Case 19 - Bowling Green: Prints and photographs showing Bowling Green at various times since 1868. Case 20- City Hall Park: Three interesting views of City Hall Park: one showing the Park in 1822 (taken from Valentine's Manual for 1857); another showing the Park in 1827 (from Valentine's Manual for 1855); and the third, from the Eno Collection, presenting a picture of the Park in 1851. In this case is Henry B. Dawson's "Reminiscences of the Park and its Vicinity," 1855, reprinted from Valentine's Manual for the same year. Case 21-Washington Square. The chief item of interest in this case, aside from Mielatz's etching of Washington Square, is Montresor's plan of New York, showing the Battery, Bowling Green and the "intended square or common, now City Hall Park." Another item in this case is the plan showing the public squares, parks and places in the City of New York in 1838, taken from Valentine's Manual. Various photographs of the Square are displayed. Case 22 - Gramercy Park, Union Square: The four items of interest here are, the aquatint of Gramercy Park by Frederick T. Weber; two views of Union Square from the Eno Collection, and a lithographic view by Joseph Pennell. The remainder of the case is filled with photographs taken at various dates. Frame 9: Three interesting views of "The Bowling Green" from the Eno Collection, 1828 to 1845; a view from the Battery about 1830 (also from the Eno Collection); and an etching by Mielatz, looking south from Bowling Green towards the row of old houses which formerly stood on the site of the Custom House. Case 23-Madison Square: Case 24: Madison Square; Bryant Park; and City Hall Park, Brooklyn, where Borough Hall is now located various prints and photographs. Case 25-Morningside Park: The plan of Olmsted and Vaux for the development of Morningside Park; several small photographs of views in Carl Schurz Park; Harper's Weekly for May 6, 1871, this supplement shows New York from a balloon; a pictorial map of the City, in which may be seen the city's parks (compare this view with the aerial view displayed in Frame 11, and with the bird's-eye view of 1867 in Frame 12). Frame 10: A bird's-eye view of New York in 1849, looking south from Union Square, then called Union Park (compare this view with those of the Square shown in Case 22). Frame 11: Eleven aerial views of some of the Parks and Squares of New York, lent by the Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Inc. Frame 12: A bird's-eye view of New York in 1867. (Compare this with the aerial view in Frame 11.) Case 26-Riverside Drive and Riverside Park: Plans and photographs made at various dates. Case 27- Parks in upper Manhattan and The Bronx: The Harlem River view, on the Harlem with the High Bridge in the distance, 1852; view of Macombs Dam, Harlem River, about 1850, taken from Valentine's Manual for 1860; map from the 1867 report of the Central Park Commissioners, showing progress in laying out streets, public squares and places, north of 155th Street; Mullaly's "The New Parks Beyond the Harlem," published in 1887; various photographs. Case 28-New Parks in The Bronx: The first section of this case contains the important 1884 "Report to the New York Legislature of the Commission to select and locate lands for public parks"; two of the pamphlets which were issued in connection with the fight for the new parks, one for and one against. Opposi tion to the purchase of new parks was bitter and determined. The most interesting item is the stenographer's minutes of the Chickering Hall meeting against the parks. It was held on March 23, 1885, under the chairmanship of James A Roosevelt. This meeting was generally considered a failure. Another item of interest is a typewritten copy of two of the speeches made at a hearing before the Joint Committee on Cities, of the Senate and Assembly, on the New York Park bill, held in Albany, March 25, 1885. These last two items were lent by the Municipal Reference Library. The remainder of this case contains photographs of scenes in Van Cortlandt Park; two of an old mill in Bronx Park, taken in 1859; the Duncan Marshall house at Rodman's Neck; Pelham Bay Park; and several views of parkways in The Bronx. Case 29- New York Zoological Park: The preliminary plan of the Zoological Park for New York City, in south Bronx Park, as proposed by the New York Zoological Society, in 1896. Two reports relating to the establishment of the Zoological Park are also shown. The remainder of the items in the case are photographs, pictures from annual reports, guide books, and other publications of the Society. Case 30 The New York Botanical Garden: Letters and documents relating to the museum, and other buildings in the Botanical Garden; the general plan of the Botanical Garden, as prepared by the Commission appointed by the Board of Managers, in 1896; a recent edition of the descriptive guide, open to show the general plan of the Garden as it is at the present time. Two interesting reports are shown, one dated 1897, from Charles S. Sargent, Thomas Hastings, John C. Olmsted, and Samuel Parsons, Jr., on the proposed garden; and one made by Olmsted Brothers, landscape architects, in 1924. Case 31: Photographs of parks and playgrounds in the Borough of Queens (lent by the Department of Parks, Borough of Queens); some small photographs of parkways and boulevards in Queens, from the Library's collection; and two photographs of Highland Park, Brooklyn (lent by the Brooklyn Parks Department). Case 32: Small photographs of scenes in and near Fort Washington Park, and two maps of the Borough of Manhattan. One of these is a pictorial map, 1926, which it is interesting to compare with the city, as laid out in 1807, with reference to parks and squares. Frame 13: An interesting aerial map (1921) of Manhattan Island, lent by the Fairchild Aerial Survey, Inc., and a map of 1902 taken from the Parks Department Report. This map will aid in identifying the parks shown in the aerial survey. Frames 14 and 15: Two sections from the Hamilton Aerial Map of Manhattan. Frame 16: Two maps taken from reports of the Bronx Parkway Commission. The earlier map, dated April 15, 1912, shows the proposed Bronx River Parkway and its relation to the park