CHARLES CALLAHAN PERKINS. 537 



of the small number of foreign corresi3ondents of the Academie des 

 Beaux Arts, being the first American who had been selected for that 

 honor. 



In the same year he returned to Boston to remain, and he then 

 entered upon a period of his life when his attainments were to be 

 made of immediate service to his fellow citizens. Soon after his 

 arrival he urged upon the American Social Science Association the 

 importance of j^rocuring a large collection of casts from the best ex- 

 amples of sculpture, for the use of students and the instruction of the 

 public. It happened at the same time that the Boston Athenaeum 

 desired to remove its Fine Arts department in the interest of its rap- 

 idly growing Library, and that Harvard College was willing to place 

 the Gray engravings where they would be more accessible than they 

 could be in Gore Hall. Mr. Perkins urged with warmth the design 

 of combining the resources thus offered with his own project, and did 

 more than any one else to foster the conviction that the time had 

 come for Boston to have a public collection of works of art. An 

 article by him in the North American Review, which attracted much 

 attention, contrasted our inertness on this subject with the recent 

 activity of the great European nations, and laid down the principles 

 on which American museums should be founded. These principles 

 were derived from the large purpose he had in view. We must, 

 he said, " aim at collecting material for the education of a nation 

 in art." In every step which was taken to establish the Museum of 

 Fine Arts in Boston he took a leading part. In this, as in all under- 

 takings for the promotion of art, he was eager to make a small begin- 

 ning, confident that this would lead on to a larger and more perfect 

 growth. He could not wait for the erection of a permanent building 

 on the land granted by the city. He was anxious that the new 

 Museum should immediately enter into activity, and he planned and 

 brought together its first exhibition in the old picture galleries of the 

 Athenaeum. When the corporation was fully organized he became its 

 Honorary Director, and chairman of its most important committee. 

 In this capacity he directed the selection of the casts of sculpture 

 which it had been his first object to procure. He labored devotedly 

 in the formation of all its collections, and by gifts, by acts, and by 

 words, he pushed its progress in all directions, inspiring others with 

 some share of his own enthusiasm. Nothing lay nearer his heart than 

 the service he could render the community in this regard ; nothing de- 

 lighted him so much as the advance of the Museum in usefulness and 

 favor. 



