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^[[write for "25 & Under" schedule  oal]]

July 1st., 1948.

Dear Annemarie:

Through a mutual friend, a young artist who had just arrived from Paris was referred to our Contemporary American Department just a few days ago, and though because of my imminent departure (I am flying today) I have not been able to go very deeply into the matter I felt that the topic of his work is such that it might better be handled by an organization of national scope and one which would take into consideration the dignity due the subject.

The artist is LESLIE LANE, an ex-"GI" who after surviving in the U. S. Army for four years, chose to remain in Europe after the war and so to say, consecrated himself to recording the scenes overlooked by our military cemeteries, or as he calls them, the "Lands of Rest".  The scenes, generally speaking, are not of the grounds themselves, but show the fields beyond them, roads bordering them - all of which make for interest without a touch of the morbid.

Mr. Lane, if I understood him correctly, would like ultimately to present the exhibition to the American people.  I wondered whether some organization might not circulate these with the purpose of arousing an interest in the creation of an institution devoting itself to the permanent display of objects and records such as these.... but as I suggest, this is merely an idea which crossed my mind.

I am told that practically upon his arrival Mr. Lane had an interview with LIFE Magazine, and that they doing an article on his self-appointed project.

Should you wish to look into this matter, Mr. Lane can be reached

c/o Airlanes Magazine,
340 West 57th. Street,
New York 19, N.Y.,

and I might add he has a large group of photographs which he would take to Washington and show you, should you so wish.  Though the oils and watercolors are in this country too, his recent arrival and indefinite plans have obliged him to store them at another artist's studio, in N.Y., where they could be seen were you to come here.

Yours very sincerely,

(Germain Seligman)

John A. Pope, Asst. Dir.,
American Federation of Arts,
Barr Bldg., Washington, D.C.

Transcription Notes:
.carbon copy oal is initials of O. A. Liechti with Seligmann