Washington STAR, Dec. 5, 1915 
Home for Valuable Collection 
Already Presented to the 
Smithsonian Institution. 
STRUCTURE WILL BE 
SOMEWHERE ON MALL 
- , 
Plans for the Edifice Are Now Be- j 
ing Drawn by New York 
Architect. 
STUDIED EUROPE’S GALLERIES 
Construction Will Be Begun in 
Early Months of Next Year, 
Dr. Walcott An¬ 
nounces. 
A million-dollar building is to be 
added to the Smithsonian Institution, 
as the gift of Charles L. Freer of De¬ 
troit, according to an announcement 
from the institution yesterday. Mr. 
Freer has from time to time presented 
the institution with a rare and won¬ 
derful collection of paintings, engrav¬ 
ings, bronzes, porcelains, etc., and the 
new building will be a home for that 
collection. It will be placed some¬ 
where on the Mall, probably near the 
red-brown building housing the insti¬ 
tution itself, but definite announcement 
of the site awaits a meeting of a com¬ 
mittee of the regents called for Thurs¬ 
day. 
The announcement of this great addi¬ 
tion to the public buildings of the city 
was made yesterday on the return of 
Dr. Charles D. Walcott, secretary of 
the institution from New York, where 
he had been in conference with Mr. 
Freer. Arrangements were made there 
by which Mr. Freer will turn over a 
million dollars to the Smithsoniam In¬ 
stitution, to be used for the erection of 
the art building, and the_ plans for this 
building are already being drawn by 
Charles A. Platt of New York city. 
Both the donor of the gift and the 
architect have been studying art gal¬ 
leries in Europe and America for sev¬ 
eral years. If nothing interferes, 
building can be started in the early 
months of next year. 
Announcement of Gift. 
The statement of the Smithsonian In¬ 
stitution announcing the gift contains 
the following: 
■‘The collection which Mr. Freer has ; 
spent many years in assembling, and ! 
which has involved extensive travfel 
and research, includes, as Mr. Freer 
hafe explained, specimens of very wide¬ 
ly separated periods of artistic develop¬ 
ment, beginning before the Christian 
era and coining down to the present 
time. He haS made no attempt to se- 
sure specimens from unsympathetic 
sources, but has confined his collecting 
to American and Asiatic schools, in 
carrying out a desire to unite modern 
work with mastepieces of certain 
periods of high civilization harmonious 
in spiritual and physical suggestion. 
“The oriental part of the collection is 
mainly illustrative of the development 
of art as originated in India and car¬ 
ried northward across China and into 
Japan, though also relating to other 
parts of the east. It comprises a collec¬ 
tion of early Persian and Indo-Per- 
sian paintings, a unique series of over 
1,200 Chinese, Tibetan and Japanese ! 
paintings in the form of screens, pan¬ 
els, kakemono, scrolls, etc.: nearly 1,700 
specimens of pottery from Japan, 
China, Chosen, central and western j 
Asia and Egypt; over 230 bronzes “from j 
the same sources, and several hundred ! 
stone sculptures and cuttings, lacquer¬ 
ed objects, wood carvings, ivories, etc., 
besides a splendid representation of 
Chinese jades and more than 600 exam- | 
'pies of ancient Egyptian glass. The i 
collection also contains valuable an- ! 
cient biblical manuscripts obtained in 
Egypt. 
Consulted by Mr. Freer. 
“'Idle American artists whom Mr. Freer 
has associated with the oriental begin with 
James McNeill Wllistler, whose varied 
fields of achievement are exhaustively 
represented .by sixty-two oil paintings, 
forty-four -water colors, thirty-two pastels 
and over 700 drawings, sketches, etchings, 
lithographs, etc., besides the entire deco¬ 
rations of the famous Peacock room. The 
other Americans included in the collection 
number eleven, with a total of 110 items, 
mainly oil paintings, though some' are 
in water color, pastel and silver point. 
Of these Dwight W. Tryon is credited 
with forty-eight examples, Thomas W. 
Dewing with thirty-six, Abbott H. Thayer 
with twelve, Winslow Homer with four, 
John S. Sargent, Joseph Lindon Smith 
and John H. Twachtman, with two each, 
and Ghilde Hassam, Gari Melchers, J.’ 
Francis Murphy and Willard D. Metcalf 
with one each. 
“The building to be erected will hstve 
accommodations only for the collection 
of Mr. Freer, and will be arranged 
with the object of furnishing to stu¬ 
dents of art and designers the fullest 
opportunities for utilizing the vast and 
Varied stores of riches it will contain, 
the best of facilities being provided 
for this purpose. Though the public 
halls will be extensive, they are plan¬ 
ned with reference to having only a 
: part of the collection on exhibition at 
any period, such changes being con¬ 
templated from time to time as will 
add to the popular interest in the dis¬ 
play. 
“At the December (1914) meeting- of 
the board of regents a committee was 
appointed upon the question of a site 
for the Freer art building. This com¬ 
mittee is to report at the regents’ 
meeting-, which is to be held on' Thurs¬ 
day, December 9, when the exact site 
for the building will undoubtedly be 
determined.” 
