DOI issue:
Nr. 175 (September, 1911)
DOI article:Fosdick, J. William: The exhibition of the Municipal Art Society of New York
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43447#0238
Exhibition of the Municifat Art Society of New York
“justice and mercy”
MAHONING COUNTY COURT HOUSE, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO
The exhibition of the mu-
nicipal ART SOCIETY OF NEW
YORK
BY J. WILLIAM FOSDICK
Comparatively few people living in the me-
tropolis are cognizant of the fact that Washing-
ton Irving, historian, ambassador and novelist,
was in his day actively interested in municipal art.
He persuaded John Jacob Astor to provide the
necessary funds for the founding of the Astor
Library, and it was Washington Irving who be-
came the first president of the institution.
When the citizens of New York were belittling
the idea of turning the rocky waste of pastures to
the north of the city into a park, it was Washing-
ton Irving and his friends who called a mass meet-
ing and with great enthusiasm turned public sen-
timent in the right direction.
Central Park became an established fact, while
Washington Irving was elected the first park com-
missioner. So it is eminently fitting that the
Municipal Art Society should have suggested to
the board of education that the Washington Irving
High School, which is now in process of erection in
Irving Place, should become a lasting monument
to the memory of the great author and loyal citi-
zen, for it was here, in the old residence still stand-
ing just across Irving Place, that he lived and
worked.
It is proposed to perpetuate upon the walls of
this monumental fireproof schoolhouse the mem-
ory of Irving in a series of mural decorations de-
picting the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, the
Alhambra, old Dutch New York and the Legends
of Sleepy Hollow.
The Municipal Art Society will give the city the
first of these series of mural paintings, the friends
of the High School have agreed to provide means
for another, and it is to be hoped that loyal citizens
will give the rest. These with descriptive tablets
and sculpture, with some suitable sculptured me-
morial outside of the school in Irving Place, will
complete this admirable tribute to the memory of
Washington Irving.
The Irving Memorial movement is but one of
the many activities with which the Municipal Art
Society finds itself engaged at the moment.
The society has been well supported by the
various city departments in its current exhibition.
Grouped, as the exhibits of these departments are,
within their allotted spaces and duly inscribed, the
exhibition assumes a character truly municipal
and more in line with the work of the society,
there being fewer irrelevant exhibits than upon
other occasions.
The Board of Education has sent two large draw-
ings of the new Normal College, also a color eleva-
tion of the Washington Irving School.
The department of bridges exhibits elaborate
perspectives of the new Municipal Building, with
a plaster model of the tower, also the redesign of
the Manhattan terminal of the Brooklyn Bridge
and the proposed Henry Hudson Memorial
XL VII
“justice and mercy”
MAHONING COUNTY COURT HOUSE, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO
The exhibition of the mu-
nicipal ART SOCIETY OF NEW
YORK
BY J. WILLIAM FOSDICK
Comparatively few people living in the me-
tropolis are cognizant of the fact that Washing-
ton Irving, historian, ambassador and novelist,
was in his day actively interested in municipal art.
He persuaded John Jacob Astor to provide the
necessary funds for the founding of the Astor
Library, and it was Washington Irving who be-
came the first president of the institution.
When the citizens of New York were belittling
the idea of turning the rocky waste of pastures to
the north of the city into a park, it was Washing-
ton Irving and his friends who called a mass meet-
ing and with great enthusiasm turned public sen-
timent in the right direction.
Central Park became an established fact, while
Washington Irving was elected the first park com-
missioner. So it is eminently fitting that the
Municipal Art Society should have suggested to
the board of education that the Washington Irving
High School, which is now in process of erection in
Irving Place, should become a lasting monument
to the memory of the great author and loyal citi-
zen, for it was here, in the old residence still stand-
ing just across Irving Place, that he lived and
worked.
It is proposed to perpetuate upon the walls of
this monumental fireproof schoolhouse the mem-
ory of Irving in a series of mural decorations de-
picting the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, the
Alhambra, old Dutch New York and the Legends
of Sleepy Hollow.
The Municipal Art Society will give the city the
first of these series of mural paintings, the friends
of the High School have agreed to provide means
for another, and it is to be hoped that loyal citizens
will give the rest. These with descriptive tablets
and sculpture, with some suitable sculptured me-
morial outside of the school in Irving Place, will
complete this admirable tribute to the memory of
Washington Irving.
The Irving Memorial movement is but one of
the many activities with which the Municipal Art
Society finds itself engaged at the moment.
The society has been well supported by the
various city departments in its current exhibition.
Grouped, as the exhibits of these departments are,
within their allotted spaces and duly inscribed, the
exhibition assumes a character truly municipal
and more in line with the work of the society,
there being fewer irrelevant exhibits than upon
other occasions.
The Board of Education has sent two large draw-
ings of the new Normal College, also a color eleva-
tion of the Washington Irving School.
The department of bridges exhibits elaborate
perspectives of the new Municipal Building, with
a plaster model of the tower, also the redesign of
the Manhattan terminal of the Brooklyn Bridge
and the proposed Henry Hudson Memorial
XL VII