A.KINGSLEY PORTER

450 WEST END AVENUE
NEWYORK

January 28, 1916.

My dear Mr. Hadley:

In remaking my will, it has occurred to me that I should like to
leave a bequest for establishing a Faculty of the History of Art in
the College, As I understand the powers of darkness are strongly
entrenched in certain quarters in New Haven, I wanted to ask you
whether such a legacy would be accepted. The probabilities are, I
feel, that the question will never come to the test, for the legacy
would become operative only after the death of myself and my wife, and
it is my personal conviction that some way of establishing a Depart-
ment of Art at Yale must inevitably be found in the near future. How-
ever there is always the possibility that the unexpected will take
place.

The bequest which I should propose to make would be, roughly, some-
thing as follows: to leave the sum of $500,000--or the residue of the
estate which would presumably amount to about that--to Yale University,
the income to be used for the following purposes: (1) to provide
salaries for professors or instructors in the history of art in the
academic department, as might be required. (2) To provide for the
running and overhead expenses of such a department, the purchase of
equipment, slides, photographs, books, etc. (3) Any residue to be used

A.KINGSLEY PORTER

450 WEST END AVENUE
NEWYORK

2

for the purchase of additional works of art to add to the collection of the Art School, and for the proper maintenance and housing of the same.

Of course it is entirely immaterial whether the Department of Art History should be established in the College or in the Art School, provided the courses be open to academic students and count for the B.A. degree. I should think the phraseology could be such as to allow for either contingency.

I am planning to leave my Italian pictures to the University to be added to the Jarves collection. I am in some doubt, however, about certain miscellaneous objects, such as a Rodin bronze, pieces of old English and Italian furniture, etc. They would be, I think, an addition to collections already formed, but would not be enough to make a very impressive exhibit by themselves. As the Art School has very little of this sort of thing at present, it occurred to me that it might be quite doubtful whether it would care to take such objects. I should be very grateful to you if you would give me your frank opinion.

May I ask you to consider the letter entirely confidential.

President Arthur T. Hadley,

Yale University,

New Haven, Connecticut.