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English Royal Commission on Technical Education contains a special report, made by Mr. William Mather, on Technical Instruction in America, (see Vol. II, Part 2) in which but two or three of the Art Institutions are mentioned; his time and attention being evidently fully occupied with the technical mechanical schools and collections. He mentions, in passing, that the small collections of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art consist mostly of gifts from England. His estimate of the size of these collections and his attributing the best of them to the presents from England, at first seemed surprising, but when the vast collections of the South Kensington Museum are put in comparison with those of the Pennsylvania Institution, there is no longer any reason for wonder that, to one accustomed to seeing the former, the latter should seem almost insignificant in amount; and that the English gifts should be estimated as forming a large propor tion of the whole; and yet the collection was for some years altogether the best of its kind in the United States. The collections of industrial art now shown by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the similar collections owned by the Metropolitan Museum and awaiting the completion of the addition to their building, promise a formidable rivalry in extent and excellence. It is only by such comparisons as are made by Mr. Mather that we can know how few and limited are our collections and instrumentalities for technical art industrial training, as compared with the countries of Europe. This should stimulate Americans to make all the use possible of our unrivalled public schools in making general, elementary artistic training. In the latest Report of the English Science and Art Department (1885) there is a special report by Mr. Valentine Ball, M. A., F. R. S., F. G. S., Director, Science and Art Museum, Dublin, on American museums, mostly given to institutions in Canada, but in which high tribute is given to the Metropolitan Museum in New York and to the National Museum in Washington, Professor Baird's system of interchangeable drawers, cases, etc., being especially praised.

In the notice of the Metropolitan Museum, Mr. Ball indicates its comprehensive purpose by saying that it "aims to combine the functions of the National Gallery, the Art Departments of the British Museum, and the South Kensington Museum." After a concise account of its history, collections, and technical schools, he thus concludes:

"Interesting and remarkable as has been the history of this Institution in the past, its career in the future bids fair to be still more remark

able. Like many other American Museums, it has acquired collections which will ever prove a source of attraction, not only to the American public in a general way, but specially to the students of particular branches of Art and Science, from whencesoever they may come.

"Wealth in America, and varied causes needless to specify in Europe, are leading to a steady transference of the Art and Science treasures of the old world to the new. It seems possible, and almost probable, that the rate of this transference will speedily augment, and the time may come when, for the European student of Science and Art, a pilgrimage to America will become a necessary part of his education."* Mr. Ball was greatly impressed with the "variety, extent, and value" of the Art Collections of this Museum. Such testimony is the more acceptable by reason of recent attempts to diminish the public estimate of the value of the collections and the importance to the community of the services undertaken by the promoters of this admirable Institution. The final suggestion made by Mr. Ball is encouraging to the Art lovers of America.

It is with the museums of Natural History and Science that Mr. Ball is especially interested. Neither he nor Mr. Mather attempted to visit or describe the Museums or Schools of Art; such notice as these receive being incidental, and apparently accidental. That any mention of then. should be found in English governmental reports, indicates a marvel lous change in the judgment of the English authorities as to the sig nificance and importance of American affairs.

In this necessarily incomplete and imperfect showing of the present condition and development of artistic industries in the United States, as contrasted with the situation before the opening of the Centennia! Exposition, which has been attempted in this paper and the one immediately preceding, enough has been brought together to show that, besides the educational interest excited in regard to elementary training in industrial art drawing in public schools, and the efforts initiated fo. technical training, all of which are fully described in the several parts of this Report, there has been an actual development of artistic industries.

As capital and knowledge must combine with enterprise before a new manufacture can be established, it is not at all strange that such undertakings were not at once begun at the close of the Exposition. It had

*32d Report Science and Art Department, Appendix M, pages 321–2.

The statistics of the schools of the Industrial and Fine Arts and of the Art Mu seums are given in the tables in Part 1, see pages 386-411. For the present condition of drawing in public schools see the special report, Part I, Appendix E., page 694.

first to be ascertained whether this new interest in art products would be continuous; and then knowledge of the proposed industry and workmen skilled in its processes were needed, before such industries could be established here. The rapidly increasing demand for foreign artistic goods showed that the newly acquired tastes were likely to continue and develop. The various artistic educational movements and enterprises all over the country gave a further pledge of the possibility of a profitable development of artistic industries. The beginning of an era of architectural development was assured and the stimulus this imparted to all the decorative arts subsidiary to architecture, was evident. The development of industry in these ornamental arts during the nine years since the Centennial, is very noticeable in all the large cities. In Ceramics, there has been an absolute creation of art industries. No Art Pottery or artistic Ceramics of any kind, other than the Low art tiles, having any claim to art qualities, were made in the United States before the Centennial.

To-day, not only are the works opened by John Bennett in New York, and the art potteries of American origin established in Cincinnati, producing beautiful wares, but the purely business potteries, such as those of Messrs. Ott and Brewer and of the Greenwood Company of Trenton, and Messrs. J. Haynes & Co. of Baltimore, are attempting to rival the artistic productions of the European potteries, and with most encouraging success. This means that a new industry has been established in the United States; which means, or ought to mean, an increase of prosperity. In old established industries such as are those of the gold and silver-smiths, in the making of carpets, of dress goods, of paper hangings, of furniture, of house decorations, of glass, of stationery, of chromo lithography, of engravings and of all the forms of graphic reproductions of works of art, there has been a remarkable increase of beauty and decoration; especially in the interior decoration of dwellings, and of public halls, churches and theatres, is an improved taste and skill noticeable; so that the influence of the holding of the Centennial Exposition has been a positive force in the development of artistic industries in the United States. When, therefore, we look back and contrast past ugliness, almost universal, with the present almost as universal prevalence of some artistic qualities in all the surroundings of city and town life in the United States, there would seem cause for endless congratulation and boundless national complacency; soon checked, however, if, with an increased knowledge of what conS. Ex. 209-XVII

stitutes the art quality in the works of man's hands, we contrast our present condition as to artistic manufactures with that of any other civilized nation; for then our swelling pride receives a sudden check, since our inferiority is so manifest that no amount of personal or patriotic vanity can blind us to it. When we look around to see what is the promise for the future, and contrast the smallness of our preparation for developing the artistic industries, with the largeness of that made by so small a state as Belgium, for example,-we should be filled with humiliation.

A beginning has, however, been made in the right direction; the elementary training in drawing begun in the schools of Massachusetts fifteen years ago, has not been wholly fruitless; the possibility of public education in the elements of art, so far at least as to fit the pupil for after technical training in any special art industry, has been abundantly demonstrated; the utility of the few existing technical training schools has been proved; the practical value of artistic industries is made clear by the fact that manufacturers begin to undertake them as a business venture; the immigration of trained workers in these arts promises the successful and speedy establishment here of such industries, just as they were once imported into France from Italy, and into England from France.

In the Report which follows, an attempt has been made to set down the various instrumentalities, for the development of arts and of artistic industries now existing in the United States.

In the Appendices, the facilities and methods of other nations, are recited. Attention is asked to the poverty of our present resources as compared with the nations with whom we must compete. The axiom, that "What man has done man can do," has been a guiding motto of the Americans from their first setting foot on the continent, and the whole of their history is a logical deduction from that premise. It has therefore been thought proper to set down fully, yet as briefly as possible, the methods, means and appliances made use of by other nations for the development of their arts and industries. These statements are now offered to the American people in full faith that, some time, whether near or far off, the Republic of America will gloriously vindicate and demonstrate the essential Democracy of Art!

DRAWING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

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