u h 1 Jl .... ;.sife liilp fell! CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FINE ARTS LIBRARY Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924101994493 PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND ART EDUCATION CORNELL UNIVERSITY UBRARY 3 1924 101 994 493 MABEL J. CHASE Assistant Supervisor of Drawing in the Public Schools of Newark, N. J. I Baker Printing Company Newark, New Jersey 1910 PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND ART EDUCATION From a subject of comparative simplicity and one re- quiring little material besides paper and pencil, drawing in its development into "art education," during the last quarter of a century, has come to require an equipment in which all that represents the best of the world's art is none too ambitious. In place of teaching a few prin- ciples, the subject now claims as its aim, beside the clearing and fixing of visual impressions through draw- ing, the cultivation of a sense of beauty, the elevation of commerce and manufactures through the increasing use and appreciation of the arts of design, and a keener artistic judgment in personal and municipal affairs. Grade and art teachers have done something in accu- mulating material for use in this work, but the public library has responded to the need, , and has furnished a much greater abundance of illustrative material, and has thrown open its doors for art exhibitions and lec- tures. The Free Public Library of Newark, New Jersey, with which the writer is most familiar, has been particu- larly active and has done much toward bringing about an interest in whatever is best in art as well as a better condition in municipal affairs, and has been of inesti- mable help in co-operating with the public school in its art teaching. Newark is a strictly commercial and manufacturing city; a city which, though two hundred and fifty years old, and of three hundred twenty-five thousand inhabi- tants, and quite prosperous, has no art features what- soever, and is almost without handsome buildings, has few private art collections, and has never had a public collection of art objects of any sort. Eight years ago, there was built, it would seem almost by chance, the most useful and practical library building of anything like its size. When this building was erected, it was the first of any architectural pretensions which this great LIBRARIES AND ART city had ever built. Fortunately, the work was in the hands of a group of very sensible business men who travelled and looked about wisely to get ideas, and who concerned themselves with the usefulness and practica- bility of the building. They secured a good architec,t. They were restrained by their own native good taste and by the taste of the architect, and finally by that of the decorators, with the result that this building has been to the community of very great value as a general sug- gestion toward municipal improvement. In its interior the building is a splendid lesson to everyone who enters its doors. Aside from the beautiful marble in the inner court and the woodwork, simply treated, the interior decoration is dependent almost solely for its pleasing effect on the right use of color. The walls of the reading, lending, reference, and study rooms, of a rich dull green, with the woodwork of quar- tered oak ; pieces of pottery, good and attractive in shape and color; bronzes, marbles, and a few paintings, make, as a whole, a decoration which is dignified, artistic, and conducive to the best in art appreciation. Both in its own personality and in whatsoever emanates from it, the library keeps before the people the truest and best in art as a permanent object lesson. Through the co-operation of the Newark librarian, it has been possible to learn what is being done by libraries of other cities in promoting an interest in art. A circular letter, in the form of a questionnaire, was sent to fifty libraries in different cities, to which thirty-seven re- sponded. A few are doing nothing, but express the hope that they may soon undertake work of the kind. Natu- rally, the smaller cities are doing more than the larger, the latter furnishing, through its museums and art gal- lery, much of the material which the libraries are pro- viding. The ways in which the library has been most helpful are through its exhibitions, both temporary and permanent; museums, containing material or art speci- mens; the department devoted to the especial interests LIBRARIES AND ART of schools; picture collections; fine arts bulletins, and its hospitality in providing audience rooms for lectures and class or club work. TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS It is through the exhibitions that a widespread influ- ence is exerted. During the last six years, fifty-five tem- porary exhibitions have been held in the Newark Library with an attendance of 250,000 persons. These include exhibits of posters, of book plates, engravings, the works of Durer, Japanese prints, architectural plates, work of the Newark Camera Club, of the American Fine Arts Society, of German art, and of original