REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1921. 29 



and doors; and the furniture, lent by one of the local dealers, was 

 brought' in piece bj^ piece until the room was complete. Thus was 

 shown how the Better Homes Institute, by the use of stage set and 

 actual objects of everyday use, is demonstrating to the people of 

 the Middle West the relation of art to life, creating a popular de- 

 mand for better art in house furnishings and helping to induce a 

 larger market for industrial art products. Mr. Allen Eaton, of 

 the Sage Foundation, spoke on " Pictures for the schoolroom," ex- 

 hibiting a number of prints he had selected for a schoolroom print 

 exhibition for circulation by the federation. Mr. L. M. Churbuck, 

 director of the art department of the Massachusetts State Fair, pre- 

 sented an excellent paper on " Art in State fairs." Miss Mary Powell, 

 of the art department of the St. Louis Public Library, presented 

 the subject, " Art in the public library," and Mr. John L. Braun, 

 president of the Philadelphia Art Alliance, made a telling plea for 

 " The alliance of the arts." 



On the evening of the same date the Eegents and Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution tendered the members of the federation and 

 their friends a reception, with a special view of the exhibition of 

 war portraits in the National Gallery of Art, Dr. Charles D. Wal- 

 cott, Mrs. Walcott, Mr. Robert W. de Forest, and Mrs. John W. 

 Alexander receiving the visitors. 



This collection, brought together by the National Art Committee, 

 comprised 21 canvases by American artists, portraits of distinguished 

 leaders of America and of the Allied Nations during the World War, 

 and is to form the nucleus for a National Portrait Gallery. As such 

 it will be shown by the American Federation of Arts in the various 

 cities of the country before being permanently deposited in Wash- 

 ington. In planning the circuit it was arranged to have the collec- 

 tion temporarily in the National Gallery of Art at the time of the 

 convention for the benefit of the members of the federation. 



The main hall of the National Gallery was given over to the por- 

 trait collection (which was on exhibition from May 5 to May 22), 

 small portions of the halls of ethnology, to the northeast, being 

 screened off to display paintings from the Evans collection tempo- 

 rarily displaced. Opportunity was offered the delegates to see 

 not only the National Gallery exhibits but also those of the Museum 

 in other fields, as the foyer and west ranges of the ground floor and 

 the entire first floor of the building were open for inspection from 

 8 to 11. 



The Madame Curie committee of Washington arranged a meeting 

 in the auditorium on the evening of May 20, in honor of Madame 

 Marie Curie, the codiscoverer of radium. Madame Curie was wel- 

 comed by Secretary Walcott, honorary chairman of the committee, 

 and by Miss Julia Lathrop, on the part of the women of Washington, 



