Carnegie hall was the setting for an anniversary celebration on the evening of October 24, 1912. William Henry Maxwell, Superintendent of Schools of New York City, was being honored for twenty-five years of service to public education. Present on the platform were such luminaries as Nicholas Murray Butler and Seth Low, while in the audience were many distinguished men and women who had been invited to join in the tribute. When Maxwell was finally called upon to address the group, he spoke on his favorite topic—the achievements of the public schools of the city during the past decade. Although the Superintendent did not take personal credit for the advances he recited, the audience was more than ready to pay him tribute, agreeing with The School Journal that he had “made a new educational New York, full of instruction for every other city in the land….”