drawings of cartoons. Th.e largest number of persons attending for any one year was 107,740 in 1903, when there were three art exhibitions. When a display of manual training and sewing done in the public schools was given, the attend- ance reached 30,000 in two weeks. Two large rooms are used for these exhibitions. Screens nine feet long by six feet wide covered with green denim give a back- ground space of two hundred fifty lineal feet. These screens are adjustable, and when in use for exhibition purposes are hung by wires and hooks upon stacks con- taining reference material which is not in constant use. Eight portable screens, nine by six feet, which may be used upon both sides, and glass cases upon tables give additional opportunity for display. A loan exhibition of paintings, owned by citizens of Newark and vicinity, has been held for several winters, and an attendance of over sixteen hundred persons a day gives proof of the interest and appreciation in such an arrangement. An exhibition of pictures suitable for schoolroom deco- ration was productive of good in a better and more thoughtful selection and arrangement; This was accom- panied by a booklet, prepared by the librarian, upon the varioiis kinds of pictures suitable for schoolroom decora- tion, the comparative cost of each, and advice upon suit- LIBRARIES AND ART able mounting and framing. The collection contained many of the German and French lithographs by Von Volkmann and Riviere, which are so excellent in color and composition and so decorative for large classrooms, auditoriums, or halls. While these represent only what is good in art, they are within the means of all schools, as they range in price from one to three dollars. The library owns nearly three hundred of these German and French lithographs, many of which are framed. Those which are of a purely decorative character are not loaned to schools, but may be seen at any time if a school is making a selection; those which are of an educational character, as illustrative of some historic, literary, or industrial subject, are loaned to class teachers for a month at a time. A few months ago an exhibition of Japanese art was held which filled two large rooms, one with prints, the other with specimens of pottery, lacquer, carved ivory, netsukes, medicine boxes, sword blades and guards, fab- rics and kakemono. This entire collection was owned by a citizen of Newark, who loaned it that the people of the city might enjoy its beauty, and was open to the public four hours each day. Since that time, through the efforts of the librarian and the trustees of the library, the city has bought the collection at a cost of ten thousand dollars, and it is now placed in the library and will be housed there as a permanent collection until such time as the city shall own an art museum. This, as a beginning, is bound to arouse interest in the formation of a larger collection, but the incentive and initiative have come from the public library. Nineteen of the libraries replying to the questionnaire have held loan exhibitions of paintings, and about the same number have held exhibitions of other art objects, as photographs, pottery, or the work of arts and crafts societies. The loan exhibitions of paintings are usually annual, but those of photographs and other art objects are, as a rule, constant, as many as sixteen or eighteen LIBRARIES AND ART being held in a year. All report a large attendance at these exhibitions. Fifteen have held exhibitions of industrial and art work done in public schools. This work is sometimes shown in cases, sometimes on the walls of the art rooms, or on the walls of the corridors, delivery or reference rooms. At the Auburn, Maine, library. Cosmos pictures have been mounted on gray cards and have been displayed from time to time, showing the work of a certain artist, or a particular school. The subjects chosen have had some reference to the time of year, as the study of Madonnas at Christmas time, or to the work of some class or club. The object has been to create a general interest, and this, it is felt, has been accomplished. Pic- ture bulletins are placed in the general and the children's reading rooms, and in the reference room, all of which are changed once a month. The librarian of the Brooklyn library says, "In the children's room we feel that we do much for the educa- tion of the artistic sense by care in putting up beautiful things. We do the same in the adult rooms, but do not give as much time to it. The beauty and order of the building we consider important educationally." Several years ago the library at Marion, Indiana, ar- ranged a loan exhibition with such gratifying results that it has become one of the regular features of the library work. These exhibitions have consisted prin- cipally of paintings, oils and water colors. Each year an efifort has been made to have something that has not been exhibited before. Displays from the various pot- teries of the United States, collections of bronzes, plaster casts, and local exhibits, including the work of the man- ual training and