Our nation’s extraordinary gallery of works of art is blessed in so many ways. The most recently built of the world’s great national museums, it contains an encyclopedic collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints and many other cultural items. But many people do not know it also serves as the custodian for important select documents which it has received through gift or bequest over the years. The documents of greatest interest to me are of course the papers of some of the Monuments Men and women, many of whom worked at the National Gallery during some part of their career. In fact, the National Gallery and its staff served as the headquarters for the early work which led to the Roberts Commission from which emanated the Monuments Men.

I was at the research facility for almost a week recently conducting research for my next book on the Monuments Men. The research area is wonderful to work in and incredibly well organized. Headed by a team of experts in document preservation — Maygene Daniels, Anne Ritchie, Michele Willens and Jean Henry, our work was greatly aided by their thorough preparation for our visit. As taxpayers, we have a lot of benefits for the money we pay that may not be obvious when writing that check to the Internal Revenue Service. Use of our National Gallery and the admission price — IT’S FREE — are but one great example.

While there I was comfortably ensconced in a beautiful wooden chair. Only on the fourth day did I actually stop for a moment to examine it. Wouldn’t you know: it, too, was gift of the Mellon family in 1999. Their benevolence and generosity to our nation is truly immeasurable. Paul Mellon’s father, Andrew Mellon, not only developed the idea for a national museum, he also donated the funds ($10 million in the 1930’s!!!) needed to build it. There was more: he donated his incomparable collection to the nation which now graces the building’s beautiful rooms. Realizing the critical needs at that formative stage, Andrew used his contacts and influence to encourage the nation’s other great collectors — Sam Kress, Joseph Widener, and Chester Dale — to donate their collections to the nation too.

I was hardly surprised then when I saw the plaque nearby that told me about these great chairs…and what an appropriate part of history they play in this great institution.

Thanks to the open generosity of the National Gallery Archives team with our work.

(Orlin Wagner/Associated Press)

Sometimes I see people act out in ways I understand while at the same time lament. The following blurb was in this morning’s New York Times newspaper:

Tom Wayne, who runs a used-book store in Kansas City, Mo., began burning his assets yesterday, The Associated Press reported. “This is the funeral pyre for thought in America today,” Mr. Wayne told spectators as he lighted the first batch from the warehouse where he has gathered thousands of books in the 10 years he has run the store, Prospero’s Books. His collection ranges from best sellers, including Tom Clancy’s “Hunt for Red October” and Tom Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities,” to obscure works like the bound report of the Fourth Pan-American Conference in Buenos Aires in 1910. When Mr. Wayne sought to thin out the collection, he said, he found that he could not even give the books away to libraries and book shops, which said they were full. So, he said, he began burning the books to protest society’s diminishing support for the printed word. After 50 minutes the Kansas City Fire Department extinguished the blaze because Mr. Wayne did not have a permit for burning. He said he plans to get a permit and will hold monthly bonfires until his supply of some 20,000 books is gone.

I sympathize with Mr. Wayne’s feelings: it does often seem as though people in this country have lost the curiosity and interest in reading. I confront this question daily with all the printed material we generate; letters, articles, books of course, and even electronic communiques known as “blogs”. Are we too busy as a nation? Has the overstimulation of our society today rendered people unable to focus for an hour to read something seemingly so static as a book? Have the technological abilities of special effects in movies and television become so real in appearance and life - like that the craftsmanship of word usage, no matter how skilled, can’t hold a person’s interest? What became of the goals of our youth….to possess and use a wide vocabulary, to be well-read?

I don’t have answers for these questions, but I think about them often. The world of electronic media and the internet is extraordinary. It allows us to accomplish tasks we simply otherwise couldn’t achieve. However, the joy of delving into another world, a person’s mind or heart, their life, the art of using words to allow each reader’s imagination to conjure up the image of their unique mind, is also extraordinary. It is an experience that movies, television, and video games can not replace. Anyone who hasn’t curled up with a wonderful book and taken that magical trip is missing out on one of life’s great treasures.