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HUI.I.BTIN No. One.— OFFICES OF THE PROPAGANDA FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY,
Glovkr Building, 1419 F Street, Washington, D. C, anu the Pompeia, Saratoga Springs, N. Y,
PRICE, FIFTY CENTS.
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Franklin W. Smith, of Boston,
with Rknwick, Aspinwall & Russell, Aicliitects,
New York iSyo.
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Copyriglit of Title and ProspectLis by
Fkanki.in W. Smith,
Gibson Bros.,
printers and bookbinders,
washington, d. c.
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Note. — This publication is in advocacy of a National Educational Institution,
in which Art shall attract by beauty and illumination, thus stimulating inquiry ;
and AcTUAi.rrv of the environment of historical incidents in their order, impress
and intensify memory.
Its aim is for an intellectual incitant of the people, initiative of study to the
unlearned, and contributing to scholarship a vast and systematic treasure-house of
material.
Its plan is prospective of continuous growth from its popular benefits.
The expedients suggested invite discussion for their improvement.
1^" /;/ behalf, therefore, of the public welfare, the reader is solicited to aid
in "The Propaganda" hereinafter devised. (See page los).
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IT INDICATES THE UTMOST ADAPTATION TO THE USE OF CONCRETE, AS A MATERIAL. THE
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Park areas adjacent to
American Galleries assign-
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of the American Conti-
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Azttc Temples, Dwellings,
&c., &c., &c.
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A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND Aftf.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Pages.
No. 1.
No. 2.
No. 3.
No. 4.
,No. 5.
No. 6.
No. 7.
No. 8.
No. 9.
No. 10.
No. 1 1.
No. 12.
Nos. 14,
No. 13.
No. 19.
'Cover — Elevation of Parthenonic Temples upon Ob-
servatory Site, from Pennsylvania Avenue.
Elevation of Columbian Temple and American
Galleries, from entrance to the Forum.
Frontispiece — The Parthenon,
Title page — Ornament from a Spanish Gateway,
General view of Galleries,
Ground Plan of Historical Temples and Galleries,
Plan of Washington, in perspective, ....
Plan of Washington,
Restoration of Roman Forum,
Model of the Porta Maggiore, Rome,
Model of Mickelgate Bar, York, England, .
Models of Chinese Pagoda and Giotto's Campanile,
The " Pompeia," Saratoga Springs, reproduction,
15, 16, 17, 18 — Interiors of the " Pompeia,"
Ground Plan of the Pompeia,
Restoration of the Temple of Jupiter, Pompeii, .
2
3
4
6
7
10
12
12
12
'3
14-16
'7
20
Illustrations of Foreign Museums.
Nos. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, ^o, . . . 21-28
Drawings by Messrs. Renwick, y4spinwall & Russell, Archts.
Nos. 31-42, inclusive, 29-;7
Illustrations of Modern Constructions in Concrete.
Nos. 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, S2, .... 18-47
No. 53. Part of Roman Forum restored — Canina, ... 48
Architectural Illustrations of Temples, Monuments, Dwell-
ings, etc. — Ancient and Medievval — such as should be
reproduced in the Courts or Galleries, upon the full or
a reduced scale.
Nos. 54, 55, 56, 63-74, 86-ios, ...'... 49-75
Nos. 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 80-84
Illustrations for Historical Paintings, from Pinelli's Istoria
Roniana.
Nos. 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, Si-53
Subjects for illustration of Interior Architecture, and Civil
and Domestic Life and Manners — Renaissance.
Nos. 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, III, 76-79
Pages.
Example for Panoramic Painting of the Architectural Aspect
of Cities in different ages.
No. 85. Paris in the time of Francis First, .... 63
Specimen Chart for Object Illustration.
No. 70. The World's Monuments, from Kensington Museum, . 58
Allegorical Illuslrations of the Ceramic Art of all Nations
(America excepted), Paris Exhibition, i8y8.
Nos. 75 to 84, inclusive. Grafito Tiles, by Solon, ... 62
Illustrations of the Roman and Saracenic Courts, with Re-
productions OF Buildings and Monuments.
Nos. 90-94, 66-68
Illustrations of the Temples and Dwellings of Mankind —
Modern — proposed for gradual reproduction in Ihe Park
ISTORIA, along the Avenue to the Forum, with interior
illustration.*
Nos. 117-123, inclusive,
. 85-89
Nos. 124, 125. Photographs (for this use) near the Naval Ob-
servatory, 00-91
Nos. 126, 127, 128. Decorations of the Baths of Titus, and
Raphael's 1-oggie of the Vatican, 94-96
Nos. 129, 130. Pre-historic remains in Central America, . . 97
Nos. 131, n2. Addenda — Giacommelli's illustrations of Mich-
elet's Bird, 99
No. n5. llUistratlon of details in fine sand concrete, . . 102
No. 134. Reproduction of tracery from the Alhambra; Court of
Villa Zorayda, 104
Nos. 135, 136, 137, 138. Pennsylvania Avenue in May, 1891.
Bulletin No. 2, 106-108
Nos. 139, 140. Paris in 1852 and 1862. Bulletin No. 2, . 109
No. 141. Rossini's restoration of the Villa of Mecenas, . . 110
No. 142. Rossini's restoration of the Temple of Fortune-Pre-
neste, no
No. 143. Canina's restoration of the Circus Maximus, with
added motifs, 1 1 1
No. 144. Suggestion for Colonnades through the Union and
National Avenues, in
No. 145. A Map, Cover
*The reproductions proposed, of course, do not imagine tlie entire and costly interior ornament, mosaics, etc. Building space will
be demanded for the various nation.alities; and materi.ils, for instance, may as well be arranged in the forms of St. Sophia, or San Salute, as in
improvised designs. Of such structures as the Taj, an effective portion or fayade would be given.
|^"The illustrations are marked R, as advised for reproduction on full scale, and M, for models.
For these illustr.ations the anthor is indebted beyond the previous acknowledgment to the Architectural Works of Fergusson, Viollet le
Due, Owen, and Rosengarten; to Turner's History of Art (London); to Amil's Espaiia Historica; Haghe's Sketches in Belgium; Mijller's Age
of Francis First; The London Builder; Pinelli's Istoria Romana; Canina's L'Architetura Romano; Rossini's Antichita dei Contorni di Roma;
Owen's Architecture; The Washington Board of Trade for Plans of Washington, and other various sources as quoted.
The Author Solicits the Reader to Delay Conclusions upon this
PLAN AND PROSPECTUS
Until Investigation of the Following Data and the Requirements Anticipated.
It is believed that these considerations will counteract any impulsive impression of an excessive scale of plan,
and that they will prove —
First: — That while the design is surpassingly grand in architectural effect, and may appear exaggerated
above probable demand, it is in fact only proportionate in area to the capacity of existing institutions.
Second: — That the apparent vastness of the structure is the effect of only one-story galleries (with basements)
upon terraces, giving unequalled grandeur to the mass, and suggesting excessive cost; while, in tact, from its
simplicity of form and internal vacuity, it will not cost the half of corresponding cubical area in other National
constructions, with their usual heights, successive stories, internal divisions, and lavish ornamentation.
Third: — That the galleries as designed are not only the most economical for great accommodation, but are
best adapted to the uses demanded; their arrangement around open courts being essential for the new and
extraordinary facilities proposed for a modern and advanced institution — that should forecast the needs of
100,000,000 population, in oceanic separation from all remains of former civilizations. Three of the most
novel and important of these provisions contemplated are:
A. Galleries for illustrations in chronological order, of the events of historic periods and nationalities, by
paintings in series, and by replica of artistic and archaeological material upon ample scale.
B. Galleries, likewise, of casts and models of all architectural orders and National styles, of statuary, inscrip-
tions, bas-reliefs, etc., more systematic in arrangement and extensive in range than any now in existence.
C. Reproductions in full size, in the courts of the respective galleries of historic nationalities; of their
remaining monuments; and reproductions of temples, dwellings, tombs, etc., typical of their religion, life,
manners, and art.
Fourth : — That this asserted economy in construction will result from the use of the material and methods
advised, viz : of sand-Roman-cement-concrete, moulded in repetition of the simple forms delineated, at much less
cost than of ordinary brickwork: — the advantages of said material and the feasibility of said methods being
illustrated from both ancient and late modern practice. This opinion has also the concurrent judgment of the
eminent architectural firm associated with the author in this publication. The argument for concrete is by no means
based upon its comparative cheapness alone. On the contrary, it is believed to be better in view of all requirements
involved than any stone. An experimental construction is proposed ; then, if marble or stone may be deemed pref-
erable, either should be used, regardless of cost. The United States of America can afford the best facilities the
world offers for such important and enduring interests.
Fifth:— That the aggregation of material proposed to be gradually obtained is inexpensive in comparison
to the cost of original art and antiquarian treasures, while as valuable in practical use. Masterpieces and gems
of art, it may be anticipated, will steadily accrue to National ownership from individual generosity and such
foundations as the Corcoran Gallery and the various Metropolitan museums.
No. 8. RESIOKMION OK THE KOMAN FORUM BY C. R. COCKERELL,
ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
I am indebted to the co-operation and architectural ability of Mr. James Ren-
wick and his partners, Messrs. Renwick, Aspinwall and Russell, New York, for the
superb drawings illustrating my imaginative description of The National Gallery.
Mr. Renwick's national reputation as architect of the Cathedral in New York,
of the Smithsonian Institution and Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, of Vassar
College, etc., etc., dates from his first and monumental work, Grace Church, N. Y.,
1843;
The history of the design is as follows :
In April, 1890, Mr. Renwick, Senior, listened to the substance of this paper in
St. Augustine with a responsive interest that enlisted its repetition to his partners
in New York. The firm then offered to illustrate my conception of the buildings
gratuitously. Hence, the grand drawing, ground plan, details of illustrative build-
ings, etc., which have employed for six months the best talent of their office, at a
cost to them above fifteen hundred dollars, are the results.
With the superb restoration of the Roman Forum, by Cockerell, which I
fortunatelj^ found in London (the grandest that has ever been conceived), was the
architectural reproduction by Canina.
The Temple of Jove, upon the Capitoline Hill, with terraced sub-constructions,
gave me the conception of temples upon a height surmounting ranges of galleries
and porticoes. The restorations of the Villa of Hadrian, by Rossini, and, finally,
the late elaborate reproduction of Rome with a Triumph of Constantine, by Pro-
fessors Buhlman and Wagner, of Munich, aided tlie imposing realization.
We borrow from classic Greece its splendid architecture that it may challenge
all criticism.
Franklin W. Smith.
Villa Zorayj>a,
St. Augustine, April 13, i8gt.
PREFATORY
TO A
PROSPECTUS FOR A NATIONAL GALLERY,
BY
FRANKLIN W. SMITH, of boston.
THE following paper is an imaginative consummation of what modern philosophy would
name a mental evolution. Its substance is by no means an impulsive vision nor the
exaggeration of a dream. Its inception and development have been through a period of forty
years of considerable study, travel, and practical {amateur) experience in architectural design,
modelling, and construction.
In warrant for the prominence now given to it, the appearance of a personalty is unavoidable-
It involves a sketch somewhat autobiographical to show the origin and growth of a conception
which has now taken shape in the magnificent drawing herein reproduced, and the details of an
institution described.
In 185 r the writer made his first tour of European travel after examination of the first World's
Exposition in London. Returning home, impressions of places and objects revived with covetous
yearnings for their more substantial resemblance than the poor pictures of the time. It was before
the application of Daguerre's invention to the modern treasure of photography. This desire was
satisfied in good degree by the pleasure of construction of models, in the intervals of leisure from
mercantile life. For instance : Topographical, of Jerusalem ; of localities in Wittenberg, hallowed
by the history of Luther, Melancthon, and Frederick the Elector ; of feudal architecture, in the
Mickelgate Bar of York ; of classic, in the Porta Maggiore, Rome ; of historical structures :
Queen Mary's Palace of Holyrood ; the Castle of Wartburg (Luther's Patmos) ; Kenilworth
Hall ; the Campanile of Giotto ; a Chinese Pagoda, &c.
Meanwhile, to this date, during sixteen visits, some sufficiently prolonged to admit of a
general conception and comparison of foreign museums and galleries, he has craved for his
12 A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
countrym^ aiKT-'hiMlei^ the transfer to our land of thousands of reproductions that could be
inirnp4ji^|£jy'jc33tn^tarcied at comparative trifling cost if halls were ready to receive them.
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F. W. SMITH MOD. 1851,
No 9. — PHOTOGRAPH OF MODEL OF THK PORTA MAGOIORE, ROME, SHOWING j^^ |y ,
THE AQUEDUCTS OF CLAUDIUS ABOVE THE GATEWAYS WITH
INSCRIPTIONS OF THEIR RESTORATION BY VESPASIAN AND TITUS. R.
F. W. SMrTH, MOO. 1851. .
-PHOTOGRAPH OF MODEL OF MICKELGATE BAR, YORK, ENGLANP. WITH
NO. 0, A CONTRAST OF CLASSIC AND FEUDAL ARCHITECTURE. R.
In the models mentioned he anticipated by a generation,
ihe idea now richly initiated by the Metropolitan Miiseum-
in New York through the beneficence of the Willard be
quest.
But miniature models only stimulated an impatience for
architectural reproduction on a full scale. This was inten-
sified in Spain, within the Alhambra, and subsequently
gratified by the application of some of its forms and traceries
to a Moorish Court in St. Augustine.
The enjoyment to himself and others resulting from this
surrounding, suggested another indulgence, in the reproduc-
tion of a Roman house — the house of Pansa, in Pompeii — at
Saratoga Springs.
In two 3^ears this has been accomplished successfully
upon full scale, about 200 feet by 75 feet — 15,000 square feet ;
much larger and far more completely than the two illustrations
previously attempted at Sydenham and Aschafifenburg ; that
of King Ludwig, of Bavaria, measuring only 7,000 square
feet. The Chateau of Prince Napoleon, in Paris, can only be
called Pompeian for its decorations.
F. W. EMITH, MOD. 1iit.U-1873.
No. II. — PHOTOGRAPHS OF MODELS OF CHINESE
FAOODA ANC THE CAMPANILE OF GIOTTO, FLORENCE. M.
THE POMPEIAN REPRODUCTION AT SARATOGA SPRINGS.
13
The success of this Archaeological Museum is evidence of the educational value of such
reproductions and of their popular interest.
It has demonstrated the feasibility of their creation. It
stimulated courage for this advocacy of their extensive mul-
tiplication under National supervision.
Several illustrations of the interiors and ornamentation
of " The Pompeia " are inserted with the following statements
in support of the above opinions.
During eight months since its completion, without any
previous announcement, and with ignorance on the part of
many of " what is a Pompeian House," it has been visited by
over 24,000 people, whose stay has averaged between two
and three hours. The most intelligent ; classic professors
and other scholars, have made it a daily resort.
Over 700 teachers of the American Institute of Instruc-
tion and the New York State Teachers' Association found
edifying entertainment therein. It was a memorable grati-
fication when the young ladies of Vassar College, with their
zealous Professors, came for a day's study by a special train
of the N. Y. Central Railroad.
The Presbyterian Convention gave an evening to the
Pompeia. Some of its clergy were interested to read a silent
lesson from history, in the replica of the exquisite bronze
tripod found before the Temple of Isis, whereon Greek
ornamentation combined with the Egyptian Sphinx ; show-
ing that pagan faiths were in dissolution and coalescence at the dawn of Christianity, that a cen-
tury previous had been in deadly antagonism.
But these instances are of the scholarly class. The curiosity, if not the comprehension, of
less intelligent observers has been as intently awakened.
A young ladv came with an excursion from a western town in New York State to Saratoga.
She stayed the entire day in the Pompeia, remarking as she left : " If I never come again to
Saratoga I .shall not regret this time, for I can see other large hotels, but not again a Pompeia."
A foreigner, evidentl}- a workman, as he departed, said to the janitor: "I have bought the
book " (Bulwer's Last Days of Pompeii) ; " my boy will read to me the story and then I will
know all about it."
These relations will be kindly accepted for their purpose, as has been said, to demonstrate
the benefits, inestimable and innumerable, to flow forth upon the nation, were a grand S3^stem of
illustration, realistic and beautiful, supplied to the people at the Capital.
FRANKLIN W. 6MITH, ARCHITECr.
No. 12. — FROM THE "POMPEIA," SARATOGA SPRINGS,
U. S. A. ; A REPRODUCTION OF THE HOUSE OF PANSA, AT
POMPEII, BURIED BY VESUVIUS, A. D. 79; AN ANGLE OF
THE SOLARIUM, OR ROOF-GARDEN. R.
There are few more impressive instances of a conscientious and self denying struggle for
knowledge, in preparation for a service of supreme importance to the American people, than the
M
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
economical travel of teachers to Europe. When an excursion party jostles the costumes of the
wealthy in foreign pal-
aces, among them will be
seen the intelligent faces
of earnest women seizing
with all their souls the
memorable but flitting
impressions of the mo-
ment. My sympathies
have been moved as I
have seen the teacher's
glance wrested from the
most thrilling and in-
structive obj ect - lessons
in existence by the sum-
mons of the guide to
" pass on ! " What econ-
omies and computations
secured that brief visit
after years of hope and
FRANKLIN W. SMITH, ARCHT.
No. 14. — INTERIOR OF THE POMPEIA. VIEW FROM THE AlKIUM. K. aUtlClpatlOU !
A sad story is related that two sisters, teachers, some years since, were on a E\iropean round
No. 15. — THE POMPEIA. VIEW OF HORTUS AND SUMMER TRICLINIUM. R.
FRANKLIN W. 6MITH , ARCHT.
THE BENEFITS OF A NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ILLUSTRATION.
»5
when the insolvency of their banker left them strangers, with bnt money enough to take a second-
class passage homeward immediately. From
the anxiety and sorrow, added to xmdue effort
of a delicate constitution, one sister died on the
passage and was buried at sea.
Few communities in the United States,
rejoicing in the mental acquisitions of their
children, realize their indebtedness to those
hardly-earned travels of their teachers. Were
their reflex benefits appreciated, towns would,
by subscription, send teachers, and parishes,
preachers abroad. An inspiration from monu-
ments of past civilizations would henceforth
vivify their conceptions, to be transferred to a
new generation. Yet, returned from the one
grand travel experience of their lives, they thirst
for farther study of such treasures, and deplore
the barrenness of their country of all like ma-
terial.
It is, therefore, from both experience and
No. 16. THE I'OMl'tlA.
No. 17. — TH£ HOMPEIA. VltW OK THE TABLINUM.
F. W. SMITH ARCHT.
F. W. SMITH. ARCHT.
VIEW 01 IIUILIOTHECA, V\ I I H S( RIM.\, E IL. R.
observation at home and
abroad, that I have craved
for my country the im-
mediate inauguration of
a Grand National Insti-
tute of Illustration. It
would be a boon of price-
less satisfaction to the
graduates of colleges and
seminaries ; to yoiiths,
graduates of high
schools, in Boston, Chi-
cago, and San Francisco,
in their aim toward far-
ther learning. The want
is now described by one
who has keenly realized
it, having been taught in
a day when no lessons in
drawing were given in
i6
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
the Boston High School ; when there was no Lawrence Scientific School in Harvard University ;
no Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; no school of Architecture in Columbia College.
It is time that, upon a scale worthy the greatness of our country and the vast aggregate of
its wealth, the pursuit of knowledge and the patronage of art shall be facilitated.
The new fleet of our Nav}' could be loaded rapidly and cheaply with simulations of
archeological and architectural treasures, such as are listed in the following pages. Reproduc-
tions and models, topographical, antiquarian, and architectural, can be made on the spot.
Buildings, counterparts of ancient and modern national styles, are readily constructed. They
have been repeatedly built and destroyed in successive International Expositions.
No. l8. — THK POMPEIA. VIEW OF PINACOTHECA AND PERISTYLIUM.
FRANKLIN W. SWITHf ARCHT.
The prediction is here confidently recorded, that if Government shall begin such construc-
tions and acquisitions, not a decade will pass before buildings as extensive as those depicted,
will overflow with their treasures, and the institution will be the object of national pride and
support.
Finally, not in apology, but in satisfaction, a farther reason is given for this agitation of a
new and important sphere of governmental responsibility and beneficence.
The first exhibition of the grand drawing was to a gentleman in New York eminent in the
promotion of art by personal labor and liberality. At the first glance he said, " You are a
hundred years before your time! " The reply was, " Wait for a conference and you will alter
your judgment." After explanation of the scheme, he was asked: "If the Roman Court, as
represented in the drawing, could be supplied and filled as proposed, do you not believe that
all the others would follow ? " He replied, "Yes, I believe they would — quite rapidly." He
THE POMPEIA: A REPRODUCTION OF THE HOUSE OF PANSA.
No. 13.— GROUND PLAN OF R. added
17
THE POMPEIA.
SARATOGA SPRINGS.
N.Y. D.Sj\.
J
GALLEBT
illustrations' or history, art.
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BALNCIUM.
CUBICt'LOM
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PERISTYUDM.
TABLINUM.
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J„„^,y:i,r,.-.-. mr '
, " But this enterprise hangs
upon your life." This remark has
impressively followed the writer. In
the possibility that his suggestions may
be somewhat in advance of old insti-
tutions, and in consciousness that they
may die at any time with their pos-
sessor, he resolved upon this published
record.
While it invites discussion of the
practical expedients, it pretends to no
precise knowledge of the technique in
art.
In a rapid survey of the course of
human intellect through the ages, it
can give but a glance at some of its
relics left upon the highways. A bal-
loonist, in his flight over Washington,
could not accurately measure the dis-
tance of its Monument from the Cap-
itol, nor could the artist, from free-hand
sketches along the Atlantic coast, sup-
ply precise charts of its shores.
FRANKUN W SMITH AflCHT.
A National Gallery a National Necessity.
Promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general difliision of knowledge. In proportion
as the structure of a Government gives force to public opinion, it should be enlightened. — Washington.
Knowledge is the only fountain, both of the love and the principles of human liberty. — VViiissiKu.
A RECENT Britisn Tory critic of "The Great Republic," sums up the "America of
to-day " as " the apotheosis of Philistinism ; where the people are drunk with
materialism, and wealth is a curse instead of a blessing."
The malevolence of such an utterance is apparent and destroys its force. Yet it will be
admitted that the genius and energy of our people should be diverted somewhat from financial
to mental acquisition.
Hitherto the brain power and industry of Americans have been zealously devoted to the
gain of material riches, in which they have surpassed their progenitors and contemporaries ;
but although at an average of greater general intelligence than foreign nationalities, yet in the
finer and artistic intuitions we are not their equals. This disparity has been inevitable in the
lack of environment to stimulate a more refined cultivation. Americans have subdued a
wilderness from its wilds, while Europeans have dwelt among the monuments and treasures
of former civilizations.
It is rightfully argued that the present rapid accumulation of wealth is ominous of the
luxurious. dissipation that sapped the life of former empires. The fierce pursuit of mercenary
gain undermines integrity and debases the moral standard.
Americans, as " heirs of all the ages," should vindicate the responsibility of their
inheritance.
What constitutes a State.?
Not high-raised battlement or labour'd mound,
Thick wall or moated Gate ;
Not cities proud with spires and turrets crown'd ;
Not bays and broad-arm'd ports,
Where laughing at the storm, rich Navies ride;
Not starred and spangled courts.
Where low-brow'd baseness wafts perfume to pride.
No: — Men, high-minded MEN,
With powers as far above dull brutes endued,
In forest, brake or den,
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude.
— Sir W. Jones.
The present aggregate of our National wealth is admitted by statisticians* to be the
• See Addenda 1,
A NATIONAL GALLERY A NATIONAL NfiCESSlTY.
19
greatest in the world. It will prove to have been an unhealthful growth without equal mental
and moral elevation ; a disastrous prosperity, if " while wealth accumulates, men decay."
To counteract such tendencies, there must be enterprising, wise and grand instrumen-
talities.
To the measureless storage capacity for merchandise through the land, there is needed one
extensive addition at the Capital for the world's educational objects. Hitherto we have had
only reports of their silent lessons to travellers, instead of the fulness of their inspiration and
revelation in actual presence.
An institution to cover this deficit is the only one of like corresponding importance that
has not been initiated by our Government. It is an impressive fact, in proof of its necessity,
that we are the only power, great or minor, like even Sweden and Denmark, that has not long
since created its National Gallery, and supported it by liberal expenditure.
The indifference and inaction of the people of the United States in this matter, in contrast
with the zeal of other nations, are powerfully set forth in the report of Mr. W. W. Story (the
American-sculptor-artist-author, at Rome), as U. S. Commissioner to the Paris Exposition of
1878. Extracts therefrom are annexed, as a fitting prelude upon the importance of the matter
herein discussed.
A National Gallery a National Necessity.
Extracts from the Report of the U. S. Commissioner W. W, Story, Resident at Rome, on the
French Exposition of 1878.
* * * America is the only nation which, as a na-
tion, has done nothing to acknowledge the claims of art.
Earnest efforts have been made in some of the principal
cities of the United States, and Museums have been
founded by private munificer.ee, wliich, as far as their
funds will allow, are endeavoring to supply the .nbsence
of all action by the nation. But these are all local in
their character. They are not national institutions. No
great national academy or museum of art exists to con-
fer honors and rewards, to educate students, or to im-
prove the public tastes. The American artist therefore
is forced to expatriate himself for study. * * * .
* * * If we are a great country, as justly we claim
to be, let us behave like a great country. Is it creditable
for us, with all our wealth and prosperity, to be without
a great national museum and academy of art, such as is
to be found in every great capital in Europe.' How can
we expect to take rank with the great nations of Europe
when neither our nation itself nor any State or city in the
Union possesses a gallery of art of which any second-rate
government in Europe would not be ashamed.' While we
have nothing, can we without mortification look at the
magnificent collections abroad and consider the munificent
manner in which they are supported and constantly en-
riched by public grants.' In England, besides the treas-
ures of private collections, there is the National Gallery,
rich in the most splendid works of the greatest painters ;
the British Museum, adorned with the noblest relics of
antique sculpture, vases, gems, terra-cotta ornaments,
bronzes ; the Kensington Museum, a storehouse of treas-
ures of the media3val world and of the Renaissance.
Costly as these collections are, they are constantly en-
larged by munificent grants from Parliament. Not a
year passes that conspicuous sums are not paid to secure
still additional treasures. It suffices that England knows
that anything of real value and excellence is to be pro-
cured, and her purse-strings are liberally opened to ob-
tain it. Not only this, large sums of money are con-
stantly granted to explore the soil of ancient Greece antl
to unearth the masterpieces of antique sculpture and
architecture. There is no corner of the world where
she is not prying, regardless of cost, to discover valua-
ble relics of the ancient world of art. Under her
auspices the soil of Halicarnassus yielded up the last
sculpture of the famous Mausoleum. The Parthenon
conceded to her its glorious but defaced works. To her
20
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
liberality, enterprise, and determination we owe it that
we still liave the massive sculpture and cuneiform in-
scriptions of Nineveh — the Phigalean marbles. Besides
these great museums, it was under her patronage tliat
the Royal Academy was founded as a national insti-
tution.
Not far behind her is France, with her magnificent
galleries of sculpture and painting, covering acres of
ground ; with her academies of art, science, and litera-
ture, whose hard-won honors are coveted throughout
the world ; with her annual prizes to those who distin-
guish themselves in art, her golden medals of merit, her
*' Prix de Rome." In no grudging spirit she expends
from the public purse large annual sums to add to her
already rich collections of art, and has built the great
palace of the Trocadero as a permanent gallery of retro-
spective art. This she has done to show the world
that the Republic does not intend to be behind the
Empire in the liberal fostering' of art. Nor can it Ije
said that all the galleries of Europe are the accumula-
tions of the past only, and that it would be impossible
for us even to attempt a rivalship in this regard with the
nations of Europe. The Kensington Museum iind this
very palace of the Trocadero, among others, are a proof
of the contrary ; and still more have we an example in
Munich of what a large and generous spirit can do in
our day. It is within our own recent memory that King
Louis founded the Glytothek and Pinacothek there, and
created and developed a new school of art. This at least
is certain, that we never shall make any progress towards
having a great national museum or academy or school of
art until vvc begin in earnest. Up to the present day we
have not begun. How, then, can we expect to have a
national character in our art.' * * •
As I lingered in the Trocadero day after day I could
not but sigh to think how utterly America is wanting in
all these ancient spoils of time and art. How slight is
the national interest in all such treasures.'' * * »
We as a nation have built our house. It is useful. It
is commodious. To its practical departments we have
given much tlionght. But art, as yet, has no place in it.
* * * We talk perpetually of our being a new country.
