PARK AND CEMETERY. ios 
Report of the Secretary American ParK and Outdoor Art Association. 
(Read before the Buffalo Convention of the Association by Secretary Charles Mulford Robinson.) 
The fiscal year that closed last night for this Association 
has been a year of broken records — of good reports made bet- 
ter, of past success outdone. The Association was never be- 
fore as strong, as large, as prosperous as it is today,. And yet 
with its greater numbers, there is within it an esprit de corps 
greater than ever before. This has appeared in various ways. 
The correspondence that has poured, in a constantly growing 
stream, upon the Secretary is one evidence of it ; the prompt- 
ness with which, as a rule, the annual dues have been paid, 
is another evidence ; and the increasing interest that members 
have shown in adding new names to 1 our rolls, in speaking 
well of the Association to friends, in purchasing its literature 
for their own libraries and for those to whom they think it 
may be of service — all this has indicated not only an affection 
for the Association, and a loyalty to it,, but a genuine en- 
thusiasm that would not suggest that today we meet in the 
Seventh Annual Convenion. 
The meaning of this continuing and increasing vigor is of 
larger import than the success of an Association. When, in 
1896, in Louisville, Ky., the American Park and Outdoor Art 
Association was organized, the object of those earnest men — 
of those Fathers whose interest has never flagged, whose cour- 
age has never failed, whose love has never waned, and who 
still are as devoted and faithful in behalf of the As- 
sociation as in its tenderest infancy — the object of those 
men was not merely to form a society. The society was not 
their end. It was rather to be a means to an end — the fur- 
thering of outdoor art, the development of a park interest in 
all the towns and cities of the country, and the increase oi 
what our English cousins would call “civic amenity.’’ For 
that reason they gave us a very long title, so that "Outdoor 
Art" might be included in it, since outdoor art will stand not 
only for the landscape of the vast estate or for the park, but 
for the city garden, for the back yard and front yard, for the 
window box of a tenement, for the children's garden of a 
school, for the vines that soften factory walls, for the touch- 
ing of even a railroad station with beauty, for the wise plant- 
ing of trees, and for the adornment of public grounds. One 
of the branches of our Women’s Auxiliary has taken as its 
watch cry the words, "Leave the World More Beautiful Than 
you Found It." That was the purpose of these men when they 
formed the Association and it is what they are going to do. 
It is the purpose of the Association, and it is what the Asso- 
ciation is going to do. The success of the Association means, 
then, more than success in organization. It means the suc- 
cess of a cause — of our cause, the one thing that is dearer to 
us than the American Park and Outdoor Art Association. 
I think this is a point to be emphasized. It is my duty as 
Secretary to present to you the history of the Association’s 
year, and to put before you a quantity of statistics and figures 
that shall epitomize that success. But as I do that I want to 
keep in mind that the larger meaning of our year's progress is 
the progress of the cause ; that we are not vainglorious, proud, 
and boastful ; but in humility and thankfulness acknowledge 
that our progress is a measure of the progress of the cause. 
First, then, let it be said that the Association has grown 
largely in numbers during the year. This growth has been 
quite evenly divided between the Auxiliary and the Main 
Association,' the Auxiliary having the advantage of local 
branches which prove, so far as growth is concerned, strong, 
energetic and enthusiastic local recruiting stations. In say- 
ing this, however, I would not belittle the extraordinary work 
that has been done by the Auxiliary president whose every 
public address is followed by a long list of applicants for 
Auxiliary membership. Nor would I overlook the assistance 
that has been given to me. Through Mrs. Kehew, Mrs. Buf- 
fington, Mrs. Hall and Miss Christensen quite as many names 
have been added to our rolls as I have presented to the Auxil- 
iary; and in our own membership I am indebted to Mr. 
Wirth for the addition of seven members of the Hartford 
Park Commission, to Mr. Woodruff for four additions, to 
Messrs. Simonds and Crosby for one each, and evidences have 
come to me of missionary work by Messrs. Warren PI. Man- 
ning and John C. Olmsted. And yet the addition in this way 
of twenty new annual members, through the efforts of seven 
members — thankfully as it was acknowledged — is a poor show- 
ing for a membership of 700. Ours is a public spirited work 
and if we are in earnest we ought to do better than that. An- 
other year may it be said that only one in a hundred of our 
members failed to add new names to our rolls. 
Eleven months ago, at the date of our last meeting, the 
Secretary reported that “the total membership of the Associa- 
tion, including the Auxiliary, and counting only members in 
good standing (that is with all dues paid) is four hundred 
and eleven.” The membership on July 1st of this year was 
705. Of this number 357 are in the Main Association, 341 of 
them annual members, 11 life members, 1 honorary and four 
complimentary. There are a dozen others who could safely 
be counted among our members since their loyalty cannot be 
questioned, although 1 up to July 1st their dues for the current 
year had not been received. The accessions to membership in 
the Main Association, exclusive of society affiliations, during 
the year were 154. This compares with 40 during the previous 
y.ear, and with 89 during the previous three years. For the 
first time since the organization of the Society the Secretary 
found it necessary to make a monthly report to the Council of 
the accessions to the Main Association and Auxiliary. Of the 
accessions to the Main Association two were life members. 
In addition to the gain in individual membership there was a 
gain of five associated societies, raising the full number of 
these from two to seven, and greatly strengthening our in- 
fluence. During the year there have been 11 resignations from 
the Main Association, and three deaths. 
But the exertions of the year have not been wholly, nor even 
most largely, to increase our membership. We have published 
in the four parts of Volume VI., with their total of 207 closely 
printed pages, more literature than in any preceding year, irre- 
spective of the several leaflets issued during the twelfth 
month. The pamphlets of the year before contained a total of 
on 'y 57 pages, about what was contained in one of this year’s 
reports. The sales of literature reached a total of $82.42; a 
large sum when it is considered that the price of our costliest 
pamphlet is 25 cents. It compares with an income of less than 
ten dollars from the sale of literature in the year preceding. 
To this work of propaganda by means of literature, we have 
added something through exhibitions. The Turin exhibit con- 
tinued to attract the attention of foreigners during the Au- 
tumn. Meanwhile, in response to a request for an exhibit by 
this Association at the State Fair in Idaho in October, a file 
of our literature was sent there. I am assured that it awak- 
ened much interest and at the close of the Fair it was put into 
a traveling library of that state. In January a request came 
for an immediate exhibit at the exhibition of the Association 
of Arts and Crafts in Minneapolis. Again reports were sent 
out, were placed on exhibition and attracted attention. At 
the close of the exhibit these were put in the library of the 
Minneapolis Arts and Crafts Association. In February our 
Turin exhibit was returned to this country, and was shown 
for the month of March at the National Arts Club in New 
York, as a feature of the exhibition of the Municipal Art 
