Viewing page 7 of 8

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

p.1

A MEMORIAL TO JOHN W. ALEXANDER

Friends of John W. Alexander have felt that there should be created, in furtherance of some object that he had deeply at heart, a fitting and permanent tribute, to bear his name and take such form as they believe that he would have approved. They think of him as more than a great painter -- a man of liberal judgement, far reaching sympathies and large vision. Within this vision lay the field of art as a whole, with all its varied developments in correlated harmony. Whether as President of the National Academy of Design, or a Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or President of the MacDowell Club of New York; whether in other official relations or as an individual artist, he zealously sought occasion to serve the cause of art in its wildest reach. In the project of the Edward MacDowell Memorial Association of Peterborough, New Hampshire, he found a unique prospect of the fulfilment of hopes grounded on ideals that were dear to him as they had been to Edward MacDowell. In the opportunities afforded there for creative work in music, literature, architecture, painting and sculpture and the other fine arts, by men and women of broad outlook, yet narrow means, striving harmoniously and with self respect, he recognized a true embodiment of those ideals. It seemed a demonstration of the value of a sincere attempt to exemplify the true correlation of the arts. As a member of the governing board of the Association continuously up to his death, he gave freely of his time, his thought, his counsel and his means, in furtherance of its purpose, with unfaltering belief in the success of what he lived to see more than fulfill its original promise.