Show NEW YORK HISTORY FROM EARLY DAYS museum groups vividly recall the past among the tattered letters odd maps and prints time darkened portraits and other fragmentary memorabilia or which line the walls of the new museum of the city of new york there runs the series of model groups la in which dwight franklin and ned J T burns have recaptured the long past of the greatest city of the world they are delicate little littie panoramas beautifully constructed ted and finely modeled and breathing a sudden life and vitality into the dead relies relics about them as they repeat the veritable scenes amid which those old letters passed or those quaint dresses were worn peter Stuyvesan ts sword looks simply like something in a museum until near it one sees the governor himself fully as vivid as life it if only abent one tenth as large storming over colonel Cart cartwrights wrights demand for surrender while the seventeenth century sunshine lies placidly upon the ramparts of neua amsterdam fort outside the door well the fort has lain burled buried for many years somewhere beneath the oie foundations of lower broadway peter stuyvesant is as dead as a doornail and so BO Is the pleasant bucolic life of the little outpost of dutch empire which once occupied what was once the tip of manhattan in the model those times are as alive as last nights supper club so are the pleasant blue waters and wooded slopes of the east river so much pleasanter plea santer than today as they are seen through the windows of the beekman mansion while general howe interrupted with wineglass in hand and a mot upon hla his lips tosses the irritated glance of authority over his sn to see what the guards have brought in its an infernal young rebel suspected of espionage name of nathan hale one almost hears bears the voices and one suddenly understands a lot about the american revolution alive too are the waterfront crowds under the long jib booms on south street or the indians three centuries ent urles earlier in their encampment at inwood these models are an essential and fascinato fas fascinating cinatl ng part of the new exhibit something which distinguishes it from those of other museums nm mn they give an incomparably better idea of the times they portray than do for example the models of old london in the great london museum and they suggest how wonderful win be the record which this museum will contain when time has enriched its collections and broadened their scope to cover the countless fields of new yorks life and activities down to the present time As yet of course there are many lacunae the contemporary scene Is hardly touched some types type of exhibit may prove brove difficult to acquire new yorks growth for example has been so swift and so destructive as to leave few of the old shop fronts old signs and utensils pieces of 0 furniture and panell paneling ng which are important items in the london collection but the beginning Is such a fine one offering so BO many possibilities that money and support for expansion must surely be forthcoming one hopes that good slices of it will be spent on further work from mr franklin and mr air burns new york herald tribune |