The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-01-30
MAGNIFICENT ART MUSEUM BUILT N TOLEDO
People of Ohio City Show Their Interest in Art by
Erecting Building That Cost 500 Ooo-Old
Masters Owned in Middle West.
~ ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.

~ ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.
The position Of this city AZ 1.-The
leading art center Of the middle west
ia about the same as THE Playboy OF
the Western World" in the drama of
that name which has stirred up so
much controversy.
The Playboy"-wasa play" boy
he was doing a vast amount of boast
ing without much basis of fact.
Look around.
Aside from Chicago, Cincinnati. De
troit. Indianapolis and St. Louis, all
middle western cities. all with art mu-
seums. Chicago. Cincinnati and Indi-
annapolis with art schools attended by
hundreds-and In the case of Chicago
by thousands of pupils-there are
numbers Of towns which have annual
art exhibits and art clubs.
Toledo, however. has recently dem
onstrated her interest in art in a man
ner exceeded by few cities in the
United States and, considering the fact
that this city has less than two hun
dred thousand Inhabitants, its accom-
plishment is astonishing.
On the sixteenth of this month their
splendid new Art Museum was opened
with elaborate ceremonies, the build
ing and grounds having cost $500. 600.
half of which was given by Mr.. E. D.
Libbey, the president of the organiza-
ton having control of the museum.
and philanthropic citizen Of Toledo,
The other half being made up of con-
tributions Of from $4,000 to ten cents
from the residents of the town, the
museum opening absolutely free from
debt.
This is demonstration of public
munificence as unusual as it is admir-
able
For of all phases Of social activity
for which it is hardest to raise mon
ey" in this country, that of the aes-
thetic leads.
Here is a great art museum, ex-
ceeded only by those in New York,
Boston, Pittsburg and Chicago, erect
ed by the people and to be maintained
by them without municipal aid, In one
of the, less important inland cities.
The following from THE American
Are News" will give more detailed
idea of the building and it's setting:
THE completion and throwing open
of this new Art Museum had, and has,
more than local interest and signi6-
canoe"
For the building, a modern Greek
Ionic marble temple, two hundred feet
in length, situated in a small and
beautiful park in a grove of forest
oaks, in the center of the residential
section of the city, containing large
central Sculpture Court. large picture
galleries, opening to right and left and
each 40 by 62 feet, and ten smaller
galleries on the first floor with also a
library, Offices, and a hemicycle or
small auditorium, with, in addition.
eight fair-sized galleries, several club
rooms sand a packing and shipping
room on the ground floor-a structure
not only beautiful intellectually, but
admirably appointed and arranged for
it's purpose-represents not only rare
material achievement but a personal
and it's development in America that
challenges admiration.
For Toledo is city of less than
2OO,O 900 population-less than half that
of it's neighbor, Cleveland, which is
still without even an art gallery of
any note-and the Toledo Museum is
the outgrowth of only ten years Of in
terest, energy, generosity and endeav-
or
1T was only in 1902 that the mu-
scum had it's birth in an old-fashioned
residence, with no possessions whatev-
'er and inadequate galleries. even for
temporary exhibits.
But Toledo was fortunate in hav-
ing a citizen, Mr.. Edward Drummond
Libbey, who is really an art lover and
a public-spirited man of wealth. and
under his inspiration, an impulse was
given to the art movement in Toledo.
This was carried on by Mr.. George
w. Stevens, also an art lover and stu
dent, and trained journalist, who be-
came the museums director in 1904.
succeeding the first director, Mr.. Al
mon Whiting. through the establish
ment of art history clubs, free draw
ing and life classes, etc, and the infu-
sion of art interest and museum activ-
tiles into the daily life of the people
and this in time built up an interest
which, from modest beginnings, has re-
suited in the new and fine museum,
surpassed only in the United States by