^^7 N 2 A35 n UC-NRLF $C 13 125 ^ y THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART J'JL 24 iy24 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION MDCCCLXX TO MCMXX I Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/fiftietlianniversOOmetrricli THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION " >* • • . THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION MDCCCLXX — MCMXX NEW YORK M C M X X I COPYRIGHT, 1 92 1, BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART KXCHAHOK OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART MCMXX Robert W. de Forest, President Elihu Root, First Vice-President Henry Walters, Second Vice-President Howard Mansfield, Treasurer Henry W. Kent, Secretary Edward D. Adams George F. Baker George Blumenthal Daniel C. French Charles W. Gould R. T. Haines Halsey Edward S. Harkness Arthur Curtiss James Francis C. Jones Lewis Cass Ledyard V. EvERiT Macy J. Pierpont Morgan Charles D. Norton William Church Osborn Samuel T. Peters Henry S. Pritchett The Mayor of the City of New York The Comptroller of the City of New York The President of the Department of Parks The President of the National Academy of Design SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON ARRANGEMENTS The President Samuel T. Peters The First Vice-President Edward Robinson, Director The Second Vice-President Henry W. Kent, Secretary r;47'):?ri THE STAFF Edward Robinson, Director Joseph Breck, Assistant Director Elial T. Foote, Assistant Treasurer Henry F. Davidson, Registrar DEPARTMENT OF PAINTINGS George H. Story, Curator Emeritus Bryson Burroughs, Curator DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICAL ART Edward Robinson, Curator GiSELA M. A. RicHTER, Assistant Curator DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN ART Albert M. Lythgoe, Curator Albert C. Mace ) a • r- TT T- TIT \ Assistant Curators Herbert E. Winlock ) DEPARTMENT OF DECORATIVE ARTS Joseph Breck, Curator Frances Morris ^ Russell A. Plimpton . . ^ ^. r. T. ? Assistant Curators Meyric R. Rogers i Charles O. Cornelius i Theodore Y. Hobby, Keeper, Benjamin Altman Collection Arthur J. Boston, Assistant Keeper, Benjamin Altman Collection DEPARTMENT OF ARMS AND ARMOR Bashford Dean, Curator DEPARTMENT OF FAR EASTERN ART S. C. Bosch Reitz, Curator DEPARTMENT OF PRINTS William M. Ivins, Jr., Curator vi THE LIBRARY William Clifford, Librarian Alice L. Felton, Assistant in Charge of Photographs Edith R. Abbot \ Anna Curtis Chandler ( -, y-, ^ ^ } Instructors Llise r. Carey ( Alice T. Coseo ) Richard F. Bach, Associate in Industrial Arts Winifred E. Howe ) ^ i a • T» 'T' XT c vjeneral Assistants Robert 1. Nichol ) Margaret A. Gash, Assistant in Charge of Cataloguing Juliet W. Robinson, Assistant in Charge of Information Desk Bessie D. Davis, Assistant in Charge of Lending Collection Conrad Hewitt, Superintendent of the Building vn THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION TO COMMEMORATE the fiftieth anniversary of the found- ing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 13, 1870, the Board of Trustees, at a meeting held November 25, 1919, appointed a Committee on Arrangements, and at their December meeting, the Trustees authorized the erection of two tablets in memory of the Founders and of the Benefactors of the Museum. The events arranged by the Committee were a loan exhibition of objects of art to be displayed with the collections in the various departments; an exhibition of the memorabilia connected with the history of the development of the Museum, together with portraits of all the Founders, Trustees, and Benefactors; formal exercises with addresses by representatives of the State of New York, City of New York, and other museums of art; the unveiling of the memorial tablets; and a dinner given by the Trustees in honor of the distin- guished representatives at the exercises and the lenders to the exhi- bition. The following paragraphs are devoted to these events in the order of their occurrence. THE LOAN EXHIBITION The following letter was sent to the well-known collectors of objects of art in New York, in pursuance of the decision of the Com- mittee on Arrangements, to ask contributions to what proved to be the most important exhibition of its kind ever held in the Museum: Sir: The spring of 1920 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the foun- dation of the Museum, and its Trustees propose to make an especial effort to celebrate this event in a manner which shall ' " " * THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART not only be worthy of the occasion, but shall emphasize the importance the Museum has attained as a national institution in the first fifty years of its growth, and shall also show the interest which the people of New York take in its progress and welfare. As one feature of this celebration it is proposed to make an exhibition in which every department of the Museum shall have its due share; and it is desired to do this, first, by displaying our own collections at their best, and second, by supplementing these with works from private collections in and about New York, where our material can be enriched by such loans. Objects thus lent would not be segregated into a loan exhibition by them- selves, but would be placed in the galleries of the several de- partments together with the Museum's objects of a kindred nature, and would be properly labeled with the lender's name. If this project can be successfully carried out, it will not only be a testimony to visitors of the friendly relations that exist between the Museum and the private collectors of the city, and the readiness of the latter to join in the Museum's celebration, but will result in an exhibition which will be memorable for many years. The Committee hopes, therefore, that its plan for this part of the celebration will receive the sympathy and cooperation of those to whom a request is made for the loan of works of art which will contribute towards making the exhibition a success. It is proposed to open the exhibition about the first of May, and to have it continue through the summer so far as the arrange- ment suits the convenience of the lenders. This would enable the large number of people from every part of the country who pass through New York during the summer to see it. Special Committee on the Celebration OF THE Museum's Fiftieth Anniversary. The appeal resulted in the receipt of 1,154 objects, which may be classified according to the Departments of the Museum as follows: Department of Egyptian Art 107 Department of Arms and Armor 79 Department of Classical Art 7 Department of Prints 129 Department of Paintings 125 Department of Oriental Art 173 Department of Decorative Arts 534 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION The names of those who so generously responded to this appeal are: COPLEY AMORY, JR. JULES S. B-ACHE EMIL BAERWALD GEORGE F, BAKER H. H. BENEDICT S. READING BERTRON HARRY PAYNE BINGHAM MRS. GEORGE T, BLISS MISS LIZZIE P. BLISS MRS. ALBERT BLUM MR. & MRS. GEORGE BLUMENTHAL MISS A. MILES CARPENTER LEWIS L. CLARKE WILLIAM H. CLARKE HON. A. T. CLEARWATER MRS. GEORGE H. CLEMENTS OGDEN CODMAN MRS. DE WITT CLINTON COHEN MRS. JOSEPH MCKEE COOK MRS. W. BAYARD CUTTING GEORGE W. DAVISON HENRY P. DAVISON MR. & MRS. ROBERT W. DE FOREST S. K. DE FOREST S. W. DEJONGE MRS. W. P. DOUGLAS MICHAEL DREICER MR. &. MRS. GODDARD DU BOIS MISS MARGARET E. DUNCAN CHARLES B. EDDY MRS. HARRIS FAHNESTOCK WILLIAM B. OSGOOD FIELD HARRY HARKNESS FLAGLER MICHAEL FRIEDSAM MRS. RICHARD GAMBRILL, II MRS. FRANCIS P. GARVAN HENRY GOLDMAN GEORGE J. GOULD RICHARD C. GREENLEAF MR. & MRS. F. GRAY GRISWOLD MISS MARIAN HAGUE R. T. HAINES HALSEY CARL W. HAMILTON J. HORACE HARDING EDWARD S. HARKNESS ROBERT HARTSHORNE MRS. RUFUS HATCH MRS. H. O. HAVEMEYER SUMNER HEALEY THE MISSES HEWITT MRS. CHARLES B. HILLHOUSE FISHER HOWE MRS. HENRY E. HUNTINGTON PIERRE JAY ALPHONSE JONGERS MR, & MRS. OTTO H. KAHN MRS. JOHN CLAPPERTON KERR C. O. KIENBUSCH MRS. J. P. D. LANIER GEORGE LEARY, JR. ARTHUR LEHMAN ADOLPH LEWISOHN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART EDWARD H. LITCHFIELD LUKE VINCENT LOCKWOOD HOWARD MANSFIELD MRS. HARRY MARKOE MISS MINNIE I. MEACHAM MR. & MRS. EUGENE MEYER, JR. MRS. ROBERT B. MINTURN MRS. W. H. MOORE MR. & MRS. J. PIERPONT MORGAN THEODORE OFFERMAN WILLIAM CHURCH OSBORN JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. THOMAS FORTUNE RYAN PAUL J. SACHS MRS. WILLIAM SALOMON MRS. HERBERT L. SATTERXEE MORTIMER L. SCHIFF CHARLES M. SCHWAB MRS. GINO SPERANZA GEORGE C. STONE MRS. F. F. THOMPSON HENRY MCM. PAINTER MRS. CLARENCE C. PELL MR. & MRS. MARSDEN J. PERRY SAMUEL T. PETERS CHARLES A. PLATT DAN FELLOWS PLATT FREDERIC B. PRATT JOHN Q.UINN MR. & MRS. JOHNSTON L. REDMOND PHILIP RHINELANDER, 2D W. K. VANDERBILT HENRY WALTERS FELIX M. WARBURG MRS. F. E. WEBB ALEXANDER MCMILLAN WELCH MRS. GEORGE T. WHELAN WILLIAM AUGUSTUS WHITE HARRY PAYNE WHITNEY JOHN N. WILLYS ORME WILSON, JR. MRS. CHARLES A. WIMPFHEIMER GRENVILLE L. WINTHROP The exhibition was opened with a private view for the members of the Museum and their friends, and a number of distinguished guests including the lenders, on Friday afternoon. May 7, from two until six o'clock. DECORATIONS The great hall at the Fifth Avenue entrance was decorated for the opening of the Loan Exhibition with garlands, wreaths, and the coats of arms or emblems of the State, City, and various countries represented in the Museum collections, by the Siedle Studios after designs by Messrs. McKim, Mead & White, the architects of the build- 4 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION ing. The emblematic figures within the garlands were the work of Ezra Winter, MEMORABILIA The collection of memorabilia illustrating graphically the growth of the Museum, and embracing all of the printed notices, documents, charts, plans, and photographs, together with photographs of the Founders, Trustees, and Benefactors, was displayed in the Room of Recent Accessions, and a group of similar material showing the devel- opment of the educational work was shown in Class Room B. MEMORIAL TABLETS The tablets of Botticino marble commemorative of the Founders of the Museum and of its Benefactors, cut by the Traitel Marble Company, after designs by Messrs. McKim, Mead & White, are set into the wall, one on either side, at the foot of the main staircase leading from the Fifth Avenue entrance. The inscriptions read as follows : THE FOUNDERS OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART APRIL 13, MDCCCLXX JOHN TAYLOR JOHNSTON WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT JOHN A. DIX GEORGE W. CURTIS WILLIAM H. ASPINWALL CHRISTIAN E. DETMOLD ANDREW H. GREEN WILLIAM J. HOPPIN JOHN F. KENSETT EDWIN D. MORGAN HOWARD POTTER HENRY G. STEBBINS WILLIAM T. BLODGETT SAMUEL L. M. BARLOW GEORGE F. COMFORT JOSEPH H. CHOATE FREDERIC E. CHURCH ROBERT GORDON RICHARD M. HUNT ROBERT HOE, JR. EASTMAN JOHNSON FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED GEORGE P. PUTNAM LUCIUS TUCKERMAN JOHN Q.UINCY ADAMS WARD SAMUEL G. WARD THEODORE WESTON RUSSELL STURGIS, JR. THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART BENEFACTORS OF THE MUSEUM DURING THE FIRST HALF CENTURY OF STRUGGLE AND GROWTH MDCCCLXX-MDCCCCXX JOHN TAYLOR JOHNSTON WILLIAM TILDEN BLODGETT HENRY GURDON MARQUAND STEPHEN WHITNEY PHOENIX GIDEON F. T. REED LEVI HALE WILLARD WILLIAM H. HUNTINGTON WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT CATHARINE LORILLARD WOLFE CORNELIUS VANDERBILT GEORGE I. SENEY JUNIUS S. MORGAN HENRY HILTON JOHN JACOB ASTOR MARY E. BROWN J.PIERPONT MORGAN HEBER R. BISHOP ELIZABETH U. COLES AMELIA B. LAZARUS GEORGE A. HEARN AUGUSTUS VAN HORNE ELLIS J. HENRY SMITH JACOB S. ROGERS MARY CLARK THOMPSON DARIUS OGDEN MILLS EDWARD DEAN ADAMS MARGARET OLIVIA SAGE FREDERICK C. HEWITT JOHN STEWART KENNEDY JOSEPH PULITZER FRANCIS L, LELAND ALEXANDER SMITH COCHRAN BENJAMIN ALTMAN WILLIAM HENRY RIGGS EDWARD S. HARKNESS JOHN LAMBERT CADWALADER BENJAMIN P. DAVIS LILLIAN STOKES GILLESPIE JAMES B. HAMMOND MARIA DE WITT JESUP J. PIERPONT MORGAN, JR. HENRY WALTERS GEORGE F. BAKER HARRIS BRISBANE DICK ISAAC D. FLETCHER JESSIE GILLENDER JOHN HOGE EDWARD C. MOORE OLIVER H. PAYNE CHARLOTTE M. TYTUS HELEN COSSITT JUILLIARD JACQUES SELIGMANN ROBERT W. DE FOREST EMILY JOHNSTON DE FOREST COMMEMORATIVE EXERCISES The formal exercises were held in the Lecture Hall on Tuesday, May 1 8, at 4 p. m., the President of the Museum, Robert W. de Forest, in the Chair. 