be sure to notice with pleasure the next flower or place of the kind he meets with, and pleasure in the thing will make him care more for the picture, and will give meaning to the name when he next reads it in a book, and thus will begin for him that interaction of art, literature, and nature, to which each of the three owes most of its power to give us ennobling pleasure. * * * "I must say a few words respecting the success which has already been obtained by the use of pictures in schools. We have as yet lent pictures only to twenty schools, and the Art Museum has only been open a few weeks. We have not, therefore, had time to ascertain if a considerable number of children will be led by our school pictures to study the collection in the museum. But we know that in other ways the pictures lent have been very useful. I will give some evidence, which has come to me without my seeking it. Mr. Godolphin Rooper, Her Majesty's inspector of schools at Bradford, visited on a Saturday some of the schools in Manchester to which we have lent pictures. He told me that he found some children playing in the street near one of the schools and talked to them about the pictures. They told him that they liked having them and that some of the children brought their dinners to school in order to see them. I asked a boy who, a few weeks ago, was sent to guide me from one board school to another if he and his schoolfellows liked our pictures. He said, 'Some of us come half an hour earlier to see them, especially when there are any fresh ones.' Mr. Mellor, the master of the Manchester Free Elementary School, told me that our pictures not only brighten the schoolrooms and make them pleasanter for teachers and children, but also enable him to give the children, in a way which is pleasant for both sides, clear ideas about many things-ideas which, thus given, he says, are never forgotten. He pointed to one chromolithograph which has taught many children the meaning of 'plain' and of ‘river' and 'group,' and to another which has given clear ideas of 'a glade' tree trunks,'' foliage,' etc. * * * "I can not use here the arguments which seem to me to prove that public gardens and art galleries ought to be open on Sundays, but at least I must say that it is of such immense importance that children shall gain familiarity with beautiful things, and that parents and children of the working classes in towns shall be enabled to have pleasures in common, that, if gardens and art galleries are not to be opened on Sundays, we ought to lose no time in transferring their contents to those places which are open on Sundays-to Sunday schools, churches, and chapels." WORK OF THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE. In the spring of 1896 the section on art education of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences inaugurated an exhibition of "works of art suitable for the decoration of schoolrooms," which was held at 174 Montague street. Brooklyn, March 21 to April 4, 1896. A catalogue of the exhibition has been published, and is preliminary to a report on the subject to be made later by the institute. The catalogue contains 412 entries, including photographic reproductions, engravings, etchings, original drawings, statuary, and pottery suitable for schoolroom decoration. Prices attached range from 25 cents to $70. In his introduction to the catalogue Prof. Walter S. Goodnough, chairman of the section on art education, says: "The purpose of this exhibition is to bring to the attention of educational authorities and the public of this city and vicinity a most important educational movement, destined to have great influence. It originated in England in 1883, under the leadership of John Ruskin, and extending to this country, has been taken up enthusiastically in many cities. A fuller report of this movement will be made 1 Reprinted in Report on Art and Industry in the United States, by I. Edwards Clarke, Pt. II, pages 716-722. in print later, by the section on art education of the Brooklyn Institute. This exhibition is intended to be suggestive, not complete or exhaustive, of works of art suitable for public schoolrooms of all grades. "In other cities public funds have not been drawn upon, except to the extent of providing picture moldings and suitable colored walls, ceilings, and woodwork. Works of art have been loaned or presented to the schools by alumni associations, graduating classes, friends, or patrons; also by civic or educational societies, art clubs or associations, and other organizations interested in the social progress and well-being of the city through the proper education of its future citizens. "In Boston the Public School Art League, with the consent and cooperation of the board of education, decorated several schools. In Philadelphia the Civic Club purchased works of art for and decorated a school selected by the board of education. "In Chicago, St. Louis, Cambridge, Salem, Brookline, New Haven, and numerous other places much has been done. It is hoped that public-spirited citizens and organizations will aid and support this movement in Brooklyn. The day is not far distant when all bare, white walls in the schoolroom will be replaced by pleasing tints and works of art. Originals or acceptable reproductions will hang upon the walls or find place in cabinets or cases provided for this purpose. "A recent writer asks, 'How shall our life, public and private, be raised to a higher plane? What better means can be used to inspire patriotism and chasten private life than the influence of those arts which embody the ideal? Where can this influence be exerted so well as in the public school? In youth the mind is most open to the nobler influences; impressions then formed are most lasting.' 'Surround young people during school hours with pictures and statuary, set off by tinted walls and decorated ceilings, and the silent beauty irradiating therefrom will quicken and purify the taste without encroaching upon school time.' 'Art in daily contact with life is a silent but all-powerful and ever-constant and undying influence in the shaping and molding of character. It will do more for refining, elevating, broadening, and even tempering of character than all other forces com bined, except religion, and when art and religion have both been true, the one has helped the other. Without true art no nation has been, can be, or will be great, and as the twig is more easily bent than the trunk, the process will best begin with the young.' 