drawing classes of the public schools, have been shown. Port Huron, Michigan, reports the holding of exhibi- tions of pictures and engravings, and an increasing in- terest and appreciation regarding the work. At present. LIBRARIES AND ART extensive plans are being made for an exhibit which is to be loaned by Detroit, and which is to be made up of a number of original paintings and a large number of reproductions. A small admission fee will be charged, the proceeds to go towards a fund for the purchase of a painting for the library. At the same time, a formal opening of a new museum connected with the library will be held. In the Peru, Indiana, library, an exhibition of paint- ings, which had hung in the Indiana building during the St. Louis Exposition, was held. These were by Indiana artists. Another exhibition consisted of prints, posters, and beautiful things in color loaned by a Chicago Art Education Association. This collection was so se- lected that it might aid the people in choosing inex- pensive yet beautiful and appropriate things for their homes and schools. At the opening of the Seattle Public Library, a room forty by sixty-five feet was set apart for the use of the Washington State Art Association. There has been in- stalled in this room a loan collection of paintings, and the Association and other art societies have made very frequent use of the room for exhibitions. These have included architecture, Japanese prints, black and white oriental rugs, and a collection of John La Farge's pic- tures. School work from the elementary and high school departments has been shown on walls, tables, and screens. For the last three years the Utica Public Library has held two or three exhibitions each winter in the gallery connected with the library. These are carried on at the expense of the library, are free to the public, and are made popular in every way ; and already an increased interest and an anticipation on the part of the public is apparent. Before the Worcester Art Museum was established, annual loan exhibitions were held in the public library, and were well attended. Now that that need is removed, LIBRARIES AND ART there are still numerous exhibitions of other art objects and of industrial and public school work. During the past year there have been held a Lincoln exhibit, largely loan; exhibitions of photographs of paintings in the Louvre, belonging to the library ; colored plates and pho- tographs of one hundred masterpieces, also belonging to the library; and drawings, including stencil work by pupils of the evening schools. Notices are sent to schools, societies, and interested individuals, and the general public is notified through newspaper notices and placards placed in stores. The librarian is, ex- officio, a member of the Public School Art League, an organization working for the best interests of art in schools. PERMANENT EXHIBITIONS OR MUSEUMS Boston, Haverill, Newton, Northampton, and Spring- field, Mass., New York, Brooklyn, Dubuque, Iowa, Kan- sas City, Louisville, Oak Park, 111., Omaha, and Wil- liamsport, Pa., are the only libraries responding to the questionnaire which own a collection of paintings or other objects of art. The Springfield, Mass., library owns the Aston col- lection of wood engravings, some Japanese water colors, a few etchings and steel engravings. Connected with the library, in a separate building, is an art museum containing the George Walter Vincent Smith collections of ceramics, swords, rugs, and other objects of indus- trial art. No loan exhibition of paintings has been held in the New York City library, but there have been occasional exhibitions of engravings. However, the library owns a collection of paintings which is open to the public whenever the building is open, and is well attended. This has recently been enlarged by the gift of Tissot's Old Testament paintings, which will be hung in place when the building is completed. In the Dubuque, Iowa, library, the walls of one room LIBRARIES AND ART are entirely covered with framed pictures of birds, sev- eral of which are large Audubon prints. This is called the Bird Room, and teachers often take their pupils there for study. The library at Manhato, Minn., owns a collection of Alaskan Indian basketry, and one of American pottery. Besides the temporary exhibits in the Newark Library, there is a permanent exhibition of engravings of every kind: wood, copper, mezzotint, aquatint, lithograph, photogravure, half tone, and zinc etching; and of pro- cesses and tools which, it is hoped, will prove to be the nucleus of a much larger collection in time. Of these engravings one hundred thirty-six are in frames, and hang on the wall, and are changed from time to time. The remaining three hundred are in a case where they are easily accessible to students. SCHOOL DEPARTMENT In the School Department of the Newark Library a great deal is done, for both pupils and teachers. The room is a large one, well lighted and most attractively furnished, and conveniently situated on the first floor. The walls are of a dull green, and the floors are covered