George Frederick Kunz

“ The historical parade and all the other pageants of the week will arouse in the minds of the beholders a more lively understanding of the history and development of our city, and, while delighting the eye, will convey an important lesson in the very best and most effective way—that is, unconsciously. A population like ours is greatly in need of some powerful stimulation of this kind to weld together all its heterogeneous elements. ”

“ The celebration is designed to cover a very wide field, and the aim of the commission has not been confined to honoring the explorer of the Hudson River and the man who made steam navigation a permanent success; in addition to this the occasion has been utilized to illustrate and emphasize the development and greatness of New York City, the metropolis of the western hemisphere. Those who can understand the true significance of this celebration, and who are able to forecast the future, will see the vision of a still greater and more magnificent city, worthy of being called a world metropolis. ”

“ Epoch-making inventions have usually been the work of a group of men pursuing the same end, often independently of each other, but the credit and glory of success is reserved for that one of them who possesses the energy and persistence requisite for ultimate triumph. Before Fulton built the Clermont, John Fitch had constructed a boat operated and propelled by steam, and John Stevens had already sailed a steamboat, his Phœnix being undoubtedly the first steamboat to sail on the ocean ”

“ The reproductions of the Half Moon and the Clermont constitute the central point, the very focus, of the celebration, and this has been fully recognized by the commission. Hence the opening day, Saturday, September 25, will be devoted to a grand naval parade, perhaps the greatest naval pageant ever seen. The eighty warships, American and foreign, form the most imposing array of naval forces assembled at any time in the new world, and we may safely say that, with one or two possible exceptions, no fleet of equal might and numbers was ever brought together. ”

“ It is difficult for those who see this city of stone, brick and concrete to imagine its appearance in Henry Hudson's time, when stretches of meadow land alternated with groves or small forests of trees, over the greater part of the territory, while the upper part of Manhattan Island was traversed with rocky ridges rising in some cases to a considerable height above tide-water. ”

“ A single building, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with the objects it will hold, would not he over-valued at from $30,000,000 to $40,000,000. At an exposition the public is called upon to pay fifty cents admission each time to enter the gates and an additional fee for each special exhibition. The great New York celebration will be free for all, even for those who have no car fare to enable them to ride. The demonstrations are in the heart of the city itself. ”

“ But let it not be supposed that this is the only end to be attained; such brilliant spectacles are a good in themselves and none will appreciate this more thoroughly than those whose life is merely a sad and monotonous struggle for their daily bread. On this occasion the poorest and the richest will share equally in the enjoyment of the various splendid and artistic spectacles. ”

“ Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission. of New York are presented as they will be on this occasion, and given a brilliant and attractive setting, it will be found, that no exposition ever organized on this continent has offered a greater variety of interest. To apply the standard of monetary value may seem a trifle vulgar when we are treating of the triumphs of art in all its forms, and yet this standard merely expresses the worth of antiquities and artistic creations in a more exact way than by using superlatives of speech. ”

“ Of the special exhibitions which have been organized by the Art and Historical Exhibits Committee, the most important is the magnificent collection of masterpieces by Dutch painters which will be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at Fifth Avenue and Eighty-second Street. Never before have so many splendid examples of Dutch art been gathered together in the United States ”

“ Aquatic sports will be the order of the day on Wednesday, September 29, when boat races will be held on the Hudson River, the boats being manned from the crews of the foreign and American warships. There will also he interstate contests between members of the Naval Reserves from different states, canoe races and motor-boat races. At Yonkers, on the same day, high-power motor-boats will compete, and there will be boat races between various amateur crews from clubs. ”

“ The Half Moon.
were more regarded than the development of mere material greatness.
The first of the land parades, the great historical pageant, will take place on Tuesday, September 28, and will consist of 54 cars, or "floats," bearing groups of figures and accessories illustrating scenes from the history of the city or state of New York. These floats will be accompanied by marching bodies from various civic societies, American and foreign. The one which will head the procession has been named "The New York Title Car" and will bear a seated figure of the Goddess
The Half Moon. ”

