done by Robert Bruce Horsfal!, ("arl 

 Rungius and Charles J. Hittell. Charles 

 R. Knight has planned a series of murals 

 to surround the halls of fossil mammals; 

 E. W. Deming has made sketches for a 

 mural series which has been accepted 

 for the Plains Indian hall; Will S. Taylor 

 is the creator of six large mural canvases 

 in the North Pacific hall — where also 

 are Eskimo paintings by Frederick A. 

 Stokes — and Mr. Taylor in his studio 

 in the northwest tower of the IVIuseum 

 is working at present on a second series 

 to show Indian ceremonials. Howard 

 McCormick is painting a canvas 19 by 

 48 feet, in the hall of the Southwest 

 Indians to form the background for a 

 group of figures which are being made 

 by the sculptor Mahonri M. Young; and 

 so on. Various mural studies have been 

 copied from old cave paintings by Albert 

 Operti who also has painted some back- 

 grounds for groups. Carl E. Akeley, a 

 newly recognized sculptor, engaged im- 

 mediately in the work of mounting an 

 elephant group for the IMuseum, has been 

 given charge of the plans for the future 

 African hall, into which will be drawn 

 A. Phimister Proctor and other sculptors 

 and artists. 



It is a new era for museums and for 

 the American Museum in particular, and 



it is but begun. Scientist, sculptor and 

 painter will go on with work more closely 

 amalgamated in exhibition. Architect, 

 sculptor and painter will continue hand 

 in hand in the construction of buildings. 

 Thus results will always become more 

 satisfying to the millions of people who, 

 because limited in opportunities for edu- 

 cation and obliged to live for the most 

 part in humble surroundings, will look 

 more and more to the free museum and 

 its exhibits for instruction and for the 

 beauty, gentle or austere, their imagi- 

 nations crave. 



The new era for museums in America 

 is of course but a part of a larger move- 

 ment felt in many lines of thought and 

 work and it correlates closely with the 

 increase in free art and music of the 

 highest class, of free education in many 

 things ideal along with the practical, of 

 all conditions tending toward a spirit- 

 ualizing of the race over and above the 

 rapid material advance. 



Understandingthis, we give unstintedly 

 of what we have — interest, time, work 

 or money. We can but give ourselves 

 more gladly when we look ahead and 

 realize that the people of America can 

 be consciously guided to a future great 

 in a degree we to-day can conceive but 

 cannot compass, and that the guidance 



I'lnpi rhj I'f tlie Museum 

 Two of Knight's sketches for murals in tlie fossil halls of the Museum 



85 