* * * A new country forsooth ! as if any people of
Anglo-Saxon origin — with all of its world of inherited
literature behind it ; with all its history stretching back
in direct line two thousand years; with all its religion
and law derived from tlie past— could possibly be called
young. We are one of the most luxurious nations in
the world; one of the most developed in all that relates
to convenience and the practical requirements of life ;
one of the most accomplished in all the so-called useful
and mechanical arts ; but in art we have accomplished
little, because we have desired little. Use has its build-
ings and habitations, but beauty has not yet its temple.
No. 19. — FROM A COPY OF A RESTORATION (paI:JT1!Jg) OF THF. TEMPLE OF JUPITER, POMPEII, WITH A
ROMAN SACRIFICE. ORIGINAL 1!Y PROF. FISCHETTI, OF NAPLES. R.
Foreign Galleries and Museums.
By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great, mysterious incorporation of the human
race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young ; but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy,
moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual Decay, Fall, Renovation, and Progression. — Burke.
A BRIEF analysis of the contents of foreign galleries and museums will more clearly
reveal our National destitution. It will also indicate the elimination desirable for a
new, systematic institution in a utilitarian age, the extent and kind of accommodation
demanded, and the
adaptation thereto of
the design submitted.
Those treasures are
the accumulation of
centuries by conquest,
purchase, bequest, or
pillage. They are,
therefore, the result
of no prior selection
or pre -conceived ar-
rang'ement. T h e v ^°- -°- — exterior of the trocadero galleries, paris.
present no broad generalization of the progress of history and art, such as is practicable by
commencement de novo. With
a vast multiplicity of objects, it
will be seen they are incom-
plete and disjointed, for facile
object lessons of their story of
the past in its continuit}'.
In order of extent and value
foreign galleries may for our
purpose take the following
rank : The Vatican ; the Pitti
and Uffizi Galleries; the Lou-
vre ; the Galleries of Munich,
Dresden, St. Petersburg, Ber-
lin, London, Naples, and Ver-
sailles ; the halls of the British
Museum ; the School of Fine
Arts, in Paris ; the Cluny ; the
hemicycle of the Trocadero;
No. 21.
-interior op the trocadero gallery of retrospective architecture, with full size
PORTAL of cathedral OF AMIENS-
22
A NATIONAI, (JAl.LERY OF HISTORY AXD ART.
the Bavariau National Museum ; and lastly, yet pre-eminently, the South Kensington Museum,
of London, as the most modern, practical, and progressive, and therefore most analogous to
the scheme advised.
Returning to the Vatican, we
observe vast and incomparable
remains of classic sculpture, ex'
humed from the ancient Roman
Empire. They comprise archi-
tectural fragments : statues of
mythological gods, Greek and
Roman celebrities, bas-reliefs,
sarcophagi, vases, inscriptions
etc., all readil}^ reproduced in
casts, but all relating to Greek
and Roman history.
The pictures of the Vatican
Gallery are limited in number —
relating to church history and
tradition. To this summary
should be added the frescoes on
the Loggie of Raphael ; an aggregation of pagan and Christian symbolism, enriched with
Greek ornamentation, mostly
original in the Baths of Titus.
These treasures offer un-
equalled material for the study
of classic life, history, and art,
though in the fragmentary man-
ner of a museum ; not in order
of subject or of age. The paint-
ings are reverenced as master-
pieces— a reverence that perhaps
has exaggerated their merit —
through the halo of sacred
corona. They are unsatisfactory
in color, especially the frescoes,
which are too faded for distinct
recognition.* The magnificent No. 23.-gr^co-roman room, British museum.
No. 22. — TROCADERO 0ALL1.RY. ARCHITECTURAL CASTS.
♦ " There can be no doubt that while these frescoes continued in their perfection there was nothing else to be compai-ed with
the magnificent and solemn beauty of this (the Sistine) Chapel. But melhink.s I have seen hardly anything else so foilurn and
depressing as it is now— all dusty, dusky, and dim; even the very lights having passed into darkness, and shadows into utter black-
ness."— Ha-Mthorue.
FOREIGN MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES.
25
reproductions of the latter on copper, under the patronage of Popes Clement XII, XIII, and
XIV, are of more practical value in study of design.
The Pitti and Ufl&zi Galleries, of Florence, are immense collections of paintings, covering
all subjects and periods from the dawn of mediaeval art. The same is true of the picture
galleries of Paris, Munich, Dresden, and Berlin. From these many canvasses w^ould be rejected
in choice of a practical working gallery for modern work.* Thousands of pictures have places
simply by right of possession,
as items in collections purchased
entire, or else for the sole in-
terest of age.
Even if all were of high execu-
tion, they are in cumbersome
superfluity of religioiis themes.
They are the remains of dark ages,
when church dogmas and tradi-
tions held entire sway over the
human mind ; when the religious
sentiment could find no expression
other than architecture, sculpture,
and painting.
Victor Hugo, in " Notre 'Dame
de Paris," makes the archdeacon
Ko.
-HALLS OF THE CLUNY MUSEUM, I'ARIS.
of the abbey turn from an open bible, fresh from the new press of Guttenberg, to the spires
of the cathedral, and utter the knell of that form of religious expression and power, " Ceci tuera
celay With the printing press passed away the sacredness of countless rude representations
that had served their purpose in a darkened age.
The Louvre is like the galleries of Florence, an enormous aggregate of paintings without
order of subject or date, and also a very considerable collection of architectural fragments and
curios in all departments of knowledge. But these also are by no means as complete as they
might be in their delineation of the great historic periods.
Incongruity of subjects results inevitably from the arrangement by schools, as generally
m European galleries. For instance, the Salon Carr6 has the " Marriage at Cana," by Paul
Veronese ; introducing Francis I, Charles V, the Court Jester, etc.; with two works of Titian ;
his mistress and The Entombment.
An attempted historical series — The Rubens ; of Marie de Medicis — 23 pictures, illustrative
•507 paintings in the Pitti Gallery, of Florence, including ten ceilings mythological, are in subject as follows:
Portraits, unknown, 94; Portraits, known, 7S, ......... 172
Scriptural, 73 ; Holy Families, 45 ; Saints, 6S; Virgins, 55 241
Fanciful, or Landscape, 59; Allegorical, 17; Mythological, 15 91
Historical, only 3 (viz : Oath of Cataline, Cleopatra, Death of Lucretius) 3
S07
24
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
of her life and reign, are an aggregation of mythology and allegory. Thus, No. 440, " The
Marriage at Lyons ;" — The city of Lyons seated in a car drawn by two lions ; — Henry dnd
Marie represented as Jupiter and Juno.
The Glyptothek (for sculptures), and the Old and New Pinakothek, of Munich, are excep-
tionally choice collections of art of different periods ; the sculpture being in halls apart for
distinct periods of the history of art. It is vain to
seek realistic history depicted in series. A grand
work, " The Triumph of Germanicus," and Kaul-
bach's " Destruction of Jerusalem," are the only his-
torical subjects among 150 masterpieces.
The Dresden Gallery, one of the finest and
largest in Europe (about 2,500 paintings), has a
proportion of religious subjects like that enumerated
from the Pitti Gallery. They are of exceeding
value ; by old masters whose themes were exclu-
sively sacred.
The Madrid Gallery is a noted exception to those
above cited, as a selection of the greatest masters,
surpassing all others in rarity, variety, and richness,
for the number on its catalogue. It is unrivalled in
treasures, exclusive of mediocrity.
The picture galleries of Versailles may well
bear upon their pediments " To the glorification of
France." Therein are ranged miles of panoramic
paintings of the military triumphs of France ; and
in exaltation of its rulers. Tiresome in their repe-
titions of armies and war paraphernalia in collision
and confusion ; a few would suffice for all, except
for divers names of the many claimed fields of glory. The style of these works, however, is
a model for the scheme proposed for our country, as will be further particularized. One
essential element for permanent approbation they lack — truthfulness. When the surrender at
Yorktown is set forth as General Rochambeau giving final orders for attack, while Washington
stands aside humbly in the door of his tent, the license of art has been transgressed.
In the academies of Sweden and Denmark are found model institutions for the encourage-
ment of art in select specimens of all schools ; but above all for commendation, their provision
for free education of talented applicants at the expense of the State. Not only do the govern-
ments train them to highest proficiency, but they afterwards patronize them in purchases for
the galleries. The national purse also sends pupils abroad for study. Hence, Swedes and
Danes have taken highest rank on the continent in decorative departments of art, an-d fill many
continental professorships. Prof Nordenberg, at the head of the Dusseldorf Academy, is a
Swede. These facts will furnish suggestions in the latter details of our subject.
No. 25. — A PAVILION OF THE LOUVRE, PARIS.
FOREIGN MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES.
25
The Bavarian National Museum, the hemicycle of the Trocadero, and the Cluny of Paris,
have enviable material for elimination.
The first of these contains objects of art and mechanism in great variety from the Roman
period to the present day, systematically and chronologically arranged. The halls have
frescoes illustrative of Bava-
rian history, and are filled with
wares, implements, casts, tapes-
tries, furniture, architectural
fragments, glass, reproductions,
carvings, weapons, costumes,
armor, musical instruments,
models of ships, buildings,
fortifications, and cities, ce-
ramics, textiles, laces, bronzes,
vessels in silver, cabinets,
mosaics, ivories, forgings,
reliquaries, enamels, charts,
parchments, altars, bas-reliefs,
coins, medals, lochs, toys.
The mention of toys in this
connection savors of burlesque.
Yet the lead toys found in the No. 26.- exterior of the louvre, paris.
foundations of Roman houses indicate the forms of Roman armor. Jewelry in the Roman Mu-
seum at Homburg, from the Prstorian camp on the Saalburg, betokens the national symbolism.
Such valuables are con-
stantly brought to light ;
and are in the market b}'
reliable antiquaries. In
this Institution we have
one of the most admir-
able examples for some
departments of the pro-
posed Institute.
The British Museum
is, in the first place, a
library of unrivalled
value. Its invaluable
collection of marbles and
casts is very incomplete
in chronological arrange-
No. 27. — GALLERY OF AioLLo, IN THE LOUVRE, PARIS. mcut for lack of arca.
26
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
Its caves have been packed for a quarter of a century with original remains ; stored for want of
room. Casts of these have been exhibited for the first time in other countries, as was the fact
with bas-reliefs for a Roman altar in the Pompeian House at Saratoga.
The Trocadero has an exhibit hitherto unequalled of architectural ornament of the middle
ages ; comprising, in full proportion and detail, casts of portals, columns, pulpits, capitals, screens,
caryatides, gargoyles, etc., etc., of the most elaborate execution.
Finally, the Kensington Museum in London surpasses all others for its object lessons in art.
It is a magnificent creation ; com-
menced with the profits of the
World's Fair, in Hyde Park, in
1851, of 150,000 pounds .sterling.
Its benefits have been so con-
spicuous that it commands the
unanimous support of the king-
dom. Even in such lavish outlay
as majolica plates at 2,000 to
3,000 guineas: 10,000 to 15,000
dollars each. It is the grandest
triumph of the intellectual enter-
prise of the British Nation. It
is steadily enlarged by the de-
mands iipon it. Vast piles are
succeeding each other to receive
the overflow of its acquisitions.
Its entire scheme may well be
adopted by our country, and as we shall argue, enlarged ; perhaps with greater economy in some
departments of costly curios and greater expenditure in others, demanded by the industrious status
of our people. Its predominance is in its objects of ornamental art as applicable to manufactures.
Wide as is its scope, and marvelously rich and extensive as are its collections, it is yet short of
the facilities demanded.
It is to be supplemented by the Imperial Institute, in honor of the Victorian Jubilee, the
specialties of which have not yet been declared.
As the Kensington Museum is the most modern, most extensive and prosperous of institutions
with its purposes, and therefore supplies the most valuable example for repetition, I sent to London
for the best publication upon its history and development. It was a pleasant surprise to receive
from the bookseller " Travels in South Kensington," by M. D. Conway, a familiar American
name. It is an instructive and elegant resume of the origin and present wealth of the Museum.
The author will be gratified to know that his work may aid in preparation for like " travels " by
his countrymen through their National Gallery.
To Mr. Conway is due acknowledgment for additional details, as follows :
The buildings resulting from the appropriation of $5,000,000 now contain collections worth
No. 28.— SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS, PARIS. HALL OF CASTS.
THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM, LONDON.
27
SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.
GROUND PLAN.
at least $20,000,000. Added to purchases by the Government there have been unceasing donations
of invaluable private collections, which " gravitate to it, and the buildings are constantly
expanding." At this point it is impressive to place the ground plan of the present constructions.
It shows a prospective embarrassment for space in an early future, beyond all possibility of
permanent order and system ; as anticipated in the plan for the National Gallery.
More than 1,000,000 people visit the Museum annually.
In 1844 there were but three Museums of like character in Great Britain ; now they are in
every large town. Roman remains
are being uncovered and preserved P hTJ] 1 1 "" 3l
throughout England.
The Museum received a donation
of 4,854 engravings from the Louvre.
A novel and enterprising provision
is of Circulating Museums from the
Kensington : collections being sent
abroad in the country to awaken
curiosity and study. In responsive
return, the Museum has constantly
Loan Collections on Exhibition^ bring-
ing perpetual variety and novelty
that secure repeated visitation.
Mr. Conway makes this interesting
record for encouragement in this be-
ginning : "I remarked to a gentle-
man connected with the Museum at
its origin, that I had heard various
American gentlemen inquiring
whether such an institution might
not exist in their own country, and he
said : ' Let them plant the thing and it can't help growing, and most likely beyond their powers —
•as it has been almost beyond ours — to keep up with it.' " Farther valuable encouraging and
advisory statements are given that will be important for future reference.
Sir Sydney Waterlow* remarked last winter in St. Augustine, that Mr. Cole (now Sir Henry
Cole, K. C. B.) was thought visionary, as doubtless he anticipated, when first he agitated his
conception for the Museum, as a wise departure and complement beyond the British Museum,
then assumed to be the ne plus ultra. Afterwards there were reports of competition by the latter
in purchases. Now, as the result of the increased craving for knowledge, both institutions are
struggling with the vastness of their accretions and activities. The National History Department
of the British Museum has been removed to a new and immense structure in South Kensington.
The grand system of the service and Art Department of the Kensington Museum for the
No. 29. — GROUND PLAN OF KENSINGTON MUSEUM.
♦The recent munificent donor of Waterlow Park to London.
28
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
promotion of instruction therein throughout the kingdom by monetary grants in aid of " local
efforts for founding scholarships and exhibitions," or " in aid of a new building or the adaptation
of any existing building," will ultimately be imitated in our country. The Museum disburses
the principal part of the $1,500,000, annually appropriated by the British Government for its
support, in these subsidies for instruction.
It is a confident prediction that our nation will rapidly awaken to its interests, and with such
energy in execution that not another
generation will pass until all that is
herein cited shall be in active benefi-
cence, to keep pace henceforth with
incessant progress.
Its citation as an example is empha-
sized ; for its inception, its rapid expan-
sion and present magnitude demonstrate
that in the vastness of the Institution
herein advocated, from the wealth,
progress, intelligence and promise of
our nation, there is nothing chimerical.
From the above review of foreign art
and antiquarian collections abroad, it is
seen that none of them supply illustrations of the historic periods of the human race, seriatim.
One only attempts it for a single nation, and almost exclusively in the line of military glory,
that of Versailles. The etchings of its paintings are properly styled " Gallerie Historique de
Versailles.^''
A survey of material in Europe makes apparent the impossibility of duplication. If therefore
there can be no substitution, Americans must forever be deprived of educational facilities common
to European communities.
Upon study of this contingency, the writer believes that the deprivation can be practically
compensated, and that by practical employment of art ; by liberal importation of casts and models
and especially by ingenuity in restoration of monuments and structures, the illustration of the
past, may be amplified and enlivened in the New World to a grandeur and usefulness beyond all
precedents.
We will now in imagination construct American National Galleries, and then by its further
aid forecast their occupation.
No. 30. — DESIGN FOR NEW BRITISH IMPERIAL INSTITUTE.
No. 31.— TRIPLE RANGES OF GALLERIES PROPOSED I THE CENTRAL, LIKE THE LOUVRE, FOR PICTURES; THE CORRIDORS, LIKE THE VATICAN, FOR SCULPTURE, MODELS,
SLABS, ETC., ETC.
Description of the Design and Plan.
I shall . . . straight conduct )c to a hill-side, where I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and
noble education ; laborious, indeed, at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect, and
melodious sounds on every side, that the iiarp of Orpheus was not more charming. — Milton.
Earth proudly wears the Parthenon as the best gem upon her zone. — Emeu.son.
Since it (architecture) is music in space, as it were a frozen music. — Sciielling.
THE National Gallery of the American Republic, it is proposed, shall surpass in architectural
grandeur and extent all similar constnictions ; but while grandly monumental in eflfect
it shall be thoroughly utilitarian as an educational institution. All expenditure in its creation
will be in economical use for intellectual elevation of the people.
Crowning a height is represented the Parthenon, one-half greater than the original at Athens,
surrounded by ranges of Temples''' of the same pure and stately order, all for commemoration of
the discovery and history of the Western Hemisphere, and of the United States of America.
Upon the terrace in front should stand a colossal statue of Columbus, as did the great
" Chryselphantine " statue of Athena upon the Acropolis.f
Stretching away at the right and the left of this commemorative temple will be vast colon-
nades for the promenade of the people, that they may look down upon the " marble population "
of the great and good of the nation, as did the Greeks upon their gods and heroes.
The irregular constructions that covered the steep hills of Rome are herein replaced by
galleries and porticoes, as systematic and beautiful in aspect as they will have been unsurpassed
in extent. J
* At the angle of vision from Pennsylvania Avenue, if upon the site of the Observatory, the facade will be a continuous colon-
nade of 750 feet ; precisely that of the entire front of the Capitol.
t The Acropolis was the museum of art of the Athenian people.
The Parthenon was finished 436 B. C. It was 230 by 100 feet wide. The columns were 6 feet 2 inches in diameter at the base
and 34 feet high.
t See Addenda 2.
30
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
Descending from the esplanade of the Pantheon, successive terraces support galleries and
courts proportioned to the extent and impor-
tance of historic periods and races, for orderly
delineation of life and art thi-ough the ages —
Egyptian, Greek, Assyrian, Persian, Roman,
Byzantine, Renaissance, Arabic, Gothic,
Moorish, Spanish, and East Indian.
These will present the amazing grandeur
that arose from the Forum of Rome to the
summit of the Capitoline Hill. From their
base extends a PYa Sacra, through memorial
columns and arches.
This sketch limners a vision of the splendor
of Athens in the Periclean age ; for it is an
appropriate fact to recall that the structures
which were the glory of all antiquity, which
have been models for all subsequent ages as
combining " a perfection of solemn and won-
drous harmony," were from the impulsion
of a democracy, conceived and wrought under
one master, Phidias, in the time of Pericles,
in a period of thirteen years.
It will be a transcendent honor for our Re-
public if it shall celebrate a century of progress
by creations which shall win from posterity the tribute of Demosthenes to the Athenians :
Our ancestors were inspired not by the desire of wealth, but by the love of glory ; and, therefore, they have left
us immortal possessions — the memory of illustrious deeds and the beauty of the works consecrated to them.
Five centuries later Plutarch wrote :
These works appear at the present time fresh and newly wrought ; they seem to wear the bloom of perpetual
youth ; its glow untouched by time, as if they breathed the breath of immortality and had a soul that age could never
reach.
A Park, " Istoria," outside the walls of the historical group should receive liberally examples
of modern dwellings of mankind. Thus the idea of Monsieur Gamier of recreating actually the
" Habitations of men in all ages," imagined by Viollet le Due, the chief attraction of the late
French Exposition, will be far more completely and permanently developed.
In these courts should be reproduced structures typical of the highest development in the
respective styles. The Byzantine of St. Sophia, the Gothic of the Campo Santo, the tracery of
the Alhambra, and the pierced screen-work of the Taj, will be grouped in superb proximity, and
with effective contrast to the overshadowing dignity and grandeur of the classic orders.^'
♦This variety' may suggest incongruities of mixed architecture. The proposed height of the galleries with their basements will
screen the contents of each court, in the silhouette of the sky line, except with domes, towers, and columns, which can be selected to
enhance the general effect.
No. 32. — THE COLONNADE OF THE FORUM OF POMPEII, RESTORED; AN ILLUS-
TRATION OF THOSE OF THE PARTHENONIC TEMPLES.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DESIGN AND PLAN.
31
%f ^ I.'.l\ ^, M",i,
No. 3^. — A CONSTRUCTIONAL SF.CTiON OP T!i>-: ( iAI.LHRlES.
P-, A. AND P., ARCHTS.
Ill the enclosures of the galleries should be placed reproductions herein described, and casts
in concrete of antiquarian remains. For instance, the early Christian crosses of lona and other
places in England and Ireland, full-sized specimens of rich fountains, cloisters, the gorgeous
portals of Spain, etc., etc. The eifect may be superb, mingled with verdure and herbage.
Reproductions of the divers na-
tionalities should serve as museums
of their life, manners,- industries,
etc.
Houses of the ancients should be
reproduced, like the Pompeian home
at Pansa, at Saratoga, with apart-
ments revealing their domestic life,
manners, religious symbolism, art
industries, etc.
Instead of a house of Pansa, a
dwelling from a small provincial
city, there should be recreated the
House of Glaucus, as elaborated by
Mazois, a Roman palace of great extent and grandeur that would moderate our estimate of
modern attainments. It would reveal the excellence of art and the splendor even of domestic
architecture that were annihilated by the deluge of Northern Barbarians upon the Roman world,
as was Pompeii entombed by Vesuvius. Such realistic revelations would be tangible to those
ignorant of the glowing pages of Gibbon, and waken curiosity to hunt the facts of history.
A mediaeval castle should
have its banqueting hall, and
gather the a r m s , furniture,
metal work, etc., of its age.
Indian gorgeousness should be
shown with the traceried orna-
mentation of the Orient, and
the Pacific Isles should be re-
vealed in the barbarism which
is rapidly becoming extinct.
The Kensington Museum
has original interiors of rooms
from Cairo and Damascus, with
their jalousies and lattices, but
miserably placed in a dark, low, narrow, and crowded hall. Instead of two rooms, the National
Gallery of the United States should have a house of full proportions, with all the elaboration of
oriental handiwork, and the gorgeousness of the harem.
In such details Europe would have no advantage. By proper juxtaposition of articles only
No. 14. KOMAN PANTHEON AND LtCTURE HALLS.
R., A. AND R., ARCHTS.
32
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
is their purpose revealed. The Moucharabieh^ that screens the women of the East, may as well
be bought in Cairo for Washington as for London. In the show-case of a museum objects are
often meaningless that would have great interest in proper environment.
These creations would be the utmost possible compensation to the great majority of the
people, who in the limits
of economy cannot range
the earth for either study
or pastime.
They would be substitu-
tions for the monuments
of the old world, which are
themes for admiration and
romance. By their combi-
nation in respective sur-
roundings they would out-
weigh all existing works
for the inspiration and
stimulus of genius.
For the accommodation
of the constructions above
proposed 220 acres of land should be provided. It is believed that the expediency of such appro-
priation is clearly vindicated by the facts, comparisons, and statistics appended.
It is seen that the constructions, with the courts they enclose, require large area. Yet they
are of simple and uniform design, of economical form, and cheap, yet enduring, material ; and
are without external ornamentation.
The plan provides for 20,000 feet range of picture galleries, and 40,000 feet range of corridors
for statuary, casts, models, etc., — a surface of no acres ; 40 acres of which within the boundarj^
walls are left for gardens, fountains, etc., until demanded for illustrative buildings from time to
time as means may be provided, or individual generosity create them.
The area under roof proposed is,
The area of open courts for historical reproductions, ......
The area external to the Temples for American prehistoric reproductions, for sur-
rounding avenues, etc., say, ..........
^"i'r^^mk^
No. 35. — GREEK THEATRE.
R. , A. AND R., ARCHTS.
35 acres.
40 "
35
no
For the Park, ISTORIA, through which should be a noble avenue to the galleries,
and in which should be placed topographical models in full size (like the
Roman Baths at Badenweiler, as hereinafter described in detail of reproduc-
tions proposed), and the Habitations of Man in modern days,
Area of the block indicated on plan,
no
220
DESCRIPTION OI<^ THE DESIGN AND PLAN.
33
•,\tt»mwiV*atft)>^wi"fe'rw:
£;!? ^
|B'»^^.j7P'(»^«OOKV»*4
No. 56. AN EXTERIOR ANGLE TOWER.
The galleries are of one story (v. p. 29), with basements.
The central, or picture galleries, have top light, and may be the counterpart of the Louvre ;
the corridors would have side light as ,. ■
in the Vatican.
When the 20,000 feet range of
picture galleries is divided among
twelve periods or nationalities, an aver-
age of about 1,000 feet to each, with
allowances for entrances, alcoves for
seats, etc., it will be seen to be a min-
imum estimate, especially for the his
torical series of paintings and other
pictorial object lessons hereinafter pro-
posed.
The corridors (halls for casts,
models, and the field covered by the
Bavarian National Museum above cited)
will rapidly overflow in accord with all
precedents.
The basement stories throughout the structures will be indispensable. Extensive shops
would be required for the multiplication of all
objects practicable for distribution to local in-
stitutions throughout the land, as now such
treasures are distributed by England and
France.*
There would be a chief moulder and staff,
as at the Louvre ; potteries and kilns for terra
cotta ; photograph and electrotype depart-
ments ; modellers in clay, plaster, and wood ;
receiving and shipping offices, store rooms,
guardians' quarters, etc., etc.
It is claimed as a special merit of the present
design that it provides for future enlargement
sT in harmony, both architectural and practical,
with the existing buildings, and without dis-
turbance of all previous material for rearrange-
ment with accessions.
* It was a mortification to find the aieliers of the moulenr-en-c/ief of the Louvre, and even the half-underground passages thereto,
crowded with cases for American institutions and citizens of casts to be imported at an expense of loo per cent, with the tariff tax.
These long since should have been supplied from our National Institutions. It was a greater aggravation to the writer to be taxed
forty and sixty per centum upon bronzes, terra cottas, etc., for importation o{ replica from Pompeii, and to be assessed likewise upon
architectural models for the Pompeia from the British Museum, the Louvre, and Ecole des Beaux Arts, of Paris. It is to be hoped that
such fines upon artistic and educational work for our country will soon be relieved, and that art luill be free.
R., A. & R., ARCHTS.
No. 37. — ENTRANCE PAVILION IN COLONNADE.
34
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
%
ito
The ground plan of the Kensington Museum — crowded, awkward, irregular — is already ob-
structive by its limits, as stated in its
publications.
Extracts from " The Preface " of a
" Catalogue of the Casts from the Antique
in the South Kensington Museum : " —
The principal objects aimed at in the formation
of the historically arranged Museum of Casts from
the antique are : —
I. To give the artist the opportunity of studying
the best representatives of the difterent periods of
Greek Art.
II. To provide the Archaeologist with the indis-
pensable means of studying his science and of
illustrating his lectincs.
III. Relates to advantages afforded to students.
IV; To inform Amateurs who are about to visit
foreign Museums where the best remains of an-
cient plastic art are to be found. ( Wc would
bring casts of all these " best remains" at once
to our National Gallery.')
V. Relates to the educational influence upon the
-5?^"
GOODHUE, DEL.
No. 38.— COURT OF THE LIONS, ALHAMBRA, FOR ARABIC COURT.
public.
But an explanatory note adds an important caution. Although the catalogue ttumbers but
2JI specimens of the thousands that can be cheaply commanded., and refers students to foreign Mu-
seums for others, yet the area is confusedly crowded. It is said :
The arrangement is in the main clironological. We say in the main, because the gallery assigned to the
collection does not admit of this arrangement being rigidly adhered to. Tlie larger reliefs have had to be placed
out of their proper sequence on the walls as suitable space, considerations of light, etc., determined.
The government of the British Museum is embarrassed with its riches in the Townley mar-
bles and other accumulations. The building that was supposed ample for the library and natural
history collection and museum must be given only to books.
The museums of Boston and New York have made their moderate growth in about 30
years for the lack of space. Immediately that an addition is obtained it is filled. The contents
of the Cluuy and the Trocadero Museums crowd their premises.
Versailles, almost exclusively a gallery of paintings, has a range of 1,300 feet, repeated
probably ten times, say 13,000 feet on different floors, and by the side walls of apartments built
for bed-chambers, ball-rooms, and banqueting halls ; yet it is compactly filled. Its historical
series numbers 1,204 paintings, probably requiring two miles in range for proper exhibition. The
National Library of France covers 3^ acres, demanded for books and their use. The new Na-
tional Library at Washington covers 4 acres in a plot of 6 acres of ground.
