MUSEUM OF THE
CITY OF NEW YORK

Prominent Citizens Behind the Movement.

The City Gives the Historic Gracie Mansion in

East River Park for Its Home.

FoIIowing in the footsteps of London and Paris, the
City of New York is going to have a Museum of its own
devoted entirely to collections and material relating to
the rise and progress of this great metropolis, now the
chief city of the western world. The existence of New
York as an American city dates only from 1783, and its
population in that year (wliich saw the end of the Revo-
lution) was only about twelve tliousand. At the same
date London and Paris were already important cities with
huge populations and many centuries of growth behind
them. Today New York is over the six million mark
and its growth continues with undiminished vigor. It is
entirely proper therefore that its citizens should provide
a specific institution for the preservation of its annals ; and
in the selection of the Gracie Mansion, the city has pro-
vided an excellent starting point.

It may not quite compare in quaintness with the curious
medieval building occupied by The Carnavalet in the
French capital, as their institution is called; nor in gor-
geousness witii the splendor of Stafĩord House, home of
the London Museum. Yet it must be remembered that the
latter first occupied very modest quarters in a wing of the
Kensington Museum.    It was due to the generosity of a

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