6 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Invitations were sent to the Governor of the State of New York, the Mayor of the City of New York, the Commissioner of Parks, presidents and directors of art museums, presidents and secretaries of art societies, presidents of colleges in New York City, the President of the University of the State of New York, the President and Super- intendents of the Department of Education, New York City, dele- gates to the Convention of the American Federation of Arts, the mem- bers and staff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and lenders to the Anniversary Exhibition. The program of the exercises in the Lecture Hall was as follows: ORDER OF EXERCISES MUSIC: MINUET AND FINALE QUARTETTE, OP. 76, NO. 2, HAYDN ADDRESS BY FRANCIS D. GALLATIN COMMISSIONER OF PARKS ADDRESS BY JOHN H. FINLEY PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK ADDRESS BY MORRIS GRAY PRESIDENT OF THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC: WALTZ, OP. 21, REBIKOFF ADDRESS BY CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON PRESIDENT OF THE ART INSTITUTE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS ADDRESS BY ROBERT W. DE FOREST PRESIDENT OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART MUSIC: WALTZES, OP. 39, BRAHMS Upon the completion of these exercises, the audience adjourned to the foot of the main staircase, where at the unveiling of the tablets 7 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART commemorative of the Founders and the Benefactors of the Museum the following program was carried out: ADDRESS BY ELIHU ROOT FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT, THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART UNVEILING OF THE TABLETS MUSIC: ANDANTE CANTABILE QUARTETTE, OP. 11, TSCHAIKOVSKY THE DINNER The dinner, given by the Trustees, was held at the University Club, on Tuesday evening. May i8, at eight o'clock. The guests present were: PRESIDENTS OF MUSEUMS Frank L. Babbott Ralph H. Booth C. T. Crocker Francis H. Dewey Morris Gray McDoUGALL HaWKES Charles L. Hutchinson Henry Fairfield Osborn Frederic B. Pratt John A. Weekes Brooklyn Detroit San Francisco Worcester Boston New York Chicago New York Brooklyn New York DIRECTORS OF MUSEUMS John W. Beatty H. H. Brown Clyde H. Burroughs Edward W. Forbes William Henry Fox Pittsburgh Indianapolis Detroit Cambridge Brooklyn THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION J. H. Gest Cincinnati George B, Gordon Philadelphia Edgar L. Hewett Santa Fe Robert Allen Holland St. Louis William H. Holmes Washington J. NiLSEN Laurvik San Francisco C. Powell Minnigerode Washington Charles R. Richards New York L. Earle Rowe Providence George W. Stevens Toledo F. Allen Whiting Cleveland Raymond Wyer Worcester Herbert Adams Elmer E. Brown, Chancellor, New York University Michael Dreicer Michael Friedsam John H. Finley, Pres., University of the State of New York Henry Goldman A. Augustus Healy Adolph Lewisohn Thomas F. Ryan Mortimer L. Schiff Felix M. Warburg Grenville L. Winthrop ■ TRUSTEES, OFFICERS, AND STAFF OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Robert W. de Forest Edward D. Adams Edwin H. Blashfield, Ex-officio George Blumenthal Charles L. Craig, Ex-officio Daniel C. French Francis D. Gallatin, Ex-officio Charles W. Gould R. T. Haines Halsey Francis C. Jones THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Howard Mansfield Charles D. Norton Samuel T. Peters Henry S. Pritchett • Elihu Root Edward Robinson Henry W. Kent Joseph Breck There were no formal speeches, but an address of congratulation was presented by the President of the American Museum of Natural History, Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, reading as follows: the trustees of the american museum of natural history desire TO EXTEND TO THEIR FELLOW TRUSTEES OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART THEIR CORDIAL AND FRATERNAL FELICITATIONS ON THE OCCASION OF THE GOLDEN JUBILEE OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART THIS MARKS THE COMPLETION OF THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS OF IDEALISM IN DIRECTION AND OF UNEX- AMPLED GENEROSITY IN CONTRIBUTION WHICH IN A BRIEF PERIOD OF HALF A CENTURY HAS PLACED OUR SISTER INSTITUTION THE FOREMOST IN AMERICA AND AMONG THE FOREMOST IN THE WORLD WE LOOK FORWARD WITH CONFIDENCE TO THE NEW HALF CENTURY OF ADVANCE IN ALL THAT ART AND BEAUTY CAN MEAN IN THEIR INFLUENCE ON AMER- ICAN LIFE, CULTURE, AND CIVILIZATION lO THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION PRIZE CONTEST IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS In connection with the Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration, the Trustees of the Museum, at the suggestion of the President, Robert W. de Forest, offered to each High School in Manhattan and the Bronx a prize for the best composition written by a pupil of the school on the topic "A Visit to the Metropolitan Museum" or some nearly related subject. The prizes consisted of framed enlargements from photographs of paintings and sculpture in the Museum collection and became the property of the respective schools. An additional prize, also a framed photograph, was awarded to the writer of the composi- tion adjudged best among the prize-winning compositions, for his own possession. On November 3, 1920, the prizes were awarded at the Washington Irving High School by Robert W. de Forest and Gustave Strauben- miiller. Associate Superintendent of Schools. The winners in the eight schools entering into the contest were as follows: Lillian Bronstein, Julia Richmond High School Florence Hauser, Washington Irving High School Helen Gundersheemer, Theodore Roosevelt High School Jack Albert Walker, DeWitt Clinton High School Florence Buell, Wadleigh High School George Henry Hornstein, Morris High School Lillian Litzenburger, George Washington High School Eleanor Mann, Evander Childs High School To Eleanor Mann, winner of the prize for the Evander Childs High School, was awarded the special prize for the best composition of all those receiving prizes. II 3> ADDRESS BY FRANCIS D. GALLATIN . Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: It has been well said — as it has been often said — that stone walls do not a prison make. This is also true of a city — stone walls do not make a city. A city is composed of the spirit and pride of its citizens. Any thing and every thing which raises and ennobles its citizens is of the greatest importance to its government. There- fore it has always been the great joy and the great pleasure of the City of New York to do all in its power to encourage the work of this Museum. I was visiting today the Natural History Museum, and I saw a picture in its galleries by one of our ancient forebears. Per- haps forty or fifty thousand years ago he had drawn that wonderful picture in a cave in France. It seemed to me then that perhaps it was at that moment that man first recognized the importance of his position, that he first assumed the privileges of his birthright, that he left aside the merely practical, so called, and launched himself into works of the imagination, and into the ideal. It was then that for the first time he raised himself from earth and made himself, as it were, the equal of God, a creator with God. Every thing may perish, but ideas are eternal. And the idea of beauty is the greatest idea of all. As you will remember, Sappho taught us in days of old that the beautiful are good and the good shall soon be beautiful. I myself think that goodness and beauty are one, that one cannot distinguish one from the other, and therefore I take it that every thing which encourages the love of beauty in a city encourages the goodness of that city and promotes its welfare in the highest sense of the word. Why people should distinguish so insistently between the practica and the ideal has often been a wonder to me. They tell us that an electric light is practical, but a work of art, or a good book is not 13 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART practical. But let me ask you, "Wouldn't the worth of the light be greatly diminished — reduced to nothing — if there were not this work of art and this book to be studied by the light?" No, ladies and gentlemen, it is the ideal which really counts. The practical simply exists for the ideal, in order that through it we may enjoy and ennoble ourselves by the consideration of the ideal — beauty. And even in matters of science, the imagination has vast import- ance, for I take it that imagination is, as it.were, the scout aeroplane of science. With its piercing eye it finds the way, and points it out to science, which can only follow with heavy and stumbling steps. Ideas, as I said before, are perpetual and eternal. They are the only things that man can produce which will last forever. The ideas which were created and were imagined centuries and thousands of years ago are still active in our midst. The canvas, perhaps, on which those ideas were displayed has perished. Perhaps the very stone which has been carved in semblance of a god has disappeared. Perhaps the very words in which those ideas were formulated have become null, simply nonsense to our now understanding ears. And yet those ideas go on, go on. So it follows that everything which promotes the goodness and the purity and the highness of our ideas, is of the utmost importance to the city government. One of the very few things, one might almost say, that remain of the great conquest of Alexander in Asia is the fact that a marked impression is even to this day seen in Chinese art — the effect of the Grecian art which was brought into Asia in those long-ago days. We can say that once the love of the beautiful is aroused in man it will go on forever to all future generations. It is not only my duty, but my privilege, and one of the greatest pleasures I have ever enjoyed, to be here present to congratulate the President and the Trustees of this great Museum on the first fifty years of its labors. I hope that fifty years more will see this Museum still continuing prosperous on its fruitful career, still the center of the high ideal life of this great city of ours, of this great country of ours — that it may still continue teaching that that which is not beautiful can not be good, and that beauty and goodness are one. 14 ADDRESS BY JOHN H. FINLEY When Themistocles was asked, says Plutarch, to speak freely concerning the affairs of the Greeks, before the Persian King, Xerxes, he replied that a man's discourse was like a Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can be shown only by spread- ing and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up they are obscured and lost. The King bidding him take what time he would, he said that he desired a year, in which time he learned the Persian language sufficiently to say in the King's own tongue what he wished to speak to the King. I should (like Themistocles) need a whole year in which to pre- pare an address which could be worthy to be presented in this House of Beautiful Things and in the presence of those living and dead who have adorned it. As it is, I can bring but a sketch of the figure and pattern of what I would say on behalf of the State (the mother of your immortal corporate self) since the Governor, to his great regret, cumbered with many bills, cannot be here; of the University of the State of New York (your mystical, all-loving, God-mother) ; and of my own self, a devoted friend of your President, Mr. de Forest. Despite the fact that I may not extend my brief address to its full pattern, I begin near the beginning of time — as it is recorded in the Book of Books. There is a legend that Enoch (not the son of Cain but the Enoch, an early descendant of Adam, who according to the scriptural record was translated), being forewarned that the earth would perish once by water and once by fire, erected two pillars, known as "Enoch's Pillars," one of stone and one of brick, on which he caused to be engraved "all such learning as had been delivered to or invented by mankind." "Thus," the legend adds, "it was that all knowledge and learning were not lost; for one of these pillars remained after the flood." IS THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART How meagre must have been that which mankind had to remember when all that it was thought necessary to preserve against oblivion by fire or flood could be written on a pillar of stone (and a duplicate copy on one of brick). And how simple, elemental, and short an educational curriculum it would have taken to compass all that one generation had to transmit to the next, if all that the schoolmaster had to teach were graven on these shafts which were mindful ever of the past and yet portentous ever of the fate that was threatening the earth! I have often wished that the content of the school courses of all the peoples of the earth might be analyzed and compared (French, English, German, Italian, American) in order that we might know after eliminating the purely local material, just what, in detail and in scope, the race as a whole most wished to transmit to its children (and so to a new race if a Noachian disaster were again to overwhelm the earth). If we could but summarize this residuum, it would be worth while to have engraved elementary Enochian pillars erected at every street corner for the living, or set upon our highest mountains and buried in fire-proof vaults against such emergencies as Enoch prepared for. I have seen in one of our museums the clay copy-book of a Baby- lonian school boy (of beyond 2000 B. C.) in which having failed, evi- dently, to follow the copy to the satisfaction of the teacher, he had pressed out with his thumb a part of what he had written leaving a print for some specialist centuries later to examine. How meagre must his "copy" have been. Yet it was presumably still farther back that Enoch's Pillars stood in the midst of the squalid urban huts, on the dim edge of history and on the brink of the deserts. What would we not give to know what was written there? Was there