Miscellaneous, 



452 



[November, 1910. 



The Board comprises eleven well- 

 known citizens of Philadelphia acting as 

 appointed members, and a number of ex- 

 officio members including the Mayor of 

 the City, the Governor of the State, the 

 Presidents of Select and Common 

 Councils, the State Superintendent of 

 Public Instruction, the State Forestry 

 Commissioner, the President of the 

 Philadelphia Board of Education, and 

 the Superintendent of the Philadelphia 

 Schools, 



The City of Philadelphia has set aside 

 as a permanent park and botanical 

 garden and as site for the museum 

 buildings, more than fifty acres of 

 land in West Philadelphia, of which 

 about sixteen acres front Thirty-fourth 

 street ; the remainder, still undeveloped, 

 fronts on the Schuykill River, and is 

 surely destined to form part of the great 

 river park improvement that must some- 

 day connect Bartram's Garden with the 

 Fairmount system. 



The Philadelphia Museums were crea ted 

 by ordinance of Councils in 1894. Much- 

 needed storeage room was first provided 

 by the late Mr. William Weightman and 

 by Mr. Frank R. Tobey, who gave the 

 Philadelphia Museums the free use of 

 buildings. For some years the rapidly 

 growing collections were installed in 

 the large Pennsylvania Railroad Office 

 Building on Fourth Street below Walnut, 

 which the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 

 pany gave to the Philadelphia Museums, 

 rent free, for nearly ten years. In 

 1897, the land above described was 

 transferred by the City, and in 1899 

 construction of the present group of 

 buildings began. There are now three 

 permanent Museum Buildings, steel 

 frame with walls of brick and cement, 

 each 100 x 400 feet, and on the northern- 

 most of the three a good beginning has 

 been made on the permanent white terra 

 cotta wall which is some day to cover 

 the entire exterior. These buildings are 

 lighted and heated from a fourth per- 

 manent structure, a steel and stone 

 power house at the railroad level, in 

 which are also located the Museum 

 workshops. 



The present Museum buildings were 

 only made possible by the organisation, 

 in 1899, through national assistance 

 but under the control of the Museum's 

 Board, of the National Export Exposi- 

 tion. This enterprise succeeded in rais- 

 ing funds sufficient for the erection of 

 the present buildings, and thereby 

 marked out the plan of development 

 which the institution has since followed. 



The completion of the entire group of 

 buildings, under the plans adopted, will 

 be a work of considerable time, corres- 



ponding to the undertaking. The per- 

 manent buildings as they now stand 

 represent an expenditure of over $800,000, 

 raised in the past ten years, two-thirds 

 ot which has come from sources other 

 than the city government. 



One of the main objects of the Com- 

 mercial Museum is to promote the com- 

 merce of America with foreign lands 

 and to disseminate in this country a 

 wider knowledge and appreciation of 

 the customs aud conditions of other 

 nations and peoples. 



That Philadelphia should have had 

 the foresight to establish and foster this 

 Commercial Museum is not difficult of 

 explanation. In a manufacturing city 

 the foiemost in the world, there is 

 constant aud increasing need of such 

 an institution. But, except for locat- 

 ion the Museum is much more than 

 of local importance. Its ramifications 

 extend into every quarter where human 

 beings live and labor. The completeness 

 of its facilities and the practical efficiency 

 of its system are demonstrated continu- 

 ally. In some respects the Museum con- 

 stitutes a school where American men of 

 business can acquaint themselves with 

 any subject relating to the commerce 

 of the world. 



The exhibition feature is probably the 

 most conspicuous, and the phase that 

 offers the best opportunity for learning 

 to how great an extent the institution 

 is placing itself at the service of the 

 manufacturing community. The exhib- 

 its, in fact, would do honor to any 

 country desiring to hold a temporary 

 exposition. For this reason many foreign 

 nations have had representatives visit 

 the Museum and inspect their workings 

 for the purpose of emulating the Ameri- 

 can example and establishing similar 

 centres for the gathering and diffusing of 

 industrial and commercial information. 



Considerable interest attaches to the 

 manner in which the institution came to 

 life. At the close of the Columbian Ex- 

 position in Chicago, it was found, through 

 the efforts of Mr. W. P. Wilson, the 

 present Director, that the City of Phila- 

 delphia could secure upon promise of 

 permaueut exhibition, many of the valu- 

 able collections there displayed. Such 

 promise was given in an official letter 

 signed by Mayor Stuart, and the packing 

 and transportation of the material was 

 made possible through the efforts of Mr. 

 Simon Gratz and Mr. Thomas Meehan, 

 who secured an appropriation from City 

 Councils with which to begin the work in 

 Chicago, and through the efforts of Mr. 

 Charles W, Henry, who personally 

 guaranteed the necessary expenses until 

 the city's funds should become available. 