The School of Fine Arts, in Paris, has its dark attics packed under rafters to the eaves with
THE AMPLE AREA DEMANDED.
35
No. 39. TAJ MtHAL lOK MOGUL Col K
GOODHUE, DEL.
valuable casts, tliat can only be selected by the croucliing of the purchaser with the dim light of
a candle.
The catalogue of the Louvre objects, moulded for sale, numbers 1,169 specimens, and includes
Egyptian, Assyrian,
Ninevite, and Pheni-
cian relics, as well as
classic and modem.
In the latter it is rich
of the French School,
Jean Goujon, German
Pilon, etc.
B r u c c i a n i , of ^
London, offers 1,489
specimens upon sale,
beside the catalogue
of the British Mu-
se u m of reproduc-
tions of ancient niar-
bles, bronzes, etc.,
Egyptian, Assyrian,
and the famous fragments of the Parthenon, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, etc., etc.
The Assyrian sculptures number 60 slabs, averaging about 30 square feet each of surface.
These figures illustrate the capacity demanded for such exhibitions, even in fragments.
These 60 bas-reliefs, many of them 7 to 8 feet in length, are offered for 308 pounds, $1,540,
packed for shipment.
The Vatican contains a museum of 20 courts. It is an irregular mass of buildings, covering
a space 1,200 feet
long by 1,000 feet
broad, of several
stories. The build-
ings enlarged in
emergency are ver^'
irregular in plan.
Its galleries of vast
extent are filled with
but one class of arch-
aeological remains.
Before reaching the
main entrance a cor-
ridor 2,000 feet in
■i^:.ii.^ -.♦:!:-• I»it4r '
t
'r^s^;
v^ii.
■;>ie;-CiOTi ;ic-M.'M '
RENWICK. ASriNWALL i HUS8ELL, ARCHTS.
No. 40, — GOTHIC HALL IN GOTHIC COUR L.
length is walled, with ancient Pagan and Christian inscriptions. This exceeds in length the
3^
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
entire range of galleries proposed for the illustration of Roman history ; but the plan provides
on either side the same range for the casts of statuary and divers objects.
The galleries should also be utilized extensively for topographical models of the Acropolis,
the Forum, etc., etc. These are the most tangi-
ble realizations possible of the relative size and
position of objects.
The model of the Pueblo of Zuny, in the
Smithsonian Institution, is an admirable specimen
of such works. It is upon a small scale, yet it
measures 18' 6" x 9' 6".' Beueath are boxes of
implements and potter}^ that should be seen with
it ; unopened, for want of space. The cast of the
Aztec Sacrificial Stone, in the Smithsonian In-
stitution, measures 10 feet in diameter, and the
calendar is 12 feet wide. Such models are not
costly, and for them a large area should be
anticipated.
The walls of the corridors should supply ample
space also for casts of inscriptions. Most liberal
selections should be brought from the Christian
Museum of the Lateran, founded as lately as
Pius IX ; its Christian sarcophagi of the 4th and
5th centuries ; its inscriptions and paintings from the catacombs. Pictures of these in books give
no such vivid impressions as exact counterparts in size, color, and perspective. Such thrilling
memorials of eras from which
flowed and widened the tides of r >■. ..^.v^. ;-.:,,. .^-,.;-^, .,„... , .. .■■....... — — — — — — ■ .,..-., .>..-- i--.v:i:i!i,:cf::'^i;ssismm
modern civilizations should be !
precisely duplicated.
Systematic search for in-
scriptions, etc., is now made
with great zeal throughout the
territory of ancient Greece. Cy-
rene, Halicarnassus, Rhodes, and
Ephesus, and other places, have
been explored by the English ;
Athens by Greeks and English ;
Olympia by Greeks and Germans ;
Cyprus by Genl. Cesnola, and
other sites by French and
P.J A. 4 R., ARCHTS.
No. 41. — PAKT OF ENTRANCE COLONNADE, WITH ARTIKICIAL LAKE.
LINCOLN -AftCH
RENWICK, ASPtNWALL 4 RUSSELL, ARCHTS
No. 42. — THE LINCOLN ARCH.
Germans.
The American School at Athens, it was expected, would secure the concession of an explora-
COMPARISONS WITH FOREIGN GALLERIES. 37
tion of Delphos. Unfortunately, the subscription of 80,000 dollars was too late, and the French
secured the opportunity.
There are now preserved from 20,000 to 30,000 Greek inscriptions, from which most valuable
literarj' and archaeological data have been secured. It is, indeed, to be desired that Americans
may yet secure a share of these scholastic records and relics.
In farther vindication of the scale for the National Gallery, comparative measurements
and areas are given.
The Capitol of the United States has a frontage of 751 feet by 324 feet ; covering with porti-
coes and steps 153,112 square feet, or 3^^ acres.
The American Parthenon (upon the plan) covers with its porticoes 200 feet
by 450 feet, ........... 90,000 square feet.
The American Galleries surrounding it at their base, with porticoes, cover 165,000
255,000
But the walls of these buildings enclose only 132,125 square feet, or less than three (3)
acres.
The parallelogram of the old and new Louvre of Paris covers 2,640 feet (more than half a
mile) by 1,008 feet in width. With the Tuileries, the buildings covered 24 acres — an area
repeated more than four times in different floors — that is, there must have been more than 100
acres of flooring. Deducting the portions used for Governmental Departments there must be a
much larger area of gallery and museum space occupied than in the American Institute
designed. Yet its halls are packed ; its basements crowded with its ateliers and storage.
And this, it should be remembered, is but one of the French museums, beside Versailles, the
Cluuy, the Luxembourg, etc., etc.
Part of the American galleries and corridors will be demanded for the extraordinary remains
of Aztec and pre-historic races. Already a lady of scholarly interests in Boston is filling a pri-
vate store-house with antiquities from Arizona.
The illustrations of Roman History, proposed for a historical series of paintings, would
need a range of 800 feet; yet they descend only to the death of Antony, B. C. 30.
The Art Gallery of The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, measures 515 feet by 375 feet. Its
two floors, therefore, equal 5,150 feet of range of galleries, 75 feet in width. The Palais de
rindustrie, Paris, for exhibition of works of art, is 800 feet long and 115 feet high.
It is not expected that the entire range of buildings would be immediately completed.
But the above facts prove that the vast galleries proposed are no exaggeration for the inevitable
demand. The experience of all existing similar institutions vitidicates their necessity.
It is not necessary to detail designs and contents for the Modern Dwellings of Mankind,
which should have place in the Park ISTORIA. Their attractions and instructive interest
have been demonstrated in successive Expositions. They should be constructed more grandly
and substantially than the cheap imitations built only for a season. Selections of appropriate
subjects are illustrated with the statement that follows, upon the educational facilities of the
Institute.
Ancient and Modern Concrete Construction— Its Advantages.
In strength and durability no masonry, however hard the stone or large the blocks, could ever equal these Roman
walls of concrete ; for each wall was one perfect coherent mass, and could only be destroyed by a laborious process
like that of quarrying hard stone from its native bed. — Encyclopcedia Britannica.
IT is self-evident that the structures of a National Gallery should be : —
First. Imperishable by fire or decay.
Second. Impervious to moisture or vermin.
Third. Independent of external repairs.
These are essentials.
Most desirable for permanent satisfaction is an architecture of standard purity in design ;
of dignity* and beauty in effect.
These essential requirements must be found in the nature of the material. Alone to be
named for these qualities are: i. Stone or marble; 2. Brick; 3. Concrete.
They are named in the order of general popularity, but in the reverse order of real value.
Experience has demonstrated that their order of merit for the above requirements is :
I. Concrete; 2. Brick; 3. Stone or marble.
After the fire in Chicago, a commission investigated the comparative fire-proof qualities of
material in the ruins, and reported their order as : i. Concrete; 2. Brick; 3. Stone. The Bos-
ton fire swept streets of granite blocks into ruins, even more quickly than if they had been of
wood. Sheets of flame spread over ranges of granite warehouses ; slates flew into fragments ;
the iron beams and girders warped and bent, while the stone blocks cracked, tumbling the
so-called fire-proof piles into heaps of ruins before the wooden floor beams were half consumed.
By concrete is' commonly understood a conglomerate of broken stone or gravel, sand, and
cement, according to the formulas of Gen. Gilmore and other authorities. For the use herein
debated for constructions above ground, is intended a finer concrete of sand only with Portland
cement^ as more dense, therefore less porous, and presenting a finer and more uniform surface
and tint than the coarser mixture. Facts are appended in demonstration of the values in ordi-
nary concretes both in ancient and modern use. For foundations it is universally accepted as
of greatest value. Fortifications and large structures of the highest class, the Washington Mon-
ument, the Bartholdi Statue, etc., are based on concrete. The Hotel Metropole, London, has a
foundation of concrete, re-enforced by "sixty-five miles of band iron."
* " Sublimity is nearly impossible in brickwork. The smallness of the material is such a manifest incongruity with largeness of
parts that even the Romans, though they tried hard, could never quite overcome the difficulty."— Ferguson.
"The ancients used brick, cased over with plaster as smooth as glass." — Rollin. Such was the construction of the Baths of
Caracalla, etc.: vast and magnificent piles. It is to be regretted that the late national buildings along the future Park, from the
Capitol to the Potomac, do not rise in grandeur above the factories of Lowell in the poverty of their brick walls.
EXAMPLES OF CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION.
39
But in walls above ground there is less familiarity with its use and custom excites timidity
in its adoption.
The sand and Portland cement concrete proposed was the material used in the construc-
tion of the Villa /Jorayda and the Hotel Casa-Monica * in St. Augustine, there with a fraction
of " coquina " or shell. It was employed in the Pompeia at Saratoga Springs, on the exterior
wall and for pavement, and in the interior for columns, architraves, etc. It has been used suffi-
FRASKLIN W. 8WtTH, ARCHITECr,
No. 4-,. VILLA ZORAYDA. THE HIRST CONCRETH BUILDING IN ST. AUGUSTINE. I 882.
ciently to demonstrate its solidity and strength ; its increasing hardness beyond any natural
stone ; its resistance to cold at i6 degrees below zero ; its capability to receive any required tint
in color except white, and its cheapness against brickwork.
This use of concrete has lately been familiar in cities for pavements, which are exposed to
the most severe action of frost.f Fortunately the latitude of Washington, with its gentle climate,
dispenses with much expense against this risk.
* The original name of this construction is recalled for its significance and tender historical associations. " Casa "—'house ;
"Monica"— the name of the mother of St. Augustine. Vide " T/ie Cori/essious of St. Augiis/iHe" in allusion to her death.
t Washington and other cities are being paved largely with a coarse concrete, in place.of gran.ite and North River slate.
The approaches to the new Armorj at Saratoga Springs, the terrace rail and terminijl posts, the curbing and twelve-inch water-
way will be constructed 0/ the best Portland cement and gravel ; I. e., concrete. The same material is used in the construction of
over 200 miles of sidewalks in Minneapolis, and stands the temperature of 40 degrees beloiu zero without cracking or springing. But
as above stated, the concrete for walls above ground would be of much finer and stronger components.
40
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
In its adoption we are returning not only to the examples of the ancients but of modern
Europe, where dwellings, bridges, and aqueducts are entirely built thereof.
The New Mausoleum Company, of Brooklyn, have plans prepared for a structure of marble
and concrete 350 feet square, three stories below
ground, and two or three stories above ground, with
a tower 160 feet in height and on the main floor a
memorial hall.
Concrete was the most important of all the materials used
by the Romans.
* * * Large spaces were covered with vaults and
domes, cast in a senii-fluid concrete. * » * Xhe enormous
vaults of the great thermae, and the like, cover their spaces with
one solid mass like a metal lid, giving the form but not the prin-
ciple of the arch, and thus allowing the vault to be set on walls.,
which would have been at once thrust apart, had they been sub-
jected to the immense leverage which a true arched vault con-
stantly exerts on its imposts. * * *
Massive walls were cast in a mould ; a sort of box of planks
held by upright timbers into which the semi-fluid mass was
poured. When this was set, the timbers were removed and
refixed on the top of the concrete wall ; then fresh concrete was
poured in, and this process was repeated till the wall was raised
to the required height. In some cases the whole wall to the top
was cast in this way and the brick facing was omitted ; /. c, the
building was wholly of concrete. * * * About 3 feet high
appears to have been the average amount of wall raised in a day.
No. 44. VkSIIBULt, ZUKAYDA.
A reference to Fig. 51 of the Casa-Monica in construction, will show how precisely Roman
concrete methods, as above described, were illustrated upon a large scale in 1887.
The enormous dome of the Pantheon, 142' 6" in space, is cast in concrete ; being one solid mass, it covers the
building like a shell : free from any lateral thrust at the haunches. The walls
of the Pantheon are of concrete, with a facing of bricks. Steps in the Forum
had concrete coves, which remain. Pedestal coves of concrete also remain.
The circular podium around the temple of Vesta, about ten feet high, of
concrete, still exists. The great platform in Nero's palace and the pyramid
of Cestius are other of the many remains of concrete in ancient Rome. — En-
cyclopedia Britannica^ last edition.
In the recent extension of the Via Nazionale in Rome,
the concrete foundations of the house of Sallust were encoun-
tered, and it was necessary to blast them with dynamite.
The opinion of Mr. James Renwick upon the expediency
of the use of concrete for the National Gallery is stated, as
follows :
F. W. S., ARCHT.
No. 45. — ZORAYDA. THE KIRST CONCRETE ARCH IN
ST. AUGUSTINE.
ENDORbBMENT OF CONCRETE AS A MATERIAL. 4I
Renwick, Aspinwall & Russell, Architects,
71 Broadway, New York, January 21, 1891.
Franklin W. Smith, Esq.
My Dear Sir : In answer to yours of the loth, in which you desire me to give an opinion as to the value of
concrete, or B^ton, as it is called by the French, as a building material, and a history of its use, I would state that
concrete was used by the Romans, and also in small quantities by the architects of the Middle Ages. In modern times,
owing to the discovery of cements and hydraulic limes and the perfection of these manufactures, it has been used much
more than previously, and this is due to its great value in moist as well as dry foundations, and also to the fact that it
will set under water, and for building j^urposes because it is more durable than sandstones, and as durable as marble
or granite. Concrete is composed either of a mixture of hydraulic lime, cement, and sand, or of cement and sand and
broken stone, or broken bricks or gravel.
Its use for foundations is now almost universal. For superstructures it has also been -largely used. The B^ton
Coignet has been extensively used in France in the great aqueduct which supplies Paris, in which it is carried across
the depression in the woods at Fontainbleau by arches of B^ton, one of which, of 80 or more feet in span, crosses the
public highway. A churcli lias also been built of it from foundation to the top of the spire, and hoxses, pavements of
streets, and the cavalry barracks at Paris arc also made of this material.
In Germany many houses arc built of it entirely, with the steps of the same material. The great breakwaters in
the Mediterranean at Alexandria and Port Said are of concrete, which is made in the form of a cube of about 6 feet
6 inches and thrown into the sea.
In this country B6ton Coignet was used by me for all the interior walls of the Cathedral of New York, except
the columns and traceries, which are of marble, and was exposed for years to the action of the weather without damage.
Many houses, also, are faced with this material, colored to resemble brown stone. The arch in Prospect Park, in
Brooklyn, is also of this material, and the underpinning of many of the bridges on the Erie Railroad, the masonry of
which has been damaged by floods, in which it was very successful.
The material of which it is proposed to build the galleries of Istoria is better than this, as it is made of
Portland cement and not of hydraulic lime and sand. It will stand a very great pressure and is stronger than many
building stones; it can be made in any color, except white. It has been used with great success in St. Augustine,
where there is not other material easily procurable which is dinable, and it ought to be used much more largely, as it
is, in addition to its durability, the cheapest known material. If mixed by machinery, the walls of a building can be
built for 32 cents a cubic foot; more than ten cents less than common brickwork. For columns, cornices, doors,
windows, and all mouldings and ornaments, its relative expense is at least from J to J^ that of cut stone, as after the
moulds are made, the whole work can be done by unskilled labor. For a great public building, such as the National
Gallery, it is, therefore, the most economical material that can be used.
With regard to the height and dimensions of the galleries, I would advise a basement from 10 to 15 feet high,
depending upon the position chosen for the building, with the galleries above it, which should be from 30 to 40 feet in
width. As the plan is drawn with colonnades for statuary, etc., on each side of the galleries, this will keep all
objects of interest on the same level. The basements can be used for workshops and apartments for the officers and
employes of the institution, and in some cases may be omitted if the ground on which the building is placed requires
it. I have no doubt, in my own mind, that this plan is the most convenient and best adapted to the purposes for
which the building is to be used. • * *
Yours truly,
* [Signed] JAMES RENWICK.
The massive and extensive concrete residence of Mr. W. E. Ward, of the iron manufactur-
ing firm, Russell, Burdsdall & Ward, Port Chester, N. Y., of which illustrations are annexed, is
a scientific and practical proof of the adaptation of the material to general construction.
*A farther extract from the letter of Mr. Renwick is placed with the consideration of cost.
42
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
Before the commencement of the work, Mr. Ward made tests and experiments with the
material at large expenditure of thought, time, and money. These investigations were made
No. 46. ZORAYDA, INTERIOR. A MONOLITH OK CONCRETE. WALLS AND GALLERIES OK CONCRETE. ARCHES KACED WITH TRACERIES OK THE ALHAMBRA.
in 1871-1872, and published in "Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engi-
neers," at the regular meeting in Cleveland, O., 1883. The following is an extract from the
report :
When all doubts were removed concerning the reliability of the several combinations of materials required in the
construction, a building, embracing the following radical, new features, was erected (during four years, 1S73-1S77),
for dwelling purposes, near Port Chester, N. Y. : Not only the external and internal walls, cornices^ and towers
of the building were constructed of beton, but all of the beams, floors, and roofs were exclusively made of be ton,
re-enforced with light iron beams and rods.
Furthermore, all the closets, stairs, balconies, and porticoes, with their supporting columns, were moulded
from the same material. The only wood in the whole structure being window-sashes and doors, with their frames,
moss boards, and the stair rails, thus excluding everything of a combustible nature from the main construction.
A RESIDENCE BUILT OF CONCRETE.
43
B6ton can be used in any form of construction, and is able to serve the requirements of any architectural or deco-
rative effects, etc., etc.
On the 26th of January last, I wrote Mr. Ward asking whether he had discovered any cause
for qualifying his judgment as
to the value of beton for a reli-
able building material.
He replied February 3, as
follows :
No, sir. I have not found through
experience and close observation any
reason for qualifying my opinions of the
superior excellence of beton as a first-
class building material ; and only won-
der that after the complete success of
my big experiment, the building public
are so slow in adopting it more gen-
erally.
In a subsequent letter
(March 7, 1891), Mr. Ward
wrote :
I am unable to emphasize its
•. . 1 -^ I No. 47. — CONCRETE RESIDENCE OF MR. W. E. WARD, PORT CHESTER, N. Y. l87?-l877.
merits as Strongly as it deserves. ^' ' ■ ■^, "• 'o/^ loy/.
For such a structure as you propose to build, and as you aim to realize equal duration in all parts, I would
certainly construct the roof out of tiie same material.
Mr. Ward made his roof of large slabs of concrete resting on the supporting walls with
paper (slip) joints, to admit of expan-
sion and contraction.
The history of the extensive con-
crete constructions in St. Augustine
is interesting, and the facts involved
therein are conclusive as to the ex-
pediency of its use for the National
Gallery. In the winter of 1882,
while in Spain, I decided to build a
winter home in St. Augustine after
the model which the experience of
centuries had proved desirable in
semi-tropical countries.
An oriental house of wood would
be an anachronism ; yet there was no
stone in Florida. To freight it from
the North would be an extrava-
gance. At Vevay, on Lake Geneva, subsequently, the dilemma of material was relieved. In
No 4S. — INTERIOR Oh MR. WARD'S HOUSE. ELOOR, WALLS, AND CEILING OF CONCRETE.
44
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF* HiSTORV ANt) ART.
the neighborhood a chateau was in construction. Concrete partition walls four inches thick were
being cast of the rubbish, bricks, etc., left from the main walls, in a wooden boxing.* Near by
Grecian balusters were being cast of fine sand and cement in iron moulds, very rapidly, with
unskilled and cheap labor. The problem was solved. I saw henceforth an age of stone for
St. Augustine instead of pitch-pine wood.
FHANKLIN W. EMITH, ARCHITECT
No. 49.— THE " CASA-MONICA," ST. AUGUSTINE. CONCRETE OF SEA SAND WITH PORTLAND CEMENT.
In the following December, with a Boston mason, experiments were made, and the first concrete
blocks of Coquina sand and Portland cement were cast in St. Augustine for the Villa Zorayda.
They are preserved as valuable relics. Then the first course around the lines of the dwelling
herein depicted was laid in planks 10 inches high, and filled with the mixture. In two days a
range of handsome smooth stone was revealed. It was followed by another immediately, and
these layers hardened sufficiently to allow the raising of the walls a course every other day. The
partition walls were cast in with the main walls in even courses, also the arches of the court, so
that the building is practically a monolith. Arches like the first cast, as seen in the illustration
(pl- 45). were re-enforced and anchored to the walls by round iron rods. The outer walls were
cored with an air-chamber, by a board buried in the boxing and then raised, like a boat's centre-
* " Even party walls of small rooms " (of Roman houses) " are not built solid, but have a concrete core faced with brick trian-
gles about three inches \on'fi " —Eucyclopcedia Britannica.
THE HOTEL CASA-MONICA, OP CONCRETE.
45
F. W, SMITH, ARCHT.
board, before the concrete hardened. In thirty days the walls were as hard as any building stone,
and in a year as defiant of a drill as granite.
The result is a building that can hardly be excelled for durability, solidity, and richness in
effect, dryness, and fire-proof qualities. Fireplaces cast in concrete have withstood to the date of
this writing occasional
fires, during eight win-
ters, of live-oak wood,
without as much impres-
sion as would have been
made upon fire-brick.
The famous and ex-
tensive constructions of
concrete in St. Augustine
followed, and now it is in
universal use, not only for
first-class and rich build-
ings, but for fence posts,
sidewalks, chimney flues,
etc., etc.; and the piers
beneath the poor man's No. 50.-THE " casa-mon,ca " m construction.
cottage, formerly built of
bricks from the North at double the cost.
The Casa-Monica, of which illustrations are annexed, stands as a superb illustration of con-
crete. A facade of above 400 feet, a tower of 100 feet in height, balconies, arches, cornices, battle-
ments, etc., etc., are a homogeneous mass of solid and elegant stone. It was a new departure in this
building to use the sea sand simply dredged from the flats of the harbor, having not more than
one-tenth of the coquina. It was found that the finer the material the more dense and uniform
in color the result. This building challenges comparison with any in the United States for the
desiderata of a first-class stone construction, and especially with its ornamentation and impressive
grandeur, illustrating the Spanish castellated and the Hispano-Moresque forms — -for its cost.
The Museum of the Stanford University, California, next to the Memorial Chapel, will be the most important
edifice on the grounds. It will be 300 feet in lengtJi, three stories in height^ and the entire structure from founda-
tion up — walls, Jloors. and roof — is to be of concrete and twisted iron. The whole edifice to be moulded into a
single monolithic structure, without seam, break, or joint. The bars of iron embedded in the concrete are immova-
bly held at every point by the enveloping material, and thus impart their own tensile strength to the concrete, which
obviates the necessity for great thickness or heavy weight, especially since it is found that bars of iron, subjected to
cold twisting, gain largely in tensile strength.
I^^Thus a precursor of what is proposed for the National Gallery is precisely
to illustrate the present theory in advance, by the liberality and independent
enterprise op Senator Stanford.
Stones placed in contact with merely joints of mortar have no bond, such as exists in con-
crete held throughout an entire range by embedded iron. The former will not resist settle-
4^ A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ARf .
ment of sections or the shocks of earthquakes ; the latter, better than any known material or
expedient, will resist both. Doubtless this was one reason for the adoption of concrete^ re-enforced
by iron, for the Stanford Museum.
It may.be observed that the fagade of the Villa ^orayda (Fig. 44) is nearly in three detached
sections. If really separate, the least jar of earthquake or the slightest settlement would be
made apparent. For security against either, the sections are bound by imbedded railroad bars
through the entire width of the building. Considering that earthquakes have shattered a city
as near to Washington as Charleston, this contingency, not anticipated at the commencement
of the Capitol, is worth consideration. The writer hopes to set up in Washington within a few
months, specimen columns, cast in concrete, that will be their own evidence of the qualities
asserted, viz., that such construction is monolithic, homogeneous ; that it increases its tensile
and crushing strength continuously with time, and that it can take readily, cheaply, and per-
manently, any precise tint demanded for beauty, except white.
It will be said that such material is an imitation of stone. It is, in fact, a stone, although
of artificial creation.
Unquestionably, as Ferguson has stated, value enters into our conception of greatness and
richness. The semblance of the Koh-i-noor, be it absolutely indistinguishable in its precision,
cannot satiate our curiosity to look upon the great original diamond. But in wise use of our
capital we shall not rival motfarchical ambition.
Fortunately the essential elements desired — sublimity and duration as its complement —
are both supplied b}' the modern perfection of cement in its chemical affinity, producing rock.
In all great imitative creations we satisfj' ourselves with slight semblances compulsivel3^ A
painting is but a thin and perishable phantom of the everlasting hill or the ocean that rollest
now, "Such as creation's dawn beheld."
The Dome of the Invalides is only a film of gold in thickness ; but Dr. Holmes overheard
Sirius mistaking the gilded Dome of the Capitol of Massachusetts, in Boston, as a stranded
satellite that had lost its way.
The Athenians were content with a plating of real substance for th e colossal ivory and gold
statue of Athena in the front chamber of the Parthenon ; yet that and the Olympian Jupiter
have ranked as the grandest human conceptions realized in art.
The Warrior Goddess was made of plates of ivory upon a core of wood or stone for the flesh
parts, on which was laid the drapery, etc., of gold. Previous to Phidias, colossal statues, when
not of bronze, had head, hands, and feet of marble, while the body was of wood. Yet to the
great masters of Greece " doth mankind owe its knowledge of the beautiful."
Terra Cotta is a moulded material, but is now an established artistic resource, and has
gained general acceptance since its first prominent use of late years in the exterior bas-reliefs
of the Boston Art Museum. To the aesthetic sense a moulded bas-relief is a greater contrariety
in sculpture than a moulded brick or moulded plinth in architecture.
The magnificence of Rome, enduring through the ages, even in its ruins, was original in
brick and concrete to a great extent. Augustus, it is written, found Rome of stone, and left it
in marble. Its stone was principally artificial ; its marble was a plating upon walls of brick or
concrete.
COMPARATIVE ECONOMY OF CONCRETE.
47
" Even marble buildings were usually coated with a thin layer of fine white stucco, nearly as
hard and durable as the marble itself- a practice also employed in the finest buildings of the
Greeks — probably because it formed a more absorbent ground for decoration.
" Stone columns coated in this way were called coliimtice dcalbatceT
The exterior of the Taj at Agra and the interior of the Alhambra at Granada are generally
admitted to be the most fascinatingly beautiful in the world. The latter has exhausted superla-
tives of admiration from Irving to Amicis. Its exquisite traceries have stood in full relief for more
than five centuries (the Court of the Lions in the open air), yet it is of stucco. Exact counterparts
of the "glories " of art can be had only for the world in substitutes of plaster. Assuming that
the above evidence demonstrates that concrete supplies, better than stone, the essentials for con-
structions required, the economical result is extraordinary.
Brickwork in Washington has advanced
in cost to $9.72, say $10.00 per cubic }'ard,
owing to the exhaustion of good clay in the
vicinit}-. Mr. Renwick's estimate of the
cost of concrete (22 cents per cubic foot) is
$5.94, sa}^ $6.00 per cubic yard.
A comparison of the cost of cut stone
or marble, especiall}' in large blocks, will
show an enormous saving. The marble
columns of the Capitol, including base and
capital, are 30 feet 4^ inches in height.
The shafts are 24 feet 10 inches by 3 feet
in diameter, in one block.
Mr. Edward Clark, Architect of the
Capitol, writes: "According to my recollec-
tion the cost of each column, including cajj
and base, was, approximately, $3,000.00."
The Roman Doric order would be,
consistently, cast in concrete by sections.
After the expense of the mould $100 each
would be a liberal estimate for the cost of
columns of the dimensions above stated.
Granite! [columns, [one-half the size of
those required for the Columbian Parthenon, would cost at Westerly, R. I., $996.50, say,
$1,000.00. These would be about 3 feet in diameter and should not cost, as above stated, over
$100.00 in concrete.