anything that the world has forgotten, of its genesis and childhood? This we know, that no thing of color hung upon it such as adorned the Tabernacle. No workmanship of Bezaleel or Aholiab embellished it. No Madonna's face enhaloed by Raphael looked out from it. There was "no framed Correggio's fleeting glow." No figures such as Angelo wrought, no bas-relief as that of our own St. Gaudens rested the eyes of those who looked on it. It had nothing more of beauty on it than the pillar of stone from Egypt which stands back of this great building. And yet how bare, as Enoch's Pillars, of rare beauty, wrought of 16 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION human hands, are those pillars of knowledge toward which millions of children today look for their heritage; as bare as if Phidias and Praxiteles, Angelo and Raphael, Frans Hals and Rembrandt, Turner, Millet, and Rodin and all the rest had never lived; as bare aestheti- cally as if the world's past were such as lies back of — I was going to say a Hopi Indian; but even his world has more of the aesthetic in it than that of children, yes and men and women, I have seen not a hundred miles from this place. But now and here in the midst of this metropolis grown to a "cos- mopolis" there rise new "Pillars of Enoch," pillars that have so much to carry upon them that they have to be extended into walls, many hundreds of feet in length and enclosing many chambers — pillars erected not that all "learning and knowledge" but that the most beautiful of all that has been "delivered to" man on this side of the water or that has been "invented by" him, shall not be lost! Nor that alone! Not alone that it shall not be lost but that it shall be made an inspiriting, vital part of the daily life of the people. Such is this great Museum, whose golden jubilee we celebrate today. For this Museum is in its new functioning primarily an educa- tional institution, a place not simply of conserving or recording but of teaching — a pillar not merely of memory nor yet of portent, like that of Enoch, or like that which the Tartars set up (after their flight from Russia, as recorded by De Quincey) in the shadow of the Great Wall of China, to mark the end of a journey, but rather of progress like a pillar of cloud by day, with its duplicate of fire by night, in the midst of this wilderness of houses, ever leading on to a promised land, a land of ideals never reached. For inscription on this pillar, there is nothing better to be written than the creed which you have yourselves composed, a creed which will, however, be impotent to save, unless the people say it with you, and especially through their schools. Representing, as I think I may, the teachers of this State and City, I repeat it today with you: "i. We believe that every human being is born with a potential love of beauty, and whether this capacity lies dormant or springs into activity depends largely upon his education. "2. We believe that whether the cultivation of this faculty adds to the earning capacity of its possessor or not, it does unques- tionably increase his happiness and this in time reacts upon his health of mind and body. 17 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART "3. We believe that the Metropolitan Museum has an importan-t role to play in the education of the innate love of beauty. "4. We believe that through the cooperation of the Museum and the schools a generation of young Americans may grow up who will know how to see beauty everywhere because they have learned its language here. "5. We believe" (and here I catch into the creed the words of Joseph H. Choate at the dedication of this building in 1880, words in which he expressed the feeling of the founders), "not only that the diffusion of a knowledge of art in its highest forms of beauty will tend directly to humanize, to educate, and refine a practical and laborious people . . . but will also show to students and artisans of every branch of industry, in the high and acknowledged standards of form and color, what the past has accomplished for them to imitate and excel." But that this creed may have potency not only must it be repeated daily by both the Museum and the schools, as I have intimated, but constantly must the pillars (this Museum) be enriched with the continuing best that has been or will be "delivered to" or "invented by" mankind and then transmuted into the vision and the skill of the succeeding generations. Every school-room must open upon the Museum or the Museum must open every school-room. And there should not be a tenement, however bare, in which some of the paint- ings of these galleries do not hang or some bit of sculpture does not stand, or the fire of some jewel does not glow, because they who live in it have carried back to it what they have seen here in this (other) common room of their home. And more and more essential to the life of our people is this Mu- seum, not only because of its practical ministry to the efficiency of the crafts (the "mysteries," as they were once called) but also because of its ennobling and enriching contribution to the increasing leisure time of millions; for I have come to believe (I find that Aristotle anticipated me by more than two thousand years in this view, though I did not know this till I had reached it myself) that the right use of leisure is a chief end of education. The Children of Israel were commanded to observe once a year for the period of seven days the Feast of Tabernacles, and live in tents or under temporary roofs in order that they might be kept gratefully mindful of the way by which their fathers had been led out of cap- 18 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION tivity in Egypt. I have often wished that all of us might celebrate such a feast each year for as many days (even if not consecutively and without more holidays, but in our leisure hours, with this same purpose). It would keep us out of pessimism. It would not be practicable for us to go out and live in tents or booths perhaps, and, indeed, we could more profitably and to better purpose observe such a feast beneath the roofs of our great museums — the Natural History Museum and the Metropolitan Museum. If the Governor of this State were willing to add another to his many helpful proclamations, I would recommend this one, though I suspect that he would hardly be willing to follow the form into which I have put it: This shall ye do, O men of Earth, Ye who've forgotten your far birth Your forbears of the slanting skull Barbaric, brutal, sluggard, dull, (Of whom no portraits hang to boast The ancient lineage of the host). Ye who've forgot the time when they Were redolent of primal clay. Or lived in wattled hut, or cave. But, turned to dust or drowned by wave, Have left no traces on Time's shores Save mounds of shells at their cave doors And lithic knives and spears and darts And savage passions in our hearts This shall ye do: * * * (Then would follow specific directions as to visiting the Museum of Natural History) : Beneath whose roofs Ye yet may hear the flying hoofs Of beasts long gone, the cries of those Who were your fathers' forest foes Or see their shadows riding fast Along the edges of the past. 19 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART (And then would be given other specific directions as to reaching the place of the crowning glories, the supreme mysteries, of man's handiwork, this Metropolitan Museum of Art.) All this that ye may keep in mind The nomad way by which mankind Has come from his captivity; Walking dry-shod the earth-wide sea, Riding the air, consulting stars, Driving great caravans of cars, Building the furnace, bridge, and spire Of earth-control and heav'n desire. Stamping on canvas, bronze, and stone The highest beauty earth has known, Rising in journey from the clod Into the glory of a God — This shall ye do, O men of Earth, That ye may know the crowned worth Of what ye are — and hope renew, Seeing the road from dawn to you. Seeing this road, then, turning from these museums toward the day's works and the day's leisures, we should find a new courage, a new joy, a new heaven, and a new earth — for the golden days, though this is a golden jubilee, are not all behind us. The saddest picture I think I have ever seen was of Eve, the grand- mother of Enoch, in her old age (and I had never before thought of Eve as growing old). She was being borne on a litter, her great son Cain at her side, and was pointing, as she sat, toward a clump of trees on a distant knoll and saying or seeming to say to Cain, "You see those trees yonder? Well, that was Paradise." But Paradise does not lie behind us — back beyond "Enoch's Pillars." It lies in the direction in which this glorious and immortal Mother of Beauty looks in these collections — forward — the direction in which I hope she will guide, through countless fifty years, the eyes of all the children in this, the first city of the earth. That this may be the relationship between art museums (and this Museum especially) and public education, is my jubilee wish on behalf of the State. ADDRESS BY MORRIS GRAY It is a great pleasure to bring to the Metropolitan the tribute of the Boston Museum — tribute for a great service, greatly rendered; not confined to the limits of the city but extending far beyond. For the Metropolitan is indeed the gift of New York to the country. And we Americans of other cities who have no share in the making must needs feel gratitude for the gift — proud of the giver. How great the achievement of your fifty years! The splendor of your collections an inspiration for all time. The teaching of the knowledge of art in all its manifold intellectual importance. And far different and far more important the development of the love of beauty of which art is a manifestation, the development of it not as a luxury but as an integral part of life. It is in this that your great opportunity lies. The knowledge of art is common. But the love of art that brings real happiness and inspiration to the heart of man is rare. One is an intellectual interest. The other is a great emotion. Think not that this development of the love of beauty is necessary for the poor and uneducated only. It is necessary and in fully as high degree for the rich and educated. It applies in many instances to us who have gathered here, certainly to me; it applies often to those who possessing great works of art think that a knowledge of prices, of names, of schools, of technique, means a love of art. It is not so. If you have that and only that you may have knowledge. But love lies far beyond. Before a great painting or a great sculpture the real love of art manifests itself, not in the clever criticism that one hears so often at an afternoon tea or at evening around the dinner table. It manifests itself rather in silence — the silence that is like the hush that one feels when one stands in the cathedral of an alien faith hallowed by the worship of many generations. It manifests itself rather in 21 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART the clutch at your heart, in the mist in your eyes. It is the love of art, not merely the knowledge of art, that is the great thing. No, the love of beauty is not restricted to the aristocracy of wealth and education. It belongs rather to the democracy of the things of the spirit — free to all. It is as likely to be the possession of the immigrant who comes to our shores this day as it is to be the possession of the native American of many generations. Let me give you an instance; for we are apt to differentiate between the immi- grant and ourselves in terms of money and material things and to forget the spiritual things that give value to life. At one of your concerts here last March I sat near a girl and her mother and sister, recent immigrants from one of the countries of southeastern Europe, black hair, growing low upon the forehead, a white pallor and out of it beautiful eyes that seemed to hold generations of tragedy yet shimmered now and then into sudden gladness. After a while the musicians played something which came out of that part of the world. It had the wild, weird, primitive human quality. It tore at the heartstrings. Presently the girl put her elbows on her knees, her head between her hands and I saw that her shoulders were quivering with emotion. When the musicians stopped she threw back her head and the tears were running down her cheeks yet the eyes were the eyes of joy and of vision. And she had spiritual wealth far greater than we had for she saw beauty, as it must always be seen at its greatest, through tears — tears of exaltation. Yet the development of this love of beauty has not only a value to the happiness of the individual, it has a value to the welfare of the nation. The things that are material, the house, the food, the cloth- ing, the business — what you choose — tend to differentiate us. The things of the spirit tend to bring us together. It is not on the things that are material, it is on the things that are spiritual that the great kinships of life, the great kinships of the world are founded. The war and the aftermath of the war are instances of this. During the war we were all united in carrying through one great spiritual ideal, liberty. The man who stood beside you in front