Evening star., 1921-05-08

Henry H. Kendall. Among the past
, presidents are such men as Cass Gill
bert. Irving r. Pond and the late
| Charles +. Mckim. =,
|tects has its headquarters in Wash
| ington. having some years ago pur,
chased for this purpose the historicai
Octagon House. corner of 18TH street
and New York avenue
The League for the Decoration or
| the Public Schools will hereafter De
| known as THE Public Schooi Art
League of Washington. The chanSs
was made not only because the old
name was rather clumsy. but because
the organization purposes broanehinS
| its scope so as to include not merely
the decoration of the public schools.
but the advancement OF the appr tCia
ton of art among the students Fur
thermore kindred organizations IN
New York and Baltimore have slmliar
titles. being known as the fupIic
School Art League of these clt'es. bS
the change. therefore,. the iocai or
ganization comes in closer touch. as
it were with the sister organizations
with the purpose of emulatlng the
splendid services that they have al
ready rendered.
In this connection it is interesting
to know that during a fortnight re-
Gently 10000 school children in the
Washington public schools visited the
Corcoran Gallery of Art. The occa-
sion of this was an invitation issued
through the superintendent or Schoois'
DR.. Ballou. to the children to see the
drawings of children in other lands
by Anna Milo Upjohn. which were
exhibited in the special exhibition
gallery under the auspices of the
junior department of the American
Red Cross. In some instances the
teachers visited the gallery day or
were able to prepare the young peo-
pie for what they were to see. In
some of the schools compositions have
since been written on what was seen.
In any event the response to the in
vitation showed hearty Willingness
on the part of both school authorities
and children to take advantage of
such privileges when offered.
An exhibition of illustrative work
done in the various branches of the
government departments is now on
view at the Public Library. occupy
ing not only the cases in the upper
hall, but the entire auditorium.
To those who are not informed this
will be found both an interesting
and surprising display. Interesting
it cannot fail to be to all, for the
work shown is of type closely re-
lated to everyday life and of excep-
tional artistic quality. There are
illustrations in color-water colors-
of many kinds of fruits. so accurately
painted that. like the picture of
grapes in the Greek fable. they
might we'll be mistaken for the
actual fruit. Then there are illus
trations equally accurate and faithful
of all sorts of pests-worms, insects
and diseases-that have to be fought
by the fruit grower. Various kinds of
soils are illustrated. good roads and
bad roads are pictured-there are
drawings. photographs. colored and
uncolored, transparencieS and models.
One of the most interesting sec
tions Of this very engaging eNhibi-
tion is that contributed to the states
relation division, which is actively
tions on the farms and in the farm
houses There are pictorial exam
pies Of good and bad planting-the
farmhouse bare and the farmhouse
with attractive landscape setting.
There are bedrooms inartistically
furnished. and artistically refur-
nished-impressive visual lessons in
good taste.
The work Of the illustrative di-
vision m landscape gardening and
interior decoration shows improve
ment over that exhibited at the Cor
coran Gallery last year. There is
still room for development along
these and other lines. but it is amaz-
ing how wide a field of endeavor is
covered and how we'll. Unfortunate
ly, the exhibition will only continue
LEILA MECHLIN.