with corticine, which prevents any noise in walking. Upon three portable screens is kept a display of photo- graphs or pictures of any subject of current interest. These screens, which are placed rather low, are covered with green denim, the woodwork being painted black. On the walls are hung pictures suitable for classroom decoration, or for the illustration of nature, geography and history. These are all large, are framed in black, and are hung comparatively low. They are taken from a large collection which is frequently changed. In this department there is a permanent reference library for teachers, including teaching methods, school management, all of the text books used in the city, as well as many supplementary ones, books upon design and schoolroom art, as well as the current educational 10 LIBRARIES AND ART periodicals and art publications. These include not only those published in our own country but several of foreign publication. Among these are Kokka, an Illustrated Monthly Journal of the Fine and Applied Arts of Japan and Other Eastern Countries; Art et Decoration; L'Art Decoratif; Kunst and Kunst-handwerk, and Moderne Kunst. This department not only furnishes the best reading for children in school and library editions, but shows examples of fine editions, creating a knowledge of and taste for such things. On the screens in this room have been shown samples of drawing done in the city schools. These are selected by the supervisor of drawing and changed each month, and have served as a valuable lesson to the teachers in furnishing an illustration of fine work and new ideas, and to the pupils in raising a standard or ideal. PICTURE COLLECTIONS In connection with this department is a collection of twelve thousand mounted and one hundred thousand unmounted pictures which are loaned to schools or to individuals upon request. This includes an unusually large collection of plates of design. In bringing these together, designs of all kinds have been taken from German, English, French, and American periodicals of art; and such books as Owen Jones' Grammar of Orna- ment, Foord's Decorative Flower^ Studies, and many others have been purchased and taken apart and the plates mounted separately. Several thousand sheets of designs, collected in this way, and covering the very best of the world's art, are arranged by topic, and those which are mounted are filed vertically in wooden boxes holding about five hundred pictures' each, and are in this way as easily handled and looked over as the cards in a card catalogue. The boxes for these pictures have been made by the library's own carpenter, and are twenty-six inches from front to back, fifteen inches wide, 11 LIBRARIES AND ART and nineteen inches high. The tops are made of compo board which is light in weight and upon which a picture may easily be mounted with thumb tacks. The tops are kept open during library hours, and the picture mounted upon the cover is something of an index to the contents of the particular box. The pictures within the boxes are mounted on manilla pulp board of medium weight, the cards being thirteen by seventeen inches. This collection of designs which is unusually rich even for a large public library, because the policy of pulling books to pieces and reclassifying single sheets has here been so courageously followed, is a part of a much larger collection of illustrative material of all kinds. It has gathered from all possible sources pictures, including two or three thousand medium sized photographs of art objects. The arrangement of the pictures themselves, and a simple index, enables the inquiring student to go almost at once to, for example, the portraits of Lincoln, pictures of English cathedrals, a collection of flower studies, Moorish designs, or the reproductions of the paintings of Millet. This collection is used chiefly by teachers at present, and is largely used. It never remains for two days the same, for constantly, as calls arise, additions are made to it, either by drawing on the unmounted collection, or, if need be, by pulling apart and mounting pictures from a volume that covers the subject just then wanted. In 1908, twenty-five thousand of these pictures were loaned to over nineteen hundred persons, and the usual average is nearly three thousand each month. On the exhibition boards in the School Department are con- stantly kept examples from this picture collection of any subject which is of particular interest at the time. When the book-plate was the problem given the college exten- sion class in design recently, a display selected from the several hundred in this department was placed upon these screens. There come to the library a great many small, at- 12 LIBRARIES AND ART tractive pictures in color, sometimes as supplements to illustrated journals, sometimes as parts of art works that may be taken apart for the picture collection already described, and sometimes as the result of purchase at very small cost, of broken or second-hand sets of "art works." Most of these things are put into the picture collection, being classified