THE MUNICIPAL ART SocIETY,
THE NATIONAL Scul,PTURE SocIETY,
THE NATIONAL SocIETY OF MURAL PAINTERs,
THE SocIETY OF BEAUx ARTs ARCHITECTs,
THE ARCHITECTURAL LEAGUE OF NEW YORK.
Fourteen associations, artistic, technical and literary, here unite to commemorate
the distinction of Charles Follen McKim as a citizen, as a craftsman and as an artist.
To this end they join in recording these convictions.
His life was an example of that which a creative architect must imperatively
choose. His secondary training completed, he devoted ten years to his professional
education; five to that of discipline, five to that of knowledge. He was stimulated
to great thoughts and he had acquired the power to express them.
His genius was exhibited in his supreme power of collaboration; he linked his
work and fame inseparably with those of his two original partners, primarily for the
sake of comprehensive mastery but thus incidentally for the perfecting of achieve-
ment by each singly as well as by all in combination.
By such means were attracted a great body of important clients, individual,
corporate and national; among these he easily commanded a leadership which they
as readily accepted, and from its consequences he never shrank, assuming respon-
sibility to any extent for design, procedure and results.
His choice of style was predetermined by ancestry, temperament and training,
for his soul was akin to that highest form of civilization which is marked by dignity,
repose and proportion. As the great painter elaborates on the basis of strong draw-
ing, whether of brush or pencil, so this great architect imagined and used structure
that was itself poetic, the degree of elaboration and ornament being determined by
adaptation to use and environment.
2 I
To the ancillary arts of the engineer, the painter and the sculptor, his indebted-
ness was freely acknowledged and their splendors are nowhere more manifest than
in the building of his firm, because of the opportunity there afforded and the zeal they
there exhibit to be parts of a harmonious whole.
His work, like that of all true artists, was the expression of his manhood. His
character was strong as it was pure, his disposition affectionate and self-sacrificing,
his mind vigorous, helpful and noble. He was a lover of his kind, discerning reality
behind the ideals of his fellow Americans, intolerant only of pose and sham. Because
of his strong and courageous heart he was genial but modest; joyous, even gay, and
gentle.
There is no perfection in humanity, but the nearest approach to it in a man is
discernment to tendencies, emancipation of uplifting qualities and theinterpretation of
a community to itself. Holding this as self-evident truth we are firmly convinced
that the loving and grateful memory in which his generation holds him; that the
structures, public and private alike, which he designed and built and which testify
to the aspirations of an epoch, all bear witness that as man, citizen and artist there
is the highest fame, permanent and deserved, for Charles Follen McKim.
THE NATIONAL SCULPTURE SOCIETY.
For the personal cause as for the general, it is fitting that we, the National
Sculpture Society, should voice our love and reverence for the memory of Charles
Follen McKim.
This great architect was allied in closest bonds of fellowship with the great
sculptor whose passing was but yesterday. Two master-minds in communion
exchanged rich gifts each with the other—now the swift flash of insight, now the
slowly ripened fruit of artistic experience.
Who shall measure such influences? Even without them, Charles Follen McKim,
a spirit ever sensitive to beauty, would doubtless have cherished the art of sculpture,
both for itself and in its relation to his chosen work. But by the love of his friend,
and by the strength of his own instinct, he came into the possession of a singularly
just and generous understanding of this our art, so that no good work from our
hands was ever alien to his sympathies. He delighted equally in the exquisite pagan
grace of MacMonnies' Bacchante, and the splendid calm of French's Alma Mater.
His breadth of view on the subject of sculpture could never degenerate into
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tolerance of the slipshod, the bizarre, the pretentious. There was in his nature a
certain inherited mingling of Quaker ruggedness and Quaker refinement strangely
akin to the Greek strength and Greek serenity he had crossed the seas to find. Thus
by instinct and by training he was of the school, scholarly. His passionate pre-
dilection for Attic forms had early delivered him from the snare of the Rococo, that
ever-present temptation for those who touch nothing that they do not overadorn.
We thank him for his high ideal of our work. His purity of taste has guided us.
His influence has cheered and uplifted all that is best in us as followers of our art.
He was of those to whom it is given to see the star, to behold the vision, to listen
for the melody unheard. We need the counsel of such men as he. But he was not
only seer and prophet, he was worker and fighter as well. His mind was so beau-
tifully proportioned in so large a space that he could not only die for an idea, but
live for it, as his work in establishing the American Academy at Rome may testify.
It was his dream of dreams that our young American painters, sculptors and archi-
tects should have in this Academy opportunities even wider than those he himself
had enjoyed from a contemplation of classic forms in their harmonious environment.
Thus not for the personal cause alone but for the general—not for our art by
itself, but for a happy union of the arts (such as was foreshadowed by the magic of
the White City) we, the National Sculpture Society, owe a debt to Charles Follen
McKim. In a still larger sense, we honor his memory as a citizen who left a goodly
heritage to his country, in his own great works greatly done, and in the torch of
opportunity passed on into the hands of the next generation of creative artists.
