April, 1 910 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



THE EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK 



ANNUAL SMALL HOUSE NUMBER 



THE May number of American Homes and Gardens 

 will be devoted to the small house, its building, its 

 decoration, and its furnishing. This issue will con- 

 tain a vast amount of valuable information for the 

 prospective home-builder. It will tell him how to se- 

 lect a country site; how the various rooms of the 

 house should be planned; the style of architecture in 

 which the house should be designed; the material of 

 which it may be built; the kind of plumbing fixtures to be 

 used; the heating system to be selected; the choice of the 

 hangings for the walls, doors and windows; appropriate 

 furniture for the home; the interior decorating and fur- 

 nishing of the home; the furnishing of the Colonial house; 

 the furnishing of the Arts and Crafts house; the furnish- 

 ing of the porch; the furnishing of the out-of-door living- 

 room; how to plan the small kitchen; how to plan the 

 garden; how to build a pergola; and how to lay out the 

 grounds about the house, as well as the planting of them. 



Special attention will be given to the subject of inex- 

 pensive and small houses; the most numerously erected 

 dwelling in America, and the type of house that at once 

 excites the widest interest and offers the richest field for 

 suggestive helpfulness. 



The various departments conducted by specialists add 

 greatly to the value of this number, and the aim has been 

 to bring out the charm of the simple, beautiful things which 

 contribute to domestic comfort and happiness, solely for 

 the purpose of solving the problems which confront the 

 houseowner, but which cannot be done without the assist- 

 ance of a competent expert. Besides these departments, 

 the magazine will contain a host of articles that must in- 

 evitably stimulate the desire for home improvements. 



The table of contents published on page ix in the cur- 

 rent issue will give a synopsis of the contents for the May 

 number of American Homes and Gardens 



FURNITURE FOR THE HOME 



BEGINNING with the current issue of American 

 Homes and Gardens, Esther Singleton will 

 take charge of a Furniture Department for this 

 paper. The objects of this Department will be to bring 

 before the householder of moderate means the style in 

 vogue for furnishing the various apartments of a house; to 

 offer practical suggestions for the purchase and arrange- 

 ment of furniture, and to aid a small collector of old styles 

 and forms of furniture. Miss Singleton is an author of 

 international reputation, and her books on "The Furniture 

 of Our Forefathers," "French and English Furniture," and 

 "Dutch and Flemish Furniture," are too well known on both 

 sides of the Atlantic to require any comment further than 

 that her serious study of the subject, and her experience as 

 an author, make her qualified to give the best advice on the 

 proper furniture for the home, and this series of papers will 

 be valuable to anyone. 



THE T-SQUARE CLUB EXHIBITION 



IT IS particularly interesting to learn that the T-Square 

 Club of Philadelphia has announced that its Sixteenth 

 Annual Exhibition this year will be devoted to domes- 

 tic architecture. Invitations have been sent to every archi- 

 tect in the country, with a request for them to submit draw- 

 ings or photographs of completed work, with the view of 

 hanging them in the galleries of the exhibition. 



The realization of the importance of such a measure 

 by the T-Square Club is entirely in accordance with the 

 view expressed in the editorial columns of the March issue 

 of American Homes and Gardens, in regard to the lack 

 of domestic architecture shown at the recent exhibition of 

 the Architectural League of New York, and it is certainly 

 gratifying to know that an architectural organization occu- 

 pying the important position which the T-Square Club does 

 in this country should take the initiative in this direction. 



It is to be hoped that the committee in charge of this 

 exhibition will ^receive" [a hearty response to its appeal, 

 and that, in order to secure a more popular exhibition, and 

 one that will be a benefit to a larger number of laymen, 

 will have the co-operation and support of the architects 

 throughout the country. 



DECORATIONS AND FURNISHINGS FOR THE 



HOME 



THE Editor desires to announce that a series of articles 

 on "Decorations and Furnishings for the Home" 

 will appear in American Homes and Gardens. 

 This subject is of the most vital importance to every one 

 interested in the creation and development of a home. The 

 author of these articles, Alice M. Kellogg, is a well-known 

 New York decorator, who has created a new field in the 

 profession by utilizing the most tasteful furnishings and 

 decorations obtainable at a minimum expenditure. This 

 economic point of view will be a feature of the series, while 

 the practical and artistic will not be overlooked. So far 

 as is possible there will be estimates, and prices given, with 

 suggestive ideas not only for the introduction of the newest 

 devices of Interior decoration, but also for the improving 

 and harmonizing of existing conditions, 



AUTOMOBILING 



OWING to the Importance of the automobile in rela- 

 tion to the country home, the publishers have de- 

 cided to open a department on this subject In 

 American Homes and Gardens. 



The first paper, which appears In the current Issue, is 

 devoted to the closed car- and Is prepared by Stanley Y. 

 Beach, the Automobile Editor of the "Scientific American." 

 Each issue will contain an article on a special class of 

 car and its equipment, and the latest advice and informa- 

 tion on the subject, which should be helpful to those who 

 are interested in the purchase and use of an automobile. 