of the Bulletin Board was your friend, your kin. The divergence of the material interests of the individual fell by the wayside. But today that divergence has again come to the fore. The old antagonisms arise. The kinship of the spiritual cause is vanishing. The hope that the idealism of the war would remanifest itself in an idealism of peace 22 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION fails. The reaction is to materialism. It is not well with our coun- try. It is for you and such as you to see to it that America carries on the things of the spirit because they are the great things of life; because only out of their greatness and their kinship can America render the greatest service to the world. The love of beauty is a thing of the spirit. It is free. It is al- ready shared to some extent at least by rich and poor, by educated and uneducated. It brings us together. It makes us kin. And it is. in this development of the love of beauty for the happiness of the individ- ual and for the welfare of the state that your great opportunity lies. And backed by the great generosity of private citizens, sup- plemented by that of the City itself, led by men of far-reaching vis- ion, Mr. de Forest, Mr. Robinson and their associates, it is not only your opportunity — it is, I believe, your destiny. And to this des- tiny, I bid you God speed. And out of it all will come the day when the master will be born who shall embody the great ideals of America in imperishable art. The art that speaks for all time. The art that knows no barrier of tongue or race. And although you and I be blind and deaf and dumb in our power of expression we shall know that he has embodied the longing of our hearts. We shall know that whether the America of today lives or dies its great ideals will live an inspiration for ages yet unborn. For nations come and go but art, the art that embodies their great ideals, lives. And the master will go singing through the ages. And we shall be forgot yet we too shall serve. Even as the earth that nourisheth the divine seed lives in the perfect flower. a3 ADDRESS BY CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON Mr. President and Members of the Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art: It is my privilege and my pleasure to bring greetings and con- gratulations from the Trustees of The Art Institute of Chicago. They rejoice with you as you celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of this Museum, for they appreciate the great work which it has done and are ahve to the importance of that work. They are happy also to have this opportunity of publicly thanking you not only for the inspiration but also for the kindly cooperation received at your hands, and from the efficient members of your staff. First among the art museums of our land, the Metropolitan is a true leader in museum work. No director of any art museum of our country is abreast of the times if he is not cognizant of what you are doing here. Your work has been successful in the highest degree. I know that you are aware of this, still it must be gratifying for you to know that your efforts are appreciated by others engaged in the same noble work, who understand the educational value of art in every field of human endeavor. I am strongly tempted to speak upon a "hobby." It would furnish a fitting text for this occasion, for my hobby is — The Democracy of Art. The subject is almost as hackneyed as the word "art" itself. What word in the English language has been more often misused and so much abused? Think of the crimes committed in its name. Think of all that we are called upon to accept as masterpieces of art. Would that we could coin another word to express that coordinating intelligence and skill which man exercises in creating beautiful things, which we call Art. Until the true mission of art is more widely understood, there will be need of much preaching, of emphasizing the democratic nature of art, and setting forth the great value of art as a vital factor in the every-day life of the materialistic age in which we live. Perhaps the whole - 24 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION theory of the Democracy of Art is best expressed in the words of Thomas Nelson Page — Art is a luxury for the rich and a necessity for the poor. However, we will not yield to temptation but follow the lines suggested by your President, when he invited us to speak on this occasion; with characteristic broadmindedness, he would not have us consider the wonderful growth of your Museum but rather tell of the progress of art and art museums in the United States during the last half-century. The history of the founding and of the develop- ment of the Metropolitan Museum has been presented to us in the able and comprehensive account by Miss Winifred E. Howe. A wonderful story, ably presented. You will note that only two speak- ers outside of the State of New York are upon the program this afternoon — one from the East and one from the West. Coming from the West, I infer that it would be fitting for me to speak on the development of art in the West. Still East and West are so closely bound together that it is perhaps unfair to make any distinc- tion between them. Since the foundation of the Metropolitan Museum, America has made great progress in the fostering and developing of the Fine Arts — or rather, let us say, since eighteen hundred and eighty-two. We choose this date, because in that year for the first time our Gov- ernment recognized the Fine Arts in the report of its Bureau of Edu- cation. This progress, however, has been especially marked during the past twenty-five years. The work has gone forward with great rapidity in the West as well as in the East. By West I mean the country west of the Allegheny Mountains. In discussing the progress of the Fine Arts, one must necessarily give consideration to the three principal agencies through which they have been advanced — they are the Art Museum and Art School and Art Society. The increase and growth of all of these agencies during the past fifty years have, as I have already stated, been phenomenal and furnish a good index of the progress of art in our country. Of these agencies the museum has been the most potent. During the past twenty-five years there has been a phenomenal development of museums in the United States, especially in the West. This is due to the fact that the Trustees of our museums realize as never before the true function of the art museum. For- 25 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART merly it did not include the education of the artistic sense of the visitor. Today we appreciate the great educational possibilities of the museum and are endeavoring through it to diffuse informa- tion about art and to develop an appreciation of art among the people. The introduction of this educational function or feature into our museums, has been the most significant fact in the progress of the Fine Arts in recent years. The art museum of the past is set aside. It has been reconstructed, it has been transferred from a cemetery of bric-a-brac into a nursery of living thought. The museum of today is democratic in the highest sense of the word. Its motto is that adopted by your own American Museum of Natural History many years ago — For the people, — for Education, — for Science. This expresses the ideals of the modern museum. The museum of the future will stand side by side with the library and laboratory. It must be introduced into our colleges and universities. It must cooperate with the library and the school as one of the principal agencies for the enlightenment of the people. It must be a cause of inspiration, as well as a means of happiness, — a vital factor in the every-day life of the community. Art for art's sake is a selfish and erroneous doctrine, unworthy of any true lover of art. Art for humanity and a service of art for those who live and strive in a humdrum world, is the true doctrine and one that every art museum should cherish. The value of an art museum is measured by the service it renders to the community in which it stands. The principal function of an art museum is the cultivation of an appreciation of the beautiful. In the advancement of the civilization of the present age no agency save that of commerce is more potent than that of art. The first museum devoted wholly to art established in this country was the Wadsworth Atheneum of Hartford, Connecticut, opened to the public in eighteen hundred and forty-two. To this Museum, in nineteen hundred and twelve, seventy years after its foundation, was added the fine Morgan Memorial. The Museum is still, as you know, an active one. The last museum thrown open to the people is the Butler Gallery at Youngstown, Ohio. Only four of the Eastern museums, those at Hartford, Baltimore, Buffalo, and New Haven, are older than the Metropolitan, while the Boston Museum was organized in the same year. During the past twenty- 26 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION five years, thirteen museums have been established west of the Allegheny Mountains, while during the same period seven were organized in the East. The museums of the West have been visited during the past two years by three million visitors annually, while the attendance at one of the Western museums has been over a mil- lion each year for the past two years. There are fifty cities in the United States having a population of one hundred thousand or over. In these fifty cities, there are more than forty museums of art and two hundred and sixteen schools of art. More than one half of these museums are in the West. The attendance in these Western museums is more than double that of the Eastern museums. It is of course impossible to speak of each one of these museums upon this occasion. Three, however, are worthy of especial men- tion. One has been a pioneer, and two at least leaders in museum work. One of the three museums is worthy of special mention on account of its rapid and wise development during the past nine years. It is the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The founding of this Museum was unique in the history of mu- seums in this country. More than two hundred of the leading citi- zens of Minneapolis were mvited to dine at the Minneapolis Club in January, nineteen hundred and eleven. At this dinner a self- appointed committee surprised most of those present by presenting plans for the building of an art museum. One of the number offered a site for the Museum, valued at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, provided five hundred thousand dollars should be raised for the necessary building. Another citizen started the Fund to be raised by a subscription of one hundred thousand dollars. At the close of the evening, nearly four hundred thousand dollars had been subscribed — the full amount was obtained before the close of the month. As I read of the initial efforts of the gentlemen who founded the Metropolitan Museum, I could not refrain from comparing their experience in raising money with that of our Minneapolis friends. — A more notable company of men met and organized for the purpose of founding an art museum in New York. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was the sum deemed necessary for the venture — and this sum they started out to raise. At the end of one year, only one hundred and six thousand dollars had been secured. How times have changed! How different was their experience from that of our 27 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Minneapolis friends — who, in a much smaller city in the benighted West, raised for an art museum more than seven times as much money, in less than one month. This is not all. The Minneapolis Mu- seum has been conspicuous for the rapid development of its Museum and School since that eventful evening in January, nineteen hundred and eleven. The second museum worthy of special consideration is that of Toledo, Ohio. Of the Toledo Museum I can speak without embarrassment. It furnishes perhaps the best example in the United States of what a museum should strive to do and what a museum can do in a small city, if it has men like William Drummond Libbey behind it, and can enlist the interest of the people, as he and his associates have done during the past fifteen years. In this short space of time the Museum has built for itself one of the most beautiful of all museum buildings. Without large collections of any kind, it has cultivated a most intimate relation with the people of Toledo — all classes of citizens are interested in it and contribute to its support — merchants, bankers, school children, members of women's clubs, artists, students, and wage earners — the list of the educational activities of the To- ledo Museum will astonish you. The scope of its work is far beyond the general conception of work proper for an art museum. The most conspicuous fact brought out by the work of the Museum is the ready response made by the people of the city to the advances of the Museum. This leads me to speak of the Art Institute of Chicago, whose representative I have the honor of being here today. The Toledo Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago are working along the same lines and are furnishing good examples of what