TRANSACTIONS ()!• THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



a "best seller'" for the moment. Reread 

 now. after the lapse of almost a genera- 

 tion and when the literature of civic im- 

 provement has already swelled to little- 

 dreamed-of proportions, it is still impres- 

 sive as a simple, earnest, straightforward 

 statement of the farreaching value, and 

 some of the many possible ways, of 

 creating more beautiful civic environ- 

 ments. Though Robinson's later works 

 have still further emphasized the value 

 of civic beauty and the importance of 

 planning for this, it may well be ques- 

 tioned whether any of them, though in- 

 formed by his greatly enlarged experi- 

 ence in dealing with actual civic prob- 

 lems and by his riper powers of thought, 

 have actually made a greater contribu- 

 tion to the betterment of cities than this 

 first book. 



From this point, his career is so crowd- 

 ed with constructive endeavor, and he ac- 

 complishes so many definite things for 

 public advantage, and receives so many 

 marked evidences of successful achieve- 

 ment, that any full account of his work 

 and its results becomes quite impossible. 

 The article already quoted gives the im- 

 portant facts of his career which now 

 rapidly succeed one another. Though its 

 statements are quoted jirimarily to 

 sketch a part of the comparatively short 

 career of one man and are personal to 

 him. since similar experiences were be- 

 ing had more and more by others, they 

 indicate as clearly the general awaken- 

 ing of American public sentiment with 

 respect to civic improvement as they do 

 the >vay in which, and the extent to 

 which, he was, from now on, a most im- 

 portant figure and always a great en- 

 ergizing influence in this movement, — 

 the movement for which the writings 

 and practice of men like the Olmsteds, 

 Eliot, and others had been preparing the 

 way. 



"Mr. Robinson was now giving all his 

 time to his subject, and. taking up the 



preparation of his second book, he re- 

 moved for some months to Boston to be 

 in touch with its ampler facilities for a 

 study of municipal aesthetics. In Boston 

 also he served as acting secretary of the 

 American Park and Outdoor Art Asso- 

 ciation, then the leading national organi- 

 zation devoted to the subject in which he 

 was interested, its membership made up 

 of landscape architects, park superintend- 

 ents, park commissioners, and a few pub- 

 lic-spirited citizens. As his work neared 

 completion, Mr. Robinson returned to 

 Rochester. He had now been elected 

 regular secretary of the Association, of 

 which the membership was rapidly grow- 

 ing, and had made the personal acquaint- 

 ance of most of the men professionally 

 active in municipal improvements. In 

 May. 1903, the new book, 'Modern Civic 

 Art,' came out. 



"Various local improvement societies 

 of the Middle West had federated them- 

 selves in an organization of which the 

 headquarters were in Springfield. Ohio ; 

 and Mr. Robinson and others felt that 

 the general movement would be furthered 

 if the American Park and Outdoor Art 

 Association — largely representative of pro- 

 fessional knowledge — and this other or- 

 ganization largely composed of those 

 who wanted to better local conditions and 

 were seeking how to do it — could be 

 brought together. At a joint convention, 

 held in St. Louis in 1904, this union was 

 accomplished, and there was formed the 

 .\merican Civic Association. For a few 

 months, until the organization could be 

 put on its feet, Mr. Robinson consented 

 to accept the temporary secretaryship. 

 He then resigned to enter the profession- 

 al field that had now opened to him. 



'"The first commission which he re- 

 ceived to apply to a concrete case his ab- 

 stract theories, had come to him from 

 Buffalo, N. Y., where the Society for 

 Beautifying Buflfalo had lately been 

 formed. His report on the opportunities 



