A PICTURE LIBRARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 177, 28 July 1928, Page 4 (Supplement)

A PICTURE LIBRARY.

ART FOR THE CHILD,

Tho value of children's lending libraries is generally conceded nowadays, but in America a newer idea is that of the picture library, that may well be carried on alongside of the book library. It was to instil in children an appreciation of fine arts to enable them to become familiar with reproductions of

masterpieces and to give them an opportunity to have fine pictures in their homes that Mrs. E. P. Moss, of La Grande, Oregon, U.S.A., according to the Boston "Christian Science Monitor," started a picture library a few years ago. Such splendid results have been obtained that there are picture libraries in all parts of the state of Oregon. The women's clubs first took up the idea, but it has been adopted by schools, parent-teacher associations and libraries. In the first instance, the pictures were cut from magazines which reproduced beautiful copies .of old masters, then larger and more important reproductions were obtained from firms which specialise in such work. The method of issuing is exactly the same as books in a proper library. Any child may secure a picture for a period of two weeks, take it home and hang it up. At the end of that period he may renew the same picture, or have another for the same period. At the back of the picture, which is carefully mounted, is a library slip, such as is used in books, on which can be stamped the date of lending and tho time at which the picture should be returned. On the backj of the picture, too, is written the naure of the artist, his birthplace, and the date of his birth and death. Then fol-j lows a brief history of his life. Also on j the picture is written the name of the; picture, the story illustrated, or the im-i portant features of the painting.