An. approximate estimate, without calculation of details from experience and the above data,
for the group of buildings of the Historical Galleries would be —
In concrete, $10,000,000.00
In marble or granite .... $40,000,000.00.
No. 52
-MOORISH ARCHES IN THE COURT OF VILLA ZORAYDA, SHOWING THE
ALHAMBRESQUE TRACERY.
No. 53. — THE ENRICHMENT OF THE KOMAN FORUM FROM THE RESTORATION UY CANINA; TYPICAL OF FUTURE COMMEMORATION BY THE PEOPLE
OP AMERICAN PATRIOTISM AND PATRONAGE OF ART.
The Contents of the National Galleries and their Courts.
Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself. — Sir James Mackintosh.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
— Samuel Johnson.
History hath triumphed over time, which, besides it, nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.
— Sir Walter Raleigh.
WB have in imagination provided commemorative Temples of History, and Galleries for illus-
tration of the highest attainments of art. No institution upon a system as comprehen-
sive at the outset has hitherto been attempted. It is claimed to be a new departure in accord with
the progressive and utilitarian spirit of the age.
Such advance is demanded in these days in all intellectual as well as material interests.
Old University systems have yielded to the eclectic demands of a practical era.* Technologi-
♦ Thoroughly in Bympathy with these ideas is the present University extension movement; a new, broad, and promising educa-
tional instrumentality by which the latest results in the fields of art, science, and philosophy are to be carried to the general public.
In this as in other enterprises of high scholarship, America cannot claim priority. For fifteen years it has been promoted in England
under the lead of Dr. Moulton, of Cambridge.
Lately, lectures have been given by Professors of Princeton, Columbia, Yale, and Harvard, on various subjects, in New York
and Brooklyn; Professor Marquand, of Princeton, lecturing on Archaeology. These valuable services are stimulating a demand for
the grand Institute of Illustration, herein proposed, as essential to inquiry.
In the same direction of zeal for diffusion of knowledge is the plan of the new University of Chicago, for work throughout the
year, by lectures in and about the citjr.
THE COLUMniAN PARTHENON.
49
No. 54. — GREEK MAUSOLEUM OF HALICARNASSUS. RESTORATION. M.
cal institutions supplant, for special vocations, the old classic routine, that the student may go
directly to the goal. We seek to arrange collateral information along his path. The advantage
for America is, that in her youth and
wealth she is not encumbered by cus-
tom and routine. The Kensington
Museum, as we have shown, is proof
of the possibility of modern improve-
ments in aid of archaeology and art.
The proposed National Gallery
of History and Art,* it is believed,
would excel both in materials and
methods any existing institution.
It would draw from analogous
organizations of the Old World all
details applicable to its purposes, and
it would add others of special value to
Americans, as a new nation in a new
world, isolated from all original re-
mains.
The system of illustration ad-
vised is claimed also to be compara-
tively, with its attractions, its promised influences and results, more economical than previous
historical and artistic collections.
For apprehension of the scheme, the reader is invited to enter the structures, in imagination
completed, and forecast their occupation and use.
Like the Parthenon on the Acropolis, and the Temple of Jove on the Capitoline Hill, the
monument to Columbus dominates a height before the American Capitol ; its counterpart in
prominent magnificence.
This grand temple we devote to commemoration of the discovery of the Western Hemisphere
as a Columbian memorial.f Its central hall should be walled with frescoes representing the enter-
prise of Columbus — from his beggary at the gate of the monastery, through his vicissitudes of
disappointment, heroism, danger, triumph, persecution, and death.|
The extraordinary Chautauqua educational organizations and assemblies have preceded these movements, in facilitating popular
education, not only of youth but the people.
On the i6th of June, an amphitheatre of massive stone, 200 feet in diameter, with capacity for an audience of 7,000, and a Hall of
Philosophy, are to be dedicated by " The National Glen Echo Chautauqua," on the banks of the Potomac, four miles from Washing-
ton, to " Educational opportunities for all, everyvfhere, through all of life."
The promotion of a National Gallery simultaneously therewith is an " Echo " of its broad and beneficent announcement.
♦The idea of congregating the two objects of history and art is a good one, for many of our people who are crude in art matters
aie earnest and appreciative on matters of history. — " Gath," in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
t See Addenda 4.
t The Columbian series described is typical of the general result, which it is the aim of this paper to describe, viz :
Ax Institute of Illustration, by paintings in chronological series, accurately revealing historical events, and
BY other collateral objects and devices.
50
A NATIONAL GALLERY OK HISTORY AND ART.
We place there with the portrayals of his
No. 55. CLOISTER NARANCO. SPANISH COURT. R.
bronze doors in the Capitol. But an event of
torical range and result than any
ever wrought by one of the human
race, should claim colossal, not min-
iature, representation.*
There is no such distinct and
realistic presentation of a great his-
torical cycle in all the galleries of
Europe. If the compartments of
ceilings in the Vatican or the Louvre
be cited to the contrary, it will be
remembered that the details are in
such distant positions, and in such
subjection to adjacent ornamentation
that the observer abandons the effort ■
even to identify the subject from his
history, portraits of his sovereigns, of his friend
the Monk Marchena, his companions,
and others of early navigators. There
should be models of his ships, the
Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina ;
resemblances of memorial objects from
Spain, and reproductions of the imple-
ments and scientific appliances of his
age.
The galleries of Spain will furnish a
full series illustrating these incidents
and events, although it is surprising to
find that they are scattered through the
various cities. Nowhere is placed a con-
secutive, pictorial record of the proudest
fact in her history.
These incidents are illustrated on
such surpassing heroism, and of more vast his-
No 56. —STAIRCASE, TOLEDO. SPANISH COURT. R.
* I confess discontent with dwarfed ideals in sculpture of great souls and great events. The Rogers bronze doors are in imita-
tion of the Ghiberti panels in Florence. When Michael Angelo said that " the gates of the Baptistery were fit for the gates of Para-
dise," he must have rated their detail of execution, not their dignity of dimension. He wrought " the grand, the terrible, and bold,"
in the " Armory of Nature." His creations — Day and Night, Night and Morning — are giants, and yet more colossal were his David
and Moses.
At the risk of heresy to old-time admiration, I acknowledge impatience with toy-like representations of the Creation and Fall;
of Moses receiving the law from Jehovah ; of the history of the Saviour of mankind and His Apostles.
I cannot, without disclaimer of irreverence, stoop to find Columbus with his globe debating with the Dominicans the balance of
Creation— a figure of twelve inches, down, down to nearly the level and dust of the pavement— with features utterly indistinguishable.
A Colossus at the junction of the Missouri with the Mississippi, in the heart of the American continent, would be in more con-
sistent proportion.
HISTORICAL PAIMTINGS IN CHRONOLOGtCAL SERIES.
St
Gen-
No. 57. — TRIUMPH OF ROMULUS, B. C. 74O. R.
guide-book. There are none but fragmentary efforts at continuity except at Versailles,
erally, facts are overlaid with al-
legory for ornament, in indiffer-
ence to their importance, from
which it is difficult to extricate
them.
Thus an Institute would
have a clear field for the conse-
cration of art, in a revival of the
past, more vivid, intelligible, and
impressive to the people than has
yet been developed. Let the
stories of history be tangibly set
forth in truthfulness, not in
poetic ideality ; in actual conti-
nuity, not in fragmentary fan-
cies ; in satisfaction of curiosity
(the only true stimulus to intelli-
gence), not in isolation, that is
discouraging to the ignorant, revealing to him no end from a beginning.
For this consummation the subject must be grasped as a whole. Given an area for
representation, and a subject, the
historian must mark the salient,
critical, objective, and final data;
must recreate the characters and
their surroundings by all written
and antiquarian material ; then
the artist must give them life
and power in semblance of form
and color.
Since the above was written I
have received from London,
Pinelli's " Istoria Romana," giv-
ing 102 engravings of Roman
History in illustration of Rol-
lin,''" from the time of Romulus
and Remus to the Emperors.
These could be enlarged by the
camera, and would need only the
No. 5S.-
-LUCIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS CONDEMNS HIS SONS TO DEATH FOR CONbPlRACV TO RESTORE TAR-
OyiN TO THE THRONE, B. C. 5OO. R.
* 'ilie edition of Rollin, illustiatod by these poweifiil dnnvinjjs, is in the Library of Congress. Histoire Romaine, Depuis la
Foii'.Uition de Rome, Jiisqu'a hi Bataille d'Actium. Paris, 174S. 16 vols.
52
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
No. S9. M. CORIOLANUS, CONDEMNED TO EXlLt, I'LEADS AGAINST THE SEMLNCE BY WOUNDS IN
WAR FOR HIS COUNTRY, B. C. 47O. R.
colorist to complete an attractive and vivid series for popular study. Six of the series are here
given in illustration of the whole.
Imagine this svxggestion real-
ized in a grand hall, walled
with truthful and life-like por-
trayals of the great eras and
decisive incidents of Roman his-
tory ; * the connection of the
facts revealed being fully ex-
plained by accompanying text ;
these representations being again
multiplied by photo-reductions
for inexpensive hand-books of
history, such as are now pub-
lished by the Kensington Mu-
seum upon its treasures of art !
Imagine the Greek, Byzantine,
Renaissance, and other Galleries
also thus illumined by re-crea-
tions of the critical and crucial experiences of their nationalities, that marked their transitions
to conquest and defeat, great-
ness and decay ! Thus more
effective object-lessons than
have ever before been devised
would be scattered broadcast
from the Capital of the nation
to the homes of its people.
The Gallery would issue
text-books to the adults of
the nation.
This practical, unpoetic
employment of art, rather
than for the play of imagi-
nation, m a y invite criticism
from connoisseurs whose ideal
demands perfection, and who
are hypercritical of all but
recognized masters.
♦Extensive ranges of paintings may recall to many the exhaustive prostration of the round thhough Versailles, where fatigue
dissipates all pleasure before half the course is made, and from which there is no retreat.
When Americans have their own galleries, far excelling in interest and instruction those of Europe, as they may, they will not
be limited to a day's visit in a continuous drive; and they will utilize elevators, automatic tramways, and perambulators; and study as
they travel in luxury and ease.
T-io. 6o.^R0MAN WOMEN GIVE THEIR JEWELS FOR DEl-ENCE OF ROME AGAINST THE GAULS, B. C. 35O. R.
HISTORICAL PAINTINGS IN CHRONOLOGICAL SERIES.
Such aestheticism is incompatible with the aim of the proposed Institute,
that the world can never paint
its history at the cost of " The
Angelus," nor would it be desir.
able in the microscopic detail of
Meissonier's Napoleon in 1814 —
30 inches by 20 inches — sold for
170,000 dollars, or 283 dollars
per square inch.
It is vain to expect that our
Government will in this genera-
tion purchase such treasures ;
that the agent of the American
National Gallery will appear in
competition with Emperors of
Russia and France for a Murillo
Madonna, sold for 315,000 francs.
It is
55
apparent
No. 01.-
THh DEATH Of KEUULUS BY TOKTURE UPON HIS RETUKli AS I'KlSi^i.L;; 1 T.O.M H!S E.MBaSSY
TO ROME, WHERE HE URGED WAR WITH CARTHAGE, B. C. 256. R.
The great majority of the people
cannot appreciate such values.
Fortunately, the small minority who can indulge a limitless enthusiasm are increasing the private
ownership of masterpieces froin
their surplus of wealth.
Thence they will gravitate to
public possession by gifts such
as those from the late Mr. Cor-
coran, Messrs. Marquand and
Walters, and bequests like that
of Miss Catherine Wolfe. Thus
the Corcoran Gallery"^' and other
Metropolitan collections will
hold the costly gems of art.
They will be to the great practi-
c a 1 institution herein advised
what the gems of the Green
Vaults of Dresdenf are to casts
in the Trocadero or the Kensing-
No 62. ■
-HAMILCAR, THE CARTHAGENIAN GENERAL, DEMANDS OF HIS SON, HANNIBAL, AN OATH OF
PERPETUAL ENMITY TO ROME, B. C. 238. R.
ton, or to the instructive potteries
of Egypt and Etruria, which are
far more important as models of design or for interpretation of history.
*The Corcoran G.illerj, in Washington, is a most attractive popular selection of works of meritorious art, in tlie variety and
interest of its subjects, as well as for beauties brought from nature and life to fascinate the eye.
t The Green Vaults of Dresden contain an immense collection of precious stones, pearls, works of art in gold, silver, amber,
ivory, and rock crystal. It has the largest known onyx, valued at 30,000 dollars.
54
A NATIONAL GALlERY OF HIStORV AND ART.
The genius of art as adapted to this age cannot be more clearly set forth than in the com-
ments of Monsieur Phillipe Gille on the
exhibit of the late French Exposition.*
He writes thus :
The 19th century is insatiable in the mattei
of knowledge, comparison, and generalization
in all things. The taste for art is, in these days,
merely one special branch of universal curiosity.
In the eyes of the thoughtful public, a figure or
a picture, a statue or a group, has gradually lost
its subjective interest, which has become sec-
ondary to its value as an ethnological or his-
torical record. Landscape, for instance, English,
, :, ,^ .^^^^^^^^^^L, French, German, African, or Asiatic, takes the
i <tfj<ifii^iiiiii,iii I i^mi I iiBBi^BiHBIBillHiiilMiiiiiiimiiniin"*™"" '"'''"'"""""""'""-
place of descriptive geography.
Genre, finding its subjects in the most dis-
similar countries, represents with the charm of relief and color the manners and customs of the human race.
No. 65. — EGYPTIAN TEMPLE AT PHIL.€. R. IN PART.
This realism, in accord with the practical spirit of the age, must be the standard for his-
torical art work of a popular — that is, a people's —
institution.
Accuracy and beauty in execution are not less
to be demanded than in the creations of idealists.
The frescoes, lavished in German galleries, should
be exemplars for the manipulation in distemper,
and for oil work, the panoramic force and literalness
of Horace Vernet.
The sensible conclusions of Monsieur Gille
may be extended to all the technical subdivisions
of knowledge.f The artist has no need to resort
to the creations of his fancy for his highest inspira-
tions. Realism in subject, through fidelity to nature
in accessories, are not less the charm of Claude;
Corot, or Millet, than their success with atmosphere
and color. In fact, it is the pathos in realism — the
worship of the peasant — the unison of the soul with
the imaginary bell-strokes of the Angelus, that has
won for the latter pre-eminent adnairation.
The learned Professors of the Institute who
shall prescribe the incidents of history to be delin-
eated set-iatim must inevitably utilize every depart-
ment of art.
No. 64. — CORINTHIAN DETAILS. R.
* See Addenda 3.
fFor farther discussion of the literal utilization of art for educational use, see Addenda 3.
REALISTIC EMPLOYMENT OF ART.
55
No. 65. — CLOISTERS OF SAN PAOLO, ROME. MEDl/EVAL COURT. R.
The liunian figure in perfection of form and action takes early position in subjects of the
Greek and Roman periods.
Nor will the Muse of History
dwell only on the spiritual or the
stern and powerful elements that
have wrought or warred through
the mythology or conquests of the
ancients. Coming downward from
the iron-disciplined Spartans, we
shall meet the religious inspiration
of saints ; the romance and chivalry
of Minnesingers and Troubadours.
The theory for the Institute
would not be a rigid and dry ex-
hibit of facts by schoolmen, but to
command all resources of art, to
clothe them with beauty and en-
chant attention in study.
It is an age of illumination and object teaching, that may be applied with unequalled facility
in a national agency for dissemination of knowledge.
These frescoes and canvasses should be the works of American artists under guidance of the
highest existing talent. Europe
should supply its ability for precep-
tors, as Switzerland gave Agassiz to
Harvard University.
In our imaginary assignment of
the Columbian Temple to its com-
memorative use, we behold it filled
with graphic pictures and tokens of
events which it would forever freshen
to succeeding generations.
The surrounding ranges of tem-
ples we appropriate, in like manner,
to the history and archaeology of
the American Republic ; to the por-
traiture of its founders, patriots,
defenders, and all who should be
No. 66. — CAZA ZAPORTA. SPANISH COURT. R.
emblazoned on its tablets of fame.
The American Galleries would receive the full series in portraiture of Presidents of the
56
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ARr.
United States. Beneath or around them should be panels illustrative of their rise to their great
distinction. This should be a grand saloon — to be
known as The Hall of the Presidents.*
Upon the terraces that cover the hillsides are ranged
picture galleries, with corridors on either side, propor-
tioned in extent to the importance of historic periods
and races. The galleries will receive chronological
series of paintings, like that of Roman history de-
scribed, and the corridors all collateral illustration pos-
sible from the plastic art. These enclose courts for
reproduction of monuments and structures to complete
the delineation of human life and .development by all
available material. Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Persian,
Byzantine, Assyrian, Renaissance, Mediaeval, Arabic,
Gothic, Moorish, Spanish, and East Indian Courts
should contain monuments or relics of the highest
attainment of their civilizations.
This picture may appear too grand for realization.
Its entire practicability will be argued under the
specialty of architectural reproductions proposed^
as the most effective and progressive feature 'for our
., _, National Gallery.
No. 07, — GOTHIC PORTAL, BEAUVAIS. R. AS ABOVE FOR "^
GOTHIC COURT.
We have assigned our central ranges of galleries
to historical and commemorative paintings.
These should be supplemented by collections to utmost extent of all illustration by engrav-
ing, photography, etc.jf that would perfect the scheme of Pictorial, Historic, and Art Illus-
tration, if thoroughly indexed.
This suggestion I would strongly emphasize as the conviction of considerable observation
and experience. The material abounds in all European collections ; yet in practical uselessness
because nowhere catalogued by subjects. The National Library of Paris holds 1,320,000 engrav-
ings, arranged under the names of the designers. In like manner the Louvre Museum has
36,000 specimens of engravings, and the Vatican as many, that can only be approached with
difficulty.
•In the year of the Victorian Jubilee, after witnessing the pageant in London, the author was, with fellow-passengers Irom the
coach, walking up hills in the Lalce region. In the company were two persons of East Indian complexion ; an Indian Prince and his
servant. The former had been one of the gorgeous oriental escort of the Queen. In conversation that followed, he said : " I am
greatly disappointed that my associate will not return with me across the United States to India. I want, above all, to visit the peo-
ple who have chosen good rulers by popular vote for loo years."
fMr. SpofFord, Librarian of Congress, states that "by the silent operation of the copyright law for twenty years past, the Library
of Congress has accumulated, without a dollar of expense to the Government, over 500,000 works of graphic art, embracing line engrav-
ings, mezzotints, lithographs, etc., etc. It is proposed to have in the new Library Building an Art Gallery, 250 feet by 35 feet, for
exhibition of the progress of art in this direction since 1870."
This is most interesting and desirable, but has no relation to the above plan of reproduction of foreign and antiquarian art.
REALISTIC EMPLOYMENT OF ART.
57
The British Museum has commenced publication of Catalogues of its Engravings, by three
royal octavo volumes on Caricature. The details are
fully described of each picture ; for instance, by Ho-
garth, of the persons, motives, etc., etc., of the scene;
but there is no index to subjects, as political, domestic,
etc., or as of jurisprudence, religion, etc. Thus these
vast collections are of less practical utility than a tithe
of their number, made facile to examination.
By photography these selections from the great
European accumulations can be duplicated. If then
indexed by their subject, author and date, as are modern
libraries, all previous artistic conceptions of a period,
or a race, or a biography, would be immediately avail-
able to the scholar, the author, architect, and artist.
Such an index of the Institute would more than
parallel that of Dr. Poole to Periodical Literature ; a
life work of inestimable value in modern study ; a guide
in a labyrinth ; an evolution of order out of chaos. By
such an accomplishment the Institute would surpass in
usefulness all other collections, that might hold a greater
aggregate of material.
As collateral to the above pictorial lessons from
history, there should be wall charts of the progress of
civilization ; and its geographical demarcations at divers
No. 68
M.
No. 69.— JAINA TEMPLE OF VINALA SALE, 1 3TH CENTURY.
R.
PAVILION, HULLABEED. INDIAN COURT.
periods. For instance, we should
define the contemporary bounds
of Latin, Greek, and Oriental
civilization. The large painting
of the Kensington Museum in
comparison of the dimensions
and architecture of the grandest
buildings of the world, is an ex-
cellent specimen of such illus-
tration. This expedient of plac-
ing statistics in diagrams has
been actively applied in a late
Census of the United States.
The history of the migration,
increase and improvement of
earth's population ; the rise and
decline of Empires, might be
thus graphically delineated, giv-
58
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
ly^m '
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RfeAtlsTic Employment of art.
59
ing life to dry statistics and elucidating to the eye historical events. These themes present a
field for prize competitions in ingenuity and scholarship.
Collateral with painting, the plastic art is an indispen-
sable appliance for illustrative objects and examples. Its
facility, perfection and cheapness are unsurpassed by any
process of human skill that relates to the refinements of
life. It will produce with absolute truthfulness the features
of a colossal sphinx, or the microscopic lineaments upon
a coin. No expenditure for the objects sought in these
papers will yield more tangible and remunerative results
than purchases of casts.
The great museums of Europe allow no vacancies in
their collections of all desirable specimens. Within a few
years the School of Fine Arts of Paris has added a grand
hall for models ; some of enormous proportions. Its cata-
logue has 2,943 numbers for sale. The collection includes
Statues, Busts, Masks, Anatomical Fragments, Bas-reliefs,
Animals, Arms and Armor, Altars, Cameos, Candelabra, In-
scriptions, Lamps, Ornaments, Plaques, Saddlery, Vases,
Ecclesiastical Stalls,
EiS52
No. 72. — PILLAR, TSCHULTRIE. R.
etc., etc., in the
Greek, Roman, By-
zantine, Gothic, No. 71. — BALCONY, BENARES. R.
Renaissance and Modern styles.
Beside these are architectural models in full propor-
tion as seen in Fig. 28, p. 26. The values appended
show the cheapness with which art-casts may be lavishly
supplied.
Prices are as follows : For 10 Statues, 4 feet 2 inches
and upward, 26 francs, average; 236 Busts and Heads,
assorted sizes, 9 francs. Bas-reliefs are of great im-
portance, not only as models, for design, but for their
historical records and illustration. The collection num-
bers 578 specimens at a cost of 40 francs each on the
average. To this is added 60 per cent, for packing and
shipping expenses. For all educational use casts are
absolutely as good as originals. An eminent Professor
of Architecture in one of our chief Universities re-
marked, in accordance with these recommendations,
that he would restrict a National Institution to casts of
antiquarian remains, considering the fictitious value of originals in comparison.
^ A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
The Royal Museum of Berlin, in the impossibility of purchase of originals, decided tc» obtain
casts of all the masterpieces of
sculpture in the world. It haS
2,271 specimens.
In nine years the Museum of
the Trocadero in Paris has
gathered its splendid exhibit in
casts of architectural styles.
The Louvre and the British
Museum, in aid of art universally,
offer extensive lists of objects for
sale in replication. The English
people having supplied money
without stint for the acquisition
of ancient remains, now offer
No. 73. — TOPE OF SANCHI, BUDDHIST SHRINE, 6tH CENTURY. M.
counterparts to the world at a tithe of their cost.
The Parthenon Sculptures cost, in 1816, $175,000. The Phigalian marbles cost, in 1815-
1816, $95,000. In sculpture of archaic interest the Museum is unrivalled. The wonderful gain
to human knowledge revealed by its acquisitions is impressively stated in the introduction to its
catalogue, thus :
The colossal bulls and long extent of sculptured slabs covered with inscriptions, which ornamented the palace of
Sennacherib, the records of Assyrian history inscribed in cuneiform character on sun-dried bricks, unearthed by Mr.
Layard, with ivories, bronze vases, and numerous other objects, brought together within the Museum walls, have been
the means, in a great measure, of restoring the history and realizing the grandeur and advanced civilization of an ancient
empire, the memory of which had been almost lost.
Again it says :
Here are stored rather than exhibited very interesting monuments of antiquity, Indian sculptures, Mexican
antiquities, many Roman sepulchres, Greek and other inscriptions in large numbers, and other precious remains.
It is in view of such abundance of instructive and impressive records of the past, that the
design provides a large area for its reception, and that this appeal is made for its early transfer
to our shores.
Over against the pictured events of history which we have imagined, brought out in train,
should be all existing busts of the rulers, scholars, philosophers, poets, navigators, inventors,
artists, and others who impressed themselves upon the passing eras.
Adjacent should be replica of inscriptions, sculptures, tombs, altars, etc., etc., which throw
light upon the dim traces of time.
To facilitate modem art and architecture, all the masterpieces of ancient sculpture and all
examples of ancient orders should be placed in sight of the American student at home. A hall
would be grandly beautiful and inspiring if the orders were ranged in accuracy of detail from
base to apex of pediment, with good extent of entablature. An avenue of such re-creations of full
proportions would indicate the transitions from race to race; the Egyptian to the Greek— the
C6INS, CERAMICS, ARMOR, FURNITURE, ETC. 6 1
Greek to the Roman. (See Fig. 63, p. 54.) Models to scale, of course, must suffice for the
generality of notable constructions ; such as are now being gained, of exquisite workmanship, to
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from the Willard bequest; but for the full inspira-
tion of their greatness and force, some great monuments should be revived in the dignity of
original stature or proportion.
In comparison with Europe the poverty of such material in our country is deplorable. The
recent addition to the Boston Art Museum of Casts, to a total of 777, valued at $50,000, is a wel-
come gain; and it is cheering to learn of a subscription of $100,000 to raise the New York list
from 168 specimens; but the Nation should at once command for its Capital all of such available
object-lessons from the past, to be re-distributed thence to local centres of learning throughout
the land.
There is no need to enumerate in detail other archaeological material of Museums essential
to the National Gallery — ^coins, ceramics, armor, furniture, bronzes, metal work, etc., etc.
Our country will reap the advantages of late inventive skill in all mechanical processes for
their reproduction.
The electrotype process in its high development will supply not only the coinage of all
periods and nations extant in the vast collection of the British Museum, a service to knowledge
greatly enjoyed by its venerable numismatist, Mr. Ready ; but by the same application of chem-
istry and galvanism, Messrs. Elkington & Co., of London, will supply large reproductions, such
as The Regalia from the Tower of London ; of Gold and Silver services from Windsor Castle ;
of Old English plate from Knole. The Corcoran Catalogue now has 139 specimens of electro-
type reproductions by Christofle & Co., of Paris, and Elkington & Co., of London, including the
Treasures of Hildesheim, the Pompeian Toilet, and Monument to Frederick the Great.
The South Kensington Museum and the Arundel Society of London have contracted with
Elkington & Co. for reproductions, in fictile ivory, of all their carved ivory objects, in aggregate
of immense value. These replica are for all uses as good as the originals. The catalogue con-
tains hundreds of articles dating through the past eighteen centuries — caskets, panels, book-
covers, tablets, shrines, diptichs, etc., etc.
The recital made of abundant material that is at once available vindicates the scale herein
advocated in immediate constructions for a National Gallery of History and Art, to be an Insti-
tute of Illustration.
The following design could be admirably utilized as a pavilion in the park ISTORIA.
JSjo. 74. HALL, PALACE OF ALLAHABAD. INDIAN COURT
62
No. 7S.
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
No. 76 No. 77
No 78
iNo. 03.
No. li,^,
CERAMICS. ALLEGORICAL TILES OF THE NATIONS BY SOLON. EXPOSITION, PARIS, 187S.
MONUMENTS AND BUILDINGS FOR REPRODUCTION.
No. 8s.— PARIS IN THE TIME OF FRANCIS FIRST.
Note. — It will be observed that several illustrations preceding are of reproductions advised in tlie next division of the subject,
it being impossible to place them always with the descriptive text.
Fig. 85 is an admirable example for panoramic painting of the architectural aspect of cities in different ages. This remarkable
restoration is photographed from a large drawing (12 in. by 42 in.) published by The Builder, London, 1S89, with a key plate to 102
objects. These will be revealed by a magnifying glass. In 18SS a similar plate was published of London in the time of Henry VIII.
The port, " St. Bernard," an illustration for the Medixval Court, is above the title in the foreground.
The Third of the novel and important provisions for this scheme of a National Gallery
is described in the Introduction as follows :
Reproductions i* full size in the Courts
of the respective Galleries of Historic Nationalities
of their remaining monuments ; and reproductions
of temples^ dwellings^ tombs ^ etc.,, typical of their
religion,, life., manners and art.
I believe this recommendation, if realized, will
prove the most popular and impressive feature
of the institution.
