PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS 

 May 29, 191 5 



The preceding programme, a pretty souvenir, was issued 

 in an edition of one thousand copies for free distribution. 

 The exercises were carried out as planned with no gaps and 

 a few impromptu additions, as revealed in the following 

 proceedings. 



For many years the grave of Dr. Joseph Rodman Drake 

 had lain neglected and no adequate recognition was given his 

 memory as an American poet — the first native poet of the city 

 of New York whose writings continued to hold undiminished 

 favor in the American literary pantheon. Time was when the 

 grave was in jeopardy of obliteration by a street; but protests 

 from a small number of wideawake citizens and editorial 

 writers led to a cancellation of this unholy design and the 

 perpetuation of the graveyard and abutting land as Joseph 

 Rodman Drake Park, at Hunts Point. In the spring of 1906, 

 when the preservation of the site was being considered by the 

 city authorities, the Bronx Society of Arts and Sciences co- 

 operated actively and was represented at a hearing before the 

 local board of Bronx Borough by a special committee consist- 

 ing of Victor Hugo Paltsits and Charles W. Stoughton. 



By The American Flag Drake is a national poet; by his 

 charming poem on the Bronx he is peculiarly our poet ; whilst 

 The Culprit Fay belongs to the English-speaking peoples every- 

 where. So it was most appropriate that his memory should be 

 honored at home where his mortal remains had been interred. 

 This duty the Bronx Society of Arts and Sciences fulfilled 

 after six months of untiring efforts by its Drake Memorial 

 Committee and at an expense of more than six hundred dol- 

 lars secured from its members and interested friends in Man- 



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