Exhibition—Superintendents' reports. 
I 9 I 
DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS. 
BY J. O. EATON, SUPERINTENDENT. 
To carry out the recommendation in my report of 1871, for a 
separate subdivision for the articles usually assigned to this de¬ 
partment, and to remove all objections heretofore made to exhib¬ 
iting the same, by artists and the possessors of works of art, the 
executive board at the February meeting, appropriated the sum of 
five hundred dollars, to which the citizens of Milwaukee added 
the sum of one thousand dollars, and the executive board erected 
for the exclusive use of this department a fine building, a view of 
which accompanies this report. 
Before the fair, I appointed as my assistant, Mr. F. A. Lydston, 
a gentleman well known for his taste in the management of exhi¬ 
bitions of this kind, and we caused a notice to be published for 
two weeks before the fair, in the daily papers of Milwaukee, set¬ 
ting forth the fact of the erection of a building for the exclusive 
use of this department, and calling upon all artists in the north¬ 
west to compete for the society’s premiums, and soliciting from 
the possessors of paintings and statuary, their loan for the exhi¬ 
bition, warranting their safe handling and return, and appealed to 
their personal pride and the pride of Milwaukee, to make this the 
best fine arts exhibition ever held in Wisconsin. Much to our 
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surprise and disappointment, there was no response to our appeal. 
Not willing to relinquish the hope of having the first exhibi¬ 
tion in the new hall a success, we personally called upon many 
who were known to be the possessors of valuable paintings, and I 
am happy to report, that with few exceptions, we were cordially 
received and freely permitted to select for ourselves. 
We made liberal selections from the parlors of Messrs. Mitchell, 
Roundy, Frocklestein, Andrews, Mix, Rood, Strickland, EL & J. 
Ludington, Hempstead, Hawley, Miller, Kellogg, and others whose 
names are not remembered ; to all of whom I wish to tender 
the thanks of the executive board for their kindness in contribu¬ 
ting to this department. 
The contributions for the society premiums, although not as nu¬ 
merous as we had hoped, were in number and value very credita- 
