EIGHTIETH ANNIVERSARY TESTIMONIAL 
Reprinted from Science, December 10, 1926, Vol. LXIV, 
No. 1667 pages, 571-572. 
TESTIMONIAL TO PROFESSOR WILLIAM 
HENRY HOLMES 
As a testimonial to Professor William Henry 
Holmes, director of the National Gallery of Art, 
on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, on December 
1, a volume was presented containing one hundred and 
fifty personal letters of felicitation from intimate 
friends and those colleagues and co-workers who 
during the past sixty years have been closely asso- 
ciated with him in the fields of geology, anthropology, 
exploration and the fine arts. The dedication of this 
volume, by Dr. Marcus Benjamin, reads as follows: 
Out of the West came the boy, and we can fancy in 
those long ago days that he had a natural instinct for 
things beautiful, such as pleasure in the brilliant coloring 
of a fragrant flower; joy in watching a gay butterfly 
flitting to and fro in the air; following the sunlight as it 
glistened on the babbling brook or the foaming water 
dashing over the rugged rocks; listening to the music of 
a bird; or perchance enjoying a wonderful sunset with 
its reds and yellows darkening into violets and purples. 
And so the boy learned color values and became an artist. 
The happy days of boyhood soon passed into adoles- 
cence and manhood, and with his powers of close observa- 
tion trained to study nature, Holmes 1 concentrated his 
natural talents on the study of land formations. The 
details of rocks and strata were differentiated and he 
learned nature in a new way as he crossed the continent 
in the service of our national surveys. And the boy artist 
became the man geologist. 
Evolution was the spirit of his time and from investi- 
gating the geological horizons of our great continent, he 
sought higher objects and turned his attention to the 
highest form in nature, which is man. The beginnings 
2 
of culture attracted him. Original forms of weaving and 
primitive pottery became the objects of his study. And 
so the geologist progressed and became the anthropologist. 
His classical memoirs on the arts of early man are still 
accepted as the last words on the subjects of which they 
treat. 
Then more years came to him and he was advanced to 
the charge of the Bureau of American Ethnology. His 
mission was to direct the studies of his disciples for the 
purpose of increasing and diffusing the knowledge of 
which he was the accepted master. And so for a decade 
or more the results of the progress of his favorite science 
were given to the world in the annual reports and bulle- 
tins issued under his supervision. 
Still in the prime of Iris days and rich with the art 
instinct of his early life, cultivated and developed by the 
experience of many years he turned again to the ideals 
of his boyhood dreams and became director of the 
National Gallery of Art under the supervision of the 
Smithsonian Institution. And his duty since has been the 
privilege of selecting the art productions of his many 
contemporaries and arranging them for the edification 
of the public. May he long continue active in the prose- 
cution of this work. 
Of honors he has many, but why chronicle the collegiate 
degrees that have been conferred on him or the member- 
ships in scientific or artistic societies that he has re- 
ceived? His election to the National Academy of Sci- 
ences and to the presidency of the Cosmos Club tell the 
story. They are all negligible when we think of the man. 
Gentle and kind, sweet and true, he has given always 
the best that he had to his fellows, and our earnest prayer 
is that he may long abide with us, so that the world may 
continue to be made more beautiful by his splendid 
influence. )j 
