Membership Committee HENRY ELLSWORTH GREGORY, Chairman... HENRY KIRKE BUSH-BROWN.. WILLIAM BAILEY HOWLAND, LL. D.. Yonkers, N. Y. .Haverstraw, N. Y. .New York .New York Washington, D. C. New York .New York Philipse Manor Hall Committee Hon. STEPHEN HOWARD THAYER, Chairman....Yonkers, N. Y. Miss MARY MARSHALL BUTLER... ALEXANDER SMITH COCHRAN. HAMPTON D. EWING.. Mrs. SAMUEL B. HAWLEY.. Yonkers, N. Y. Yonkers, N. Y. Yonkers, N. Y. Yonkers, N. Y. Yonkers, N. Y. Yonkers, N. Y. (SITES AND INSCRIPTIONS COMMITTEE continued on next page) Haverstraw, N. Y. ..Washington, D. C. Stony Point, N. Y. ..New York GORDON HASTINGS PECK, Chairman....West ... Tappan Monument Committee New York .Peekskill, N. Y. Hon. THOMAS HAMILTON LEE, Chairman.... Stony Point, N. Y. FRANK R. CRUMBIE..... GORDON HASTINGS PECK. EUGENE F. PERRY.. VAN WYCK ROSSITER. Hon. STEPHEN HOWARD THAYER. ..Nyack, N. Y. . West Haverstraw, N. Y. Nyack, N. Y. Nyack, N. Y. Yonkers, N. Y. The President is ex-officio a member of all standing committees unless expressly excused from such service. ORIGIN AND SCOPE This Society was incorporated by a special act of the Legislature of the State of New York, chapter 166 of the Laws of 1895, which became a law with the approval of the Governor, March 26, 1895. It was originally incorporated under the title of "The Trustees of Scenic and Historic Places and Objects," which title was changed by chapter 302 of the Laws of 1898 to "The Society for the Preservation of Scenic and Historic Places and Objects," and by chapter 385 of the Laws of 1901 to "The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society." The Society, which was incorporated in response to a memorial addressed to the Legislature by the late Andrew H. Green, "Father of Greater New York," is a national organization of men and women, for the protection of natural scenery, the preservation of historic landmarks and the improvement of cities. In previous Reports we have enlarged upon the philosophy of the work of this Society. (See particularly our Annual Reports for 1914, pp. 13-22; 1915, pp. 13-17; and 1916, pp. 17-21; and the chapter on "The Relation Between the Picturesque and the Historic" in our book entitled "Philipse Manor Hall," pp. 1329.) The sentiment which calls for the preservation of that which is beautiful and lovely in nature and of the landmarks, monuments and written memorials of noble human endeavor, is innate, deepseated, and as ancient as the race. It lies back of such expressions as these, by some of the best loved poets, philosophers and singers of ancient and modern times: 'Destroy not the trees.”— Revelations, VII, 2. "Remove not the ancient landmark."— Proverbs, XXII, 28. "Ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon earth.”— Deuteronomy, IV, 32. Oh, that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! - Job, XIX, 23, 24. "O all ye works of the Lord. ye mountains and hills. of the air. . . ye beasts. bless ye the Lord, praise him and magnify him forever."- Apocrypha, "Song of the Three Holy Children." "And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything."- Shakespeare Like it." "As you "Out of mountains, names, wordes, proverbs, traditions, private recordes and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books, and the like, we doe save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.- Bacon, "Advance of Learning.” "History has triumphed over Time, which, besides it, nothing but Eternity hath triumphed over."-Sir Walter Raleigh, "History of the World." 'History is Philosophy teaching by examples."— Viscount Bolingbroke, "On the Study and Use of History." "Slave to no sect, takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Nature's God.― Pope. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."- Keats. "Oftentimes here we move up and down in the midst of intellectual and moral marvels with vacant eye and with careless mind, even as some traveller passes unmoved over fields of fame or through cities of ancient renown, unmoved, because utterly unconscious of the great deeds which there have been wrought, of the great hearts which spent themselves there."- Archbishop Trench. "As the art of life is learned, it will be found at last that all lovely things are also necessary, the wild flower by the wayside as well as the tended corn, and the wild birds and creatures of the forest as well as the tended cattle; because man doth not live by bread only.”— Ruskin, “Unto the Last." "If eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.- Emerson, "The Rhodora." "To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms she speaks a various language."- Bryant, "Thanatopsis." "I love they rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills. Let Freedom ring."