The profile crowning Boston's Library is not the only lovely line that he has
lifted up along the sky. His hand has rounded other domes as fair as that of Colum-
bia upon Morningside, where sits the Benign Mother. It is not enough to say of
him that he builded better than he knew, but rather that through him, other men in
other times shall build better than they would have dreamed of but for him, his
works, his high hopes, his heroic endeavors.
HERBERT ADAMS,
President.
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MURAL PAINTERS.
Were he still alive the homage we wish to pay to the character and talents of
the late Charles Follen McKim would seem almost a violation of the reserve of one
who was as solicitous to shun applause as he was assiduous to deserve it.
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Praise of his architectural work is upon the lips of all artists, but as Mural
Painters we wish especially to emphasize the fact that the present success of decora-
tive painting in our public buildings in the United States received its greatest
impetus through the noble decorations planned by McKim, Mead and White for the
Boston Public Library, and executed by various artists of distinction.
To our recognition of the architeetural triumphs of Charles Follen McKim we
must add that of the deep personal interest he displayed in the establishment of the
American Academy in Rome.
We wish particularly to emphasize his devotion to the ideas embodied in the
foundation of this our National School of Foreign Study of Art; because in this
school, Architecture, Sculpture and Painting are to be studied together, fostering a
more perfect knowledge of the interdependence of all the arts of design.
To enumerate the advantages which the public have received from this great
architect, or even to state the good done mural painting by his life and work, would
be a more proper subject for a biography than for a memorial of this nature. There-
fore we limit ourselves to these few and imperfect but heartfelt words of admiration.
EDWIN H. BLASHFIELD, President,
WM. LAUREL HARRIs, Secretary,
December 15, 1909. Society of Mural Painters.
THE ARCHITECTURAL LEAGUE OF NEW YORK.
CHARLEs Foll.E.N. McKIM. .
A marked change has occurred during the last thirty years in the attitude of
the public toward the profession of the architect. It has been of such a nature as
to constitute a significant step in the progress of civilization in this country.
Such a result cannot be attributed entirely to the work of one individual, but
it can be truly said, that in so far as it is possible for a man, animated by the purest
motives, sustained by the highest ideals, pursuing with courage and consistency a
single lofty purpose to uplift the thought and character of his generation, this change
may be justly ascribed to the life and work of Charles Follen McKim.
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THE COLUMBIA LIBRARY,
McKIM, MEAD & WHITE, ARCHITECTS.


Happily for us his opportunities were many. The monuments which he has
left will survive us all, and stand as types of purity, simplicity and beauty. But the
great lesson which he taught, and that of which he was so modestly unconscious,
was through the example of a noble life, devoted to the art which he loved, and to
the community in which he lived. This inheritance it is our duty to preserve and
perpetuate. The Architectural League of New York is honored in adding this
tribute to his memory.
C. GRANT LA FARGE,
President.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN.
The National Academy of Design desires to make some expression of its sense
of the loss to America and to Art in the untimely death of Charles Follen McKim.
In his own art of architecture his influence was, perhaps, more dominating and more
beneficial than that of any of his contemporaries; but this influence was not felt in
that art alone. On both sculpture and painting in their relation to architecture it
was directly exerted, while its indirect effects were even more widely felt, and many
a painter or sculptor whose work was not specifically decorative in its purpose has
felt the stimulus of his purity of taste, his love of beauty, his constant striving for
perfection. Mr. McKim was a member of this Academy, and we have, therefore, a
special cause besides that we have in common with all those who care for art, to mourn
this true artist and kindly gentleman.
JoHN W. ALEXANDER, President,
HERBERT ADAMS, Vice-President,
H. W. WATROUs, Corresponding Secretary,
KENYON Cox, Recording Secretary,
FRANCIS C. JONES, Treasurer,
WILL H. Low,
J. ALDEN WEIR,
FREDERICK W. Kost,
EDWIN H. BLASHFIELD,
FREDERICK DIELMAN,
CASS GILBERT,
Committee.
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HARVARD UNIVERSITY. &
In the artistic career of Charles Follen McKim, Harvard University recognizes
an influence to which the architectural profession in America owes much that is best
in the accomplishment of recent years. Not only in the important work which was
executed by the firm to which he belonged and to which he contributed so large a
part, but in his personal influence, and especially in the active support which he
gave to architectural education, Mr. McKim exerted an influence upon architecture
in America which is likely to be lasting. It is largely through the work of his firm
that the country has learned to appreciate the great capabilities of the most refined
period of the Renaissance in the solution of modern problems. His delicate sense
of proportion, his refinement in the treatment of detail, his feeling for color and
texture in his buildings are among the qualities in which his work stands pre-eminent
and which brought to American architecture an influence which was much needed.
Mr. McKim always showed for Harvard University strong affection and loyalty,
although he was a student at the University for only a single year, 1866–1867, as a
special student in the Lawrence Scientific School. The distinguished work which
he had done, which had given him a position of unusual and generally recognized
pre-eminence in his profession, led the University in 1890 to confer upon him
its honorary degree of Master of Arts.