The reconstructions in the first Crystal Pal-
ace at Sydenham of small courts of various st3'les,
Egyptian, Pompeian, Moorish, Mediaeval and
Italian, by Wm. Owen Jones, Architect, were
unquestionably the most attractive and effective
impressions from the past upon observers, of all
the material exhibited.
The houses of all nations, by Monsieur Gar-
nier, in the late French Exposition, are reported
in all accounts therefrom as of the same superlative
interest.
The success of the Pompeia as an object-lesson
of Roman Art, Architecture, Mythology, Life and
Manners, is a precedent for an extensive elabora-
tion of the idea, through the fields of archaeology. Hitherto Museums and Galleries have
attempted only the elucidation of fragments exhumed from antiquity ; exhibiting the bones,
No. 80. INIHKIOR CI' AN tljYPTlAH I'ALACt.
64
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
— 'I^rii -1"
rarely even a skeleton, of ancient life. With the light of modern investigation thrown upon
monuments of past ages ; by the interpretation of their records, unlocked from mystery on
the clay cylinders of Nimroud, and the Ro-
setta Stone, the environment of former races
has been revealed to the scholar and detailed
in books.
By these data fractured ruins may be
readjusted; the voids supplied; the walls
raised; the roof or dome, towers, spire or pin-
nacle restored ; the altars placed ; pictured
worship or conflict ; domestic pursuit or lux-
ury; the joys of life, the ceremonies of death ;
may be re-created and we move among the
forerunners of civilization.
It has been the general opinion of trav-
elled visitors to the Pompeia, that they received
a more vivid conception of Roman life and its
surroundings from this reconstruction, than
had ever been gained- from the ruins of Pom-
peii, or the multiplied objects therefrom in the
show-cases of the Naples Museum. Anti-
quaries and scholars also have said that their
imaginations of the reality, vividly described in the romance of Bulwer and the critical text-
book of Becker, had never given a comprehension, such as was obtained from a circuit through
the halls, apartments and gardens of the house of Pansa ; in which Jove and Melpomene,
Victory and Ariadne, Bacchantes and Genii, the household gods and family scrtHia^ the pool
of the Atrium and the foliage of the Peristylium ; the altar for the Lares, and the reclining
couch of the Triclinium, are all in juxtaposition, amid their imposing surroundings of stately
columns and gorgeous decorations.
This last allusion recalls an incident apposite to this argument. Among the 378 visitors
of the Presbyterian Convention, was an eminent President of a Seminary, and Professor in
Theology. He greatly enjoyed the practical experiment with the writer of reclining at a feast,
like a Roman, on the couch of the Triclinium. The description of the posture from Classical
Dictionaries was more clearly indicated by a painting of a Feast of Genii, from Herculaneum,
reproduced on the walls by Pascal, of Paris, who went to Pompeii for study of the subject, and
by a copy of Boulanger's Feast of Lticullus.
Others of the company personated the servitors. The final impression was to this effect :
"For twenty years I have taught what has been dimly apprehended by me — the luxury
of the Roman Feast, in recumbent positions of the guests. I have hardly conceived them as
comfortable, but now I realize all the ease, luxury, and revelry of a symposium."*
•The illustration from Viollet le Due of a Greek symposium (Fig. 89) is awkwardly defective in the absence of the round pillows
on which the guests rested upon the elbow. Monsieur le Due was as rapid in execution as Dore, and in this instance he overlooked
an essential appliance. In the Pompeia they are simulated from the picture above mentioned from Herculaneum. (See page 65.)
No. 87. WKD'S-EYE VlhW OK AN EGYl'TIAN I'AI.ACh. R.
CASTS AND MODELS IN KENSINGTON MUSEUM.
65
List from Kensington Museum.
Annexed is a partial list of the casts and models of the Kensington Musenni. They
are extremely interesting and valuable. They should all be provided, and very many in
addition to stimulate the genius of our people.
partial list of casts and MODELS IN THE ARCHITECTURAL COURT OF THE KENSINGTON MUSEUM.
The Rood Loft from the Cathedral of Bdis-le-Diic.
Doorways of Rochester and Norwicli Cathedrals.
The Prentice Pillar — Rosslyn Chapel.
Recumbent Figures of Henry VII and Qiieen Eleanor.
Cloister at Toledo.
The Tabernacle of St. Leonard at Lean.
Baptismal Font, from Hal, Belgium (A. D. 1444).
Borgnival Monument.
Font at Liege.
Spanish-Moorish Arch from Toledo.
Arabesque Cupboard from Toledo.
Monument of Frederick the Great, Berlin.
The Piierta Delia Gloria of the Cathedral of Santiago.
Choir Stalls at Ulm.
Minstrels' Gallery — Exeter Cathedral.
Chimney-pieces from Tattershall Castle.
Chimney-piece from France; by Germain Pilon.
The Schreyer Monument at Nuremberg.
Lion of Brunswick.
The Trajan Column at Rome (in two portions).
Chimney-piece from the Palais de Justice, Bruges.
Doors of Augsburg and Hildesheim Cathedrals.
Corona, or Chandelier, from the Cathedral of Hildesheim.
Fountain, with Perseus and Medusa, from Munich.
Candlestick at Milan Cathedral.
Shrine of St. Sebald, by Peter Vischer.
Tomb of Count Hennenberg, by Peter Vischer.
Font at Hildesheim.
Wrought-iron Screens, from Hampton Court.
Florentine and Venetian Fountains.
Chapel, Reredos, and Arched Recess, from Church of
Santa Chiara (Florence).
Doorways from a Church at Genoa.
Terra-Cotta Busts of 15th Century.
Doorway of a Palace at Genoa.
The Gherardini Models.
Stone Chimney-pieces.
Altar-piece and Tabernacle from San Girolamo at Fiesole.
The Ghiberti Gates.
Panels from the Campo Santo.
Following this list I give a selection of structures and objects recommended for full re-
production, like the Pompeia; in confidence that it can all be accomplished with equal facility
No. 88. ATRIUM OF A GREEK HOUSE. R.
No. 89, — TRICLINIUM OF A GREEK HOUSE. R.
and thoroughness, and comparatively, with the advantageous results, at very nioderate expense.
66
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
For architectural grandeur ; as an inspiring ideal ; as pre-eminently commemorative of
the most powerful impulsive actiou of man since the Christian era : — let the Parthenon as
a Columbian Temple,
rise on an Acropolis, in
the perfection of its dig-
nity, unity, and beauty .'''
Let it be surrounded by
like constructious. The
Greek Federation of
States centered t la e i r
reverence and admira-
tion about their common
Temple. The Ameri-
can Union should raise
V a grander votive shrine
No. 90. — THE ROMAN COURT OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY. A FREE-HAND SKETCH, NOT IN ACCURATE SCALE OK °
PERSPECTIVE, SIMPLY TO ILLUSTRATE REPRODUCTIONS THEREIN OF A POMPEIAN HOUSE, COLUMBARIUM, ETC., ETC. T \_q thoSC who COUCcivcd
its origin and guided its growth, and greater temples for the perpetuation of its history ; as
the Republic of the United States is vaster than the Achaian League.
One of the principal functions of Greek art was to adorn the earthly habitation of the immortal gods — the Greek
Temple, whose grandeur and harmonious beauty make it one of the greatest achievements of the human intellect,
the glory of all succeeding ages.f
It is, therefore, because it is an expression of the highest aspiration of the human soul
toward "The Unknown God," that I can not enjoy a miniature of the Parthenon. Models
are invaluable for realism of examples in architectural study.
But, however exact the imitation of details, I can not with pleasure look downward,
beneath my stature, upon a dwarfed Parthenon; rather, heavenward along its massive, but
uplifting lines, for the attributes of power and beauty that it was created to express. We
should range its colonnade against the western horizon of the National Capital as a counterpart
to the stately dome upon the east : the one expressive of the highest legislative wisdom, the
other of the resultant intellectual development of a nation.
Reproductions Proposed.
In the Roman Court, as seen in the illustration Fig. 90.J
I. The Cabin of the Aboriginal Latians, modeled from the examples on cinerary urns found
near Alba.
*The Pantheon at Athens brings before our eyes the age of Pericles more clearly in all its perfection than any written page. — i
Fkrgusson. (See Addenda No. 5.)
t The introduction to the Catalogue of Casts from the Antique in the South Kensington Museum by Mr. Walter C. Perry, from
which I quote, offers great temptation to extended extracts from its clear exposition of the inspiration, beauty, and perfection of
Greek art.
J The two illustrations of the Roman and Arabic Courts, it will be observed, are not in exact perspective. They are photographed
from free-hand sketches by Pascal, hurriedly made for this publication. They are merely for illustration, like a blackboard figure
in chalk of a geometrical diagram.
REPRODUCTIONS IN ROMAN COURT.
(^1
2. Specimens of the Cloacae Maxima and other Roman masonry.
3. A replication of a section in the catacombs, with burial niches and altar, with inscriptions.
4. The Porta Maggiore, full
size. (See Fig. 9, p. 12).
5. A specimen of the ruins of
Pompeii, with a portion of lava road-
bed, a fountain, etc.
6. The Roman Palace of Scau-
rus, see pages 31 and 68.
7. Trajan's Column — full size.
The cast in the Kensington Mu-
seum is in plaster, in halves. The
Roman Court in our plan can receive
it in full size and grandeur in the
open air. It can be readily construc-
ted of concrete, a core being cast for
the shaft and the sections of relief work cemented thereto
No. 91.
-A ROMAN COLUMBARIUM.
R.
8. Restoration of the Temple of Jupiter iu Pompeii, see illustration, page 20.
9. Two or more Tombs from the Appian Way, with its pavements precisely imitated.
10. A Columbarium ; — the receptacle for the cinerary urns containing the ashes of the
dead (Fig. 91). Casts from many of the ornate
originals in the British Museum, to fill the
niches in the walls, will be beautiful art-models,
and interesting for their memorial inscriptions.
Among these suggestive re-creations there
should be —
II. A Rostra; its columns adorned with
beaks of galleys and Roman standards ; —
their proud initials S. P. Q. R.; their Eagles
and triumphal wreaths.
Bunsen considered that the Rostra of the
forum was a "circular building, raised on arches,
with a platform on top bordered by a parapet,
the access to it being by two flights of steps,
one on each side."
I can imagine the inspiration to the Pro-
fessor, speaking to the thousand excursionists,
No. 92.-THE CATACOMBS, ROME. R. cducators froui the East or the West, in sight
of these realistic images — in memoriam of the Rise, Greatness and Ruin of Rome.
The six acres enclosed by the galleries would contain these and others that might be desi-
rable.
68
A NATIONAL CalLeRY OP HlSTOkY AND ART.
i
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ornannQ
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From experience with the Porapeia, I estimate that the above could be reproduced entirely
for $650,000. The Roman House will
be the most costly object of the list.
I would add to these in the park
" ISTORIA," outside the walls of the
Historical Galleries (if there were not
sufficient area in the Roman Court), two
other important reproductions, viz :
1. A portion of the remains of the
Praetorian Camp of the Romans, now
carefully preserved on the heights of
the Saalburg in Germany.
2. A full reconstruction of the
Roman Baths, at Badenweiler, in the
Black Forest. The Prsetorian Camp
could be laid out on half scale. It would
be built of brick of Roman pattern ;
about 10 in. x 10 in. x i^. It would
give insight of the strength of Roman
fortifications on the line of the Taunus
range, against northern barbarians ; of
the discipline of their armies, and the
mathematical prevision of movement
which then, as in modern times, made
legions invincible.
The Baths at Badenweiler, discovered in 1784, are the most complete that remain from
the Roman domain, al-
though smaller than the
ruins of those of Diocle-
tian, Caracalla, and Titus
at Rome. In a rich edi-
t i o n of Vitruvius, the
authoritative Roman ar-
chitect, whose works are
extant, there is a full
plan of these baths.
Their length is 345 feet;
breadth 106. Partitions,
floors, steps, etc., are well
preserved. Canina also
(Architecturra Romana,
V. 3) gives the ground plan. In concrete they could be reproduced cheaply and with
No. ()}. — GROUND PLAN'oF^THE ROMAN PALACE OF SCAURUS. M.
No. 94.-
-SKETCH LIKE No. 90 FOR ILLUSTRATION OF MOORISH COURT, WITH REPRODUCTIONS; COURT OF THE
LIONS, ALHAMBRA, MOSQUE OF CORDOVA, MOSQUE AT CAIRO, ETC., ETC., ETC.
REPRODUCTIONS IN MOORISH COURT. 6g
facility. By pliotograplis of the walls and apartments with a scale ; and by specimens of
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No. 95. — INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE ALHAMBRA: " THERE IS NO
CONQUEROR BUT GOD." R.
brick, stone, and mortar from the rnins
to match the colors, all details could be
accurately depicted.
These constructions, with the sym-
bols, objects, weapons, utensils, and
ornaments which would appropriately
find place therein, would impressively
reveal the actualities of Roman worship,
No. 97. — MOSQUE OF CORDOVA. R. IN PART.
No. '96. — PUERTO DEl'sOL. GATE OF THE SUN. TOLEDO, SPAIN.
war, domestic life, art, and manufacture.
Thus would history be verified,
and art [resuscitated with the mean-
ing and beauty of their origin. The
utilisation of the Roman Court as
described, is an example for others
indicated upon the Ground Plan.
The Greek Court should en-
close an Agora, according to Vitru-
vius, with its double colonnades, its
Curia (Senate House), Basilica, al-
tars, and statues. Its Doric style
would be in harmonious effect with
the surmounting Parthenon and its
Roman modification in the opposite
Court.
70
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
Such surroundings would be an inspiration to archaeological and classic research, and stimu-
late zeal for American participation in present Greek explorations, which are yielding splendid
results.*
The wonderful Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (page 49) may yet reappear as a monument
to an American Mausolus — Croesus. The Caryatides of the Erechtheum ; indeed, the triple
temples that composed that structure, illustrating the freedom and picturesqueness with which
the Greeks applied their exact and stately architecture, should be added entire.
The Moorish Court (Fig. 94), should contain, as represented, a fraction of the Mosque
of Cordova; the Court of the Lions, from the
Alhambra, with the Puerto del Sol (Gate of
the Sun), at Toledo, for its entrance. (See
pages 34, 69.)
It is proposed that the angle towers (Fig.
36) at the boundaries of the Courts, which by
the scale will be about 75 feet square, shall
contain casts or reconstructions of famous
monuments or fragments of the richest con-
structions of the adjacent styles. Thus the
wonderfully rich piers of Burgos Cathedral
(Fig. 99), the Gothic Portal of Beauvais (Fig.
67), and the Norman Gate at Bristol (Fig.
112), would make superb terminals for vistas
of the galleries.
The Mediaeval and Renaissance
Courts will inherit an embarrassment of
riches from the monuments, dwellings and
relics remaining unharmed by time or human
despoilers.
The abundance of superb material is a perplexity of choice. That the illustrations of these
eras may be apart and continuous, they are placed throughout the next division of the subject.
In the Castle from the Rhine (Fig. 98), which we have placed upon the banks of the
Potomac, there must be the Baronial Hall (see illustrations of the time of Francis First), which
should contain the actualities of interiors portrayed on pages 76, ']'], and 78. The Gate of
St. Bernard, with its conical tourelles, should be entered across its moat under a port-
cullis.
Fragmentary illustrations of ancient art are of the highest importance in suggestion of
forms to students, and in aid of architectural design ; but they tell no story, suggest no idea, give
substance to no imagination, or reality to any description of the history or purpose of the struc-
tures from which they are detached.
No. 08. — MEDI/EVAL CASTLE OF RHEINSTEIN FOR THE SOUTHERN ANCLE OF
LINE OF GALLERY ON THE POTOMAC. R.
• See first vol. of "Antike Denkmaler." Berlin : 63 plates.
REPRODUCTIONS FOR GOTHIC COURT.
71
It is entirely practicable to effect thorough representation of the environment of historic
personages and incidents, so that the force of those characters and the consequences of those
occurrences shall be vividly imprinted upon the observer.
In such precise faithfulness and for such intellectual results, there should be re-created
from time to time actualities, exterior
and interior of monuments, houses,
rooms, etc., associated with events that
were greatly consequential to the hu-
man race. The field is the wide range
of historic association ; but those of pre-
eminent importance, of which the orig-
inal relics remain as patterns, are not
very numerous.
There might be reconstructed after
the originals —
1. Luther's Home in the Castle on
the Heights of the Wartburg, his Pat-
mos, where he was concealed for years
as the Knight George.
2. i ne xlall 01 the (jirondms, and No. ^c). — piers in burgos cathedral, such reproductions should fill the angle
,, ,, .-.. A.' • 1 towers, 75 feet by 75 feet, making superb termination of the vistas
the cell ot Mane Antoinette m the thrpugh the galleries, r.
round towers of the Conciergerie.
3. The cell of Savonarola.
4. The chamber of Mary, Queen of Scots, as left in Holyrood Castle.
5. The House of Peter the Great, at Saardam, in Holland, where he wrought at shipbuilding.
6. The House of Shakespeare.
7. The House of Mozart.
8. The House of Michael Angelo.
9. The House of Melancthon.
10. Rooms in London Tower.
11. The Room of Philip II, in the Escurial.
12. The Mamertine Prison at Rome, etc., etc., etc.
The buildings identified with the personages would receive the special illustrations of their
history and deeds. Herein would be a splendid and exhaustless field for future individual liber-
ality, wherein the wealthy and cultured could rear their monuments of personal interest and
bequests of materialized knowledge to posterity.
Let it be remembered that the outlay and construction herein described have been repeatedly
equalled at late world's expositions.
The Ground Plan assigns celebrated buildings, St. Sophia, Byzantine ; San Salute,
Renaissance, etc., to their respective courts. The buildings that will be demanded for the
lecture halls, competitive exhibitions, etc., may as well be in typical as imaginary forms.
72
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
It is hardly necessary to explain that the plan proposed is simply suggestive — illustrative of
the wide scope of illustration — not the
fixed details or objects. These would be
controlled by various considerations, the
grade and contour of ground, etc., etc.
But the system described^ of Courts^ for
the great divisions of history to contain
their respective architectural styles or re-
mains, is advocated strongly as far in ad-
vance for instruction and entertainment
all exhibits yet devised.
For the Indian Court :
The elaborateness of East India
temples (Figs. 39, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 74)
would forbid, probably, their reproduc-
tion in full detail. Upon a reduced scale,
sections of such structures could be re-
peated that would convey all information
revealed by the entire structures. Ori-
^^'^^--^-
mk
No. 100. — ASSYRIAN INTERIOR. A THRONE ROOM. R.
ental architecture had not the expression of the classic ;
nor the perfection of form, which is the consummation
of beauty. Its marvelous handiwork is the result
mainly of continuous labor still miserably paid, so that
with the present facilities of intercourse, rich and ex-
tensive fragmentary specimens could be commanded.
The Gothic Court should reproduce cloisters in
beauty and variety. The Campo Santo, of Pisa, the
window of Melrose Abbey, etc., etc., could enhance the
verdure enclosed with exquisite effect.
In a review of the fragmentary remains of the ancient
world for these imaginary reconstructions, I have found
none that might be undertaken with greater zest and
confidence of success than the Assyrian.
The exterior (Fig. loi), and the interior of an Assy-
rian Throne-Room (Fig. 100), would be imposing sub-
jects. " The Assyrian architecture," says Fergusson,
" was palatial, while that of the Greeks was templar.
It was gay with color, and of such dazzling magnifi-
cence that the inhabitants of Athens were led into
hyperbole in records of its splendor. Remains have
now been recovered to such an extent as enables us to
No. 101. — EXTERIOR OF AN ASSYRIAN PALACE.
ASSYRIAN REPRODUCTIONS.
73
restore their buildings almost as certainly as we can those of the temples of Greece and Rome
or any of the great nations of antiquity."
The huge sculptures exhumed by Layard and Botta and brought at enormous cost to the
British Museum are cheaply available by its liberality. Sixty slabs, reproductions, measuring
seven feet in length on an average, that would cover an area 300 feet long by 6 feet high, are
offered in the catalogue of
Brucciani for ;!^3o8, costing,
probably, in Washington,
$3,000. Their interest
would be vastly enhanced if
surrounding the grand hall
depicted, crested with the
giraffa or an architectural
symbol of flame (descended
through the ages of fi r e -
worship) and covered with
its roof of cedar.
In our imaginary repro-
ductions thus far, examples
o f Egyptian architecture,
the earliest and most sublime '^°- ioj.-propyl/hum-pylons.
works of man, are unapproached. Their vastness of scale would conflict with the moderate
classic elevations of the Historical Galleries, and therefore no area can be assigned to them
within the Courts.
Fortunately, on the reclaimed marshes, joining the desired site for the Gallery, there is an
appropriate site and a superb opportunity for these colossal monuments.
Substituting the Potomac for the Nile we would rear upon its banks an Egyptian Propy-
L^UM flanked by Pylons. (See Fig. 102.) These should be approached by an'AvENUE OF
Sphinxes from the base of the Washington Monument. Its exit through the gateway upon the
river would be a magnificent entrance to the proposed ornamental bridge to the Arlington shore.
This conception can be powerfully and cheaply realized in concrete. The columns and pylons
would be hollow. The latter, having a sunken glass roof, could be fitted in its interior as a
gallery of Egyptian illustration.
The sphinxes can also be readily reproduced.
This design probably embodies the most sublime architectural effect possible to be created at
the base of the Washington obelisk ; in itself a pure Egyptian form that would make a fitting
and harmonious terminal opposite the Propylaeum.
The Egyptians built, not for exquisite detail but for duration.
They understood better than any other nation how to make their colossi and avenues of sphinxes group them-
selves into parts of one grand design. With the most brilliant coloring they thus harmonized sculpture, painting, and
architecture into one great whole, unsurpassed by anything the world has seen during the thirty centuries of struggle
and aspiration that have elapsed since the brilliant days of the great kingdom of the Pharaohs.
74
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
No. 103. — THE SPHINXES OF WADl SEBUA.
We have borrowed their commemorative form, the obelisk, " simple, erect, sublime," for a
memorial to the Father of our
Country. At its base may be ef-
fectively and appropriately added
their material expression of dura-
tion— the sphinx — placidly immo-
bile as the Olympian God ; dream-
ingly observant of its own exist-
ence, passing onward through
30 centuries, but as a mote upon
the current of an eternity " without
beginning of days or end of years."
Imagination may picture
glowingly to the eye of the mind
this vast pile, darkening by its
stately mass the setting sun, whose
rays gleam upon the rippling river
through the majestic portals, while
Eastward, they " linger and play upon the summit " that inspires faith in a long future for the
work of Washington.
Midway on the line of the Avenue of Sphinxes should open, at right angles, an approach
to the Propylon and Court
of the Temple of Medinet-
Habou, Thebes (Fig. 104).
Front of the Propylon should
be placed the two Colossi of
Rhamses the Great, which
were reproduced full size in
the Crystal Palace in 1851.
The Propylon is seen on the
right of the picture. It is 107
feet wide. The Caryatides
on the rear wall are 26 feet 4
inches in height, the base 2
feet 3 inches, the entablature
8 feet 9 inches, making the
height of the structure 37 feet
6 inches. All this could read-
ily be done, true in color,
exact in relief, indestructibly
and cheaply, in concrete,
No. 104. — EGYPTIAN TEMPLE OF MEDINET. R. IN PART.
EGYPTIAN REPRODUCTIONS ON THE LOWLANDS OF THE POTOMAC.
75
On the opposite side of the Avenue should open an approach to a topographical recon-
struction of the three great pyramids of Gizeh, on a scale of dignity, but altogether subsidiary
to the effect of the Washington obelisk.
There could not be devised, I believe, a more impressive and ornamental use of the
uninteresting flats recovered from the Potomac, than the elevation thereupon of the simple,
but exquisite, upward lines of the pyramids; those " mighty royal tombs;" " eternal dwell-
ings of the dead ; " " the oldest, largest, and most mysterious of all the monuments of man's
art now existing."
The models would be hollow, to save needless material. By electric light, this interior
space could be thoroughly utilized. In one, the King's Chamber (34 feet 3 inches by 17 feet
I inch) and passage thereto should be accurately illustrated, with their walls and roofs of
splendid slabs of polished granite, but this would not at all necessitate a solid construction of
the remaining mass.
One pyramid should show the exterior surface in its pristine beauty, reveled with polished
stones; the others in their present
spoliated condition, with courses of
steps. In concrete, the exact pro-
portion of the enormous blocks in
the pyramids, and the vast blocks
which formed the avenue of ap-
proach exciting the wonder of
Herodotus, could be precisely du-
plicated. Near by the model of
the Pyramid of Cheops* should
be cast a full model (hollow) in
concrete, of the largest quarried
stone in the world, at Baalbec, 71
feet long by 14 feet high by 13 No. lo^;.— pyramids of gizeh.
feet wide. Among these objects, and fringing the banks of the Potomac, should wave masses
of the reedy lotus with its superb lilies. The plantation of Mr. Sturtevant at Bordentown, N. J.,
should be repeated, with appropriate surroundings.
Does this seem chimerical ? On the contrary, let it be remembered that the cubical con-
tents required for an imposing scale has many a time been buried in concrete and forgotten
beneath fortifications, the Bartholdi Statue, etc., etc. Precisely this method of illustration in
more complex forms has been applied to geological illustrations in the grounds of Sydenham
Palace, reproducing the scenery of ante-Silurian ages, with mammoth forms of animal life.
In Rome we visit the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, the tomb of a tribune of the people, built,
according to its record, in 330 days. It is 116 feet high, 98 feet square at base, faced with mar-
ble. The cost of this tomb of an individual to-day, would be more than that of the three effect-
ive models of the Pyramids of Gizeh above described, of larger dimensions in concrete.
♦The largest was 760 feet square, 484 feet high, covering more than 13 acres, twice the area of St. Peter's.
The Administration of the National Gallery : Its Methods and Facilities for the
Dissemination of Knowledge.
The only freedom worth possessing is that which gives enlargement to a people's energy, intellect, and virtues.
The savage boasts of his freedom ; but what is it worth.? — Channing.
AS ultimately to constitute one of the most extensive and useful departments under govern-
mental control, the direction of the National Gallery should be secured forever to a
Regency corresponding to that of the Smithsonian Institution. Its " establishment " consists of
the President and Vice-President of the United States, the members of the Cabinet, the Chief
Justice of the United States, an official of Washington, and " honorary members, as they may
elect." The third section names the officials and designates the sections of the country from
which the Regents shall be chosen. For the National Gallery the latter class should include
Presidents of Universities in the District of Columbia, the Chancellor of the Smithsonian Insti-
tution, and other prominent educators from the States.
EJC^IUf In supposition that the Galleries have been provided, and that they have received sufficient
material for the commencement of its activities, we will anticipate its beneficent and expansive
results.
First. — Lectures : There would be employment for a staff of able professors in history^ art,
and archcBology.
Intelligent students of the silent relics
and restorations from the past, to interpret
the lessons they reveal, to unite facts in the
chain of evidence, to explain the wide scope
of their revelations ; — would be demanded.
Therefore the plan provides lecture halls for
each section of historical material.
Our country may find some compensation
for its long and utter deprivation of such
facilities, in its opportunity to begin with all
the appliances which experience has proved to
be expedient. No foreign institution covering
the whole field of exhibits has any such pro-
vision for their public and scholarly elucida-
tion. When the Institute is organized lec-
tures upon the various historical courts should
be delivered constantly throughout the year ;
so that excursionists from the entire country
could always find instructors at their posts.
In 1882 Mr, Edward A. Bond, Principal
No. 100. — TOWN HALL, ANTWKh
Librarian of the British Museum, reported as follows
Note.— Through this paper are inserted illustrations of appropriate objects and structures for reproductions, and interesting
subjects for historical paintings of the Mediaval and Renaissance periods.
LEcTUftES.
77
Educational Uses of the Museum. — In concluding this general review of the gradual formation of the different
collections, it may be held excusable to point out that they are exhibited not as mere objects of curiosity or of passing
interest, but as means of direct instruction - -• ■ - - - -- ,,
in art, archaeology, and natural science.
It would seem, however, that this truth is
far from being recognized. As yet, but
few are the occasions when a lecture or a
demonstration is offered to a school or
class brought to a particular gallery for
instruction.
If lessons could be given to students
from the visible objects and specimens ex-
hibited in the Museum, it cannot be
doubted that a more living interest in the
sciences they illustrate would be awakened,
than can be excited by the more usual
modes of teaching from the book.
Until this metiiod is generally fol-
lowed it cannot be said that the British
Museum or other kindred institutions are
properl)' appreciated, or made to assist as
they ought the progress of education.
R.
No. 107. — SALON, HONTAINEBLtAU.