666 The public school is the place to which we should turn chief attention in our effort to promote a more beautiful public life in America. The schoolhouse and grounds should be beautiful, and the child should be surrounded by beauty in the schoolroom from first to last.' "Art education is a primary part of true industrial and of spiritual education. Every school should teach the pupils, and through them the people, that everything that man uses of wood or metal or stone, of wool or silk, printed, woven, or wrought, should be beautiful; and it should provide means for the development and exercise of the creative faculty with which all are endowed, and which brings man into his highest estate. If we can once give beauty its rights in the schools, we shall have done the greatest thing which we can do toward securing for our people a more beautiful public life.' "The good, the true, the beautiful,' were words the Greeks loved to use. As we open our eyes to see the beauty of God's earth, and sea, and sky, so let us be content only when we see beauty, too, in all the works of our hands-in the home, the school, the shop, the street. "The school wall should speak of the ideal to the eyes of the child. The drawing, engraving, etching, photograph, photogravure, the cast, the product of the potter's skill, and of the art worker in stained glass and in metal, will play a larger part in elementary education in the public school of the future. "As a means of making more real the great events and facts of history, literature, science, and art, as well as for the purpose of bringing greater culture, refinement, and more civilizing influences into the schoolroom, of cultivating an appreciation and love of the beautiful, and of educating the æsthetic and emotional nature of the child, good art works have an untold value. We endeavor to acquaint the pupil with the great masters and masterpieces in history and literature. Should we not do the same in art, when photographs and other reproductions can be had at so small a cost? Should we not bring beautiful form and color into the schoolroom, when good art in the form of pottery is so plentiful and inexpensive? "The section on art education will receive contributions of funds or art works for this purpose, and will endeavor to carry out the desires of donors. Works in this exhibition, with some exceptions, may be bought and presented to any particular school, or be placed in the hands of the section on art education, to be placed in some school, either as a loan or a gift. Receipts from the sale of the catalogues will be used to purchase works from this exhibition, to place in Brooklyn public schools. "All passes; Art alone The bust outlasts the throne, INTERIOR DECORATION OF SCHOOLHOUSES.1 In the autumn of 1896 Mr. Walter Gilman Page, artist and member of the Boston school committee, published a little pamphlet on the Interior Decoration of Schoolhouses. It contains lists of photographs and casts suitable for decoration, and is intended "to answer the questions: What is best for schoolroom decoration? Where can photographs and casts be obtained? What are the sizes and what are the prices?" Mr. Page says, in part: I think it is pretty generally conceded that to decorate a schoolroom is a good thing to do. I shall consider it unnecessary to enlarge upon this point, though the names of those who have advocated the plan would include those best known in the artistic and educational worlds, and facts adduced from what has already been accomplished would give interesting information to those who need encouragement in their attitude toward this question. I would rather turn your attention to a few practical points, based upon actual work in the schools of Boston. The very first item for consideration is the tinting of the walls. It is only very recently that schoolroom walls have been anything but the bare white plaster, so far as Boston is concerned, and this condition prevails in other cities and towns at present: but Boston has happily outgrown this period, and now all class rooms are tinted some sort of color, but usually far from the right one. My experience has directed me, first, to select colors which will not absorb the light, and to lay them on the wall so as to give a flat and dead surface, that there may be no reflection: next, to select colors which are harmonious and artistic in effect; and lastly, to select colors which are soothing, not irritating, to the optic nerve. Upon this latter item a celebrated specialist has given me his professional opinion, and as I have followed his ideas so far as his point of view is concerned, it would be well for me to quote the following from his report: "The walls of all schoolrooms should have some color, for I have often seen children immediately and permanently recover from a persistent recurring diseased condition of the eyes when removed from a schoolroom with white walls, and sent elsewhere to school, or kept at home, where the walls are tinted. The Read before the American Institute of Instruction at Bethlehem, N. H., July 10, 1896. principal color of the walls should be of an even tone, so that the amount of light reflected will be the same from all parts of the surface, as waving or clouded effects are very trying to sensitive eyes. Any color may be placed in its proper position with regards to its safety for schoolroom walls by remembering the general rule with regard to the sensitiveness of the eye to the colors of the spectrum, which is, that the nearer the color is to the red end of the spectrum, the more irritating it is to the eyes; and the nearer the color is to the blue end of the spectrum, the easier it is to the eyes, with the single exception that the extreme violet rays are also irritating. "From this it will be seen that red and all its derivatives should be rigidly excluded, and orange also is nearly as bad, while yellow should never be taken by preference, but may be justifiable in an otherwise dark and badly lighted room. Greens and blues are absolutely safe colors, and it is not at all necessary that the colors should be pronounced. The depth of color should be made dependent upon ↑ the amount of light coming into the windows and upon its quality, as, for instance, whether the windows have a northern or southern exposure, whether the sun's direct rays can come directly into the room when the sun sinks low in the heavens in the middle of a winter afternoon, and other surrounding circumstances of each individual room. "The color of the ceiling of a schoolroom is fully as