258 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



commercial advantages which accrue 

 to certain enterprising concerns, for 

 the value to the country at large of 

 a great and distinctive art must he ob- 

 vious. Nothing, unless it be music, so 

 unites a people as a similarity or a sym- 

 pathy in their decorative associations. 

 We are a nation composed of many 

 strains of blood, a people which has 

 drawn traditions from innumerable 

 sources, and the political unity which 



holds us together will be strengthened 

 and vivified Ijy an art wliich we may 

 truthfully call our own. 'J'o make life 

 a little more gracious; to make beauti- 

 ful things a little more charming; to 

 bring into the lives of millions of peo- 

 ple simple things which carr}^ a mes- 

 sage of loveliness: this is the meaning 

 of creative art in America, and this is 

 one ])lias(' of tlie educational work that 

 the American ^luseum is doing. This 



The two upper designs at the left were taken from Aztec shields in the collections of tlie American 

 Museum. The third is Mexican, the design signifying "sand and water." All three have been incor- 

 porated in silks manufactured by the Joseph Berlinger Company 



Of the designs at the right, basketry and pottery motives from the Southwest inspired the two upper- 

 most, taken from specimens in the American Museum's collections. The third design was suggested by 

 the Amur River collections. Levinson and Bessels are the manufacturers 