In 1888 the Librarian enforced the importance of Lectures thus: * * * " The Trustees have not the power to
institute a system of teaching from the collections further than by means of printed catalogues and guides. A few very
valuable lectures have of late been given on Antiquities, • » • and it may be hoped that increased attention to
the study will lead to an extension of this method of utilizing the collections."
It would be difficult to write more appositely in commendation of the scheme herein set forth.
Unhappily for the Librarian's recommendation at home, the cold, crowded halls of the
British Museum are insufficient
for the material they have to ex-
hibit. The sentence previous to
the above extracts deplores the
crowded state of " the basement "
" from want of exhibiting space,"
where are "stored, rather than
exhibited, very interesting monu-
ments of antiquity — Roman sep-
ulchres, Greek inscriptions, etc.,
etc." There can be no accom-
modation for lectures in connec-
tion with the present exhibition
halls.
The following is an announce-
ment of Lectures at South Ken-
sington :
No. 108. — CHAMBER AT AlZREY.
7a
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
A course of twelve lectures on anatomy as applicable to tiie arts is given in each term. The Spring course may
be attended by ladies. Fee for the course, 6s. ; for a single lecture, is. A course of forty lectures on the " Historical
Development of Ornamental Art" is given each year. The public is admitted on payment of J'^s. for the complete
annual course ; lo.?. for the course of twenty lectures each term ; or is. each lecture. Other lectures will be delivered
occasionally and duly announced.
Application for admission, prospectuses, or other information should be made at the schools.
There is an annual examination for prizes in all schools of art, and a national competition.
Second. — Publications : Illustrated., instructive .
The Gallery, as it practically develops into an Institute of Illustration, will publish hand-
books, critical and explanatory
of each department, like those
of the Kensington Museum on
Spanish art, Persian art, on Fur-
niture, etc., etc.
The following is an entry
in the Guide to the South Ken-
sington Museum on the copious
list of its publications :
Handbooks. — Handbooks of Indus-
trial Art, edited by William Maskell,
M. A. Textile fabrics, ivories, majol-
ica, furniture, musical instruments,
bronzes, glass, gold- and silversmiths'
work. With numerous illustrations.
Compiled from the introductions to the
No. lOQ.— OALLEKY OF FRANCIS FIRST, FONTAiNEBLEAu. R. larger works ou thc samc subjYcts uamcd
above. \s. each ; in cloth, is. 6d.
This is a specimen announce-
ment of a list of sixt}' publications
" for sale at the Catalogue stall."
Other titles are, " The Trojan
Column as reproduced in the Mu-
seum," "Fictile Ivories,"' " Monu-
ments of Early Christian Art,"
" Manual of Design," etc., etc.
All the material thus made
available to the people could be
quickly supplied from our National
Gallery; and, moreover, the novel
expedients above provided will
supply matter more attractive for
such publications than any exist-
ing institution, viz. : the full repro-
ductions of buildings and contents No. i io.-chamber of mar.e de medicis. r.
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proposed, and the consecutive series of historical pictures.
PUBLICATIONS— DISTRIBUTION OF REPRODUCTIONS.
79
Each restoration of an ancient or modern building would demand its illustrated catalogue
like that of The Pompeia, of which 75,000 have been circulated in a year, and which is now called
for as a text-book in colleges.
What more effective historical lessons can be suggested than a book with photogravures
of the 102 illustrations of Roman History, by Pinelli, each
with sufficient text to explain its meaning; and these re-
presentations imprinted on the memory from paintings, with
the characters to life in size and with their original acces-
sories ?
These text-books, catalogues, and all essays, treatises,
etc., emanating from the professors of the institute would
be sold at the lowest minimum of cost for widest possible
circulation.
Photographs in like manner would be for sale of all
interesting objects, as in the museums of Europe. These
would furnish to all minor collections fac shniles of the
objects in the National Gallery to the extent of their finan-
cial resources. Incidentally, publications and photographs
would supply exchanges with other institutions upon the
plan advocated by Monsieur Vattemare a generation ago.
The King of the Belgians commanded an historical
painting of great value, upon an incident of national history,
and the engraving of it in best execution ; then impressions
were sold at a nominal price, that lowly homes of his sub-
jects could be adorned with a work elevating in influence
toward patriotism and culture.
In like manner from the National Capital there may
issue to distant hamlets portrayals of the national history, impressing the youth of the nation
with its crises and triumphs, from Washington at Trenton to Lincoln at Gettysburg.
This suggestion of publications for other institutions indicates another result of the greatest
importance to the entire country, viz. :
Third. — Reproductions of all objects practicuble by casts, electrotypes, etc., etc.
The facilities offered by foreign institutions for the distribution of counterparts of their objects
have been already recited. Our country is to this date entirely dependent upon them. The art
museums of our cities and colleges, trifling as are the largest of them in comparison with the material
available, are all now dependent upon foreign importations at excessive extra expense. Why should
this continue ? Why should not our Government establish its central depository of models from
which should be supplied to all applicants replica at minimum cost?
The plan of the National Gallery provides for basement shops beneath all the halls for such
purposes. The plastic establishments for casts, potteries and kilns for terra cottas, laboratories
for electrotypes, etc., etc, mentioned as to be provided, should cheapen to the utmost art products
No. III.
COURT IN THE PALACE OF THE INFANTA,
ZARAGOSSA, SPAIN. R.
8o
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
for the nation. At this writing I read of a visit of Directors of the New York Museum to the
Slater Museum for examination of an importation by the latter, in view of an expenditure of
50,000 dollars for casts.
Considering their cheapness the nation should at once supply all that are desirable to itself at
its Capital, and then establish facilities by
which communities throughout the land may
have the choice of all for their use at the
least expense.
An illustration of the zeal with which
the British Government seeks its antiquarian
materials is a published " minute " of corre-
spondence of Earl Granville, 1864, of the
Com. of Council on Education, with the Sec-
retary of State for Foreign Affairs, soliciting
his oihcial aid through Her Majesty's repre-
sentatives at Dresden, Paris, Rome, etc., in
procuring information as to objects of fine art
or art workmanship, that copies may be ob-
tained. The vigor of the search which was
" instructed " b3'^ Lord John Russell is indi-
cated by this schedule :
A, The private collections of the Sover-
eign and in Royal Palaces.
B. The state or public collections.
C. The collections of the church, in the treasuries of cathedrals, churches, monasteries, etc.
D. The collections of towns, guilds, municipalities, in their halls.
E. Well-known collections of private individuals which are heirlooms of permanent collections.
In the report of the Kensington Museum of 1864 it is stated " Arrangements now exist by
which every object of the art collections may be copied by some one of the many processes."
The United States cannot claim equality in intellectual enterprise with the European powers
until they enter the competition for its rewards.
Fourth. — The Institute would maintain an efficient Bureau of Information and Correspondence.
This department would not only facilitate the examination of the collections, but it would
answer inquiries and obtain models or drawings, as desired, of other relevant objects. It would
investigate for parties at a distance by its indexed catalogue of engravings above proposed^ illustra-
tions in the lines of their designs or investigations, besides the catalogues of specimens held by
the Gallery ; returning descriptions thereof, or photographs if desired.
Those who have had the tedious and unsatisfactory experience of a search in the large libra-
ries of our cities and colleges for art illustrations of a special theme will appreciate the superlative
usefulness of such collateral aid. If the duplicates or photographs of foreign collections are largely
No I 12. — NORMAN GATE, COLLEGE GREEN, BRISTOL, ENGLAND."
R.
,,.^iiMgav>Wiitb''^tW.^mti|<>jiiiij^iw iiuM|ijP.iw .L ;ji-i.
DISTRIBUTIONS OF REPRODUCTIONS— PATRONAGE OF ART. 8l
obtained, and thoroughly indexed, as is essential to their use, this Bureau of Information would be
easily organized ; and it would be a help to scholarly and artistic labors unequalled of its kind.
The liberal system of the Boston Public Library
in these regards is, in many details, a model for all
literary institutions.
It issues not only catalogues, but bulletins upon
various subjects as guides to readers and investi-
gators.
It employs assistants to answer literary inquiries,
either in person or by correspondence. It invites re-
quests for the purchase of books — new, rare, or for
special use. It maintains its agents in Europe to
answer requisitions. The poor student may apply
for foreign volumes upon his special topic, and upon
their receipt a notification will be sent to him. It
places its catalogues and an express service at branch
ofiices for the few leisure hours of the mechanic.
Above all, it trusts the people. From its beginning,
despite predictions of robbery and damage, it has
loaned its books to them in their homes. For thirty
years they have demonstrated their integrity ; the
annual loss and injury having been trifling. Its staff no. ii3.-german cloth, hall brunswick. r.
numbers nearly one hundred and fifty persons ; its annual expense is something over one
hundred thousand dollars. No tax upon the citizens is more cheerfully accepted.
These details are appropriate to the prospectus here discussed. By similar methods the In-
stitute should spread forth its facilities and multiply its benefits. It should be the servant,
diligent and painstaking, of the most distant American citizen.
Fifth. — Grandly beneficent and stimulating to the culture of the nation would be the patronage
of art by the National Gallery.
This would result first by its orders for the series of historical paintings described. The
method for their acquisition has already been indicated. It involves the employment of preceptors,
both of general scholarship and artistic manipulation ; the one to supply the data, the other to
direct their acceptable artistic representation.
Naturally from this demand would follow competitions in design. These should be an annual
incident of the Institute of the greatest public interest. They would necessitate a Salon of public
exhibition of cartoons and an award of prizes. Art would be consecrated to patriotism ; its works
would be diverted to heroic inspirations, rather than as at present, almost entirely to fanciful,
romantic, airy, and intangible creations.*
*I cut from the issue of the N. Y. Times, of the date of this writing (April 26), a report of the exhibits at the next Salon :
"The list of pictures opens with Bougereau's ' Cupid in a Storm ;' ' Love as a child, shivering in the rain,' etc., etc. We must pity
him and hasten on ! We proceed to read : Pelouse, ' The Morning Dew;' Fleury, ' A Billet-doux;' Marquan, ' A Siren's Sleeping-
place ;' ' Birth of the Pearl ;' and ' Toilet of Ganswinthe.' "
Of 58 pictures recited but 3 have any relation to History or Knowledge, viz., Lauren's Visit of Louis XVI to the Hotel de Ville,
82
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
This comment would in no wise disparage sentiment and imagination in art. Delicacy and
spirituality everywhere environ us in Nature.
The zephjT that fans us, the sun-rays and
clouds, make the glory and beauty of the heavens ;
the ethereal world of artist life, and of his imi-
tative ambition. In the spiritual and poetic
impulses of his nature, he animates that airy
creation with angels and fairies, and would fain
bring them down to earth and enliven haunts of
Nature for their Paradise.
These are the fields and the only fields
for some artistic souls, that may well be styled
" impressionists," and when they can seize upon
and fix their visions, art is in its most fascinating
realm.
But there is prose as well as poetry in life ;
there is conflict as well as romance ; there is the
clash of arms as well as the sigh of the lover;
and for the strength of the race, mental and moral,
art should be somewhat diverted from sentimental
to actual relations.
Our country needs its aid in reproducing ac-
tualities of its past histor}^ that shall imprint
upon the national character integrity, patriotism, and the heroic virtues upon which its existence
depends.
Sixth. — Aid lo tnechanical and decorative arts ivill be one of the most practical and valuable
functions of the Gallery and Institute.
When as completely organized and equipped as the South Kensington Museum, the Ameri-
can National Gallery will accomplish for the people of the United States, the incalculable benefits
of the former to the British nation. The mere recital of its administrative appliances will indicate
their scope and influence.
Its Science and Art Department issues its " Science Directory " of instruction in twenty-four
branches.
No. 114. — GARDEN, CHATEAU CAILLON. R.
a painting 30 feet by 12 feet, and Roy's pictures of " The Reveille of Solferino" and " The Infantry of 1835." The latter reveal a suc-
cessor in subjects to Meissonier.
The exhibits of American artists number 54. The subjects are almost entirely fanciful and imaginary, save a few portraits and
landscapes. Mr. Weeks exhibits his realistic and beautiful Oriental scenes; Mr. Humphrey Moore, of New York, a scene in the
Alhambra, and Mr. Clinton Peters, "A twilight scene in the streets of Paris, 15th Century." These clothe facts in beauty and truth,
and are contributions to knowledge, for which they have this expression of indebtedness.
In the same issue it is stated that the art-dealer Gill, of Springfield, Mass., has sold, from his last collection of American pic-
tures, 60 canvasses. The first named is Warren Shepard's " Kearsarge and Alabama," for $1,200. The others named are all fanciful :
"Snow-Flakes;" "Coming," etc.
Mr. Shepard's patriotic choice of subject merited this appreciative notice.
PAtRONACiE OF ART.
83
It gives grants of money in aid of local efforts to establisli schools.
It aids students also by money rewards for high attainments.
It grants in aid of new buildings for Schools of Science at the rate of 2s. 6d. per square foot
of internal area, and toward laboratories, etc., etc.
It maintains Elementary Day-Schools.
It instructs in Art at the National Art Training School.
It aids local Art Classes by grants to Local Art Com-
mittees.
Its Loan Collections in London, and Circulating Mu-
seums through the Kingdom, previously cited, have stimu-
lated public interest until now permanent galleries are
established in the principal cities.
The result of its forty years operations has been such
an impetus to British decorative art and architecture that
the nation is now the peer of Germany and France in
many departments in which, previously, it was an inferior.
European nations, not content with their accumula-
tions of past centuries, have followed the example of the
Kensington Museum. The Austrian Museum of Art,
founded 1863, and the Germanic Museum, at Nuremberg,
for promotion of German historical research, greatly en-
larged since 1865, are evidences of their zeal.
Paris, in addition to its famous galleries, has its Musee
des Arts Decoratifs, with corresponding and interchanging
museums in the larger cities. Eight thousand students
attend lectures in Paris. In the Ecole des Beaux Arts there are twenty-one professors of the
highest rank.
It is unpleasant to contrast with these facts that, in these lines of investigation, our country
has at its Capital attempted nothing.
To the beneficence of an Englishman we are indebted for an institution of which we may
be proud — the Smithsonian. It has won position for ability and efficiency equal to all other
scientific organizations of the world.
But its labor, in its technical and philosophical nature, is in distinct demarcation from the
field designated for the proposed institution.*
* It covers the ethnology, ornithology, geology, etc. ; the entire natural history of our territory. It explores, analyzes, and
reveals the mineral treasures of our land. It pursues with the keenest scientific observation the animalculiE that may infect the air,
the water, or the products of our country. It is now crowded with material gathered in the exploration and development of our terri-
tories.
It should have the proposed New National Museum to receive collections that have of late been refused ; and large appropri-
ations of money for its worthy uses.
In enthusiasm for the purpose of its organization, its Regency will eagerly endorse this proposed institution, as a complement
to their own for the " dissemination of knowledge among men."
The National Museum at Washington covers 2.35 acres, and is one of the best structures in the world for its purposes. The
84
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
Seventh. — Employment of a refined and educatwftal nature for men and women would result
upon a, large scale from the activities of the Institute.
At the outset, the constructions would employ ordinary and mechanical labor.
In the operation and expansion of its educational work, thousands would be demanded, in
various pursuits : antiquaries, curators, artists, sculptors, photographers, electrotypers, printers,
binders, moulders in cement, plaster, clay
and wax, attendants, clerks, guides, gar-
deners, joiners, watchmen, pages, janitors,
laborers, etc., etc., these for various spheres
to aid the highest administrative ability in
art and scholarship.
If the Boston Public Library employs
150 persons, in stimulating knowledge
from its one resource — books — the material
herein pre-supposed would demand thou-
sands, in the care, increase, and utilijiation
of its material, and in efficient service of
its 10,000,000 clients. Such a pay-roll
would be unsurpassed, in compensating
beneficence, in the files of the National
Treasury. What contrast to the oppressive
and exhaustive burdens upon European
nations for the maintenance of armies in
idleness !
It is related that Louis XVI employed
30,000 soldiers upon the pleasure parks of
his royal domain at Versailles. It is a direful necessity that the nation must now appropriate
$30,000,000 to warlike defences ; although a satisfaction that the disbursement gives employment
to artisans, and that war ships may also continue to others a support. What greater return
would flow from an expenditure that maintained a proportionate establishment for the mental
elevation of the people I
accumulations of material for its purposes now awaiting space for exhibition demand a duplicate of the present building, for which
plans are prepared. But to show how completely distinct its useful fields of study and illustration are from the proposed National
Gallery, the following statement is quoted from President J. C. Welling, LL. D., of the Columbian University, Washington:
" The National Museum has twenty-two distinct scientific departments under its jurisdiction : The departments of comparative
anatomy, of mammals, of birds, of reptiles, of fishes, of moUusks, of insects, of marine invertebrates, of plants, of fossil vertebrates, of
paleozoic fossil invertebrates, of mesozoic fossil invertebrates, of cenozoic fossil invertebrates, of fossil plants, of geology and petrol-
ogy, of mineralogy, of metallurgy and mining, of prehistoric archceology, of ethnology, of oriental antiquities, of American aboriginal
pottery, of arts and industries, comprising under these last-named heads numismatics, graphic arts, foods, textiles, fisheries, historical
relics, materia medica, naval architecture, history of transportation, etc., etc., etc.
" Each of these departments is placed under a curator, and is provided with the necessary appliances for original research ; and
these appliances are yearly increasing in completeness and efficiency."
No. 1 It). — GATE OH ST. BERNARD, FROM " PARIS IN THE TIME OF FRANCIS FIRST.''
FOR NORTHERN ANGLE ON THE POTOMAC. R.
Estimated Cost of the' Galleries-a Central and most Advantageous Site in
Washington ; now Unimproved and Cheaply Available—
The Future of Washington.
In America, literature and the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the coarser plants of daily necessity.
■ — Irving.
Young America will soon be what Athens was. — Wendell Phillips.
The true grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, sustained, enlightened, and decorated by the intellect
of man. — ^Charles Sumner.
THE building of the Casa-Monica involved all the data pertaining to the cost of concrete
construction. That structure has now stood
four years with increase of solidity and enhance-
ment of beauty in color.
The Pompeia has supplied an example, in a
finer mixture of sand and concrete only, upon the
lines of the Roman Doric order ; precisely the
material and forms proposed in the design herewith
submitted.*
The cost at Washington will be considerably less
than at St. Augustine by the saving in shipment of
cement the long distance to Florida. For sand, there
would be a water transportation directly to a site
upon the Potomac. These are the cheapest possible
conditions.
As authoritative from an architect of fifty years' No. 1 17.— .talian palace (gandagni), Florence, r.
practice, and in the practical use of beton (concrete) in the Cathedral of New York, the estimated
cost of Mr. James Renwick from his above-quoted letter is. appended :
With regard to the cost of the galleries and corner towers, it will of course be dependent on the favorable or un-
favorable position on which the building is located.
I have made the following estimate for 100 feet of the Gallery with a basement ten feet high and foundations
carried five feet below the surface of the ground. The galleries are thirty-two feet high and thirty-five feet wide, and
the colonnades twenty-five feet high and thirteen feet broad each, and the building is supposed to stand on level ground :
The estimate is as follows :
Excavation, 1,700 cubic yards ........ . $800 00
Concrete in whole building, 48,650 cubic feet, at 25 cents, . . . 12,16300
Models of columns, etc., . . ........ 2,000 00
Iron beams, 34,250 pounds, at 5 cents, ....... 1,80000
7,600 feet of roof and skylight, . ........ 7,600 00
20 windows in basement, . ......... 500 00
\ of corner towers, estimated at, ........ . 6,000 00
Heating by steam, ............ 500 00
Total cost of loo feet of Gallery, $315363 00
This is probably a safe estimate within 7 per cent.
Yours truly,
(Signed) James Renwick.
* Addenda No. 6, as to concrete.
Note. — Through this paper illustrations of various temples and dwellings of mankind are inserted, which are imagined grad-
ually to find place with others in the Park ISTORIA, or be modelled for the galleries.
86
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
The item of models in the above estimate may be averaged over i,ooo feet of galleries, but the
above figures make the cost of 20,000
feet range of galleries ; that is, all
upon the ground plan, angle towers
included, complete, about $6,000,000.
It is estimated that $4,000,000 ad-
ditional would construct the Parthe-
nonic Temples and many other histori-
cal buildings and objects.
One million dollars ($1,000,000)
will construct the Roman and Greek
Galleries, and another will richly sup-
ply them with illustrative material of
the greatest educational value. Could
this specimen be accomplished, public
interest would quickly demand the
entirety.
Mr. Conway quotes encourage-
ment for such a beginning. "I re-
marked," he writes, " to a gentleman connected with the Kensington Museum at its origin, that
I had heard various American gentlemen inquiring whether such an institution might not exist
in their own country," and he said : " Let them plant the thing and it can't help growing, and
most likely beyond their powers — as it has been almost beyond ours — to keep up with it."
It seems almost needless to argue as to the ability of the country to command at once the
entire work, and hasten to the present generation its resultant benefits.
It would be less than the cost of the United States Capitol, of the Brooklyn Bridge, of the
State House of New York, or of the City Hall of Philadelphia.*
The above estimate, as is seen, is for buildings only. The cost of land can be merely
supposed, as it is contingent upon location.
When the first paper in behalf of the National Gallery was prepared, it was assumed, in
ignorance of the contrary, that the institution must be placed in the suburbs of Washington.
It was suggested that a land syndicate would give 250 acres from a tract of, say, 1,000 acres, for
No. 118. — ^JAPANESK I'AVILION AND DWELLINGS. R.
•The Grand Opera House, Paris, cost $9,000,000.
The Capitol has cost $17,000,000.
The new State, War and Navy Buildings, $10,000,000.
The new building for the Congressional Library is to cost $6,000,000.
Chicago spent last year $59,000,000 on buildings that on one side of a street would extend over fifty miles. New York
spent $74,900,812.
The combined expenditure of the United States and foreign countries for the Columbian Exposition is estimated at $40,000,000.
The appropriations of the last Congress will amount to j5i, 000,000,000 for two years.
The cost of the ship of war, the Ohio, for one year of service, was $220,000; of Harvard College, $47,935. In other words, the
annual sum lavished on a single ship of the line equals that paid for four institutions like Harvard University. — The True Grandeur
of Na I ions, Stimtier's Oration, July 4, /8jo.
A CENTRAL AND MOST ADVANTAGEOUS SITE IN WASHINGTON.
87
the enhancement in value of the remainder. Inquiry at Washington of owners of extensive
tracts emphatically confirmed the opinion.*
This anticipated provision of land gratis
was stated in the "Brief" upon the National
Gallery prepared for the press at its first pre-
sentation in Washington in December, 1890.
It brought a gratifying surprise from Col. An-
derson, secretary of the Washington Board of
Trade, viz : that the best possible site was avail-
able in the premises of the National Observatory
upon the Potomac, and the adjacent block, as
indicated upon the plans of Washington. This
site was described as follows, in his argument be-
fore the Senate Committee upon a World's Ex-
position, January 10, 1890:
One of the most important features is an easily acces-
sible site, and to illustrate the wonderful advantages Wash-
ington has in this respect over all otlier cities, I invite your '^°- ' 19— Chinese dwelling, interior. R.
attention to the accomiianying diagram illustrating the last-mentioned site. (This was the plan, Fig. 7.)
The existing park extending from the Capitol
to the Monument and Executive Mansion contains
three hundred acres. Over seven hundred more
acres will soon be added by the reclamation of the
Potomac Flats, and two hundred and twenty
more can l)c added by using the grounds of the
Observatory, which is soon to be removed, and
by cotidemning the adjoining and comparatively
unimproved property between F and B streets,
and the State Department and Observatory.
These two hundred and twenty acres arc above
the Jtood line, well adapted to drainage and most
desirable for permanent buildings. All stieet-
car lines converge toward or run parallel with it.
All steam lines from the North, South, and West
enter it, except the B. & O. R.R., and that adjoins
it. The Potomac River faces it. All of the prin-
cipal hotels (indicated upon the diagram by the
round dots) are so near this park that not even a
No. 120. — CHINESE DWELLING. EXTERIOR. R. . . . i i ^ i -i t^ • -.i ■ ,^
street car is needed to reach it. It is within five
minutes' walk, not only of these hotels, but of the principal boarding-houses.
*The author is advised by prominent residents of Washington to make the following statement, in consideration of the specula-
tive interest frequently associated with enterprises affecting values of adjacent real estate, viz : That he does not own a foot of land
in^the city of Washington or its neighborhood, nor has he any intention of such ownership, and that he is not acquainted with the
proprietor of any land west of the Treasury Department. Fortunately, the Observatory tract, if condemned at once by the Govern-
ment, is beyond speculative monopoly, while its boundaries prevent any realization of increased value except along F street on the
north ; all which line is now held by many individual owners in homestead. The tract is bounded on the west by the Potomac river;
on the east and southby Government Parks.
88
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
Attention is invited to the important fact that vessels can land and unload their freights at wharves immediately
adjoining the grounds.
i
No. 121. — NORWEGIAN CHURCH, HITTERDAL. I 2TH CENTURY. M.
The Observatory occupies, I am told, about 25 acres of this tract, which are now being
vacated. It rises to 96 feet above the Potomac ; six
feet above the level of the floor of the Rotunda
of the Capitol. From this it slopes to the Potomac
on the west, and the Presidential grounds on the
east. Topographically, the tract is all that could be
desired for a realization of the design for the Gallery.
It is of the highest importance that the Gallery
should be centrally located in the National Metropo-
lis. Its attractions would invite the longest stay
possible by the people who would come from afar to
study and enjoy them, and who would suffer both
in time and money, by travel to it, if at a distance in
the suburbs.
The British Museum and the Kensington are in
the heart of London ; and the Louvre, Luxemburg,
Ecole des Beaux Arts, Luxemburg and Cluny Museums are likewise in the centre of Paris.
A University may well be located in retirement,
but a Museum should be directly in the public
pathway. Nothing more could be desired in this
regard for the Gallery, than the Observatory site,
adjoining the Executive and Departmental Build-
ings.
The remainder of the tract eastward to 17th
street, described by the Secretary of the Board of
Trade in the note appended, is now in the unsightly
condition pictured from photographs herewith. A
portion of it is the common dumping ground of the
city. The tract is held by very many owners, and
can never be redeemed from its present shabbiness
except by a general condemnation. Since it ad-
joins the grounds of the Executive Mansion and
the Washington Monument, such action seems in-
evitable, and the more speedily it is accomplished,
the less will be the draft upon the National
Treasury.
It is a remarkably encouraging fact toward
this enterprise, that the site of the Observatory
Buildings is now graded and terraced, precisely as wanted for the Columbian and American
No. 122. — RUSSIAN CATHEDRAL, VASSILI BLANKSKENCY,
I 6th CENTURY. M.
THE FUTURE OF WASHINGTON. 89
Temples. The area within the walls is about 19 acres, with 1,100 feet range north and
south, ample to contain the dominant structures. In a twelvemonth, their magnificent ele-
vation might be added to the' architectural grandeur of the National Capital.*
Such a result would stimulate the patriotic pride
of the nation in the seat of its representative authority.
The location of the Capital was originally in com-
promise of competition between States for its possession.
Situated on the midway line of the North and the
South, its improvement was retarded for three-quarters
of a century by the sectional conflicts which culminated
in civil war. The final adjustment re-established a faith
in the permanency of the Union, that was expressed in
the immediate aggrandizement of Washington.
The original magnificent scale of the French En-
gineer, L'Enfant, the friend of General Washington,
after the general plan of Versailles, as proportionate to
the future of the Republic, was found to be none too
grand, but only commensurate with its promise.
The Capitol was enlarged in grandeur, rivalling all
governmental structures of the world. Secretary Seward
pronounced it unequalled, after his tour around the world.
Its classic style, appropriate for the dignity of legislative
uses, accords with that of its counterpart advocated.
The shaft of the monumental obelisk that had stayed incomplete for 21 years, as if uncertain
of its story of success or failure to posterity, was carried to its apex, above all human constructions.
Executive departments were established in stateliness of constructions and extent of capacity,
prophetic of the expansion of the nation, whose will and power they administered.
Liberal appropriations were applied to the transformation of Washington from its previous
forlorn aspect of indifierence and neglect.
When the representatives of States that had been at war reassembled for restoration of their
legislative halls to service of peace and good-will, social reconciliation and amenities replaced per-
sonal animosities and assaults. A cordiality in private life ensued that has made Washington
exceptional for hospitality.
* Since the above was prepared for the press, the following gratifying announcement is made :
" The Corcoran Art Gallery has bought a large piece of land in Washington on New York avenue and Seventeenth street, run-
ning through to E street. It is an irregular plot, having 340 feet on the Avenue, 260 on Seventeenth street, and 292 on E street. The
cost of this land was $154,022, and only the absolute need of the gallery for a larger building would have induced the trustees to spend
so much on a new site. The constant rise of price in real estate at the Capital is another reason for immediate action."