important as the color of the walls, particularly when there is any amount of reflected light. "All I have said with regard to the color on the walls is doubly true when applied to the color of the window shades, and this fact should always be taken into consideration in furnishing and decorating a schoolroom.”1 In November, 1894, under the auspices of the Public School Art League, the New England Conference of Educational Workers, and the Boston Art Students Association, there was held in Boston an exhibition of photographs, reproductions of standard works of art suitable for schoolroom decoration. Also in Brooklyn, during the months of March and April of the present year, there was held a similar exhibition, under the direction of the section on art education of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. These two events are the most important connected with the subject of schoolhouse decoration since the movement first began in this country, but there is yet to be held an exhibition which shall give a clear idea of the proper order and grade of pictures perfectly suited to the age and understanding of the child from the kindergarten through the high school. In these two exhibitions I refer to, nearly if not quite all the photographs belonged to the highest grades of the grammar schools, and more particularly to the high schools. While, on general principles, association with works of the highest order can not begin too soon, yet we want more than association, or mere contact and environment; we want interest, and, in consequence, understanding. To explain myself something more in detail, I will give a rough outline, merely suggestive of how I would distribute works of art through the different grades. For kindergarten and primary grades I would suggest pictures of the simplest natural objects, such as birds, their nests and eggs, wild flowers, trees, and scenes of rural life, such as town children seldom see and country children often fail to enjoy; pictures of animals in friendly relation with human beings, especially with children; landscapes and marine views; some of these various subjects to be illustrated in color, proper attention being paid to artistic merit. For grammar grades I would use historical portraits and scenes from history, with particular and special reference to the men and events connected with the life of our own country; pictures of architectural works of historic or artistic interest; such reproductions as are available from the numerous works of the old 1 Report written by Dr. Myles Standish, Boston. and modern schools of painting, and, as many of our boys and girls do not go beyond the grammar school, a judicious selection of casts from the antique should be included. For the high schools you have simply to choose from the best, the product of all the ages, the art of Greece and Rome, the Renaissance, down to the present day. The field is broad and the task the easier. All these subjects I have so briefly outlined have their practical uses in the schoolroom, in correlation with drawing, history, geography, and natural history. Certainly the aesthetic sense is pleased and the daily routine made pleasanter amid such surroundings, for nothing, to my mind, is more depressing than bare walls. The present generation can not do better than to inform itself somewhat as to what constitutes American art, and particularly that portion which belongs to the period of the war of the Revolution, illustrated through the masterly portraits by that prince of portrait painters, Gilbert Stuart, and the historical pictures by John Trumbull. I trust the day is not far distant when their names and their works will be known to all the children of the land. In addition to selecting photographs and casts with reference to their character and suitability to age and comprehension, I would advise that they bear a relation to one another. In order to accomplish this it will be necessary to fix upon what it is desired to illustrate upon the walls of some particular schoolroom. Let it be a Greek room, Roman room, Egyptian room, or let it illustrate English literature or French history; different sections of the country through photographs representative of characteristic features, birds, and animals, etc.; but let all these different subjects be placed by themselves. To mix them up in one room, no matter how good in itself each particular object may be, will make the result discordant, though there may exist certain conditions which might render it necessary to include a variety of objects in one room. It is always best to give a good frame to every photograph, and it is always desirable to frame under glass. It is not usual or customary for us to use cheap frames and no glass in our homes. Why should we do less for the schoolroom? The very best form of reproduction is none too good. To be sure, it is the most expensive, and financial conditions are not always such that it is feasible to carry out the plan of obtaining the best. Nevertheless, the best is the thing to aim at, and attain if possible, for in no country to-day does there exist so broad a field for good as the opportunity of bringing the best art has to offer into our school rooms. In the Old World the æsthetic sense is constantly stimulated by what is offered on every side, while in our own land, where art is to have her future throne, at present we have barely made a beginning. The next generation is to witness an immense advance in all that relates to the fine arts. Therefore it is important that we prepare the way. "Though the amount of time given to æsthetic subjects in the public schools is small, and to increase it is entirely out of the question, yet all the more for this reason does the plan of decorating schoolrooms deserve, as it is now receiving, favorable consideration. Surround young people during school hours with pictures and statuary, set off by tinted walls, and the silent beauty irradiating therefrom will quicken and purify the taste without encroaching upon school time or interfering with school work." But while we agree to this, and while we welcome all that can be accomplished in this direction, let it be remembered by those who can aid the most in this work of interior decoration of schoolhouses that primarily schoolhouses are for practical ends, toward whose fulfillment the introduction of objects of art must serve as a valuable aid, and not as an impediment. In fact, I sincerely trust that the school committee of the future will consider the furnishing |