a real live museum can do. They have energy, vitality, and genuine demo- cratic aspirations. They are doing much to bring beauty and joy to a large public. They are potent factors in the life of a busy commer- cial city. I was not born in Chicago but I have lived there so long that I have acquired that characteristic modesty for which its citizens are noted and of which the Bostonian has so little — so I hesitate to speak of the greatest of all the museums of the West — ^The Art Institute of Chicago. Surely the history of the development of the Fine Arts not only in the West but in the country cannot be written without men- 28 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION tion of it. Chicago is regarded, even in the East, as an art center and as such it is rather unique among the cities of the land. While it is an art center, it has within its borders an active, influential center of art. Few cities are so fortunate. The center of art in Chicago is the Art Institute. I do not mean to say that there is nothing artistic in Chicago outside of the Art Institute — far from it — there is much, but in and about the Art Institute you will find gathered in one way or other a great majority of all people interested in the artistic development of the community. This is as it should be, for in every city the museum of art should be the center of all artistic forces. I wonder if I dare quote the opinion of one in no way con- nected with the Art Institute. I will venture to do so. "The Art Institute is the inspiring center of the free education in the Art of Painting, Sculpture, Handicraft and Music, and the intellectual life for all citizens — men, women and children of high and low degree. During the past year the visitors at the Art Institute numbered a full million. All were welcome. Other Museums throughout the country will record more acquisitions and endowments but no one is enveloped in a more liberal atmosphere of good will toward the public — from the Director and his associates, the office force, the guards, the messenger boy and the humble women polish- ing the floor — none are ever so busy that they cannot stop in courtesy to a stranger. Each and everyone has the service of the Art Insti- tute as an ideal and it is this personal hospitality that enhances the value of the Art Institute a hundredfold. It is a never-ending cause of comment among artists and travelers who have visited all the great Galleries and Museums of the world." The Trustees of the Art Institute are striving to create just such a museum as is here described. Other influences besides these of the Museum, School, and Art Society have been at work in the West. Some of the most conspicu- ous events in the history of the advancement of art in our country have occurred west of the AUeghenies. Foremost among them are the five expositions held in the West during the past twenty-five years. Probably no one event in the progress of art in the West has been more potent than that of the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in eighteen hundred and ninety-three. The Centennial Exposition of eighteen hundred and seventy-six awakened an interest 29 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART in art among the people of the East, but in the development of the art movement not only in the West, but in our whole country, the World's Columbian Exposition still stands as the one supreme event. It marks the beginning of a new era in the history of art in the United States. The Exposition at St. Louis was also of great value — so were the two California expositions, those at San Francisco and San Diego, especially the one at San Diego. Its buildings and grounds presented the most perfect and exquisite setting for an exposition ever created. These five expositions have done much to advance the progress of art among us by arousing the people to a proper appreciation of, and interest in the Fine Arts. It would be difficult to overestimate the value of their influence. Let me quote from the writing of a distinguished Eastern critic who said — "Over and above all that has been done for the progress of the Fine Arts, the most significant event is that of the building of the World's Columbian Fair at Chicago." It was the turning-point in the artistic progress of our country. It was so marked that it may well be called another epoch. Its effect was profound and far-reaching, strongly influencing our subsequent work and point of view. It was the first occasion upon which there were brought together to work for a common result, — not only a number of architects, but also prac- titioners of the allied arts. It taught a lesson that the architect, the painter, and the sculptor, if each is to reach his highest expres- sion, must all work together, mind to mind, hand to hand, — not as separate units fortuitously assembled, but as an intimately interwoven, mutually comprehending team, as men worked in the great ages of the past — to make great art. The World's Columbian Exposition taught a great lesson of collaboration. We are not unmindful of all that has been going on in the East. We realize that the Metropolitan alone has achieved a position sur- passing that of all the Western museums combined. It is one of the greatest museums of the world. There are several notable facts in the history of the Metropolitan Museum which should not be overlooked. They furnish a wise ex- ample for every community seeking to better the condition of its people. First of all, your Museum has been exceedingly fortunate in hav- 30 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION ing from the first year of its existence, the cooperation of the muni- cipality with individual contributions — State, City, and private citizens have been interested in your work. From the time Mr. Tweed and Mr. Sweeney befriended you, until the time when you received the magnificent gift of Mr. Altman, this help has been forth- coming. Let us give Tammany Hall the credit due it for the support it has given not only to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but also to the Museum of Natural History. Mr. Sweeney may have been a shrewd politician but he was a far-sighted man when he said to your representative who went to him for recognition of the Museum, "This is just in our line, in line with our ideas of progress in New York City." Would that all our politicians were as wise and would that every state would follow the example set by New York in foster- ing public museums. One cannot review the history of this Museum or the development of art in our country without recalling first of all the great personal devotion and princely gifts of J. Pierpont Morgan. Mr. Altman's gift is also valuable as an example showing what can be done by a public-spirited citizen for the good of his fellow-man. With one exception no single gift has ever been made to any public museum of art as fine and as valuable as that of Mr. Altman. The one ex- ception is that of the Wallace Collection. The latter was the work of three generations, while the collection of Mr. Altman was brought together in three decades. Probably no museum of the world has had so large a number of conspicuous gifts such as those of Mr. Rogers, during the past fifty years, as the Metropolitan. I wish there were time to mention the many benefactors who have enriched your his- tory by devotion and treasure from John Taylor Johnston, its first President, do,wn to its present incumbent — Robert W. de Forest. To no one does the Museum owe more than to the man who has for the past seven years guided the work of the Museum and inspired not only the members of its staff but all those vitally interested in museum work throughout the country. It is our good fortune to be citizens of a noble Republic. Of this citizenship we are justly proud. We do not always appreciate our heritage or realize the duty it imposes upon us. We seldom stop to think at what sacrifice it has been bequeathed to us. Nowhere else on the face of the earth is democracy more triumphant than in this land of ours, but even here it still falls far short of that ideal democracy 31 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART of which we sometimes dream. Recognizing this fact, it is well to ask ourselves what is the ultimate object of democracy. I think it was President Eliot who said, "Democracy is to increase the satisfac- tion and joys of life for the great masses of people." We are seeking to advance the civilization of the age in which we live. Some people look upon civilization as they look upon art, — something to be separ- ated from common every-day life. True civilization is simply a knowledge of how to live and a way to use that knowledge. Our task is that of civilizing the great democracy of which we are citizens. For this, first of all we must have orderly, healthy, well-governed communities. In them we must establish certain great institutions of light and learning to stimulate thought, to refine and elevate taste, to make life more full of joy. These institutions must be amply endowed and in- telligently conducted. Through them every effort must be made to reach and uplift all classes of citizens. Among these institutions there should be great universities, libraries, hospitals, opera houses, theatres, public parks and playgrounds, and museums of art — the last is not the least. It is to promote and foster them that we are gathered here today. There have been two great epochs in the history of art. The first was that of classical antiquity and the second that of the Renais- sance. These two epochs were separated the one from the other by only a thousand years. In the first epoch, architecture and sculpture were preeminent. Greek influence dominated the world. In the second period, that of the Renaissance, Italian creative genius led all nations. Is there any good reason why there should not be an- other Renaissance of Art? Indeed, are we not already on its thresh- old? The more you consider the state of art in our country and the conditions surrounding it, the more you will rejoice at the outlook for the future. There is an awakening on every hand. Public- spirited citizens throughout the country are intent on the advance- ment of the Fine Arts. There is no such activity in the world of art in any other part of the world. In this third great period in the history of art there is no reason why American influence should not prevail. Why should not our country be the center of this new movement? Conditions are favorable. In this new movement why should not the Metropolitan Museum take the lead? The opportunity is yours. In the light 32 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION of what you have accomplished during the first fifty years of your existence, no one need hesitate to prophesy that you will embrace the opportunity. As you lead, we will follow. We will rejoice at your success, as we do today, and gladly acclaim you first and foremost of us all. Again I congratulate you. 33 ADDRESS BY ROBERT W. de FOREST Fifty years ago The Metropolitan Museum of Art existed only as the vision of a group of public-spirited persons — artists, clergymen, lawyers, men of affairs. It was fitting that a poet, William Cullen Bryant, should have presided at the meeting which first made their vision articulate. This vision, unlike most dreams, had clear definition. It embod- ied a museum to contain objects illustrative of "all the arts, whether industrial, educational, or recreative;" a museum "to encourage and develop the study of the fine arts and the application of arts to man- ufactures and practical life." But however clearly defined, it was then only a vision. Those dreamers had "no building, not even a site; no existing collection as a nucleus; no money." But they were practical men. They were not content merely to dream a beautiful dream. They set out at once to make their dream come true. Today the institution which they founded has a building extending along four blocks on Fifth Avenue; a site on which there is still room for expansion; collections which al- ready rival in extent and surpass in installation those of the great museums of Europe, and money to the amount of more than 1 1 6,000,000. True, the Museum is restricted in the use of most of this money but it is none the less Museum money. The Founders, if they could today see the realization of their vision (I hope they can), would not recognize it. The conception, the purpose of this Museum, its foundation, is theirs — the same now as it was then. The structure which has been built on this foundation has mounted up far beyond the wildest flight of their imaginings. It is even pathetic to recall their early eflForts. Their appeal for support reads — "A subscription of 56250,000 will ensure the complete success of the Museum." The funding of a million of dollars " would 34 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION give an annual income sufficient to provide for proper care of the build- ing and collections and to add to the collections annually." It took a long time to find even that 1250,000. In March, 1871, only 1 1 06,000 had been subscribed. It was not until later that the initial $250,000 had been secured and the subscriptions became binding. |io,ooo was the largest subscription. There