for their utility rather than their beauty. A rather unusual use of some of these has been made by a teacher of literature in the Newark High School, who is accustomed to say that all life should be lived at the level that one finds in a beautiful work of art. At her suggestion and for her especial use, the library has mounted a considerable number of these miscellaneous pictures chosen from all times, all schools, and all degrees of excellence. She calls this collection which is kept in her room in the High School, her "art for art's sakfe" collection. Not infrequently in giving a talk to her pupils in connection with any topic, she brings out from one to a dozen of these charming things from Jugend or a colored picture from Illustrirte Zeitung, and attempts to make her students see that the painting into which a man of genius has put some of the best of himself, tells us, for example, more fully and more quick- ly than can columns of print what we may see to admire and enjoy in the prospect that nature spreads before us. The practice of collecting and loaning material to schools is general, twenty-seven of the thirty-seven libraries responding doing this to a greater or less extent, and all report that this material is used to a remarkable degree. It includes pictures for illustrative purposes, photographs of works of art, and sheets of design. There is a diversity in the arrangement and storing of this material ; boxes are used and their contents arranged by subject; cabinets and portfolios; big manilla envelopes; drawers, and Harvard filing cases. Only nine libraries loan pictures large enough for classroom decoration, and few have made use of 'German educational lithographs. The Springfield, Mass., library owns many thousand 13 LIBRARIES AND ART prints gathered from books, magazines, and many other sources, of which from twelve thousand to fifteen thou- sand are loaned each year. It also owns photographs and photogravures of works of art, and a very large and valuable collection of portfolios and plates on decoration and design. These are borrowed by teachers, students, artists, architects, designers, decorators and engravers. A most encouraging feature is the very extensive indus- trial use of the plates of decoration and design made by artists, artisans, and designers of carpets, wall paper, book covers, and by illustrators. Cincinnati has a collection of pictures and photographs arranged according to the Dewey classification, encased in heavy manilla envelopes, and circulated ten at a time. Children's drawings are mounted, placed in envelopes, and circulated. An art collection of large framed pic- tures, reproductions of famous paintings, sculpture, and architecture is loaned in the city, and it is hoped that with the coming year it will be possible to send it out among the county schools and libraries. In Dubuque, Iowa, the collection of pictures and pho- tographs is mounted on heavy gray cardboard. Each picture has a pocket and card on the back, and is charged the same as a book. A picture cabinet is used, and pictures are arranged in alphabetical order under artist and under country. A card catalogue is placed on top of the cabinet with entry under artist and also under title of picture. A collection of fifty masterpieces published by Double- day, and about two thousand Braun prints are owned by the Port Huron, Michigan, library, and are loaned upon request. These are kept in a vertical file, arranged alphabetically by artist, and are accompanied by an artist, subject, and title index. In Northampton, Mass., the teachers of art make lists every year of pictures which their pupils will study. The library furnishes these, and also provides illustrative material for study clubs. It loans large collections of 14 LIBRARIES AND ART pictures to other libraries as well. The collection num- bers over ninety thousand, and the circulation last year was twenty thousand. Buffalo, with one of the finest art buildings in the country, and a very active Art Society, needs to do little through its library, but before the present building was given to the Art Society, the organization had quarters in the library building. However, it has a large collec- tion of pictures used in connection with school work and gathered from many sources. The Division of Visual Instruction of the New York Education Department which works in connection with the State Library prepares and loans to schools, libraries, and other educational institutions, wall pictures, hand photographs, and lantern slides. About twenty cata- logues enumerating the lists of slides of various countries have been issued. About eighteen hundred wall pic- tures are in constant use. The department owns thirty thousand different negatives from which lantern slides are made, and is constantly adding to this supply. The fee charged for the use of these articles is nominal only, and is intended merely to cover the cost of transporta- tion. For example, a wall picture is loaned at a cost of fifty cents a year. The collection is catalogued after a slightly modified decimal