The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-09-09

ing of monuments, but the publication Of set Of
books! strong statement that, perhaps But
look at 1.-THE Pageant of America published in
commemoration of the sesquicentennial of Amer
lean Independence by the Yale University Press,
and see If you still think this overstatement!
This article is not book review" 1t Is the
story Of kind of exploring expedition, Of
an adventure In American history. 1t is a story
of fine piece of patriotic enterprise undertaken
by an American university, the story of a bril-
liant achievement by group of scholars whose
perseverance and devotion to their task matched
the bold imagination which conceived the idea Of
their quest. an achievement of which all Amer
leans can be proud.
When the North pole and the South pole were
finally reached it seemed that the possibilities for
exploring hitherto unvisited spots on the globe
were definitely ended. Then mans curiosity
turned to the past to vanished peoples and
fshed cultures that the explorer could return
from some distant corner Of the earth and exhibit
to us stay-at-homes, avid for thrills, his
trophies of ancient day. During the last few
years Egypt Mongolia Yucatan and South
America have been yielding up their treasures of
the distant past, and modern photography and
newspaper Illustrations have made the OBJ
Jects Of use and art Of these ancient peoples as
familiar to the average American as the articles
of his everyday life.
Five years ago the Yale University Press was
struck with the idea that ten generations of
Americans who have preceded the present one
on this continent have left behind them great
mass of interesting objects and pictorial records
of scenes with which the American of today is
totally unfamiliar. What then could be more
interesting to US than to reveal to us our own
antiquities?
So the Press set out upon its "exploring expedi-
ton with the sanction and under the supervision
of the Yale university councils committee
publications. Ralph Henry Gabriel Of the history
department of that institution selected for
editor With him were associated members of the
Yale and other faculties. Henry Jones Ford and
Harry Morgan Ayres were made associate editors;
oliver McKee, assistant editor; Charles NJ An
drews Herbert E. Bolton, Irving N. Countryman,
William e. Dodd Dixon Ryan Fox, Allen john
son, William Bennett Munro, Victor H. Paltsits.
Arthur NJ Schlesinger and Nathaniel w. Ste
phenson advisory editors, and Davis M. Matteson,
indexer To their aid summoned a group OF
brilliant writers and staff Of historical inves-
tigators and the work began. The object of the
expedition" was to discover material Of all sorts
which would enable them to present in pictorial
form a historical record which any person, even
the immigrant who has not yet learned the
tongue of his adopted country could read and see
for himself the onward sweeping march of Amer
dean progress In every phase Of American life.
From the beginning it was realized that Amer
lean history goes back much farther than that
october day in 1892 when Columbus set foot on
the soil of the New world, that the discovery of
America was but an incident In the discovery OF
Asia and that to illustrate the background OF
American history it was necessary to find pic
lures which would show the influence in Europe
as far back as the time of Carpini and Marco
polo So the earliest dated picture In the Pageant
Is a page from the Latin manuscript of Adam
OF Bremen, written in the Eleventh century, In
which the first mention of vinland is made. This
manuscript was located in the Stats Bibliothek
at Vienna Austria.
It Is typical of the wide range Of research neces-
sary for the success of the undertaking. The
libraries of Europe of Canada and Of Mexico
were ransacked for forgotten objects and pictures
The quest for material took the research workers
TO every possible source In the 48 states of the
Union to private collections government collec-s
lions historical societies. state. Libraries, mu-
seuns art galleries, learned societies. institutes,
religious and educational institutions. municipal
collections and archives and dealers collections.
In every case only authentic pictures were ac-
cepted and many Of these are reproduced for the
arst time An example Of this is the portrait OF
Pocahontas perhaps the most noted Indian woman
in history, which is of the illustrations for
this article The Photographic reproduction Of