were two of $5,000. The rest came in sums of $1,000 and of $500. The Founders began their collections by the purchase of 174 old masters, for $116,180.27. They held their first exhibition two years after organization in a rented dancing school. They then had their first lesson in accepting gifts. "Mr. Rowe presents us," writes Mr. Johnston, "with a colossal dancing girl, by Schwanthaler, the celebrated German sculptor at Munich. It may be very fine but eight feet of dance is a trial to the feelings. Hereafter we must curb the exuberance of donors, except in the article of money, of which latter they may give as much as they please." That was forty-eight years ago. Today we have a different kind of exhibition. As we look through these spacious galleries filled with priceless objects of art, most of them in perpetual possession of the Museum, others lent to it to celebrate this occasion, we may well put to ourselves the question, how is it that the vision of the Founders has been realized so far beyond their most extravagant expectation? How has all this come to pass? I say come to pass rather than been brought to pass; for to say it has been brought to pass would be to ascribe the result entirely to human direction. But it would never have come to pass unless it had been in large measure brought to pass. I put this question not in a spirit of self-congratulation or self- laudation. The future is before us. It should be a future quite as much beyond our present realization as that realization is beyond the expectation of the Founders. It can be so if we clearly apprehend the causes of our present development and continue to pursue the same policies which have produced it. Nor is this inquiry solely of interest to ourselves. It equally concerns the rapidly increasing fellowship of art museums in America so many of which have honored us today by the presence of their presidents and directors. I will try to enumerate some of the chief causes to which I attribute our present position. First, I name the breadth of our foundation. This we owe not only to our first President, John Taylor Johnston, but to those who 35 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART were associated with him at the outset, such as George F. Comfortj William T, Blodgett, Russell Sturgis, Jr., George P. Putnam, and William C. Prime. It would have been quite in the spirit of the time when our Museum was organized to have fashioned it after most European museums and made it simply a collection of paintings and sculpture. But the purpose of our institution was far broader. It was to represent not only the fine arts but all the arts — "not paint- ing and statuary alone, but multiplied art such as prints, and bronzes, and industrial and decorative art of all kinds," and the application of all arts "to manufactures and practical life." It was not confined to ancient art. Modern art was equally within its scope. It was not merely intended to show beautiful objects — to be "recreative." It was to show them for a practical purpose — to be "educational." We are carrying out this fundamental purpose of the Founders by representing all the arts in our collections and giving to each propor- tionate representation. This has been possible only during the last fifteen years, since our resources have been increased. It is illustrated by the creation of our different departments and the assembling of our staff. It is further illustrated by the allocation of our purchase funds to different departments. We have now, besides the Depart- ment of Paintings, which has existed almost from the start, the follow- ing departments, which are named in the order of their establishment: Classical Art, Egyptian Art, Decorative Arts, Arms and Armor, Far Eastern Art, Prints. The youngest of these departments, now only three years old, has already attained full growth, as is illustrated by its present exhibition. Secondly, our Museum was popular in its origin. It was the project of no single man. A large group of men of different and vari- ous callings took part in defining its purposes and laying its founda- tions. It was not to be a Corcoran Gallery or a Field Museum. Not that I would belittle the public spirit of a Corcoran or a Field, but the form in which their public spirit found expression brought with it some limitations. Because popular in its origin it has been popular in the support which it has received from a generous and public-spirited public. This is both cause and effect. Except for such support in the past many of its activities could not have been undertaken or developed. Except for such support it would have no purchase funds with which systematically to increase its collections and make them useful to the 36 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION public. Except for such support to supplement the decreasing city appropriation for maintenance it could not sustain itself and throw its collections open so freely to the public. That it has such support is due to the fact that like the profitable servant in the New Testament parable, it has not kept its talent in a napkin, and like that profitable servant has had more talents given to it. It is gratifying to us to realize that our public support comes not only from the citizens of our own city but from others. It is right that this should be so if thereby we do not diminish the resources of art museums in other American cities. For we are serving not only the City of New York, but all parts of the country. We are not merely a New York museum, we are in title as well as in fact a metro- politan museum. The largest gift the Museum ever received was from a citizen of New Jersey, Jacob S. Rogers. True, the two next largest came from our own city. But of the two next in order, and each amounting to more than $1,000,000, one came from Owego, New York, and the other from Zanesville, Ohio. Among the causes which have contributed to the Museum's present development I should not omit the personality of its Founders and their successors or of its staff. Here also cause and effect are intermingled. We could not have secured for the Museum trustees with the qualifications which our Trustees have had without giving them opportunity for effective service. We could not have given them that opportunity without the defined purpose given to us by our Founders and the resources to carry out that purpose given to us by a generous public. Nor could these Trustees carry out that purpose, even with such resources, without an able and efficient staff. The Museum family as now constituted — Director, staff, and Trustees — is and has been for many years a happy family, without any of the jars which frequently invade the family relation, and all the members of that family are working cordially together to make our Museum a faithful servant of the people. Our Museum, besides being popular in its origin and in its support, has been popular and democratic in its organization. From the out- set it sought and had close relation with our city government, and city officers are ex-officio members of its Board of Trustees. It was because of such relation that we have our site and our building. It is because of such relation that we have a city contribution toward our annual cost of maintenance. I know that some of our Trustees 37 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART at times questioned the advisability of this relation. They feared lest it might lead to political interference. I know that our sister- museum in Boston without such a relation has singularly prospered. But during all of these fifty years the fears of timid trustees have proved groundless. And even if this relation may involve some em- barrassment, some loss, the gain, to me, is far greater. By reason of this relation our Museum is essentially a people's museum. It is not a private gallery for the use of our Trustees and members. It is a public gallery for the use of all the people, high and low, and even more for the low than for the high, for the high can find artistic in- spiration in their own homes. The low can find it only here. The great crowds from east side, west side, and every side — men, women, and children — which throng our galleries every Saturday and Sunday, which stand in silent rapture when music combines with its sister arts to voice a harmony more perfect than music can produce alone, feel and have a right to feel that it is their museum and can add the joy of possession to their other delights. Do not understand me as advocating complete public control, be it municipal or state, of any American art museum. It is the com- bination of public and private control which we have in the Metro- politan that seems to me so desirable. That is, a board of trustees, elected by the corporation for terms of office sufficiently long to ensure continuous policies, and ex-officio trustees in the persons of particular city officers to hold office for the term of their election by the people. The present lease by the City under which the Museum occupies its buildings, coupled with the presence on our Board of city officers, seems to me to make this partnership, as it may be called, between the City and the Museum quite perfect. Chief, however, among all the causes which have given the Mu- seum, in my opinion, its present position, is what I may call, for lack of a better term, the active part it is taking in community life. In a sense it is its direct contribution to education. In another sense it is its direct contribution to recreation. It is evidenced on the edu- cational side by our close relation to the teachers and children of our schools, public and private, by our Museum instructors who give ex- pert guidance, by the hospitality of our class rooms, by our many lecture courses for artisans as well as art students, by the labeling of our collections, by their illustration with photographs and plans, and by our catalogues and handbooks. It is evidenced on the side 38 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION of recreation by our story-telling hours for children and by our free concerts. Americanism is a popular term just now, though of somewhat undefined application, but what can make more for Americanism in its true sense, and for what is more than Americanism, for good citizen- ship and neigh borliness, than our free concerts, the latest of which was attended by more than 10,000 people, and than the crowds of children who come to our Museum every Sunday afternoon to listen to the story telling and who frequently fill our lecture hall twice over? Such activities demonstrate to the people of our city that our Museum is a real, living, human organism, with heart as well as mind; that it is ready not only to open its doors to invited guests, but go out "into the by-ways and hedges" and to bid all to come in and that all who do come in will be equally welcomed. For there are no privi- leged classes in our Museum unless it be the children, and they are not a class. We are not content simply to show dead things, however beautiful they are and however much inspiration may come from their dead beauty. We seek to make everything in our Museum alive and to enter as a living force into all the interests of our com- munity. This is our contribution toward making art free for de- mocracy. In such policies we enter a field quite unknown to the European art museums. Our policy exemplifies what may be called the Amer- ican museum idea, which is practised by many of our fellow American museums. And what should be the policies of the Museum in the future, so that our successors, when they come fifty years hence to celebrate its hundredth anniversary, may do so with the same satisfaction with which we celebrate its fiftieth? Strict adherence, in my judgment, to the policies of the past, with possibly some difference of emphasis and an open-minded readiness to meet the changes of public senti- ment in the future just as the Trustees of the past generation met the changing sentiment of later times. For instance, Sunday opening of the Museum would have shocked the Founders and seemed to most of them sinful. Some of them, could they have foreseen it, would have refused to take any part in the enterprise. But many of these same Founders joined with Trustees of a newer generation in forming the majority which in 1891 decreed Sunday opening. Our Museum should continue its original policy of recognizing 29 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART all the arts and giving no undue preponderance to any. It should be educational quite as much as recreative and recreative quite as much as educational. I look to greater emphasis being laid on modern art. The art of past centuries which has stood the test of time and created standards to which we must ever look for guidance must always be the fundamental basis of any art museum, but mod- ern art should not be excluded. We are interested quite as much, if not more, in what the art world is doing now as we are in what it has done in the past. Modern art in painting and sculpture is well represented in our Museum. The other forms of modern art are still to be adequately represented. Our Museum has been accused of neglecting our own national American art. There was a time not long since when I think