system. LECTURES AND LECTURE HALLS Another means of influence which the library exerts in its efforts to promote art education is through its lectures and its ability to offer a meeting place for societies and various classes, or the public at large. In this again, the Newark Library is particularly fortunate in having at its disposal room which it generously offers. No other library in the country, of its size, has more than a quarter of the room this building has for both library and public uses. The building is big enough for fifty years to come for library purposes, and for much of that time will serve as a center for the literary life 15 LIBRARIES AND ART of the city. There are a number of commodious rooms free for the use of classes, societies, or artists' clubs whose aim or object is an educational one; Last winter a class, organized for the study of historic architecture, met regularly in one of these rooms, and also made use of plates and engravings belonging to the library. A large audience room on the fourth floor accommo- dating four hundred persons is used, free of expense, for any meeting that is educational in its aim. The college extension lectures are held here; meetings of teachers with supervisors, lectures for the public under the auspices of the Board of Education, and occasional lectures upon paintings, design, and municipal art. This hall is provided with a modern dissolving lantern with a 12 X 12 curtain and a number of slides illustrative of art and travel. The lantern is at the service of those who make use of the room, and is available at any time. A charge of eight dollars is made for the use of the lantern and curtain, and the services of the operator. For school use the charge is much less — in fact, merely nominal. The hall is also provided with a reflectoscope which when placed about thirty-four feet from the screen will reflect upon it any picture not over five inches square, in all the colors of the original. It will reflect also a picture or part of the text from a printed book, the image being properly reversed by a mirror before it leaves the instrument. By means of a collection of postal cards, of which the library has about thirty-five hundred, a talk can be interestingly illustrated with the instrument at a minimum expense. As many as six meetings may be held at the same time within the building, accommodating over seven hundred persons if necessary. Not long ago two of the large rooms were given up to an exhibit of designs for jewelry, made up from the library's own collection, and while these were in place the Jewelers' Association of of the city invited one of the prominent art teachers of 16 LIBRARIES AND ART the country to speak before their association, in the Library building. The total number of meetings of an educational and literary nature that have been held during the last seven years is 3,657; the largest for a single year being 685. In this reaching out to the general public, Newark is not alone, for twenty-one of the reporting libraries have rooms where educational or art meetings are held. In the main library of Louisville, Kentucky, and in its five branches, a lecture room is provided, which con- tains special electrical outfit for stereopticon views thrown directly upon the painted wall. The aim is to familiarize the people with some of the great paintings which cannot be brought to the city. In the children's department a small class is conducted during the winter, showing the children reproductions of famous pictures, and telling stories connected with these. There was also given in this library last winter a course of six lectures on art, by a lady who had just returned from study abroad, where she had been especially sent for this purpose by a class of ladies numbering about one hundred forty. A large collection of lantern slides on art subjects is owned by the Cincinnati library and is in constant use during the winter months. A series of art talks for children, illustrated with the stereopticon, is given each season, and a booklet, containing some of the pictures in the children's room with a description of each, has been distributed among the children. Stereoscope ma- chines which have been installed in the children's room for the last few years are doing good work. The art work of the Port Huron library is in charge of an art committee, and an Art Study Club has existed for a number of years. There is also a Camera Club, for whose use a dark room has been fitted up in the library, and whose work is encouraged by competitive exhi- bitions. 