The propertv described is in the front, easterly line of the block suggested for the National Gallery; opposite the extension of
the grounds of the Executive Mansion (v. Plans, Figs. 6 and 7). The Corcoran Gallery, to continue for generations, as we hope,
to gather the gems of art, will thus be located at the entrance of our supposed Park Istoria. If the Government secures, as it ought,
the block of 220 acres, then the Corcoran Gallery will be provided for future expansion without further expenditure for land.
It is an opportune encouragement that the trustees have located precisely where the theory of the present scheme would have
chosen.
No. liV EGVI'TIAN MOSC^lh OH KAILHKV
90
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
Increased expenditure for scientific and literary interests attracted hither appreciative patrons
to enjo}^ them. Washington became the centre of American historical material, to which rich
accessions were made by purchase of the Force and other private collections. These increasing
intellectual resources have drawn to it a residential class of affluent and scholarly people, who find
it more congenial than any other American city.
It is now assured to be a continental focus of refined, intelligent society, secure from the
turmoil and obstructions of commerce and the discords of manufacturing communities.
These influences have combined to stimulate the growth and adornment of the Capital
at an unprecedented rate. Washington is rapidly centralizing within itself both the federal
and popular sentiment of the American people. \\s, forty-four allied sovereignties consolidate
therein the great functions which they have delegated for common weal and defence. The
PHOTO. BY M. B. BRADY, WASHIKGTON, MAY, 1891.
No. 124.— VIEW OF LAND EASTWARD FROM NAVAL OBSERVATORY.
constituents of these States recognize that the incidents of their local history and ancestral
pride, the crises of Bunker Hill, Yorktown, and New Orleans, aggregate in an example of
world-wide beneficence beneath the dome of their National Legislature.
Never in the history of mankind has a city been favored with a fairer and more potential
promise.
Founded upon the popular devotion of 65,000,000 people, the material exponent of their union
in liberty and fraternity, it will inevitably reflect their interest and liberality. They are proud
of its elevation upon the common foundation of their political system : — a universal elementary
education ; as the sanctuary of their charter of freedom, a national constitution ; — of its multi-
plied charms of rural beauty ; its facilities for rational enjoyment of social life. This legitimate
pride will constitute an important element in the patriotism that must defend the national life.
It will be wise to stimulate such national ambition ; to foster rivalry with the old nations in all
intellectual expedients that shall parallel an advance in the science of government.
THE FUTURE OF WASHINGTON.
91
Washington must become a glory of the Republic beyond its possession of [national force ;
in its resources for knowedge, its grandeur of art and architecture. As the Hellenes material-
ized their intellectual conceptions and aspirations on the Acropolis, Americans will henceforth
PHOro. BY M. B. BRADY, WASHINGTON, MAY, IB!
No. 123.— VIEW OF THE CENTRAL PORTION OF LAND BETWEEN THE OBSERVATORY AND GROUNDS OF THE EXECUTIVE
MANSION; AT PRESENT RECEIVING THE RUBBISH OF THE CITY.
centralize the illustration of their achievements and aims in the National Capital. They will
fear its counterpart in a complete and harmonious temple of knowledge.
The time has come for its commencement. The desire for knowledge by the people waits
for the use of their abundant wealth to aid its acquisition.*
* It is repellant to place in such connection the mercenary advantages that would result. We will leave to the financier and in-
vestor calculations as to the pecuniary result to real estate owners in Washington, and holders of securities upon railroads diverging
therefrom, when Washington shall have become "both the Berlin and Paris of America," in its attraction thither of thousands of resi-
dent scholars and students by the unequalled advantages of its National Gallery. When many more thousands shall flow to it from all
sections of the country, as the richest centre of the world for practical and diversified object-illustration.
Transportation companies, land holders, tradesmen, may readily figure that they will receive in return more than the inter-
est of the investment.
The enormous advance in Washington real estate the last ten years is a basis for prophecy of the future.
In t86o its population was 6t,i22. In 1890, 220,000.
Ways and Means for the National Callery.
If a man do not erect in this age liis own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the liell
rings and the widow weeps. — Shakespeare.
Who that surveys this span of earth we press.
This speck of life in Time's great wilderness,
This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless seas,
The past, the future, two eternities !
Would sully the bright spot, or leave it bare.
When he might build him a proud temple there,
A name, that long shall hallow all its space.
And be each purer soul's high resting-place !
— Moore.
THE first announcement of this enterprise to the public was by a brief of this paper prepared
for a meeting of Congressional Press Correspondents, at the Arlington Hotel, Washington,
December 27, 1890. From that summary several of the largest journals of the country published
copious details, with strong commendation of the object. •
These articles caused mention of the matter from Maine to Shasta, California, and Oshkosh,
Wisconsin, without unfavorable comment from seventy notices received, except in three or four
instances. These few considered the extent of the constructions excessive, but with good reason,
in misapprehension of the plan. They assumed that the whole area was to be covered by roofs,
whereas the open courts of three to six acres each, require forty acres. This misconception sug-
gested the evidence given, that all the floor-area upon the plan, if ultimately provided, will be less
than that of single constructions in Europe.
One journal comments thus :
" The plan for a National Art Gallery * * * is altogether too ambitious for a Republican form of gov-
ernment."
Shall the richest nation of the world, claiming the highest average intelligence, supply them-
selves with less intellectual facilities than those of other nations — the legacies of monarchical
institutions ? The Periclean age of Greece and the Augustan age of Rome, the glory of one and
the grandeur of the other, rose upon a basis of republican institutions.
The splendor and extent of the French Exposition of 1889, surpassing all its predecessors
despite the non-concurrence of neighboring sovereigns, united the enthusiasm of the people. It
wrought its richest result to the nation in the firm establishment and recognition of its repiiblican
government.
This argument is relevant to the problem of Ways and Means for the establishment and main-
tenance upon the largest scale of a National Gallery. History has demonstrated that an intelli-
gent people, aspiring to intellectual elevation, will command all possible aid from their unstinted
resources. When the people are " enflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of
TME desirable; site, Cheaply available. 93
virtue,*' when they seize upon the promise and crave the pleasure of mental cultivation, their leg-
islators will voice their eagerness and supply the means. The aggregate voluntary expenditure
of the nation — State, municipal and private — for educational purposes has steadily increased.
One year's interest on the appropriations of the 50th Congress, at 2^ per cent., would sup-
ply 25,000,000 dollars : ample to build and equip the needed Institution. The appropriations of
the 50th Congress for War and Navy purposes were over 100,000,000 dollars.
Were the entire cost of the National Gallery voted at the next session, not an individual in
the nation would be conscious of the fact as affecting his property or income.
New York subscribed 5,000,000 for a Columbian Exposition. The appropriation of 20,000,000
dollars during five or ten years from the National Treasury is a trifle in comparison. The latter
would be for an enduring result ; the former was for the temporary show of a season.
Information of the Observatory site and the coincidence of its early abandonment for the
new premises awaiting occupation, give great encouragement for its immediate appropriation to
the National Gallery. It is intended that the first petition to the Committee on Public Buildings
and Grounds of the next Congress, shall be for the assignment of that estate for the American
temples.
At the same time it will be asked that the entire area between B and F streets, of about 220
acres, or between B and E streets, of about 190 acres, be condemned, as were the lands for the
Zoological Park,* for the site of a National Gallery, according to this Prospectus.f
For the Government ownership of 220 acres it is necessary to buy only 105^ acres, valued
for taxation, with improvements, at $1,421,345.00; 114% acres being covered by streets, reserva-
tions, and the Observatory site.
For the acquisition of the block to E street, 192 acres, there must be bought only 771^ acres,
valued at $604,300.00. This tract is appraised at an average of 18 cents per square foot. The
entire tract is appraised at an average of 31 cents per square foot.
As stated, it had been supposed impossible to obtain the large area demanded centrally
located in Washington.
Although the land might be offered as a gift by a syndicate, the history of Congressional aid
to patriotic or literary objects, until their usefulness and popularity had been established, was a
discouragement.
The Washington Monument was 36 years in construction, at a cost of $1,100,000; being
untouched for 20 years.
The Smithsonian bequest was accepted in 1836. Eleven years passed before the buildings
were commenced, and nine years before they were completed at a cost of $450,000.
It required eight years to obtain a site for the Library of Congress, though the necessity was
urgent.
* See Addenda 6. Condemnation of Zoological Park.
t Of course this would be with the exemption of the late purchase by the Corcoran trustees ; but th» Government would wisely
" condemn " also their estate; refund to them the amount paid for it, and then give them their land with an addition, that the new
buildings should not be upon the street line (17th). They should have more ample area for ornamental grounds and future enlarge
ment; and that their architectural design could accord with the National Gallery. Government should give the Corcoran Gallery al
the land it requires, and the 154,600 dollars paid from its endowment for land should be devoted to purchases of pictures.
94
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
From these examples this generation might despair of a National Gallery. Therefore it was
proposed in the " Brief" to the press, that individual or popular contributions be solicited for the
beginning.
This suggestion was misapprehended as intending a dependence of the National Gallery
entirely upon popular support ; which is plainly impracticable. It will doubtless be assumed by
the Government as soon as its resultant benefits to the nation, from an experimental beginning,
shall have been thoroughly demonstrated, and public desire for its completion shall be manifested.*
Popular appreciation of such institutions has of late greatly advanced, and an approach to
Congress in their behalf at present is more hopeful than in the past.
The last Congress made one record of prompt and unanimous action for the people's pros-
pective satisfaction, greatly to its honor. It is a precedent quite unusual of patriotic suppression
of partisanship that may be an example, illustrious in future imitation.
On the 23d of August, 1890, the Committee on Public Lands of the House of Representa-
tives reported a bill " to set apart
a certain tract of land in Califor-
nia known as the Yosemite Val-
ley forever as a public Park."
It was passed the same day
without a division. On the 25th
of August the bill was referred
to the Sen. Com. on Pviblic
Lands. It was returned to the
Senate on the 8th September, and
passed without debate in 14 days
from its report to the House.
That bill preserved for the
nation groves of the gigantic Se-
quoia trees from the axe of the
No. 126. — MERCANTE's BATHS OF TITUS. THE MARRIAGE. "• WOodmen
The enterprise herein commended to legislative adoption and maintenance will plant " all
manner of trees " of knowledge, in more than restoration of the classic groves of Hellenic phil-
osophy, that shall yield the richest fruitage of ancient art and wisdom, enhanced in the light of
modem development.
It will be a demonstration of the intelligence that underlies American institutions, if such
beneficent aims can be as quickly promoted with zeal and unanimity by their representatives.
If the petition to Congress for the site of a National Gallery could be supplemented by the
offer of citizens to contribute 500,000 or 1,000,000 dollars for construction of the Parthenonic
temples or the Roman and Greek galleries, in illustration of the plan, there would be great
assurance of its rapid completion.
* Addenda 8.
A POPULAR CONSTITUENCY.
95
We may reasonably hope that when all the features of this desirable Institution shall be
clearly set forth to the attention of the many of our countrymen who have now a surplus of
wealth, that at least ten will be found who will contribute their $100,000 each ; thus supplying
the million dollars demanded.
To THEIR ENDURING HONOR THE CoURTS WOULD CONTAIN MONUMENTS TO
TEN WISE MEN OF THE DAY.
But as the aim of this Institution is for the good of the people, their interest should be
secured by contributory participation in its creation.
This Institute must have a National constituency :
First. FOUNDERS should have record ; — those who give or
bequeath $100,000 or upwards.
Second. BENEFACTORS; — those who give or bequeath $1,000
or upwards.*
Third. PATRONS ; — those who give $100 or upwards.
Fourth. MEMBERS ; — those who contribute $10 or upwards.
Fifth. DONORS; — those who give or bequeath paintings, or
objects in furtherance of its aims.
All these should receive a copy of the Annual Report of the
Institute, with attractive illustrations of its recent additions.
I am eager to follow these suggestions by a first appropriation to
the Gallery of a manuscript portion of the Bible in Latin of the 14th
century, bound in wood with heavy chain attached ; such a Bible
chained to a post, was read by Luther in his monastery. Secondly,
of the models above mentioned, and thirdly, of 1,000 interesting
historic and architectural engravings.
These shall include, first, the grand restorations of the Forum
by Cockerill and Canina, which gave the conception of the building ;
also a rare series from copper of Mercante's frescoes in the baths
of Titus, from which Raphael drew, to a great extent, his designs
for the Loggie of the Vatican. Supplementing these shall be
the superb plates from copper published by Popes Clement XIII and XIV, covering 200
square feet of engraving, showing all the details of the Loggie by Raphael and his pupils — a
work of rarity and value. Also Roman engravings of Rossini and Piranesi, including the
latter's Magnificentia Romanorum.
* The Catalogue of the British Museum constantly rehearses the " List of Benefectors," beginning with 1753. Sir John Cot-
ton, Bart. " The collection of Manuscripts and Charters formed bjhis grandfather." It includes mention of single articles, as — 1885. —
Lord Hillingdon, Marble figure of a Bull from Athens. 18S5.— T. A. E. Addington, Esq., A large collection of rubbings from
English monumental brasses. And, also, 1879. — William White, Esq. (by bequest), £65,411 stg. for building a Gallery for the
Mausoleum Sculptures. The Marquise Viscont Arconati has lately willed to the Louvre and Cluny Museums 1,600,000 dollars, the
interest to be expended for works of art. This is only one of many recent gifts made in republican France, the greatest being that of
the park, palace, and art treasures of Chantilly, by the Count de Paris.
No. 127. — FROM Raphael's dhcorations
OF THE LOGGIE OF THE VATICAN.
96
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY AND ART.
Pinelli's ISTORIA Romana above described awaits opportunity of use, in transfer to the walls
of the Roman gallery as the first historical series.
In contrast to these will be the luxurious " Coronation of George IV." It includes a series
of portraits in gorgeous costumes of the nobility of England.
Guizot has defined civilization " as the grand emporium of the people, in which all the wealth,
all the elements of its life are stored up ;
something for nations to transmit from age
to age."
Such civilization demands that the peo-
ple who will soon commemorate an era pre-
eminent in human progress, and the natal
fact of its existence, should mark the event
by a national memorial — in magnificence
unsurpassed, in practical usefulness un-
equalled.
Consider its moral grandeur! In the
philosophy of history it is an epoch — at once
the midway halt and the new, hopeful start-
ing point of the human race ; the lifting of
the gates of the West for exit of crowded
and contentious nations to another hemi-
sphere, for their expansion and development.
It opened a vista of infinitely greater intel-
lectual than material progress. Freed from bondage, with a printing press for universal and
immortal utterance, the mind of man was to germinate in thought and magnify in power, for the
continuous elevation of humanity.
The Institution herein advised should commemorate that era as a monumental aspiration of
" good will to men." In the scope of its record of the history of mankind ; in the breadth of its
beneficence and the perpetuity of its results, it may stand as a monument unparalleled to the
intelligence, refinement, enterprise, and force of a democracy.
If on the 14th of October, 1892, the corner-stone of a National Gallery of the United States
"for the dissemination of knowledge among men" can be laid by Presidents of the oldest Colleges
in each of the United States, simultaneously through electric signal, with the dedication of the
World's Fair by the President at Chicago ; in memorial of the blessings that have accumulated
upon them as chief inheritors of the legacy of Columbus to the world ; and in magnanimous
purpose that these blessings shall be multiplied to posterity, then government by and for the
people will have had new vindication for the hope of the nations who aspire to it.
The Institution will have thus a memorable and appropriate origin. It will mark the second
century of the Republic as passing onward toward nobler aims than mere financial and material
a-ggregsition ; its entrance upon a purer, happier, reflective life, that will calm unrest that now
incites to anarchy.
The writer believes that if the enterprise above set forth shall become a reality, it will pro-
No. 128.— CEILING FROM MERCANTe's DECORATIONS OF THE BATHS 0F_T1TUS,
ROME, 1774.
CONCLUSION.
97
mote such progress ; and perpetuate from generation to generation, the richest moral, mental,
social and political benefit to the people.
If its prosecution may not be as rapid as appears to him practicable, he may at least have
incited a primary motion toward an ultimate evolution.
Seventy years ago, the minister of a quiet country parish in Massachusetts made a Fourth
of July oration, with the following exordium :
" Doubtless each mote that floats in the atmosphere does its part toward the maintainance of the balance of
creation. It may be, therefore, that the eflbrt of this occasion, despite the insignificance of the speaker, but considering
the greatness of the theme, may not be wholly lost."
In conclusion, it is hoped that an intense interest for the realization of this conception will
induce a kindly judgment of the personal prominence that was inevitable for its full presentation.
Suggestions in improvement will be welcomed.
Address — " The Pompeia," Franklin W. Smith,
Saratoga Springs, N. Y., St. Augustine, Fi,a.,
May to December. December to May.
Note —
" The study of the ancient .irchitectural remains ol
Central America," says Fergusson, " is the only means we
know of by which the ancient history of the country can be
recovered from the darkness which now enshrouds it, and
the connection of the Old World with the New — if any ex-
isted—can be traced."
s.y?Bt»a»
% t Si %
No. 12y. — ELEVATION OH PART OT PALACE AT ZAVr, YUCATAN.
The Smithsonian Institution has prosecuted scien-
tific investigation of this important subject, especially in
its relation to American ethnology, and the National
Museum has extensive collections of American archa;-
ological material waiting space for exhibition.
Therefore, in the above resume, this field has had
only brief consideration, v. p. 37.
No. 130. — ELEVATION OF TEOCALLl (mOUND FOR SACRIFICE) AT PALENQUE, YUCATAN.
' ADDENDA.
No. I.
The present aggregate of our national -wealth is admitted by
statisticians to be the greatest in the world (/. 18.)
" Mulhall estimates the accumulated wealth of Great
Britain at 8,96o,ooo,cxx) pounds in 18S0, and that of the
United States at 7,880,000,000 pounds in iSSo.
" If he had followed the American census returns his
value for 1880 would have been 25 per cent, larger (or
1 1 ,200,000,000 pounds). The country whose population
has been developed within 280 years does already one-
third of the world's mining, one-fourth of its manufac-
turing, and one- fifth of its agriculture ; and at least one-
sixth of the world's wealth is already concentrated in the
strips of territory in Central North America, which is the
home of the United States." — Encyclopwda Brltajt-
nica.
" The per capita indebtedness of the United States
amounts to $25.00 ; that of Great Britain to $87.00 ; that
of France to $175.00; while that of Australia is no less
than $250.00."
The reliability of Mulhall's statistics is debated, be-
cause largely based upon supposititious data ; since
Great Britain and no other powers enter into no such
minute census details as the United States. There is,
however, another basis of comparison that has been proven
to be reliable.
Political economists have agreed with statisticians that
the production of iron is a gauge of the material pro-
gress of a nation. England dates her rapid development
of wealth from the working of her mines of coal and iron.
Iron is " the source and badge of national power." By this
standard of greatness the prestige of Great Britain has
passed to the United States.
In 1890 the production of pig iron in the United States
was 1, 200,000 tons gross larger than in Great Britain ; and
60,000 tons greater than that of great Britain in 1882,
which was its year of largest production.
With such resources of wealth, the Republic should vie
with the mother country in resources of intelligence.
No. 2.
The National Gallery of the American Republic., it is proposed,
shall surpass in architectural grandeur all similar construc-
tions [J). 29).
The constructions represented in the design probably
cover a larger area than any previous group of buildings
for a special use ; and although their cost will be less
than that of several palaces. Oriental and European,
(if built of concrete), their architectural effect will never
have been equalled.
" The palace temple of Karnac," says Fergusson, " is
probably the grandest effort for architectural magnificence
ever produced by the hand of man." Its area was 1,200
feet by 360 feet, about 10 acres; but a large portion of
this was uncovered by buildings. Its great hypostile hall
is internally 340 feet by 170 feet, or 88,000 square feet.
The Moorish Palace of Zahra, near Cordova, described
it is believed reliably by Moorish writers, enclosed an
area of 4,000 feet by 2,200 feet; but the greater part of
this was in gardens. It had 4,300 columns.
The Escurial, usually considered the largest of such
constructions since its date, covers 740 feet by 580 feet
externally, or nearly 10 acres ; but there are interior open
courts. The main building is of six stories, so that its
acreage of flooring is immense, far surpassing that of the
proposed galleries.
In architectural effect it expresses the repulsive and
obdurate traits of its tyrant-projector, who proposed it to
be a religious symbol of the gridiron of St. Lawrence.
No. 3.
The genius of Art adapted to this age cannot be more clearly
set forth than in the comments of Monsieur Phillipc Gillc on
the Exhibit of the late French Exposition (/. 54).
Upon reflection it may be seen that Nature offers utmost
range of sentiment, under commonplace names of her
creatures or the scientific divisions of her realm.
Michelet has invested " The Bird" with such poetry
of life, both in description and delineation, that whoever
has read his fascinating pages, illumined by the art of
Giacomelli, almost recognizes henceforth the bird upon
the wing as the messenger of the fairies.' He finds all
human characteristics and impulses ; courage, tenderness ;
energy, patience ; dignity, selfishness ; intelligence, cun-
ning; love, revenge, in full play from within the soul or
instinct of the feathered tribe. Hence the varied power
and beauty that he sees and portrays from their daily life :
the eagle upon the mountain top challenging with fixed
eye the blaze of the rising sun ; the humming-bird, flitting
from flower to flower ; the vulture of the desert and the
tender cooing of the dove. Thus, too, Chateaubriand,
as he nestles the wild duck under the mossy bank, by the
rippling stream, screened in her retreat by the drapery of
the waving vines hung on " her distaffs of purple reeds."
If, therefore, should be assigned to artists for the Insti-
•tute, the cold stifl' class — ornithology — awakening recol-
lections of birds, packed closely in technical classification,
as essential for the profound investigations of science,
there might be an electric shock to artistic sensibilities.
But let us imagine a grand hall in the Institute devoted
not to Ornithology, but to the Birds of the United States
of America. It is with an arched ceiling for skies in
sections of different tone, in accord with the regions of
varied landscape beneath. In these sections are portrayed
ADDENDA.
99
truthfully their varied haunts. These would present the
widest contrasts in Nature : the mountain top ; the ocean
shore ; forests of oak and pine ; jungles of the palmetto
and magnolia ; fruits and flowers of the North and South ;
the rustic covert of the
partridge ; the shallow
lakelet of the heron.
What could be more
fascinating to the eye
than "The Bird"
painted in life and airy
motion in the verdant
or wild surroundings
that Nature has fitted
for its Paradise ?
In the villa of Dio-
med at Pompeii there
remains on the walls
of the bath-room a
decoration of fish, dis-
porting in the depths
of the sea. It attracts
especial admiration in
the reproduction a t
Saratoga and has been
noted for many repe-
titions.
It is a hint in the line
o f these suggestions.
The fish of America
might thus be dis-
played in their waters,
practically as well for
general observation, as
by the great cost of
aquaria. A continuous
series would be a bril-
liant decoration for a
gallery.
Again, I imagine an
assignment t o artists
for prize competitions
in Cartoons of the
Latitudes of the
United States for the National Gallery.
What scope, what contrast, what grandeur, what
beauty, what titanic strength, what utmost attenuity :
what icy death pulses, what rampant verdure, would be
covered under this dry geographical title given as a theme
to sensitive artists !
When they began their travels for the various re-
gions for a congenial theme, they would realize that
the commission offered them the range of the world for
material in composition.
The Glaciers of Alaska ; the peaks and ranges of the
Rocky Mountains ; the canyons of the Nevadas ; the
Geysers of the Yellowstone ; the plains of Kansas ; the
131. — OIACOMELLl S ILLUSTRATIONS.
cataract of Niagara ; the hills of the Adirondacks ; the
valleys of the Mohawk ; the forests of pine at the North ;
of oaks at the South ; the farms of varied culture of New
England ; the cotton and rice plantations of Louisiana ;
from the apple tree to the palm tree ; the home of the
seal on the ice float to the haunt of the chamelion in
thickets of perpetual summer.
All this may be realistic and truthful in illustration of
the wonders of our domain, and yet challenge all the
fancy and poetry of an artist in soul.
It may be said that these are merely the past and pres-
ent universal subjects of art. This is true, with a difTer-
132. — GIACOMELLl's ILLUSTRATIONS.
ence ; the difference is in their orderly and illustrative
combination. The theory of the Institute is an assign-
ment for an ultimate series of representations that shall
gradually yield a consecutive display of the resources of
the national domain for educational use.
lOO
ADDENDA.
Our flight with the birds was an apparent diversion
from the utilitarianism which is set forth as the basis for
the Institute.
On the contrary, it illustrates that a National Gallery
of Painting in progressive illustration of History, of
American development or natural resources, covers all
conceivable themes for inspiration in art.
Galleries of paintings thus described plainly cannot
be of that high execution which is demanded (but rarely
obtained) for dilettanti in Art. They cannot cost like
the paintings in the Rotunda of the Capitol ; for instance,
the apotheosis of Washington on the canopy of the Dome,
$39,500 ; which is 205 feet from the pavement, almost be-
yond visual interpretation ; or the eight very interesting
historical panels — enjoyed by all visitors — which cost from
$10,000 to $15,000 apiece. These are very large — iS
feet by 12 feet — 216 square feet. For a series 6 feet by
9 feet, or 54 square feet, would suffice. While there is
not this disproportion in the cost of smaller canvasses,
still there would be but one-fourth of the manipulation,
and compositions would be less crowded with figures.
There is at present a class of artists in Europe, German
and French, most skilful in precisely the style of work
demanded. They have won highest honors as exhibitors
at Salons. The powerful execution of the series above
mentioned of the "Triumph of Constantine " proves
their ability. They have illustrated Bavarian history on
the walls of their National Museum. They have re-
decorated with great spirit and beauty the restored halls
of the Wartburg. The work of Pascal, of Paris, in the
Pompeia is an appropriate illustration of this style. Few
would be so hypercritical as to say that such illustrations
wei-e not satisfactory and allowable for instructive repre-
sentation. They are accepted for such use throughout
Germany and France — centres of art criticism. The
masses who in America are to enjoy them do not yet
comprehend chicaro-scuro or identify pre-Raphaelitism ;
but, given one decadeof influence from a National Gallery
with ample resources, and a more general familiarity with
the technicalities of art will be the evidence of its educa-
tional power. For high art the Corcoran and other
select and costly selections would supply examples.
There are., it is said, in this country at present,
foreign artists of great ability and experience in the
style of work demanded for a National Gallery of
Illustration, ivho could be admirable preceptors for
American students.
The Germans and French to-day revel in art, and at
an average of excellence. When 20,000 pictures are
offered to the French Salon, and 6,000 found annually
worthy of display, it proves that pictures average there
less than the prices demanded in the United States.
This argument may be disparaged as a cheapening of
artistic talent. It should not be so considered, for in the
true mercantile relation (and that is the practical question)
it favors ultimately the talent involved. Prices for art
work have risen to a factitious extent from the exagger-
ated figures obtained for famous deceased masters ; but
excessive prices for works of a practical character and
meritorious but not superlative worth check the demand.
In failure to receive the costliest appreciation artists
are discouraged and discontented.
It will be of invaluable service to them when a National
collection has developed employment because of the
interest and popularity of its subjects.
When the Galleries have received their series, illumin-
ating the respective historical cycles, very many artists
will be employed upon copies for other institutions that
will multiply throughout the country.
Other topics than political history, art and architect-
ure may be cited, of great interest to the people, that
should be thus connectedly, pictorially and objectively
illustrated.
A hall might contain The Story of the Book.
Tiie paintings in series would commence with the ini-
tial eflbrts of man to record his mental action to the eye.
They would exhibit the various material devised to re-
ceive the divers symbols and letters of the human race.
Far backward would appear the papyri of Egypt, now
freely reproduced in fac simile by the Louvre in Paris.
The parchments and tablets of Romans, the palm-leaf
books of the East Indians, would be intermediate to the
appearance of the printed books. At this point will be
recalled the Plantin Museum at Antwerp, in extent and
interest unrivalled at present, for the orderly revelation of
the arts of printing and engraving, down to the present
wonderful development of lithography in colors and photo-
gravure. All this could be quickly commanded if
money, not to a great amount, was provided.
The Story of the Plow ; or, Progress in Pro-
ductions for the Subsistence of Man, would furnish
a varied, beautiful and attractive series of pictorial in-
struction. Beginning with the crooked root plow and the
herds of the patriarchal age, it would end with trans-
scripts of agricultural scenes with the magical appliances
of American invention, which by commercial intercourse
are multiplying and distributing food products through-
out the world.