Although the University cannot claim to possess any of Mr. McKim’s most
important works, it is fortunate in owing to him the splendid series of gates and
enclosing fence which are in such admirable harmony with its older and finer build-
ings. It possesses also, from his hand, The Harvard Union, and Robinson Hall,
the home of its Department of Architecture, both completed in 1901, and the impos-
ing Stadium for its athletic field.
Mr. McKim always followed the Department of Architecture of the University
with keen interest, and in 1904 founded, in memory of his wife, the Julia Amory
Appleton Fellowship in Architecture, which gives an annual stipend of $1,000 to a
graduate in architecture of the University pursuing advanced studies in Europe.
Mr. McKim’s greatest contribution to the development of architectural educa-
tion in America was undoubtedly in the founding of the American Academy in Rome,
to which he largely contributed money and time during his life, and to which he left
the greater part of his property on his death.
While, therefore, the University has strong ground for grateful recognition of
Mr. McKim’s memory, it desires especially to record its belief that Mr. McKim's
work and example, more perhaps than that of any other architect in America, has
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tended to raise the standard of taste throughout the country, both in his own pro-
fession and among the public.
GLENN BRowN, ESQ.,
DEAR SIR: I take pleasure in sending for the meeting of the American Institute
of Architects to be held on December 15, 1909, a brief memorial expressing the appre-
ciation of Harvard University of the services of the late Charles Follen McKim to the
fine arts.
Very sincerely yours,
A. LAWRENCE LOWELL,
President.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.
FACULTY OF FINE ARTS.
December 14, 1909.
THE AMERICAN INSTITU're of ARCHITECTs,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
GENTLEMEN:
I have received your kind letter asking that the Faculty of Fine Arts of Columbia
University should give expression to its appreciation of the late Mr. McKim's really
wonderful work. Let me thank you, in behalf of the Faculty, for asking us to join
with you in this way at the memorial meeting, when your medal for distinguished
merit is to be awarded.
The help which Mr. McKim gave us here at Columbia was so effective and is so
constantly before our eyes that we may truly be said to live in the presence of a
memorial reared to him. The whole plan in accordance with which the external
form of the University gradually takes shape is his, and his ideas will thus be trans-
mitted among us from generation to generation. Most truly was Mr. McKim one of
those architects whom Vitruvius presents as his ideal—“Qui scientia plerarumque
litterarum et artium nutriti pervenerint ad summum templum architecturae.”
Very faithfully yours,
J. R. WHEELER, Acting Dean,
For the Faculty of Fine Arts.
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THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME.
WILLIAM RUTHERFORD MEAD, President.
The trustees of the American Academy in Rome, joining in the tribute of honor to
the memory of Charles Follen McKim, one of the founders of the Academy and its
President until his death, desire to record their appreciation of his single-minded and
broad-spirited devotion to the interests of his profession. His intensity of interest
was tangibly realized in the organization of the American Academy in Rome.
This originated at the close of the Chicago Exposition, struggled for existence
for a decade and was finally launched in 1905, with every prospect of final establish-
ment on a permanent footing, by subscriptions for more than half of the proposed
endowment fund of one million dollars and by an Act of Incorporation by Congress.
The Academy represented to Mr. McKim the accomplishment of his most
cherished desire. His confidence in its utility was absolutely unwavering; his
belief in its success was unqualified by doubt or by discouragement. His great faith,
his contagious enthusiasm, his persuasive and gentle persistence, made the continuance
of the Academy a possibility. Those who were closely associated with him know
that of all his achievements this was nearest his heart. He often said he would
rather be remembered by his connection with the foundation and establishment of
the Academy than by anything else. His failing health incapacitated him from
continuing his efforts for the Academy and he regretfully yielded to others the duty
of completing his work, testifying to his undiminished interest by leaving at his
death the whole of his property to the Institution subject only to his daughter's life
interest.
Once permanently established in Rome the Academy will always remain a
monument to his memory.
F. D. MILLET,
Secretary.
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EXHIBITION IN THE OCTAGON.
PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS.
McKIM, MEAD & WHITE, ARCHITECTS.
During the Convention a notable exhibition of the work of McKim,
Mead & White was shown in The Octagon.
This exhibition, which filled the wall space on the first floor of the
building illustrated thoroughly the appreciation for mass, the sense of
proportion and the harmony between landscape and surrounding build-
ings, which characterize and individualize the work of this firm.
The qualities of restraint and beauty shown in the completed
structure by the photographs, while not conveying the full effect of
texture and harmony of color, demonstrate the lasting influence of
this work upon the architecture of the country.
Among the notable buildings shown are the Boston Library, simple
and dignified; the Columbia University Library, with its approaches
and terraces, the most noble modern composition; the great Pennsyl-
vania Station, well proportioned and practical; the University Club,
New York, unique in effective simplicity; the Morgan Library, charming
in refinement; the base of the Sherman monument and the setting of
the Shaw Memorial, an appreciative treatment for the great Saint-
Gaudens sculptures; the Gates of Harvard, charmling approaches to
this old seat of learning; and the Washington Park Plan, the noblest
design for a capital city. -
This exhibition shows that fitness, proportion, beauty, refinement,
study and striving at perfection, whether the problem be great or small,
are always evident.
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