17 LIBRARIES AND ART The Boston Public Library is in close touch with the Museum of Fine Arts and the art schools. Tables are reserved during the school year for each school, and one session of the Evening Free Drawing School is held each week at the library. Free lectures on art are given every Thursday during the winter season, and classes and seminaries in the fine arts under competent instructors are held frequently in the Fine Arts Department or the Lecture Hall. ART DEPARTMENT Most of the large libraries replying to the question- naire state that they have art departments without speci- fying in detail the work attempted. There is in Utica, New York, the remnants of an old Art Association. Realizing the importance of reaching the industrial and practical people in the community, its members have formed themselves into an industrial Library League, and through their eflforts over a thou- sand dollars worth of books, on practical and industrial subjects, representing the industries of Utica, have re- cently been added to the library. The art department is the latest undertaking of the Newark Library, a large room being at present fitted up for art material alone. Here will be kept the books on art, one hundred fifty of which contain large plates. These will be accessible during all library hours, and here and in the adjoining rooms they will be displayed for general inspection at least twice each winter. About one thousand sheets of design mounted singly for lend- ing, and arranged conveniently for examination, like cards in a catalogue; two thousand mounted photographs of paintings, sculpture and architecture; book plates, num- bering one thousand, mounted and arranged according to country and designer, will also be kept in this room. 18 LIBRARIES AND ART Numerous lists like those below are of assistance in selecting a book for use in a certain subject : Japanese Art Pictorial Arts Anderson Arts and Crafts Dick Japanese Art Gonse Landscape Gardening in Japan Conder Ceramic Art in Japan Audsley Ornamental Arts Audsley Arts of Japan Dillon Masters of Ukioye Fenollosa Color Prints Strange Japanese Floral Calendar Clement An Artist's Letters from Japan La Farge Flowers of Japan Conder Japanese Prints Pepper Japanese Art Startmann Hokusai Holme Ideals of the East Okakura Japanese Wood Engravi'ng Anderson Jewelry — Gold and Silversmiths Gold and Silversmith's Work Pollen Designs for Gold or Silversmiths Pugin Silverwork and Jewelry Wilson Modern Design in Jewelry and Fans Holme Art of Goldsmith and Jeweler Wigley Goldsmith's Handbook Gee Jeweler's Assistant Gee Hall Marking of Jewelry Gee Modem Designs of Jewelry Anon Goldsmiths' and Silversmiths' Work Dawson Jewelry Repairer's Handbook Keplinger Gem-cutter's Craft Claremont Bijouterie Francaise Vever Repousse Metal Work Horth 19 LIBRARIES AND ART A "Fine Arts Bulletin" is published each month and sent to any person who wishes it. This gives a brief outline of the leading art contributions in the current numbers of the magazines, thus saving the time of busy people in locating articles in which they may be in- terested. . One of the most interesting acquisitions of the library is a Washington hand printing press. Upon it are printed notices of exhibitions and meetings, which are displayed in the entrance hall. Selections from famous writings are printed, showing a fine marginal spacing and arrangement. These have been given to the schools, where they have been framed, and teach a valuable lesson in fine composition. Three fonts of Cheltenham type are owned by the library for use upon this press. Another helpful feature is that of placing in the library jars containing flowers, branches of trees and shrubs, and stalks bearing fruit. Hydrometer jars are used to hold these sprays. These are glasses in the form of cylinders with flat bases, are eight and ten inches high, and are entirely without ornament or decoration or curve of any kind. They are purchased from Whitall, Tatem Com- pany, wholesale druggists, of 46 Barclay Street, New York City, who make a special price for "schools and libraries. The Shade Tree Commission furnishes a part of the material used in this way, and the members of the library staff provide a considerable amount. One spray rather than a mass is placed in each jar, that the detail of growth may be seen, and great care is exercised to show characteristic growth. The jars stand in a row either on a table, desk, catalogue case, or shelf, and in the children's room on a long low table. Labels of cardboard, two by four inches, are used to name each specimen. These are placed flat on the table or against the base of the jar. In April and May twigs of common trees as the maple, elm, poplar, tulip, willow, birch, and oak are shown; 20 LIBRARIES AND ART during June, July, and August sprays of common wild flowers; in September and October seed pods and fruits of wayside plants, and later ever-greens, holly, and mistletoe. The aim is to show the beauty of common flowers, branches, and seed pods, to call attention to individuality of stem and growth, and to interest pupils and older people in a study of nature. The old definition of a library as a depository for books is no longer adequate. With the evolution of a more complex life about us, its interests and usefulness have expanded in many directions, but in none has it accomplished more than in awakening a love for and a knowledge of what is good in art. This is especially true in carriying on the work among young people by co-operating with the efforts of teachers, and in furnish- ing such a wealth of material for their aid. 21