Evening star., 1933-09-24

purchase fund for WORKS by American
artists, on all of which the National
Gallery of Art was to have, and has
first option. This assured suitable
representation in the National Gal
lery of Art Of American painters and
at the same time growing collection
Then came the Freer collection.
Quoting again from Bulletin 70:
Under date Of December z7. 1901,
Mich, transmitted to the Smithsonian
Institution an offer to bequeath or
make present conveyance Of title to
his extensive art collection to the
tSmithsonian) Institution or the
United States Government, under GER
tain specified conditions, and to fur
nish the means for erecting, after his
death, cuitable building to receive
the collection, provided the Institution
or the Government would undertake
its maintenance ." This generous
tender received consideration at the
annual meeting Of the Board of Re-
gents, January rs, 1S05. at which a
committee was appointed to wait upon
Mr.. Freer in Detroit and to make
such an examination Of the collection
as it deemed necessary"
Slight Changes Made.
According to this official report some
| slight verbal changes were agreed TO
| by Mr.. F'reer, who addressed the re-
vised form to the President of the
United States (Theodore- RoosevelD
and under these conditions the collec-
| ton was accepted by the regents on
their annual meeting, January "a.
| 1906
What intervened is Of notable in
terest; in fact but for President Roose-
velts intervention the Freer collec-
ton would have been lost to the Ma
ton. The facts are these: The COM
mittee appointed by the regents on
January Is, 1905, headed by Secre-
| tary Langley, did wait upon Mr.. Freer
! in Detroit and did examine his col
| lection. but. not being experts in mat
| tiers pertaining to art, failed completely
to realize the value of his collection.
Mr.. Freer told Miss Mechlin that the
only interest manifested was COM
ment by Mr.. Langley, who was then
occupied in perfecting his flying ma
chine, that a certain bird represented
on an Oriental screen was not flying
correctly.
The result was that the matter was
allowed to drift. No response was
made to Mr. Freer's offer and no word
was received by him in regard thereto
for nearly year; that is, up to the
Fall of 1905.
1t was then rumored that the re-
gents had determined to decline Mr..
Freer's offer, being doubtful of the
value Of the collection, questioning the
advisability of undertaking its mainte-
nance in perpetuity. and, also. the pro-
priety of allowing private citizen
to thus erect a monument to himself.
The situation was brought to the
attention of Leila Mechlin by Charles
Moore, formerly Of Detroit, and an
intimate friend of Mr.. Freer. It was
" G. Fischer, however. an art dealer
with galleries on Fifteenth street op-
posite the Treasury, who brought it
to the attention of President Roose-
welt. The President listened attentively
to Mr. Fischer, for whom he had
both friendship and regard. but ex-
planned that he could take no action
unless the matter were officially re-
ported to him or statement pub
iished in the public press. Mr. Fischer
repeated this statement to Miss Mech
lin and asked her to get The Evening
Star to publish such a statement a.
the earliest possible moment.
Consulted A. J. P:rsons.
In regard to the advisabiity Of such
action, Miss Mecnlin consulted A. j.
Parsons, organizer and at that time
chief Of the print division Of the Lii
brary of Congress, man who was
deeply interested in the Upbuilding OF
art under the National Government
here in Washington. His first reaction
was unfavorable. He was not an op-
timist. He feared no good result would
hot yyvoc hone.
less. However, later in the day he tele-
phoned to Miss Mechlin that he had
talked the matter over with Mrs. Par
sons and she had induced him to
change his mind and to ask Miss Mech
lin to try. Miss Mechlin then went to
the Office of the secretary of the Smith
sonian Institution and confirmed the
rumors concerning the delay, as we'll
as the regents attitude. She then laid
the situation before the managing edi-
tor of The Star and asked consent for
the publication of the proposed article.
He agreed not only to publish the pro-
posed article, tut to give it prominent
place The article written by Miss
Mechlin was. without alteration. pub
lished in The Star Thursday, November
80, 1905.
Immediately upon the publication Of
this article Mr.. Fischer brought it to
the attention of President Roosevelt,
who called a meeting Of the regents
of the Smithsonian Institution at the
White House on the following Satur-
day evening. 1t was said at the time
that the discussion at this meeting
continued until midnight and that the
President. losing patience, brought his
fist down upon the desk or table at
which he was sitting and said: Enough,
gentlemen. say take it.s:
It should be noted that the letter
from Mr.. Freer. renewing his offer and
giving the terms which were accepted,
was addressed not to the regents of the
Smithsonian Institution as before. but
to the President of the United States,
and dated, Washington, D. c.. De-
cember Is. 1905"
To quote again from the oficial re-
port. the resolution Of acceptance
adopted by the board on January "a.
1906. reads: "The board of regents,
recognizing the great value to the peo-
pie of the United States of TIE art
collection so generously offered by Mr..
by ACCEPTS the tender under the terms
as set forth In his communication to
the President Of the United States,
dated December IS. 1905"
Collection Described.
After the acceptance Of the collection.
Miss Mechlin, at the suggestion Of
Charles Moore. was commissioned by
Richard Watson Glider, editor, to write
an article on the Freer collection for
the Century Magazine, Mr.. Moore
promising to obtain Mr.. Freer's consent
thereto. In accordance with arrange
ments made by Mr.. Moore. Miss Mech
lin went to Detroit in April and with
Mr.. Freer went over the collection. Up
to that time Mr.. Freer had never con-
sented to anything being written about
his collection. Upon her return to
Washington she wrote a comprehensive
article. describing the collection and
setting forth Mr.. .Freer's own purpose
in its assemblage. This article was
submitted to Mr.. Freer for revision
or correction and was returned without
an alteration Of q single word. Later