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The Plaza Hotel
5th Ave. and 59th Street
New York City.

April 12th 1917

Professor Richard A. Rice
Library of Congress - Division of Prints, 
Washington, D.C.

My dear Rice -
 
It is fine to have word from you and I judge from your penmanship that you are in good health and as usual vitally interested in life.
 
I am spending my second winter in New York under medical observation and believe that I am being greatly benefited. A recent mishap has restricted my activities, hence this typewritten letter.
 
Acting under medical advice I closed my Detroit residence in Dec. 1914 - and the galleries have been closed every since. During the interim, cataloguing, remounting, and other work has been going on, and at present some very skillful Japanese workmen are remounting the Chinese paintings into panel form so as to avoid future rolling.

The bulk of the collection is in storage, and things are brought out only for the workmen. Under these conditions it is impossible to invite your friend Professor Frank Mather of Princeton, to visit the collection.
 
I know of his writings and it would afford me pleasure to have him see as much of the collection as he would care to, but it cannot be arranged until my house is reopened, or the building in Washington shall be finished and the objects installed there.

I am of course delighted to send your library of the photographic reproductions of the Ma Yuan landscape scrolls. Only a dozen copies of the scroll were made, for museums and libraries, and all have been issued excepting two which are being reserved - one for Berlin, and the other for Paris. But I will have my secretary in Detroit send you promptly the one being held for Berlin, and later will have it duplicated for the Huns.

With cordial greetings and every good wish, believe me 
Sincerely yours,