ELIZABETH RICHARDS DAVIDSON. 
.RANKED by the Smithsonian 
Institution on the one side and 
the Department of Agriculture 
on the other, the new Freer Art 
Gallery, a simple one-story structure 
with an ample high basement and 
open central court, will be opened 
soon in Washington. 
Within a few months this .million- 
dollar Lorenzo-Florentine building 
will contain the most representative 
assemblage of art masterpieces in 
this country or any other. The mu¬ 
seum is a gift and the most unique 
and restrictive bequest the nation has 
ever received , from one of its citi¬ 
zens. 
The donor of this extraordinary gift, 
Charles Lang Freer, began his life in 
the Catskill£, sixty-five years ago, and 
there, over a year ago, those who 
loved him best laid him to rest. If 
he had lived a short time longer he 
would have seen the result which 
justified his outlay of time and money. 
Mr. Freer’s success in business and 
in art was simply the logical result of 
seeing and seizing. While living in 
one room and cooking his meals over 
an oil stove he climbed from the post 
of timekeeper to director of the Bel 
River railroad, a short line of only 
thirty miles of track, sixteen freight 
and six passenger cars and two loco- 
motives. When the road was sold 
Mr. Freer and his friend, Frank Jo¬ 
seph Hecker, since Panama canal com¬ 
missioner, pooled their frugal savings, 
a few thousand dollars, went to De¬ 
troit and started in a small way the 
Peninsular Car Company, the first 
car works in the west. In 1900 they sold 
out to a trust company for a vast 
sum. During the next twenty years 
Freer devoted himself to unwearied 
searching in all lands, but particular¬ 
ly in the far east and near east, tor 
objects of art of the highest quality 
and widely separated periods of high 
civilization. 
i His efforts were abundantly re¬ 
warded. He always came back laden 
with wonderful specimens from old 
temples, palaces and tombs and treas¬ 
ure chests—marvellous glass out or 
Egypt, fictile productions from hitn- 
erto unknown sources, strange in¬ 
cised potteries from Babylon and Nin¬ 
eveh; potteries from Korea, with 
their peculiar slip and inlay decora¬ 
tions, and Chinese porcelains and tex- 
tiles in all reigns from 1766 B.L. ro 
1776 A.D. 
# * * * 
t\/ rR. FREER was the pioneer col- 
^ lector of Chinese and Japanese 
art. He reveled in their craftsman¬ 
ship, whether of painting, print or 
pottery. To this vast assemblage of 
Asiatic art he added .specimens from 
the works- of eleven modern Ameri¬ 
can artists, giving as his reason.' that 
he found in them the sam-e feeling for 
the b-eautiful inherent in the works 
of ancient oriental art that he had 
assembled. Those who were m his 
confidence were well aware that he 
had dedicated himself to turning the 
major portion of his great wealth into 
objects of beauty and use for the en¬ 
joyment and education of the people of 
his own country. 
The enormous size and scope of the 
Freer gatherings and Mr. Freer’s rap¬ 
idly flying years admonished him that 
he must make some prompt, definite 
and worthy disposition of his joy 
work. In January, 1904, he made his 
first and tentative approach to the 
regents of the Smithsonian Institu¬ 
tion, outlining the extent of his col¬ 
lection and unfolding his- object. 
Not until January, 1905, was a com¬ 
mittee sent from the institution to 
appraise his collection. They recog¬ 
nized the great value of his immense 
and unusual collection, and so re¬ 
ported. Some legal hitches required 
the intervention of President Roose¬ 
velt and Chief Justice- Fuller. In 1901 
Mr. Freer revised his former offer, 
satisfied every legal technicality and 
agreed to a fictitious sale which ena- j 
bled the regents, without further - 
question or delay, to accept tlie be- 
quest. For the sum of $1, and other 
valuable considerations paid to him 
in hand,” Mr. Freer conveyed his col¬ 
lection to the nation “forever.” 
Those who have had the privilege of 
seeing Mr. Freer’s wonderful exam¬ 
ples of oriental and modern art mas¬ 
terpieces in his- Detroit home and 
those he lent to museums, expositions 
and world fairs bear witness to the 
collection’s unique value and rejoice 
that Mr. Freer’s- intelligent generosity 
prompted him to present his monu- 
fhentkl collection to the nation in its 
entirety and forever. 
While -..Mr. Freer bound himself to 
provide a suitable building to house 
his collection, he stipulated that the 
structuri should be near the Na¬ 
tional Museum, that the interior 
should be arranged with special re¬ 
gard for the convenience of students 
and others desirous of an oppor¬ 
tunity for uninterrupted study, that 
there were to be no additions to nor 
deductions from the collection and 
nothing else ever exhibited with it 
in the building, and that the collec¬ 
tion should never be removed from 
the building except for repairs and 
renovations, that no charge should 
ever be made for admission or for 
the privilege of examining or study¬ 
ing the collections, that the museum ' 
should bear his name in some modest 
and appropriate form, that he should 
continue his censorship and that the 
collection should remain in his pos¬ 
session during his lifetime. 
* * * * 
4 ] 
tT is now only a matter of transpor- 
-*■ tation when his dream will be in 
full realization and operation, defi¬ 
nitely in the possession of the United 
States for the benefit of the untech¬ 
nical observer, and making its ap¬ 
peal to the esthetic instincts of the 
American people. 
To the more than 6,000 objects, ar¬ 
ranged as they will be in such happy, 
systematic sequence and easy avail¬ 
ability, Mr. Freer added his choice 
and comprehensive art library for the 
use of students. His custom, bor¬ 
rowed from the orientals, of exhibit¬ 
ing only a few of his treasures at 
a time, will be observed in the con¬ 
duct of the gallery. Objects will be 
taken from their tills to special rooms 
for study. 
Mr* Freer’s contention -of the close 