this accusation was justified. It is certainly not justified now. Four of our galleries are now given up entirely to American painting. Fif- teen years ago (1904) we had only 147 American pictures, represent- ing 83 American painters, and 48 pieces of American sculpture, repre- senting 26 American sculptors. Today we have 503 paintings, rep- resenting 214 American painters, and 186 pieces of sculpture, repre- senting 91 American sculptors. We have in these later years ac- quired a very complete collection of American decorative art, original rooms and their furnishings, but we have so far been able to exhibit only a small part of these collections and even that part inadequately. I confidently look forward to greater emphasis being placed on Amer- ican art and it would not be at all surprising if our next develop- ment in the line of departmental organization would be a Department of American Decorative Art. Our Museum has recently experimented in the line of what may be called museum extension. We have many paintings, gladly wel- comed in the earlier years, which can no longer find place on our walls. We have many other objects of art of which the same is true. Except for lack of space we would gladly exhibit much of this museum material. With present limitations of space we cannot. Instead of leaving it in our storerooms we have set it to work outside. We have a loan exhibit of pictures now circulating in the branch public libraries. We have another in the Bronx. We have several exhibits touring the country under the management of the American Federa- tion of Arts. A Metropolitan Museum collection of pictures which the Founders would have eagerly welcomed for their first exhibition 40 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION is now on the road and has this winter visited eight cities as follows: Youngstown, Ohio; Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia; Fort Worth and Galveston, Texas; Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and Lima, Ohio. We are lending textiles and other exhibits to the City high schools. This is museum extension. We have definitely adopted this policy. It should be as useful as university extension. There is no limit to the degree to which it can be carried out except that of resources. And what is our forecast of the future.^ How will it be with the Museum fifty years hence? Our ship has been well designed and well built. It lingered, to be sure, at the launching, but in the retrospect the voyage so far has been exceedingly prosperous. There have been storms, but it has outridden them. There have been reefs, but it has avoided them. In later years it has sailed on with the favoring winds and favoring tides of country-wide growth and prosperity. The ship, as it sails along, will be no less staunch. The crew will be no less able and faithful. But winds and tides we cannot control. Looking ahead, I see but one storm signal. Can and will our city continue to perform its part of our partnership relation? Our new south wing, begun by the City six years ago, has never been com- pleted. Work on it has been at a standstill since 1917. There is no city appropriation to continue it. Ten years ago (1909) the City contributed 68 per cent, of our cost of maintenance. Five years ago (1914) this was 43 per cent. Last year (1919) it was only 28 per cent. Meanwhile the cost of our service to the public has been constantly increasing. Last year our administrative expenses were $617,214.05, to which the City contributed $175,00x3. After using for these expenses all our income applicable to administration and supplementing it by all the income which we could lawfully divert from other purposes to that of administration, there remained a defi- cit of $45,503.47. This year, I am glad to say, the city contribu- tion has been increased to $300,000. But there will still be a deficit. Our future development, the extent of our future service to the people of New York, depends upon the degree to which the City will provide buildings and contribute toward the cost of operation. In Europe Government supplies to art museums not only all the buildings, but all the cost of operation and almost all the purchase funds. In New York Government is now supplying less than half the cost of operation and none of the purchase funds. 41 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART We have invited our fellow art museums to join with us in this celebration, not so much with the thought of receiving their congratu- lations as of giving them ours. True, it is our fiftieth birthday. But it is fifty years of progress in the growth of art museums in America that we really celebrate today. For the art museum impulse was national in extent and has gathered momentum as the years have passed by. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1870 and is practically of our own age. The Chicago Art Institute dates from 1 879 and is only a few years younger. The St. Louis Museum was organized in the same year as Chicago. The Pennsylvania Museum preceded it in 1876. Cincinnati and Brooklyn date from the 8o's, Pittsburgh and Worcester from the 90's, Toledo, Indianapolis, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Cleveland from the present century. I am not nam- ing all the art museums in the country. They number, according to my latest statistics (of ten years ago), 92, not counting the museum in- cluded in Mr. Rea's catalogue of American museums whose art collec- tion is described as "one case of chinaware." Many are parts of other institutions — universities, schools, and libraries, like the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard and the Art School of Yale. But I have named the principal ones which are independent in organization, public in character, educational in purpose, aggressive in policy, and which like ours are not content to be mere depositories of objects of art but aspire to be community art centers. It is a large and increasing family. Every year will, I trust, add to its number. Some of its members have grown, in proportion to the population of the cities in which they are located, even faster than we have. Some of them have pursued an open-door, community policy even further than we have. We are glad to profit by their experience. We are glad to share with them ours. They give inspiration to us. We hope to give some inspiration to them. We have no feeling of jealousy toward them or rivalry with them, for our American public art museums form one sympathetic family, every member of which rejoices in the success and prosperity of the others. To all we give a hearty birthday greeting. 42 ADDRESS BY ELIHU ROOT It has seemed fitting to the Trustees of the Museum that upon this celebration of the close of the first half-century of the Museum's existence, the names of the Founders and the Benefactors during that critical period should be inscribed in permanent form and in conspicu- ous place amid the works that have lived after them. On the 23rd of November, 1869, there was a meeting of a little group of men in the hall of the Union League Club in this city for the purpose of considering a proposal to establish a museum of art in the City of New York. They appointed committees. They agreed upon a constitution. They applied to the Legislature and received a char- ter granted in April, 1870— fifty years ago last month. The condi- tions under which they met and acted it is very difficult for us to realize now. It is difficult even for those of us who can remember them. We were just approaching the close of that dreadful period of taste which extended from the presidency of Jackson to the presi- dency of Grant — that dreadful period which found its consummate flower among the French in the meretricious adornment of the Second Empire, and which has associated the idea of goodness with the idea of ugliness in the term "Victorian Period." The newly awakening desire of the American people for art was finding expression in sawed- scroll-work and basswood-towers. The women of America, with all the innate and natural taste of womanhood, were pressing autumn leaves and doing crude worsted work as an expression of art. The reign of Mullet was just before us — the reign of that incredible architecture which has given to us the New York Post Office, and in Washington the State, War, and Navy Building with its job-lot of granite columns opposite the beautiful relic of colonial days in the White House. Long rows of brownstone, high-stooped houses ex- pressed the idea of New Yorkers in regard to living. In the homes of the American people who had about them all the beauties of nature 43 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Prang chromos expressed their ideas of art. More than twenty years were yet to come before that wonderful white city on the shore of Lake Michigan was to strike the imagination of the American people with a new idea that the beautiful was better than the sqixalid. The giving habit had not been cultivated — hardly created in New York. Fortunes were small. There were many faint hearts in the group that gathered in the Union League Club. There was so little art for the public that it was not understood, and there was so little public for art that it was hardly manifest. There were no consid- erable museums. There were some praiseworthy private attempts on a small scale, but not here. There were no sources from which to draw. Our conception of art was of something far away in the old world. The men who gathered in that meeting and resolved to estab- lish an art museum, played the role of Columbus. And what they did compared with what we are doing has the same relation that the courage and faith of Columbus bore to the ordinary matter-of-course voyage of the master of an ocean steamer on the Atlantic today. But the development of this free, intelligent, individually inde- pendent people had been passing through the stage I have attempted to describe, and had come to the beginning of a new era, and like the faint breath of the breeze before the dawn something touched the spirit of the men who gathered at the call of enthusiasts to con- sider the project of establishing a museum in New York. It was felt not here alone, but in Boston and faintly stirring in favored places throughout the land. The men who gathered included artists and authors and lawyers and clergymen and men of affairs. There were Hunt, Ward, Johnson, Kensett, and Olmsted, whose art is living now. There were Bryant and Curtis. There were Bellows and Thompson, Choate and Barlow. And there were John Taylor Johnston and Dix, Aspinwall, Blodgett, Putnam, and Marquand, and other names of the great business men of New York, to whom at that time, as a youth, I looked up as to the gods upon Olympus. They belonged to that great class of nation builders — men whose strength of char- acter and ability and power, through the process of natural selection, made them the leaders in the march of the American people toward the amazing development of our country in the last half-century. And like all men of distinguished success in business as well as in literature and in art, they had the quality of imagination. Inspired by the artists and authors who joined with them, they overbore the doubting 44 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION and vacillating — the men of little faith — and determined to accom- plish the apparently almost hopeless task. There was one man whose inspiration was the most valuable of all, and whose name should not be omitted here — George F. Comfort of Princeton University, who was not only an enthusiast in art, but a reformer with the instincts of reform, with the enthusiasm of propaganda, and devoted to sharing his love of art and his joy in it among all the people of this country. His knowledge and direction and inspiration played a great part in making the effort a success. Under that kind of influence, and with that character, the men who undertook to begin the establishment of the Museum, formed a sound conception of what it was they were undertaking. They knew that their task was something more than the establishment of a de- pository for works of art. They understood that the cultivation of taste is one of the mightiest agencies in the eternal conflict, the strug- gle for happiness against the discontent and the tedium of life. They knew that when for rich and poor alike food and drink and clothing and shelter have been supplied, there still comes the question of happiness. They knew that then Satan enters into the empty cham- bers of the soul that has no spiritual interest in life. They knew what we see today, that the great problem for the laboring people of America, with their higher wages and their shorter hours, is what to do with their higher wages and their leisure hours. They knew that no wealth and no material things can fill the void in human nature. And with that deep knowledge they proceeded with a breadth of view worthy of all honor. They determined to establish an institution which should be not to gratify curiosity, but to educate taste, which should be not for amusement but an essential means of high culti- vation. And they declared that they were determined to establish an institution which should gather for the education of all the people the