No. 4.
The grand Temple ive devote to the Commemoration of the Dis-
covery of the Western Hemisphere as a Columbian Memo-
rial {p. 49).
The classification of the Latin-American Department
for the World's Columbian Exposition, by Mr. William
E. Curtis, in charge, is an admirable detail of exhibits ap-
propriate to the National Parthenon. It is too extensive
for quotation, beyond the general captions, viz : —
A. Geological knowledge and the science of naviga-
tion at the time of Columbus. (Illustrated by
maps, charts, instruments, models, etc.)
ADDENDA.
lOl
B. The Court of Ferdinand and Isabella. Portraits
of the principal personages and of those who
aided Columbus.
C. Illustrations of the life-history of Columbus, in
paintings, models and photographs.
D. Relics of Columbus and his family ; in originals,
ox fac simile or replica, of armor, arms, letters,
instruments, etc.
E. The voyages of Columbus ; by charts, models,
engravings, etc.
Then follow consecutive illustrations of
1. Epoch of the Conquest of Mexico.
2. Epoch of the Conquest of Peru.
3. The Colonial Period under Spanish Rule.
4. The Liberation of the Provinces and the Establish-
ment of the several Republics.
A few years since the writer selected in Spain photo-
graphs of thirteen paintings scattered in various galleries,
illustrative of the history of the enterprise of Columbus.
In Paris he commissioned two painters of recognized
ability, who for several years had exhibited at the Salon :
Pascal, for scenery and accessories, and Bernard for figures
and portraits ; to copy these photographs on large can-
vasses. Unfortunately, Bernard was summoned to the
army and his work was incomplete. The drawing of the
originals was precisely followed, although in two or three
of the number it was crude. Yet the series as a whole
was interesting and instructive, because historical ; in
part contemporaneous and illustrative. It is proposed
now to have them finished and made a portion of the
Columbian Exposition.
No. 5.
The annexed gratifying response from a scholarly
friend, an ardent student of classic art and Egyptology
in their ancient domains, suggests a brilliant and beauti-
ful eflect upon the Parthenonic temples :
Mii.WAUKiE, June 16, '91.
" The proof-sheets were of the greatest interest. The
style of architecture is, in my opinion, the only one for
so grand an institution. A great dome in the centre
would not so readily convey the meaning of the institution.
" It is very beautiful that, in reverence, the true master-
piece of architecture should dominate your grand monu-
ment to culture, as from the Acropolis, learning, like the
rays of the sun, was spread over the earth.
'" The grandeur of the contour of the Greek temple
upon a height will contrast superbly against the blue sky.
" The latest researches have revealed that the tinting
of marble walls and pillars, the gilding of capitals and
groups in pediments of temples, were common practices
of the Greeks. The French have discovered that some
of their greatest treasures of antique sculpture were
tinted.
" A friend of mine. Prof. Otto, of Berlin, has made
a beautiful marble piece— the Greek Slave— which is
tinted, and has been accepted and now stands in the Na-
tional Gallery of Berlin.
" A reproduction of color of ycvn; grand te;Ti4)les in
light tints, and the gilding, of thq Q^pjtals,. as lately
successfully accomplished m, tQc &\x\?. />cad.=>my or ?Ja-
tional Pantheon at Athens, would greatly add to the
grandeur of the whole.
" Yours, most truly,
"(Signed) Ferdinand Meinkcke."
A Memorandum from an Albanian.
Less than twenty years ago a Swede began in Stock-
holm a modest museum to contain only articles illustrat-
ing the past and present of Scandinavia. His devotion,
followed by the enthusiastic support of his countrymen,
have filled to overflowing five successive buildings.
The life-size groups, showing costumes and customs
and historical events, the antiquities, curios, art products,
and collections manifold, giving the life and manners of
the northwest of Europe (and all brought together during
these two decades) , almost passes belief. There is noth-
ing more unique or interesting in the Old World. It is
an object-lesson to young and old, and all in an out-of-
the-way corner of the world, with no constant current
of tourists or rich government or nobility to back it.
Local pride and a wish to educate the rising genera-
tion did it all.
And what is true of Sweden is true of every other
country — of almost every city and town — in Europe.
The writer has visited museums in Japan and China,
Burma, India, Persia, Tin-key — even in Africa. The
U. S. A. alone has little use for museums. What will
the American public of 1991 say of this day and genera-
tion.? G. D. M.
No. 6.
"T/ie Poinpeia has supplied an example, in a finer mixture of
sand and concrete only, upon the lines of the Roman Doric
order, precisely the material and forms proposed in the de-
sign herezvith submitted" {p. 85).
The Pompeia offers not one example only, but many
illustrations of the use of concrete. Its pavement, in
part ; its columns ; architraves ; wall surfaces, in part,
both exterior and interior, are of sand concrete.
These have withstood the severe frosts (20° to 25°
below zero) of two winters in Saratoga absolutely unaf-
fected, except to increased hardness. The fa9ade is a
concrete facing upon brick precisely upon the Roman
method ; and all its lines and angles are as perfect as
when finished in 1SS9.
Blocks of the material left upon the ground since that
date show no eflect whatever by temperature or storms,
more than granite or marble. In fact, many stones used
for building purposes in the United States cleave by
frosts. The steps upon the east front of the Capitol are
wrecked by lateral cleavage in seams, and must soon be
restored. Concrete staircases may be seen in Geneva,
Switzerland, for ascents from the streets, as solid and
homogeneous as flint.
I02
ADDENDA.
The ar.aexed jiiustvalionproves the availability of fine
conpret? .for;ori,iaKipntal,5letails. It shows a chimney
and mantel' v.'ith supporting brackets, all of fine, washed
sand and cement.
The Caryatides are of Florentine carved walnut. The
tiles (Spanish, from Valencia) are set in the concrete.
This material can claim no patent right. It is as old
as Roman construction, and long familiar in our country
a general or special term, for an assessment of the value
of such land, » * » and the said court is hereby
authorized and required, upon such application, without
delay, to notify the owners and occupants of the land and
to ascertain and assess the value of the land so selected
and condemned by appointing three commissioners to
appraise the value or values thereof, and to return the
appraisement to the court ; and when the values of such
land are thus ascertained, and the President shall deem
No. 133. — A CHIMNEY AND MANTEL-PIECE OF CONCRETE IN THE DRAWING-ROOM OF THE
HOTEL CASA-MONICA, ST. AUGUSTINE.
in coarse work. But its use for fine details with a pur-
pose of utmost endurance, has slight precedent previous
to its introduction in St. Augustine.
No. 7.
Government will be asked to condemn the entire area betmeen
B and F streets, or bet-weeu B and E streets, as were the
lands for the Zoological Park (f. 93).
Extracts from act for the establishment of a Zoological
Park (Approved March 2, 1S89) :
" Sec. 4. * * * That in order to establish a zoolo-
gical park in the District of Columbia, » » * a
commission shall- be constituted.
That the said commission shall cause to be made a
careful map of said zoological park ; * * * and
the several tracts and parcels of land embraced in such
zoological park shall be held as condemned for public
uses, subject to the payment of just compensation. * » *
That if the said commission shall be unable to purchase
any portion of the land so selected and condemned within
thirty days after such condemnation, by agreement with
the respective owners, at the price approved by the Presi-
dent of the United States, it shall, at the expiration of
such period of thirty days, make application to the su-
preme court of the District of Columbia, by petition, at
the same reasonable, said values shall be paid to the
owner or owners, and the United States shall be deemed
to have a valid title to said lands.
No. 8.
The National Gallery -will " doubtless be assumed by the Gov-
ernment as soon as its resultant benefits from an experimental
beginning shall be manifested." (/. 94.)
If the Greek, Roman, and Saracenic Galleries could
be built, and some important reproductions with rich
decorations, supplement in the Courts the series of histor-
ical paintings and casts, public satisfaction would ensure
the rapid completion of the scheme.
The fascination of such systematic and complete ob-
ject-lessons from history, especially with the present
stimulus to a higher general education,* can be with
difliiculty imagined. Their efficiency would depend
largely upon the tact as well as the talent of .the profes-
* There is something intensely pathetic in the hunger for cul-
ture of tens of thousands of Americans, in summer schools all
over the land, sitting patiently absorbing wisdom in hot weather
from lectures on ethics and literature and science, etc. — Boston
Transcript, fuly, i8<^i.
ADDENDA.
103
sors who should have in charge their elucidation. They
should have an enthusiasm for their work ; glowing in
sympathy with the earnest, and attracting the indifferent
to the delights of knowledge. The realism should be
made as vivid as possible.
Intelligent visitors to the Pompeia have frequently ad-
vised that attendants should be in costume.* A lover of
the classics, with whom Seneca is a daily companion,
desires that it shall be occupied by Italians, who, in old
Roman garb, shall move through its halls and dine in
recumbency upon the couches of the Triclinium. At
first the idea savored of the theatrical, but reflection is
in favor of its expediency. The stage is claimed as an
educational instrumentality for its presentations of ancient
life. The surroundings herein proposed would far ex-
ceed in force and truthfulness the passing trivial effects
of the modern stage, that must be seasoned with incon-
gruous ballet.
Given a range of effective paintings of Roman devel-
opment, grandeur, and decay ; adjacent a temple and the
grand house of a Senator, peopled with accurate imper-
sonations of ancient occupants ; these surrounded by
other reconstructions illustrative of the genius and power
which wrought their prototypes ; through and among
these halls and structures will pass crowds of comers
from Maine, Ohio, California ; excursions of teachers
from Wisconsin and Virginia.! With illustrated text-
books in hand, they follow a speaker discoursing upon the
facts illustrated and the deductions of political and moral
philosopiiy. I pre-suppose this professor to be a rare
man ; grand in physique ; able in knowledge ; energetic
and benevolent in impulse; of utterance effective with
unction ; not monotonous in the Castanet tones of a show-
man. Robed in the inimitably graceful folds of the
toga, he leads the crowd of eager listeners at length to the
Rostra. From its platform he tells them that on such a
standing place were debated the conquests and crises of
the Roman Empire and Republic.
In sonorous Latin he quotes from Cicero against Cata-
line, and then translates to his hearers the magnificent
patriotism and dignity of the oration :
" Long since, oh Cataline ! ought the Consul to have doomed
thy life a forfeit to thy country. * * * There was — there was
* During the ownership by Prince Napoleon of the Chateau
in Paris (misnamed Pompeian — as it was Pompeian only in its
decorations), the troupe of the Theatre Francais reproduced
Roman tableaux in the Atrium before the Emperor Napoleon.
The scene was perpetuated by an engraving with an enthusiastic
description by Gautier. He wrote, in opening — " Antiquity is
the eternal source of youth of the human soul ;" and in clos-
ing— " That nocturnal f^te was the horizon opened upon the
past, the eloquent history of departed worlds."
t Fair Teachers at the White House. — The public recep-
tion of the President yesterday was attended by 2,000 people,
principally school teachers from New York, New Jersey, and the
New England States, on an excursion to Washington. The
scene in the great East room was animated. The President
shook each visitor by the hand,— Wcf/li'igton Post, January /,
i8gi.
a time, when such was the spirit of Rome, that the resentment
of her magnanimous sons more sternly crushed the Roman
traitor than the most inveterate enemy."
Again, I follow a Greek professor through the Grecian
Galleries and Courts. He talks before paintings of Mara-
thon, of Thermopyla;, of the Acropolis. He courses
with his hearers the Colonnades of the Agora to the
Senate House.
He is a native Greek ; a splendid scholar ; a naturalized
American citizen. His garb exhibits the Amictus ; —
the chitoti, the tunica, and the graceful ckalmys.* Proud
of the name of his race as that of Pericles, of Socrates
and Plato, he tells his hearers that in halls of such form
the Greeks of old listened to their orators. In his native
mellifluous tongue he recites —
Demosthenes against the Crown,
"Athens was never known to live in a slavish though secure
obedience to unjust and arbitrary power. No! our whole his-
tory is one series of noble contests for pre-eminence." * * *
" No, my countrymen ! it cannot be you have acted wrong, in
encountering danger bravely for the liberty and safety of all
Greece. * » * No ! by all those illustrious sons of Athens
whose remains lie deposited in the public monuments."
Lord Bolingbroke quotes Dyonisius, of Halicarnassus,
that " History is philosophy teaching by examples."
When philosophy is seated at the National Capital, draw-
ing from history such stimulating examples from the
past, the youtli of the Republic will be advanced toward
the noblest patriotism.
The annexed plate indicates the facility with which
sections of the Alhambra could be reconstructed, in all
the splendor of Arabesques blazoned in red, blue, and
gold, with their oriental accessories of fountains and
flowers, palms, and pomegranates. Therein Americans
might read in thrilling reality Irving's sketch of Columbus,
'' taking his modest stand in a remote corner, tlie humble
and neglected spectator of the pageant " of the thanks-
giving mass of Ferdinand and Isabella and their conquer-
ing host ; flaunting in triumph their crosses and croziers,
with proud armorial ensigns and banners, in the Moslem
halls. Despite the repulse of his appeal to the sover-
eigns in camps before Granada, the enthusiast dreamed
of a conquest before which the capture of the Moorish
stronghold should shrink to insignificance.
Again, in imagination, we enter the restored Saracenic
Court. Its colonnades of light and graceful arches are
enlaced in endless intricacy, yet without one hint of form
from nature — obediently to the Koran — to make no imi-
tation of the works of the Creator. It is mid-day, and
the Muezzin is called in Arabic from the minaret.
Standing in the simulated pulpit of the Mosque of Cor-
dova, or in the Court of the Alhambra, a lecturer sketches
the rise of Islamism upon the plains of Arabia, " a little
cloud like a man's hand ;" its outburst into a cyclonic
* On the bronze Apollo of the British Museum, the chalmys
(scarf) hangs gracefully from the arm.
I04
ADDENDA.
deluge of tiirbaned Turks, that swept across Africa into
Spain, and scaled the Pyrenees to the critical field of
Poitiers. There the sword of Charles Martel saved the
ancestry of modern Europe from extinction in butchery,
or the imbecility of nothingness ; — day-dreams of houris
in the Mahommedan paradise ; — a crisis only comparable
to that of victory by the Spanish Armada, which would
have eclipsed in darkness the renaissance of the human
intellect.
This realism of historical facts would incite inquiry.
Curiosity, the keenest stimulant of knowledge, would
impatiently follow Islamism along the centuries. In the
Mediasval Galleries students would join the crusaders
before Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus. They would
eagerly study before the pictured surrender of Granada,
and the last stand of the Moors at Malaga before their
final merciless expulsion from Europe.
Such instruction, interest, and beauty the nation can
speedily prepare in
good measure tor itself
and for posterity.
Science, capital, en-
ergy, inventive skill,
have, for a century,
been lavished upon
material development.
Their creations are
' trans -continental rail-
roads, factories, mines ;
mountains have been
scaled ; rivers have
been spanned. A
tunnel of the Hudson,
at an estimate of 50,-
000,000 dollars, ex-
cites no surprise as
chimerical ; but is in
competition for an in-
vestment.
Resultant gains are
now lavished upon
Babel - like structures
for bankers; palaces
for business, palaces
for hotels, palaces for
private luxury and dis-
play.
Aoir, 7nay not a
small fraction of this
ivealth be devoted
■with like ability and
ingenuity, to
A Nationai, Temple
oi' Knowledge .''
No. 134. — COURT OF THK MOORISH VILLA ZORAYDA, WITH ALHAMBRESQUE TRACERY.
A PROPAGANDA FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY.
\T7HEN an eminent ex-Senator and ex-Diplomat of the United States saw the
design for the National Gallery, he said with emphasis, " You should organize
a Propaganda."
To him the author is indebted for the word, forcibly expressing its definition,
"to spread from person to person." It implies conviction of a truth and zeal in its
agitation.
The people of the United States are accustomed to propagandism bf public inter-
ests. In belief that this Prospectus is in the field of practical wisdom, — " that which
is most proper, most conducive to prosperity and happiness," — there is confidence in
its popular promotion.
A voluntary Propaganda is therefore solicited. Especially are all educators, all
lovers of knowledge and art, all public-spirited citizens who strive for the highest
intelligence of the people as the security for free institutions, invited to stimulate
public opinion toward legislation for a National Gallery.
This book will be widely distributed GRATIS to all members of Congress ; to
the Press; to Colleges, Academies, Superintendents of Schools, Art Associations, etc.,
etc., also to individuals of philanthropic reputation.
Editors are kindly solicited to mail to the Washington office as above, two copies
of any references to this Prospectus for preservation.
Individuals who may receive the book will gratify the undersigned by returning
to him- an aeknoivledgm,ent of its receipt ; and they will farther encourage his effort by
the purchase of two or more copies for presentation to others. It will be of most service
in the Propaganda, if copies are sent to other places than the T^esidences of the donors.
J8®" Single copies will be sold at 50 cents each, postpaid.
25 copies will be sold (in envelopes ready for the mail) for $10.00.
A record of all purchasers of 25 copies and upwards will be made as of the
original PROPAGANDISTS OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY.
A merchant of New York is the first on this list, by an order for 100 copies,
and a young man, a student in Andover (Mass.) Seminary, is successful in his wish
to be the first applicant for membership, on record for enrollment, when a responsible
organization is established by Act of Congress.
As rapidly as practicable, the Prospectus will be placed on sale with prominent
booksellers and art dealers in cities and towns.
Orders can be addressed to the Offices of the Propaganda, 1419 F Street, Wash-
ington, D. C, and The Pompeia, Saratoga Springs, N, Y.; the latter only from May
to November.
FRANKLIN W. SMITH.
THK PROPAGANDA FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY.
BULLETIN No. 2.
A DESIGN AND PROSPECTUS
FOR
A UNION AVENUE FROM THE EXECUTIVE MANSION,
AND
A NATIONAL AVENUE FROM A NATIONAL CxALLERY,
TO THH
NATIONAL CAPITOL.
BY
FRANKLIN W. SMITH.
TO BK ISSUED AS SOON AS ll.MJSTRATIVK AND DETAIL DRAWINGS CAN BE PREPARED.
THE grandeur of the preceding design would have miserable contrast in the meanness and
shabbiness of its approach by Pennsylvania Avenue, the width of which now aggravates
the unsightly vista to the Capitol. The movement of trade northward has lessened its commer-
cial value, and its tenantry has declined to uncomely pursuits.
The stranger views the towering dome against the sky with admiration, but his impression
of its sublimity is marred by side-shows advertising— " /^Y«^.?, Liquors^ and Cigars ;^'' ^'' Rooms at
^o cents ;^'' ''''Hot soup^ j cents a plate ;^^ "Ci-abs and clams in every style ;'''' ''''French drip coffee, 5
cents ; " ''''Lager, 5 cents.''''
No. ni. — VIEW ON PENNSYLVAN'IA A\UNL:h;, WASHINGTON, SOUTH SIDE.
PHOTO BY H. B. BRAOV. MAY. 1891.
lOJ
These economical caterers fill a useful place in the social system, supplying the wayfarer
who must hoard his pennies, and meeting the needs of philosophers who, like Dr. Franklin, in
penury, perambulate with " a roll under each arm ; " but their premises do not accord with the
magnificent colonnade that ranges beyond them against the eastern sky.
The annexed illustrations, taken in Maj^ last for the present use, display the motley an-
No. l-,6. — VIEW ON nENNSYLVANlA AVENUE, SOUTH SIDE, NEAR BOTANICAL GARDEN.
f-HOTO br M. 6. a«ADf. MAY, 1891.
nouncements that line the grand (!) Avenue: ^''Lard and Hams ; '''' '■''Sample Room;'''' '■'■ Shooting
Gallery;''' ''^ Plumbing^' etc., etc.
PHOTO BY t*.ti&, BRADY. MAY, 1B91.
No. 137. THE REAR OF PREMISES AT THE N.E. CORNER OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. THE FRONT OF THE ESTATE IS BEFORE
THE NAVAL MONU.MENT ANt) THE PRINCIPAL ENTRANCE TO THE GROUNDS OF THE CAPITOL ON THE WEST.
io8
For years past public sentiment has voiced public expectation that the southern side of the
Avenue must at some time be vacated in part, that the Mall may be carried through to the Poto-
mac. Yet, lately, block 323 has been bought for a city Post-OflEce, which, if built, will be an
obstruction to a full renovation.
Pennsylvania Avenue will ultimately be Haussmanized ; the more speedily the more eco-
nomicall}'', and, it may be, the more profitably, to the National Treasury. A prompt and effective
stroke of Napoleonic legislation is demanded.
Fig. 140 is from a sketch made by Gustave Dor(5 for Messrs. Hachette a few daj^s before the
destruction of the premises in 1862. On the site of the Rue des Feves now stands the vast
caserne^ fronting the palace of Justice, on the magnificent Boulevard Sebastopol, walled with
PHOTO BY M. B. BRADY. MAY, 18B1.
No. 138. — THE BLOCK ON NORTH SIDE OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE BETWEEN I3TH AND I4TH STREETS.
superb structures for three miles. In 1852, precisely such wretched houses, in chaotic mass, filled
the narrow streets on the site of 'the modern extension of the Louvre and the Rue Rivoli. Fifty
thousand population there lived in a dark labyrinth of disease and crime. The wand of Hauss-^
man swept it away as rubbish, and in six years replaced it by the scene of Fig. 140. The new
Rue Rivoli swallowed up more than 500 old houses in 30 pestilential streets and alleys. Its
reconstruction cost over 16,000,000 dollars.
This was only one of many magical transformations that in one decade made Paris the most
splendid city of the world. The Faubourg St. Antoine received 1,300 new houses. The Boule-
vards Haussman, Malesherbes, de L'Imperatrice, de 1 'Opera, and other superb streets, were built
in rapid succession. As a result, the people were better housed, and sanitary advantages equalled
the architectural adornment.
Whatever may have been the demerits of the second empire, historians will place the con-
structional regeneration of Paris to its honor.
I09
Stick reconstruction^ to a very small -extent in comparison^ is
ington on economical considerations.
A plan is clearly defined in the mind of the
writer by which —
First. Pennsylvania Avenue, between the
Treasury and the Capitol, would be redeemed
from unsightliness and be made worthy of its
tertnini.
Second. A Union Avenue would run from
the Capitol to the lawn south of the White
House, the site, it is supposed, of a new Execu-
tive Mansion. It would be on the line of the
present Ohio Avenue, extended eastward and
deflected northward.
Third. A National Avenue would pass
upon a line central under the Dome of the Capi-
tol to the proposed Columbian Parthenon on
Observatory Hill. With stately constructions
throughout the Avenues, the architectural vistas
(especially that of the National Avenue) would
be of unsurpassed magnificence.
This scheme would involve the condemna-
tion of the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue
(as shown on the map, cover), and to the south-
immediately demanded for Wash-
Paris, 1852.
Paris, 1862.
N0.T4O. — THE RUE RUULi.
No. W). — THE RUE DES FEVES. GUSTAVE DORE. l8s2.
ward line of the Mall.
The Baltimore and Poto-
mac R.R. Station would
be transferred southward
and the market north-
ward, more conveniently
to the residential centre.
The blocks fronting the
present City Hall should
all be cleared (as shown
by shading on the map)
for the proper surround-
ing of a new and suitable
structure. It will be ob-
served that south of
Pennsylvania Avenue
the property condemned
is comparatively of small
no
extent and value. The National Avenue would be almost entirely within present Government
ownership.
The opinion is confidently expressed that these improvements can be effected at a large
profit to the National Treasury that could be appropriated to a Natiojial Gallery.
The land thus cleared would be newly plotted for grand constructions with superb fa(;ades in
columnar style, af-
ording great ac-
commodations i n
attractive apart-
ments, colonnaded
around interior
courts and gardens.
Such properties
would find imme-
diate and remunerative occupation. In a competitive sale they would command great values
from the capitalists of the country and the world. One such block would furnish more and
better accommodation than all the assorted and inferior buildings that now deface the Avenue.
When Washington shall have its National Gallery, these structures will find occupants in
thousands of resident students and of visitors from the entire Union. From the sites thus pro-
vided, Government would take those preferable for public buildings demanded.
The present valuation of real estate on Pennsylvania Avenue from the Treasury Department
to the Capitol is
No. 141. — Rossini's restoration of the villa of meC/ENas, with additions by f. w. smith.
>-^^f -'^!« liti 'i H.:1
but $3,744,587 for
land, and $6,278,-
087 with improve-
ments. This, prob-
ably, is much less
than would be al-
lowed on appraisal.
The enhancement
of land values upon
the reconstruction
proposed would
greatly exceed the
worth of buildings
destroyed.
When a new
Executive r e s i -
dential mansion is
built, the present building will probably be assigned to business purposes, save the East Room
and the President's office, to be preserved for ever for their historical interest. The offices in
No. 142. — Rossini's restoration of the villa ok cassius, with additions by f. w. smi^h.
Ill
illUj,.
f - n D Q rjh^_a_a£^i^i^:::.^:.zi^s
Z
"'- --
No. 14';. — canina's restoration of circl's maximus with added motifs by f. w. smith.
which the martyr Presidents, Lincoln and Garfield, wrought for their country should be per-
petually " hushed
in solemn black."
Figures 141,
142, 143, 144, are
hints of the effec-
tive results im-
agined; motifs for
study and combina-
tion in design.
In this brief
announcement, o f
course, only such
hints are at-
tempted ; but a
few details deemed
essential are added,
viz :
1. The remov-
al of all trees from
these two grand Avenues which obstruct the architectural vistas.
2. The substitution therefor of colonnades, about 20 feet wide, at some distance from the
facades of the buildings. These would afford delightful promenades, always sheltered from rain
and sun, such as are enjoyed in European capitals — Paris, Turin, etc. The esplanade above, with
the porticoes, balconies, and colonnades, to be combined in the structures adjacent, would afford
V a s t accommoda-
tions for the in-
creasing thousands
who in the future
will throng the
Capital on inaug-
ural and other cere-
monial occasions.
I imagine these
Avenues in c i r -
cuitous connection,,
grander than that
of ancient Palmyra,
through which
No. 144. — suggestion for colonnades through union and national avenues, f. w s.MiTH, DESS. rode Zenobia to the
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1
112
Temple of Helios, the Sun God — the handsomest, bravest, most learned, most prudent of women —
in the combined pomp of Roman and Oriental ceremony and display.
As in Palmyra, they would be flanked by colonnades and projecting porticoes, the friezes and
pediments bearing in letters of golden bronze the farewell injunctions of Washington to future
generations of the Republic ; the benign utterances of lyincoln, and other like inspirations to
wisdom and patriotism from departed statesmen and heroes of the nation. Votive columns would
rise to their honor, like that to Oranes in the Palmyrene Capital : " By the Senate and the people :
as a lover of his country, and in every regard deservdng well of his country and of the immortal
Gods."
But towering above the colonnades of Palmyra on the National Avenues of the modern
Republic, would appear practical constmctions to be profitably utilized^ beyond Grecian and
Roman proportions, and borrowing their dignity, symmetry, and beauty.
Such designs will have the same facility and economy of concrete construction, with the
same accuracy of architectural requirements, as hereinbefore described for the National
Gallery.
The Circus Maximus of Rome received 150,000 people, who thronged from the utmost
limits of the Empire to witness games in honor of the gods.
By intelligent and enterprising legislation the circuit of a Union and National Avenue is
an easy possibility, that shall place in grand array a far greater throng of American citizens to
hail the inauguration of President Good-Man in 1901 ; the first on the list ofi the Tv^Ei^TiKi'ii
Century.
Note. — On the plan it will be noticed that the north side of F street, west of the War and Navy buildings, is also marked for
condemnation. It is with the imagined substitution of a grand structure for the ex/tibitioji oftuorkiiig models of American inventions
in place of the unsightly Winder Building; and beyond of other large residental blocks for the staff and resident students of the
(future) National Gallery. It would doubtless be a profitable operation to the National Treasury if the entire area north to Pennsyl-
vania Avenue were condemned, replotted, and sold for ornamental constructions with prescribed plans and specifications.
BULLETIN No. 3.
If time and ability for study and travel are allowed to the writer^ including an examination of
Assyrian Antiquities in Europe^ and^ if possible^ a journey to their 07'iginal sites in the East, there
will be published
A DESIGN FOR A RE-CONSTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIAN THRONE ROOM (see page 72),
as proposed for the National Gallery, with full-page colored illustrations; also descriptive and pic-
torial details upon an enlarged scale of other reproductions advised.
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THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW
AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS
WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN
THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY
WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH
DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY
OVERDUE.
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MAR 2 3 1970
REC. CIR. APR 5~T^J
W0V03 1986
LD 21-95»n-7,'37
858834
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY
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