Activities of the Friends
 

MR. AUGUST HECKSCHER is now Chairman of the
Friends, succeeding Mr. X^alerien Lada-Mocarski who
served as Chairman since early 1952. Mr. Lada-
Mocarski, who continues as a member of the Council, suggested a
change at this time not only as a means of rotating the Chairman¬
ship but because a business trip to Europe will keep him away four
or five months this year.

Mrs. Donald Hyde has accepted appointment to the newly
established position of Vice-Chairman of the Friends.

We would like to record here our congratulations and thanks to
Mr. Lada-Mocar.ski for the time, effort and outstanding leadership
he has given the Friends organization during the period of his
chairmanship. We wish also, to the new officers, a pleasant and
successful incumbency.

As we go to press, detailed plans are being made for the meeting
of the Friends on February 17 at the Museum of the City of New
York. The central part of the program features a slide-illustrated
lecture "Historic Architecture on the Island of .Manhattan" by
James Grote Van Derpool, Librarian of Columbia's Avery Archi¬
tecture Library and President-elect of the National Society of
Architectural Historians.

Appropriate to the topic of our meeting is the Museum's current
exhibit "New York (City) Comes of Age, 1789-1825," which
gives something of the flavor of the life of the city during the
period from Washington's inauguration to the opening of the
Erie Canal. It was during this time that New York developed from
an English colonial town to the leading city of the western hemis¬
phere. Highlighted are three period rooms which have authentic
settings including costumes, silver, china, jewelry and paintings.

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