human documents of art in all its phases and in all its possibilities — painting and sculpture, the graphic arts, handiwork, textiles and metals, music, the arts of East and West, of the present and the past — all were to be made to contribute toward the cultivation of that taste which makes for human happiness. And the institution which they founded upon that broad basis has stood the test of common judgment. It has been accepted as not a foible of the rich, but a benefit for the whole community. It has justified and brought about the support of government in the City and State, and it has com- 45 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION mended itself to a long line of spiritual successors of the men who founded it — of successors inspired by the same high purpose, capable of the same faith, and instinct with the same spirit of service. John Taylor Johnston, Founder and Benefactor; William T. Blodgett, who without authority made the purchase of 174 paintings in Europe and borrowed the money to pay for them, so that the Museum had to go on; Marquand and Rhinelander and that greatest of art collectors, Pierpont Morgan, and many others whose names you will presently see graven in marble, have carried on the purpose, have kept the faith, and have brought fruition to the hopes of the little group of men who founded the institution fifty years ago in the Union League Club. It is impossible for me here, upon this occasion which permits but brief remarks, to do justice to the devotion and lofty spirit and enthu- siasm of such men as Mr. Johnston and Mr. Marquand and Mr. Rhinelander and Mr. Morgan and Mr. de Forest. The nobility of the work has found in them fitting association, and I doubt not that they have received in full measure from that work a reward for the noble service they have rendered. It is especially grateful to me, and I know it must be to all of you, that while the first name on the list of the Founders and the first name on the list of the Benefactors is that great citizen of New York, John Taylor Johnston, the last names on the list of Benefactors are his daughter, Emily Johnston de Forest, and his son-in-law, Robert de Forest. In the character of the found- ers, in the universal public approval of their work, in the knowledge that they have swung open the doors of vision to the school and the factory, the children and the teachers, the artisans, the laborers, the millions who are wearied by the dull and squalid sights of a great city, in the succession of noble men who have kept alive the work they be- gan, we find an augury inevitable for the future of the institution. The spirit of great and noble citizenship lives still in America. The instinct of service, the habit of benevolence, the urge of patriotism, the love of beauty, the devotion to humanity live still in America. And so long as our free republic retains its freedom this institution and all the ranks of other institutions which have come along in the same cause and are inspired by the same spirit will live and increase and be a blessing to mankind. The tablet of the Founders. The tablet of the Benefactors. Surely of no man could it more appropriately be said than of these, the trite old Latin saying, "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice." 46 A BRIEF REVIEW OF FIFTY YEARS' DEVELOPMENT 1866 Suggestion of John Jay in Paris that 'it was time for the Amer- ican people to lay the foundation of a National Institution and Gallery of Art and that the American gentlemen then in Europe were the men to inaugurate the plan.' 1869 Memorial from American citizens in Paris to Union League Club urging establishment of permanent gallery of art in New York referred to Art Committee in February, Report of Committee adopted October 14 and public meeting planned. Meeting held in Theatre of Union League Club, November 23 and Pro- visional Committee of Fifty appointed. 1870 Officers, Trustees, and Executive Committee elected, Janu- ary 31. First President, John Taylor Johnston. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, incorporated by the State of New York, April 13, "for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a museum and library of art, of encouraging and developing the study of the fine arts, and the application of arts to manufacture and practical life, of advancing the knowledge of kindred subjects, and to that end, of furnishing popular instruction and recreation." Permanent Constitution adopted at first annual meeting. May 24. Resolution adopted to raise ^250,000 by public subscription to establish Museum. First gift, Roman sarcophagus from Tarsus, from Abdo Debbas. 1 87 1 First purchase through William T. Blodgett and John Taylor Johnston, 174 paintings of various schools. Only |io6,ooo reported to be subscribed out of the total of ^250,000 desired, March 3. 47 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Act authorizing erection and maintenance "upon that portion of Central Park formerly known as Manhattan Square, or any other park, square or place" of a suitable building for the Museum. First annual report issued. Sums pledged, with amounts subscribed, exceeded required ^250,000, May 3. First temporary quarters leased, Dodworth Building, 681 Fifth Avenue, annual rental |9,ooo. 1872 First exhibition, consisting of the Museum's collection of paintings and other objects of art lent for the occasion, opened February 20. "We have now something to point to as the Museum, some- thing tangible and something good." John Taylor Johnston. Students given copyists' privilege. First lectures given: Hiram Hitchcock on General di Cesnola's discoveries in Cyprus, Russell Sturgis, Jr., on Ceramic Art. Permanent location of museum building, Seventy-ninth Street to Eighty-fourth Street, Central Park, ratified by Trustees on the site designated for such a purpose on plan of Central Park, in Report of Park Commissioners, 1869. 1873 Second temporary quarters leased, the Douglas Mansion, 128 West Fourteenth Street, annual rental, $8,000. Cesnola Collection of Cypriote antiquities exhibited. Original fund of $250,000 raised by subscription exhausted. Act enabling Park Department to apply annually to mainte- nance of Museum a sum not exceeding $15,000. Admission fee charged, except on Monday. First catalogue of a loan exhibition of paintings. 1874 Cesnola collection of Cypriote antiquities bought. First Secretary, William J. Hoppin, elected. 1875 Free days, Monday and Thursday, established. (Average attendance 577.) First guide to collections issued. Privileges to students granted. 1876 Annual membership class formed. 600 enrolled. Centennial loan exhibition, in cooperation with National Acad- emy of Design. 48 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 1877 Second Secretary, General L. P. di Cesnola, elected. 1878 Act enabling City to appropriate $30,000 for moving collections and fitting up building in Central Park. Relations between City and Museum established by lease. 1879 Last reception in Douglas Mansion. First Director, General L. P. di Cesnola, elected. Removal to Central Park. 1880 First Museum Building in Park opened, Calvert Vaux and J. W. Mould, Architects. Industrial Art School established through gift of Gideon F. T. Reed. Library organized. $500 appropriated. 1881 First bequest, Stephen Whitney Phoenix collection of objects of art. 1883 First bequest of money, about $100,000, Levi Hale Willard, for purchase of architectural casts. 1884 Loan exhibition, paintings by George Frederick Watts. 1886 Department of Paintings organized- Department of Sculpture organized. William H. Vanderbilt bequest, nucleus of General Endowment Fund. First purchase of Egyptian art. 1887 Catharine Lorillard Wolfe bequest, modern paintings and fund for maintenance. 1888 First addition to building (Addition B), Theodore Weston, Architect. Henry G. Marquand gives paintings by Old Masters. 1889 Mrs. John Crosby Brown gives collection of musical instru- ments. John Taylor Johnston elected Honorary President. Second President, Henry G. Marquand, elected. Department of Casts created. 1890 John Jacob Astor bequest. 49 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 1 891 Sunday opening inaugurated. Appointment of Special Committee to form collection of casts of sculpture, on initiative of Robert W. de Forest. Over $78,cx)0 obtained. Increased later by George W. Cullum bequest and John Taylor Johnston memorial fund. Edward C. Moore bequest of objects of art. 189a Act authorizing yearly appropriation by City; ^70,000 received. Mrs. Amelia B. Lazarus gives Jacob H. Lazarus Traveling Scholarship. 1893 Mrs. Elizabeth U. Coles bequest, tapestries and other objects of art, and fund. Restaurant opened. 1894 Second addition to building (Addition C), Arthur L. Tucker- man, Architect. 1895 Loan exhibition of early American paintings. 1901 Jacob S. Rogers bequest, for the purchase of objects of art and books, over $5,cxx),ooo. 1902 Third addition to building (Addition D), main Fifth Avenue entrance, Richard Morris Hunt, Architect. George W. Vanderbilt lends collection of paintings. Second President, Henry G. Marquand, died. Third President, Frederick W. Rhinelander, elected. Heber R. Bishop gives collection of jade. 1903 Boscoreale frescoes and Etruscan bronze biga, 6th century B.C., bought. 1904 Death of General L. P. di Cesnola. Third President, Frederick W. Rhinelander, died. Fourth President, J. Pierpont Morgan, elected. Third Secretary, Robert W. de Forest, elected. 1905 Second Director, Sir C. Purdon Clarke, elected. Edward Robinson elected Assistant Director. Membership classes, Sustaining and Fellowship, established. ■ 50 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Departments re-organized, Department of Classical Antiquities organized. Educational work organized; cooperation with Public Schools initiated. Publication of Bulletin begun. 1906 Accessions Room opened. Photograph Department established. Information Desk established. Department of Egyptian Art organized. Egyptian Expedition for excavation organized. George A. Hearn gives English and American paintings and fund for purchase of paintings by living American artists. 1907 Department of Decorative Arts organized. Class Room opened. Lantern slide lending collection begun. Fourth addition to building (Addition E), McKim, Mead & White, Architects. 1908 First Museum Instructor appointed. Frederick C. Hewitt bequest, over ^1,500,000, 1909 Loan exhibition, Hudson-Fulton celebration. First Study Room, of Textiles, opened. 1 9 10 Fifth addition to building (Addition F), Wing of Decorative Arts, McKim, Mead & White, Architects. J. Pierpont Morgan gives part and lends part of Hoentschel Collection. Mrs. Russell Sage gives Bolles Collection of American furni- ture. Sixth addition to building (Addition G), The Library, McKim, Mead & White, Architects. Sir C. Purdon Clarke, Director, resigns. Third Director, Edward Robinson, elected. George A. Hearn gives another collection of English and Amer- ican paintings. John Stewart Kennedy bequest, over ^2,600,000. 1 9 1 1 Lecture Hall opened. 51 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 191 2 Francis L. Leland gift, over $1,000,000. Seventh addition to the building (Addition H), McKim, Mead & White, Architects. Joseph Pulitzer bequest, over $900,000. Department of Arms and Armor organized. 1913 Death of J. Pierpont Morgan. Fifth President, Robert W. de Forest, elected. Fourth Secretary, Henry W. Kent, elected. Benjamin Altman bequest, paintings, sculpture, Chinese porce- lains, etc., and fund. William Henry Riggs gives collection of arms and armor. History of the Museum published. 1914 Loan exhibition, the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection. Mrs. Edward J. Tytus gives fund for publication of Museum Egyptian Expedition work. John L. Cadwalader bequest, English furniture, porcelains, and fund. 1915 Department of Far Eastern Art organized. Mrs. Morris K. Jesup bequest, paintings and funds. Mrs. Robert W. Gillespie bequest of tapestries. 1916 Edward S. Harkness gives Tomb of Perneb. J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr., gives Colonna Raphael and sculpture • from the Chateau de Biron. 1917 Department of Prints organized. Harris B. Dick bequest, collections and fund, over $1,000,000. First manufacturers' exhibition. Isaac D. Fletcher bequest, collection of paintings and objects of art, and fund, over $3,400,000. Eighth addition to building (Addition J occupied. Addition K not yet completed), McKim, Mead & White, Architects. J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr., gives collection of objects of art. 191 8 J. Pierpont Morgan Collection of objects of art installed in Wing of Decorative Arts, hereafter to be called the Pierpont Morgan Wing. John Hoge bequest, over $1,000,000. Loan exhibition, contemporary American sculpture. 5^ THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Free concerts inaugurated. i Associate in Industrial Arts appointed. 1919 Cooperative Exhibition of Plant Forms in Ornament by Mu- ^ seum and New York Botanical Garden. Tablet commemorative of men who served in the war unveiled. 53 OF THIS BOOK FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE COPIES HAVE BEEN PRINTED ON MACHINE-MADE PAPER AND THIRTY-FIVE ON HAND-MADE PAPER MARCH 1 92 1 i T/^