PARK AND CEMETERY 
2iy 
the question ‘‘What has our town to do with civic 
art?” that as yet it has done nothing with it. One 
can answer with energy and enthusiasm “Much!” 
It pa3S financially. If foreign towns, with all their 
essential uncomfortableness, attract visitors because 
they have much in them that is beautiful, our towns 
will do the same when they add such attractions. All 
through New England, indeed, there is already proof 
of this ; beautiful old towns with noble trees, interesting 
ancient architecture, attractive inns, stations, and 
artistic modern accpiisitions — in libraries, memorials, etc, 
— are annually crow'ded with summer visitors and drew 
to themselves for permanent residents the year round 
the most delightful, refined and cultured people. And 
to look across the sea for an instance, we shall find 
Leamington, in Warwickshire, England, a suggestive 
example. Once a popular resort for its springs, 
fashion changed, patronage went elsewhere, and the 
town declined. Without manufacturing or commercial 
advantages, the residents resolved to win back the lost 
favor. They organized an improvement society, 
pledged the credit of the town for the purchase of 
parks, reserved for the public the river banks and beau- 
tified them, subsidized a boat service on the stream, 
“fixed np” the streets and house lots and suddenly 
beheld the town popular again. All the old houses 
were filled, places that had not been rented were 
grabbed up, within five years more than seven hundred 
new houses were erected and prosperity came again. 
Civic art has an educational value to the community. 
The National Sculpture Society, discussing this matter, 
says “the public is hungry for an art that speaks to it 
of their own aspirations, ideals and history.” By art 
these things can be written in a language that all can 
read and where they can most easily read it. 
It has, further, what may be called a moral value, 
since it cultivates a public spirit, stimulates the public 
foresight that is so often lacking, encourages a kindly 
interest in one’s neighbors — a community conscious- 
ness. And finally, it is contagious — the idea spread- 
ing from town to town, so that its beneficence reaches 
far. 
In such brief space it has been possible only to hint 
at, to touch on, the appropriateness and value of civic 
art for towns — only to suggest the answer that between 
it and the town there is a connection which is fitting 
and fine, and which is not prejudiced by the natural 
fact of its late appearance, nor negatived by the danger 
that sometimes things may be accepted as art that are 
not artistic. 
The First American Municipal Museum. 
The first Municipal I\Iuseum to be opened in this 
country was inaugurated Eebruary 24 in Chicago with 
a valuable loan collection of exhibits illustrative of the 
administration of cities and of the problems of urban 
life. The museum is to be permanent, but the loan 
collection will remain only till INIarch 25, to be fol- 
lowed in April b\' a permanent collection relating to 
the Citv of Chicago. 
The exhibition comprises original drawings, models, 
photographs, maps, charts and literature, contributed 
by manv foreign and American cities, among which 
are conspicuous New York, Boston, San Francisco, 
St. Paul and iMinneapolis, St. Louis, Berlin, Dresden, 
Duesseldorf, Bonne, Cologne, Essen, the city of Paris 
and minor French cities, Birmingham, Alanchester, 
Liverpool, Glasgow, Tokyo, and Buenos Ayres. 
A large collection of exhibits has been loaned by 
organizations such as the Municipal Art Society of 
New York, and by architects, landscape architects, 
and other individuals and firms. 
The scope of the Municipal Museum is indicated in 
part by the following classification : 
Municipal Administration ; Public Art ; Public Recre- 
ation ; Street Making; Street Cleaning; Transporta- 
tion ; Sanitation ; Housing ; Education and School Ex- 
tension ; Libraries ; Charities and Correction ; Civic 
Literature and Statistics. 
New York and the Twin Cities of St. Paul and 
Minneapolis, are best represented among the American 
cities. The large colored topographic model of the 
Twin Cities which occupied the stage in the building 
of those cities at St. Louis is conspicuously placed, and 
attracts much attention. A model of the Minnesota 
state capital, by Architect Cass Gilbert, showing the 
proposed plans for remodeling the city of St. Paul is 
a striking study in city building. Models of the St. 
Paul public baths and playgrounds and of the milling 
district of Minneapolis, are also shown. 
The exhibit of models by the New York street 
cleaning department is especially instructive and com- 
plete. The garbage reduction plant is shown in an 
accurate model and a miniature incinerator and power 
plant is shown in operation by means of ingenious 
mechanism. Sections of the twin tubes of the subway, 
and photographs showing this great work in various 
stages of construction are a part of the New York 
exhibit. In the department of housing and sanitation 
that city gives striking object lessons in models of the 
old and new styles of tenement houses. 
Chicago is also well represented in this department 
with several large models of the drainage canal, show- 
ing its extent with relation to the city, the construction 
of the channel and of the controlling works. 
The officers of the museum are : President, George 
E. Vincent; Treasurer, Charles L. Hutchinson; Secre- 
tary, George E. Hooker. 