- America. "I ask anybody who is in the habit of taking long walks in London, or in other cities, whether it is not an immense relief to the eye and to the thoughts to come on some tablet which suggests a new train of thought, and which may call to your mind the career of some distinguished person and take off the intolerable pressure of that monotony of endless streets. But I attribute more value to memorial tablets than that. I think that for the young who may need to have their ambitions turned in a more worthy direction than the Olympian games it is not a bad thing to have it forced on their minds, whether they like it or not, that there are other avenues of fame, and that great cities gratefully remember those who have illustrated them by living in their midst."— Earl of Rosebery, formerly Prime Minister of Great Britain, speaking to a London audience at the dedication of a tablet commemorating Macaulay's residence.* "The population of the world goes on constantly increasing, and nowhere increasing so fast as in North America. A taste for natural beauty is increasing, and, we hope, will go on increasing. The places of scenic beauty do not increase, but, on the contrary, are in danger of being reduced in number and diminished in quantity, and the danger is always increasing with the accummulation of wealth, owing to the desire of private persons to appropriate these places. There is no better service we can render to the masses of the people than to set about and preserve for them wide spaces of fine scenery for their delight. From these propositions I draw the conclusion that it is necessary to save what we have got, and to extend the policy which you have wisely adopted, by acquiring and preserving still further areas for the perpetual enjayment of the people.”— Right Hon. James Bryce, LL. D., etc., to an American audience when British Ambassador to the United States. We have just quoted one apposite passage from Ruskin, which reminds us of another at the beginning of his introduction to "The Crown of Wild Olives." And it should be remembered that Ruskin was addressing working people, the drudgery of whose lives he would lighten by bringing into them something of the beautiful in nature and art. In the introduction referred to, he speaks of a charming brook in South England, which once flowed in its native beauty through the meadows. But when commercial greed invaded * See more extended quotation in Annual Report of this Society for 1904, pp. 25-27. the neighborhood, when factories were built up and people became over-engrossed in material things, they forgot the beauty around them; they became slovenly in habit, and dumped their garbage, rubbish and filth into the brook and upon its margins, defiling and defacing that which was once given to them by the Creator for their edification and enjoyment. In a small way, that picture represents what has occurred repeatedly on a larger scale with some of the finest features of American scenery. The editor of the Utica, N. Y. Observer, enlarging on this subjest some months. ago, said very truly: "The same tragic devastation of natural wonders has reoccurred time and again in the United States. In this nation, however, the destruction has been dealt on a much larger scale and with results perhaps more hideous. Rivers, mountains, and lakes have been ruined with a thought only of the present profit and with no idea of the ultimate loss-materially, morally and esthetically. The thought for the larger values and of the future has never been strong and insistent, but it has been the experience in past times that as a people acquired more time to think of such matters, they prized them more highly. To the people of the State of New York such lessons are particularly useful, for the State possesses much that is beautiful. Much has been destroyed, but there is a great deal left." It was for the purpose of assisting to give, in the life of the people of the State of New York and the American people generally, concrete expression to sentiments like those we have quoted, and to secure their realization in accomplished facts, that the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society was formed twenty-two years ago. The universality and everlastingness of these ideas is shown by the fact that these chords, which the minstrels of civilization of all ages have struck upon the harp-strings of the human heart, stir sympathetic vibrations in the breast of the American people when they are sounded even in this new and growing country, so absorbed with its material development. Turning now from the theory of the work of this Society, let us speak of the work itself. |