system of the city. The other map is a general view of the Bronx River Parkway reservation as a connecting parkway between the park system of New York in the Croton and Catskill water sheds, and the Harriman and Palisades interstate parks (1915). Case 33- Playgrounds: In the center of this case is a pathetic petition dated November 25, 1887, from a number of small boys, asking the Mayor for permission to play in Duane Street Park. This document, lent by the Municipal Reference Library, shows that the need for playgrounds existed at that time also. The remainder of the case is filled with photographs of scenes in various Brooklyn playgrounds. These were lent by the Brooklyn Department of Parks. Case 34-The Bronx River Parkway reservation: A detailed map of the Bronx River Parkway reservation, dated June 1, 1916, taken from one of the reports of the Commission. Several of the other items shown in the case are reports of the parkway commission, opened to show scenes along the parkway. Case 35: Two maps and a number of documents and reports relating to the parks of Westchester County, and of New York State. They are shown in this exhibition mainly because these parks afford many opportunities for recreation to the people of New York City. Case 36: A selection of documents and reports relating to the history of parks in New York City. TH THE PRINT ROOM'S ANNUAL REVIEW HE regular yearly exhibition of "Recent Additions to the Print Collection" has been opened in Room 316, and will remain on view until November. Acquisition of prints, whether by purchase or by gift, must obviously be determined to a considerable extent by chance -the chance that brings a given print into the market, or that prompts a collector to donate it. Inevitably, as has been pointed out more than once on the occasion of these recurrent exhibitions, this element of chance finds its reflection in the varied nature of such an accumulation of additions. And that condition has an advantage quite its own. It gives an annual emphasis to the fact that the absorbing indoor sport covered by the all-embracing term, "prints," is in no wise limited in scope. To those who are already in the game, the show calls attention to the Print Room's growth in this or that specialty — and there are so many specialties! - that particularly holds him. To those who are new at it, interest may conceivably be awakened. In either case, response, in the exhibition (even by a chance print or so), to an individual taste or hobby may lead to inquiry in the Print Room, where the inclination may be further followed in the direction indicated. So, such an exhibition becomes a collection of guide-posts to possible more extended pleasures. Here, then, are a few indications of specialties in this exhibitional review: A group of chiaroscuro prints by artists quite separated in point of land and time and manner Andreani, Goltzius (a marine - not too common a subject in this branch of prints), Paul Morelse, John Skippe, Johann Keyll, J. B. Jackson. These form an interesting addition to the Library's collection of cuts in this medium. A number of engravings and woodcuts forming in a way a pendant to the exhibition of "Dürer and Contemporary Print-Makers," now on view in the Print Gallery (Room 321): engravings and woodcuts by Baldung (Grien), H. S. Beham, Cranach, Gerung, Schoen, Springinklee, and Barbari, whose ideas on proportion of figures so allured Dürer. Introductory to the Dürer period are the plates of Israhel van Meckenem. And the dot on the i, so to speak, of this same period of development in wood cutting is furnished by Holbein, master illustrator. After him, the decline. Beyond this, the visitor may study woodcutting as a means of translating drawings (a cut by Boldrini after Titian) — and, indeed, all the processes were at one time or another drawn into this service. Or various individual [ 402 ] expressions in old Italian graphic art may be studied in works by Scolari, Reverdino, D. Campagnola, Bonasone. Coming to the modern section, there's a representative lot of Italian etchings and engravings (gift of Mrs. H. P. Whitney and the Italy America Society). A similar collection of contemporary Australian etchings and bookplates was shown earlier in the season. Such lots give a crisp résumé of what is being done in countries which are not quite in the usual run of exhibitions in this city. French etchings of the 19th century, given by Mr. E. G. Kennedy and others, again happily supplement the already remarkable collection of such work formed by the elder S. P. Avery, and now in this Library. And there are more modern prints, added through the bequest of the younger Avery, to this same collection. Furthermore, some scattering examples of bookplates, business cards and holiday cards, by well-known print-makers, accentuate the fact that the Library's Print Room already has a number of such interesting smaller specimens of graphic art on its shelves. These again constitute specialties that have their particular allurement — and one of conceivable artistic as well as subject interest. Finally, there are a number of accessions to the Library's notably large collection of American prints, these accessions ranging from a mezzotint portrait of Franklin, by Edward Savage, to prints by artists of to-day. One may juxtapose, for the sake of contrast, a stipple engraving by Longacre and a recent line-engraved bookplate by Macdonald; an etching of the old New York Etching Club period, by Thomas Moran, and a dry-point done the other day by Warren Davis; a wood engraving by Timothy Cole and one by Ruzicka; a Currier and Ives lithograph, if you please, and prints by Bellows or Hart in the same medium. So, again one may feel that many possible demands are served that something has been brought unto many, as Bayard Taylor put it in his translation of "Faust." The list of recent additions to the print collection, in another part of this issue of the Bulletin, shows which artists are represented in this exhibition. And it further exemplifies an inclusiveness and variety which are of course merely indicative of a condition more strongly expressed in the wide field of prints as reflected in the Print Room's portfolios. F. W. |