“ The streets along the route of the parade will be made as light as day by festoons of electric lamps. This pageant will be repeated in Brooklyn on the evening of Saturday, October 9, and will pass along the Eastern Parkway.
The general illumination of the city every night during the festival period will offer the most brilliant spectacle ever seen in this country. All the municipal buildings, as well as thousands of private buildings, will be lighted up by tens of thousands of electric lights. ”

“ The astonishing progress in aeronautics during the past year has excited public interest to the highest pitch, and the celebration commission is making every effort to assure the presence of some of the leading aeronauts and aviators. ”

“ The early history of New York and the beginnings of steam navigation will be illustrated by an exhibition of views, paintings, manuscripts, books, etc., shown in the Lenox branch of the New York Public Library, detailed information in regard to the exhibits being offered in a special catalogue. The New York Historical Society, in its new building, on Central Park West, corner of Seventy-seventh Street, just below the American Museum of Natural History, exhibits many interesting pictures and relics relating to Robert Fulton. ”

“ Independent of any museum, and of ethnological interest, will be the 125 Indians, men, women and children, from New York reservations, who will participate in the landing of the Half Moon, and in several of the parades. ”

“ The last car typifies the hospitality of our city, a gigantic figure of Old Father Knickerbocker standing upon it with hands outstretched and extending a hearty welcome to all the nations of the earth. In order to add to the verisimilitude of the different groups, Iroquois Indians have been secured to man the Indian floats ”

“ The United States will be represented by 16 battleships, 12 torpedo-boats, 4 submarines, 2 supply ships, 1 repair ship, 1 torpedo vessel, 1 tug and 7 colliers: 53 vessels in all, the battleships constituting the most powerful fleet ever assembled except on a few occasions in the English Channel. ”

“ This lesson is especially important in our time, for the tendency of our day is to lay undue stress upon mere magnitude, and to believe that larger ships, larger buildings and larger cities necessarily mark a real progress in civilization. ”

“ It will be under the care of the German societies of New York, and the Germans have always displayed a remarkable aptitude for organizing and designing pageants of this kind. The fifty cars composing the parade will be artistically illuminated, and many thousands of torch-bearers will precede and follow the emblematic groups. ”

“ The civic fleet will continue on its way, passing to the left of the warships until the head of the line is reached, when the vessels will cross over and move down the river between the warships and the Manhattan shore, to 110th Street. ”

“ The Van Cortlandt Mansion, erected about 1748, is a fine and characteristic specimen of the colonial style of architecture, and will contain a valuable collection of portraits of men who played a leading part in the Revolution. ”

“ These works come from the finest private collections in the United States and many years will pass before an equally favorable opportunity will be afforded for the study of Dutch pictorial art.
The special exhibition also embraces a large and valuable collection of furniture, silver, pewter, porcelain and glass, produced in this country between 1625 and 1815, the year of Fulton's death; and there is also a fine collection of paintings by American artists born before 1800, including pictures by Woolaston, Copley, West, Allston, Peale, Stuart, Trumbull, Fulton, Doughty, etc. ”

“ Staten Island and New Jersey shores. An object of interest for all will be the historic Roosevelt, used by Commander Peary in his successful trip to the North Pole. Staten Island has contributed a reproduction of Commodore Vanderbilt's periagua, the forerunner of the Vanderbilt ferryboats between Staten Island and Manhattan. The warships will also rendezvous in the harbor, and at 1:30 p. m. the parade will begin, the warships in the lead. The whole array of vessels, at least seven miles in length, will advance, slowly and majestically, up ”

“ Although this does not equal West's portrait in artistic merit, like other attempts of artists to portray their own features it gives Hermann Ridder, Vice-president of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission. us something not to be found in other portraits, namely, the idea, or perhaps we should rather say the ideal, the artist has formed of himself. Henry W. Sackett, Secretary of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission. One of the most interesting of the printed documents referring to the Revolution is an old "Broadside" printed in New York, March 25, 1783. ”